Acts 19:19, commentary and pictures

At Ephesus, a great commercial city given to sorcery and the worship of Diana, those who had practiced curious arts through communication with evil spirits brought their costly books of divination and witchcraft together and burned them openly before all, counting the price at fifty thousand pieces of silver. Their public burning proved true conversion, for convicted believers confessed their deeds and turned with holy abhorrence from what they had once loved, hating the magic that had offended God and imperiled their souls. They destroyed the books rather than keeping or selling them, because keeping them would renew temptation to themselves and selling them would place temptation before others, so safety lay only in putting those dangerous influences beyond reach. At great financial cost truth triumphed over prejudice, favored practice and love of money, and through that sacrifice the word of God grew mightily and prevailed. The same separation is required now, for the curious arts live on in modern spiritualism with its mediums, clairvoyants and fortune-tellers, and converted people must renounce the particular sin that held them, destroy entirely books of magical science and corrupting reading, and clear their houses of trashy literature to feed instead on the Word of God.

Ephesus and Magic Books

Ephesus was a great commercial center whose crowded harbor and streets brought people from many countries, a celebrated city of Asia Minor containing the temple of the goddess Diana, and a promising missionary field where a large church was raised in a stronghold of heathenism. God met men where they were, approaching the Ephesians in the line of the things with which they were most familiar, because the gospel could succeed there only by reaching souls given up to familiar things in the way that could best reach them.

At Ephesus curious arts were made a matter of study and were widely practiced as heathen sorcery and magic. That practice was unlawful intercourse with Satan and communication with evil spirits and evil angels seeking to deceive and destroy, with Satan gaining control by presenting himself under the guise of departed friends and by lying mystic voices misleading men to forget God. Mysterious symbols associated with Diana were believed to have power as charms against robbery, sickness, and even death.

The books were costly treatises on divination containing rules and forms for communication with evil spirits, regulations for the worship of Satan to solicit his help and obtain information from him, explanations of the meaning and use of symbols believed to have supernatural power, and methods devised by Satan for practicing witchcraft. Magicians studied them and influenced the worshipers of Diana, and the books had ruled the consciences and guided the minds of those who prized them and gave them such devotion.

God worked mighty miracles through Paul that proved a power far superior to the magicians and that the magicians and sorcerers could not imitate, healing many and dispossessing many possessed by evil agencies by the power of the Lord God of Israel. Those who tried to imitate the miracles and mix the name of Jesus with sorcery were beaten and bruised because the two cannot mix at all. Fear then fell on Jews and Greeks, the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified, and believers came confessing and showing their deeds. Many converted under that manifest power recognized their practices and secret arts as deceptive and satanic.

Many who had used curious arts, including some who had accepted Christianity but had not fully renounced superstition and still practiced magic, and even some sorcerers convicted of error, publicly brought their books together and burned them before all men. They counted the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver, about ten thousand dollars.

Public Burning Proves Conversion

The public burning proves true conversion, because conversion changes habits and practices. Those who once delighted in magic now abhorred it with holy indignation for having offended God and imperiled their souls, now hating what they had once loved and loving what they had once hated. Even some who had accepted Christianity without fully renouncing superstition, and even some sorcerers, were convicted of error and recognized their practices as deceptive and satanic. The books they had formerly delighted in and allowed to rule their consciences and guide their minds, in which rules devised by Satan laid down methods for practicing witchcraft, they determined to forsake in turning from the service of the evil one and from the kingdom of darkness.

Under conviction of the Spirit of God they acted with promptness, confessed and showed their deeds, laying bare the mysteries of their witchcraft. By bringing their costly volumes together and burning them publicly before all men they made manifest their sincerity in turning to God. Every soul truly converted holds in manifest abhorrence not only sins in general but the sins he himself has indulged, and those who had provoked God by curious arts, as soon as led to true belief, burned their magical books before all men. Afterward they abhorred the satanic mysteries and magical arts and regarded with aversion the knowledge they had obtained from them.

