Pulse
3 October 2022
In Acts 8:9-24, we have an account of the encounter between Simon Peter and Simon Magus. The first Simon was, of course, an apostle of the risen Saviour, Jesus Christ. The second Simon is known variously as Simon the Sorcerer or Simon the Magician, a Samaritan who had devoted his life to the practice of the black arts.
Simon Magus heard Philip’s evangelistic message, presented himself for baptism together with the other converts, and followed the apostle on his preaching circuit. However, as his encounter with Peter described in Acts 8 clearly shows, Simon did not really understand the Gospel but was attracted to Christianity only because he was fascinated by the miracles performed by the apostles — which appear to have outstripped his own magical prowess.
F. F. Bruce offers what may be considered as the most generous assessment of the authenticity of Simon’s conversion to the faith when he writes: ‘The nature of his [Simon’s] belief must remain uncertain. No doubt it was sincere as far as it went, but was superficial and unsatisfactory.’
Other commentators, including the early Fathers of the Church, have depicted Simon in a less favourable light. Thus, in the history of Christianity, Simon Magus has been described as a ‘pagan’, a ‘founder of a new religion’, ‘a magician’, an ‘arch-heretic’, a ‘pseudo-apostle’, and even as the ‘father of all heresies.’
Be that as it may, this passage is of interest to us in relation to the topic of this article because it makes clear the distinction between magic and Christianity. And by extension, this passage also makes the sharpest contrast between the works of magic and the signs, wonders and miracles that sometimes accompany the ministry of the early apostles and the servants of God today.
The Black Arts
What is magic? How are we to understand the black arts?
In his paper entitled ‘Magic, Explanations and Evil’, Manvir Singh from the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, defines magic simply as ‘occult methods with instrumental ends, such as spells, curses, rites, manipulated objects, and everyday superstitions.’
Magic, Singh adds, ‘can be used to produce socially-justified ends, such as healing people or succeeding in gambling, as well as less acceptable objectives, such as inducing illness.’ For Singh, only harmful magic should be properly regarded as sorcery. ‘Methods of sorcery include cursing, stabbing voodoo dolls, and placing poisons in people’s path,’ he explains.
Singh’s understanding of the different types of magic, namely, white and black magic, has a very long history, and is found in European, African, Middle-eastern and Asian cultures. Some such understand of the two different types of magic would have been common in the day of the apostle Paul as well.
But, as I shall explain below, the Christian cannot accept the view that magic can ever be used for benevolent ends. Put differently, there is no such thing as white magic.
Magic is associated with occultism, a blanket term which the Encyclopaedia Treccani describes as:
[a] set of doctrines founded on a religious, metaphysical, and physical concept of the universe that presupposes the existence of an array of dynamic forces — personal and impersonal, physical or psychic — that are not accessible with the instruments of logic or of the mathematical and experimental science [from this point of view they remain occult, that is hidden or concealed], but with which a few of the learned are able to establish relationships through cognitive instruments or technical practices.
The German theologian and exorcist, Kurt Koch, offers a more pointed description of magic in his classic work Between Christ and Satan (1962). Magic, he writes, is the ‘art of or at least attempt at knowing and ruling the spirit, human, animal and plant worlds, together with the world of dead matter, through extrasensory means with the aid of the mystical and accompanying ceremonies.’ In order to clarify that magic is not simply a display of natural psychical powers, Koch states categorically in Occult Bondage and Deliverance (1971) that it is ‘the actual cult of demons performed in collaboration with the power of darkness.’
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has made it abundantly clear that the practice of magic in any form is contrary to the Christian faith:
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame the occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others — even if this were for the sake of restoring their health — are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion (n. 2117).
This returns us to the distinction between ‘white’ and ‘black’ magic. According to the Catechism, the so-called ‘white’ magic (used, for example, to restore someone’s health) is — like black magic — also contrary to the Christian faith. (Incidentally, there is also ‘red’ magic, which is usually focused on sexuality and used to attain someone’s affections or love).
Regardless of their colour, all forms of magic are prohibited because they require some kind of collaboration with the forces of darkness. As the late Father Gabriele Amorth — the most influential exorcist in Rome, who in his more than sixty years of ministry has helped thousands of demoniacs — put it:
All turn to the same preternatural entity, the wizard, who, in all these cases, resorts to the power of Satan in order to obtain the invoked result. Therefore, there is no difference among them, ‘black’, ‘white’ or ‘red’.
The Bible clearly prohibits believers from practicing the black arts. This clear injunction is found in Deuteronomy 18:9-14, which does not only apply to the Israelites of old but to Christians today as well:
When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord; it is because of sci abhorrent practices that the Lord your God is driving them our before you. You must remain completely loyal to the Lord your God. Although these nations that you are about to dispossess do give heed to soothsayers and diviners, as for you, the Lord your God does not permit you to do so.
