{"id":209,"date":"2011-07-10T12:10:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-10T12:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/sunday-brunch-should-christians-practice-magic.html"},"modified":"2014-03-03T09:06:03","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T14:06:03","slug":"sunday-brunch-should-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/sunday-brunch-should-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Brunch! – Should Christians Practice Magic?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Should Christians dabble with magic? <\/b><\/p>\n

I know some think that magic is harmless, but, the Bible clearly speaks against sorcery, witchcraft and magic (I\u2019ve noticed the Bible uses these terms somewhat interchangeably at times).
\nI wanted to talk about a man named Simon who\u2019s mentioned in the book of Acts. He was a magician\/sorcerer.<\/p>\n

Everybody thought he was so great and people followed him \u2013 I\u2019m even led to believe that some may have worshiped him. However, Philip came, proclaiming the word of God, Simon \u201cbelieved\u201d and was baptized. However, after Simon noted Peter and John laying their hands on the baptized, to give them the Holy Spirit, Simon offered them money, wanting them to show him how he could have that very same talent (bestowing of the Holy Spirit by the laying of his hands).<\/p>\n

Peter blasted Simon for his disbelief about the gospel, telling him he needed to repent. Simon obviously didn\u2019t accept the gospel with a believing and humble heart, he still had that magic rooted in him, and I don\u2019t think he really let go of his love of sorcery.<\/p>\n

I think sorcerers do have power, but that power doesn\u2019t come from God. I don\u2019t believe the Lord wants us to dabble with magic or sorcery.<\/b><\/p>\n

I know some will argue and say a few card tricks are okay, but\u2026I don\u2019t know. Dabbling with any type of magic has always left me feeling a bit leery. Simon was great and people followed him, made me think: What, exactly, was Simon doing to gain such a following?<\/b> I know he was doing magic, but, what exactly, did he do to gain that much power?<\/b> Kind of scary when you think about it.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Do you think it\u2019s okay to dabble with harmless magic tricks, or do you think people should refuse to dabble at all?<\/b> I\u2019d be interested in hearing your responses.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve copied and pasted the scripture from Acts that mentions Simon the Sorcerer. Also, I\u2019ve been blogging about the early Christians and the book of Acts recently. You can see more posts about the early Christians here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

~Cecelia Dowdy~<\/a><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Acts 8:9-25 (NIV)<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Simon the Sorcerer
\n9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, \u201cThis man is rightly called the Great Power of God.\u201d 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
\n14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
\n18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles\u2019 hands, he offered them money 19 and said, \u201cGive me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.\u201d
\n20 Peter answered: \u201cMay your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.\u201d<\/p>\n

24 Then Simon answered, \u201cPray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

25 After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos Should Christians dabble with magic? I know some think that magic is harmless, but, the Bible clearly speaks against sorcery, witchcraft and magic (I\u2019ve noticed the Bible uses these terms somewhat interchangeably at times). I wanted to talk about a man named Simon who\u2019s mentioned in the book of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biblical-musings","category-sunday-brunch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paovYP-3n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2385,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/2385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}