They destroyed rather than kept or sold the books, because keeping them would have exposed themselves to temptation and selling them would have placed temptation before others and perpetuated the evil. Their only safety was to renounce both the arts and the books that had initiated them into the mysteries of witchcraft and to put those dangerous influences beyond reach. They would not preserve the power of what had once attracted them nor allow the costly books to educate other minds, but removed as far as possible what could lead themselves or others back into it. To retain them would have kept them constantly exposed to temptation to go back to study the books and their arrangement.

At great financial cost they sacrificed money and prejudice, counting the price at fifty thousand pieces of silver, and that precious loss made them safe. Truth overcame their prejudices, favored practices and love of money, and through that sacrifice truth triumphed and the word of God grew mightily and prevailed. Their willingness to destroy the books despite their value showed they had truly turned, accepting great personal loss rather than exposing others to temptation.

The verse therefore teaches that converted people must renounce the particular sin that held them in Satan's power and destroy what led them into sin rather than keeping a favored sin while correcting other wrongs. They must destroy the works that held them under Satan's power rather than keeping them within reach, cutting off every temptation to return and putting up every bar so the enemy cannot lead them or others back into it. This is the only safe course for those who would be free from harmful influences, to cut their ties to them and remove what could ruin themselves or others.

Separation Required Today

The curious arts of Ephesus are identical with what is now modern spiritualism, the ancient system of communication with evil spirits and evil angels seeking to deceive and destroy, in which Satan gains control of minds by presenting himself under the guise of departed friends and by lying mystic voices that lead men to forget God. Its modern counterpart is found in spiritualistic mediums, clairvoyants, and fortune-tellers, and all who consult them on behalf of the sick, the bereaved, and the curious stand on dangerous ground where the mind is bewildered and the soul polluted. Heathen superstition has not disappeared before civilization, and sorcery is practiced now as verily as then, with the same wonderful power to draw back those who do not stay under manifest spiritual light. Such are unfruitful works of darkness to be given no fellowship but to be reproved.

The burning of the books is a needful pattern for today, for true conversion creates a burden to destroy corrupting reading entirely. Books dealing with magical science are better committed to the flames, and men in this day must cease to pry into magical science and be afraid of learning Satan's art of captivating human minds. Books treating on science to perfect education for obtaining power over other minds spoil the mind for the faithful discharge of Christian duties and must be destroyed, not studied alongside the Bible. Christians should likewise decisively reject and remove publications that corrupt the mind and choose what is true and spiritually valuable.

Applied now, those who profess to keep God's commandments must by covenant and sacrifice clear their houses of corrupting reading and keep only truth in the books in their houses. This means putting out of every home cheap trashy literature, novels, story magazines, cheap papers, magazines with ridiculous pictures that are representations from Satan, fictitious stories and miserable pictures that allure the mind and fill it with sentiments and scenes from the enemy. Such trash perverts sight, senses and appetite, feeds the mind on what is not substantial, causes spiritual loss and imperils the soul, dishonors God, and causes the great want of spirituality. Money and time spent on such reading should be kept for the Word of the living God and for providing life-giving books to others, feeding on Christ the bread of life for eternal life and a spiritualized mind protected against what is coming in.

Burning such books is a covenant with Christ by sacrifice to study the Word, to let magazines go, and to take the yoke of Christ to serve rather than rule other minds. It requires purity in heart, mind, and soul, diligent repentance, confession, and reformation on bended knees, and honest obedience to the law of God. It demands an end to metaphysical sophistry and self-will and to binding other minds to fulfill self-will and tyrannical ruling of minds. The work is urgent, a life and death question. Failure to follow this example greatly dishonors the Lord when His name should be magnified, hardens hearts, keeps truth from going forth with power, and leaves cities neglected and given over to superstition and Satan's fallacies. The same test remains for the young and for all transformed by Christ's grace, whether they have burned their own magical books and broken every tie to Satan's influence.