The command not to allow a practitioner of witchcraft to live was given by Christ Jesus Himself on Mount Sinai as part of the instruction to Moses recorded in Exodus 19-24. It belongs specifically to the code set forth in the twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third chapters of Exodus, which was written in a book. That lawgiver afterward spoke in human flesh, so the statute is not from a Christless dispensation.
It is not of a lower order than the statutes required in the present age, but is exalted in its requirements. As part of that code it guards against doing injustice, guards the interests of God's people, guides dealings with one another, and shows God's impartial ways. It was to be strictly obeyed, and it is needed now just as verily as the children of Israel needed it in the days of Moses. It is to be studied and presented before the people in jots and tittles, with all contention ceasing and love as brethren.
The command condemns and prohibits witchcraft and sorcery, which is holding intercourse with evil spirits, under the Mosaic law on pain of death. Despite that death penalty, the prohibition was broken from time to time by apostate Jews who practiced sorcery in secret. This was seen at Ephesus in Paul's day, when certain vagabond Jewish exorcists, including the seven sons of Sceva, tried to call the name of Jesus over those possessed by evil spirits. They had no faith in the divinity of His mission but treated His name as a charm for casting out evil spirits, and they were overpowered and shamed.
Though the very name of witchcraft is now held in contempt and its claim dismissed as a fable of the Dark Ages, that old condemned witchcraft continues in modern Spiritualism. Modern Spiritualism is only its revival in a new disguise. It now numbers its converts by hundreds of thousands, yea, by millions, and holds influence in scientific circles, in churches, in legislative bodies, and even in the courts of kings.
The command not to allow a practitioner of witchcraft to live was given by Christ Jesus Himself on Mount Sinai as part of the instruction to Moses recorded in Exodus 19-24. It belongs specifically to the code set forth in the twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third chapters of Exodus, which was written in a book. That lawgiver afterward spoke in human flesh, so the statute is not from a Christless dispensation.
It is not of a lower order than the statutes required in the present age, but is exalted in its requirements. As part of that code it guards against doing injustice, guards the interests of God's people, guides dealings with one another, and shows God's impartial ways. It was to be strictly obeyed, and it is needed now just as verily as the children of Israel needed it in the days of Moses. It is to be studied and presented before the people in jots and tittles, with all contention ceasing and love as brethren.
The command condemns and prohibits witchcraft and sorcery, which is holding intercourse with evil spirits, under the Mosaic law on pain of death. Despite that death penalty, the prohibition was broken from time to time by apostate Jews who practiced sorcery in secret. This was seen at Ephesus in Paul's day, when certain vagabond Jewish exorcists, including the seven sons of Sceva, tried to call the name of Jesus over those possessed by evil spirits. They had no faith in the divinity of His mission but treated His name as a charm for casting out evil spirits, and they were overpowered and shamed.
Though the very name of witchcraft is now held in contempt and its claim dismissed as a fable of the Dark Ages, that old condemned witchcraft continues in modern Spiritualism. Modern Spiritualism is only its revival in a new disguise. It now numbers its converts by hundreds of thousands, yea, by millions, and holds influence in scientific circles, in churches, in legislative bodies, and even in the courts of kings.