Signs and Wonders
The signs, wonders and miracles that accompany the ministry of the apostles and God’s servants come from a totally different source and serve a totally different purpose. They are the visible outworking of God’s grace as the Church obediently fulfils the mission that God has entrusted to her.
Most significantly, the miracles that accompany the mission of the Church are signs, that is, evidences of the presence kingdom of God in human history. This divine kingdom, which was inaugurated at the first advent of the incarnate Son, will be consummated when he returns in glory to judge the world and to transformed this sin-marred creation into the new heaven and new earth.
This means that the miracles that accompany the Church as she conducts her mission in proclaiming the Gospel are the sovereign work of God. They cannot be activated at will either by the Church or by her ministers — pastors, missionaries, etc. The servants of God are not ‘spiritual engineers’ who have the requisite skill to ‘switch on’ the power of God whenever they wished. They are instruments of God’s grace, not wizards skilled in the magical arts.
Simon Magus failed to understand this because he was working with the principles associated with the harnessing of occult powers. He thought that the miracle that Peter performed by the power of the Holy Spirit is just a superior form of magic, which he can acquire.
So he sought to purchase that power. ‘When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lat my hands may receive the Holy Spirit”’ (Acts 8:18).
Unfortunately, some Christians have the same idea as Simon Magus when it comes to divine healing and deliverance. They think that by praying in a certain way or saying certain words (positive confession), they can activate the healing power of God to produce the desired results. In doing this, they have transformed the legitimate Christian practice of praying for the sick into a form of magic.
The New Testament also emphasises that although miracles are signs which God in his sovereignty has provided to confirm the ministry of the Church, they should never be given priority over the Gospel itself.
Thus, although signs, wonders and miracles are clearly the marks of the apostle (2 Corinthians 12:12), his main ministry is the preaching of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16). The apostle Paul thus wrote disparagingly about the Jews’ preoccupation with signs (1 Corinthians 1:22).
In similar vein, Jesus refused to perform miraculous signs because he did not want to pander to the crowds’ demand for the sensational. In response to the request by the scribes and Pharisees to perform a sign, Jesus said: ‘An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet of Jonah’ (Matthew 12:39). The ‘sign of the prophet Jonah’ refers to his death and resurrection.
To repeat, the miracles that accompany the ministry of the Church are signs of the presence of the kingdom. They are the sovereign acts of God and cannot be manipulated by human beings. They are the works of divine grace, not magic.
Finally, it should be pointed out that miracles are not the only signs of the presence of the kingdom. They are other evidences that point to the fact that with the first advent of Christ the divine kingdom has penetrated human history, notably the Church, the redeemed people of God.
Return to Paganism
In recent decades, some sectors of the evangelical church appear to be flirting with pagan and occult practices in a way that is truly disturbing. These are mostly (although not exclusively) churches that are associated with the movement which started in the 1990s called the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The leaders of this movement believe that in these last days, God will raise prophets and apostles to lead his Church and usher in the divine kingdom.
Some of the leaders of NAR teach that occult practices such as those listed in Deuteronomy 18 were originally God’s gifts to his people. They were stolen by the New Age Movement, and the time has come for the Church to reclaim these lost gifts and use them in her ministry.
For example, in an article entitled ‘Authentic vs Counterfeit’, Jonathan Welton writes:
I have found throughout Scriptures at least 75 examples of things that the New Age movement has counterfeited, such as having a spirit guide, trances, meditation, auras, power objects, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and more. These actually belong to the church, but they have been stolen and cleverly repackaged.
He then adds:
We need to begin to use counterfeits as signposts. Every time a counterfeit shows up, take it as the Lord presenting you with an opportunity to reclaim the authentic from the darkness. Take up the cause to reclaim the Church’s stolen property.
This means that the Church should reclaim as hers and put into practice all the occult practices that Deuteronomy 18 describes as abhorrent in the eyes of God. NAR leaders like Bill Johnson, Rick Joyner, Patricia King and Mike Bickle have promoted in their books and sermons practices such as consulting angel guides, the use of spiritual portals, teleportation (astral projection?), and grave-sucking.
While in their actual ‘ministries’ these practices are nothing more than stage-managed theatrics and spurious claims, their teaching can be extremely harmful to gullible Christians. It may encourage them to explore the occult for themselves and experiment with some of its rituals and practices.
Christian authors such as Kurt Koch and Fr. Amorth have warned that this is very dangerous indeed because it may result in demonic oppression and even subjugation (possession).
The message is clear: magic and the black arts are associated with the work of demons. Christians must have no truck with them!
Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor at Trinity Theological College (Singapore) and Theological and Research Advisor of the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity.