This is the Ask Pastor Alex podcast with your host, Pastor Alex.
All right, welcome back to the podcast. We’re here with another episode and another question.
And the question for this episode is, what does the Bible say about psychics and fortune
tellers? Really good question, really cool question, and it’s one that I think is going
to have a little bit of overlap with some of the previous episodes that we’ve done
on ghost and demon possession and things like that. But it’s also good to get into this
one because I know that these type of practices are really prevalent in our culture today.
And so we need to dig in and see what the Bible actually has to say about these things.
So first off, we should note that the Bible strongly condemns things like spiritism and
mediums and the occult and psychics. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 18, 10 through 12, there
shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone
who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer
or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things
is an abomination to the Lord. And so these type of practices are explicitly condemned
by Scripture. And we need to understand that there are some common practices in our world
today that would fall into these categories. So practices, for instance, like horoscopes,
I know that’s hard to hear for some people, tarot card readings, astrology, another one
that might be hard to hear for some people, fortune telling, palm reading, and seances.
The Bible condemns these things because they are demonic pagan practices. And so here’s
a question that goes along with this topic usually is, well, what about the accuracy?
Right? Because some people might wonder, how can sidekicks and fortune tellers be so accurate
sometimes? Many people have visited these type of people before and received some alarmingly
accurate predictions. But these practices have pretty much been debunked, right? So
fortune tellers and mediums and sidekicks have a number of methods to get accurate information
from you. Many of them are just really, really good at deductive reasoning. So they can make
some accurate deductions based on appearances. They see the way that you look, the way you
dress, how you act, maybe who you came with, and they can deduce a lot of information from
you in that way. Oftentimes what they’ll do is they’ll ask you leading questions that’s
going to provoke answers and information from you. And many times we end up giving away
more information than we even intended to do. And so they take that information and
they can rework it and then use it later to seem like they have some supernatural insight.
Oftentimes, and this is kind of funny, they’ll have you book sessions ahead of time. And
just based on your name and your contact information, they can do a lot of research on you beforehand
that they’re going to bring up at some point during the session and it’s going to appear
to be mystical. But at the end of the day, these are pretty much nothing more than parlor
tricks that have been debunked. I mean, you really see all sorts of techniques, right?
Like oftentimes fortune tellers and horoscopes in particular, they will say the most general
bits of information, which could literally apply to anyone. But because we’re already
susceptible and we want to believe them, we think that they’re giving us some great insight
about ourselves, right? Like you might read a horoscope and it says, hey, if you’re this
person or if you fall under this category, you’re going to have a really stressful month
full of setbacks. And at the end of the month, you look back and you’re like, oh my goodness,
I did have a stressful month that was full of setbacks. Well, yeah, of course you did.
Who did? Right? We all did. We live in a stressful world and almost every month we have a lot
of certain level of setbacks, but it’s just that general information that gets put out
there that makes you believe that it was special or specific to yourself. But then you go along
and you say, well, what about the times when they seem to give information that seems supernatural?
What about the times when fortune tellers or psychics say things to us and tell us things
that no one could possibly know? And I really, I hate to tell you this, but that is the result
of demonic spirits. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 that Satan and his
demons masquerade as angels of light. And so of course they would want to make you think
that people participating in practices that are explicitly condemned by the Bible could
offer you supernatural insight and information or even make you believe that you’re talking
to one of your deceased loved ones. I mean, there’s an example in Acts chapter 16 where
there was a slave girl who seemingly had the ability to tell the future and she made her
owners a lot of money as a fortune teller. And when Paul visited that area, he recognized
immediately that this girl was possessed by a demon. And it’s kind of funny when the girl
went and stopped pestering Paul, he turned around and he demanded that the demon come
out of her. And once it did, she lost all of her supernatural abilities. And that really
goes to show just how much these practices are connected with the demonic realm. And
I know we’ve talked about this in a previous episode, but it bears repeating your dead
loved ones cannot communicate with you. It’s impossible. And so if you have sold out a
medium or a psychic or attended a seance where someone claims to be communicating with your
dead loved one and that dead loved one is talking to you and saying things to you, I’m
really sorry to tell you this, but you have been deceived. That’s the work of the demonic
realm. And so you might wonder, well, why do people seek out such things? And if you
just think about it, oftentimes what they’re wanting is insight, right? Like they’re wanting
insight into themselves and into their life. They think a horoscope can tell them why they
are the way that they are. They think astrology can tell them why they are the way that they
are. They think a psychic can tell them what will happen in their future or maybe whether
or not a certain relationship is going to work out. Sometimes they won’t closure, but
at the end of the day, they are looking for some level of insight. And I just want you
to know that all of these things are substitutes for God and the Bible. If you want to know
why you are the way that you are, you’re going to find that answer in scripture and it’s
going to be very, very clear. It will provide you with more insight into yourself than anything
else or anyone else possibly could. If you want to know what will happen in the future,
you should turn to the one who is sovereign over the future. He might not give you all
the details about what’s going to happen, but at least you’re going to be in a close
relationship with the one who rules over all of the future, someone that you can trust
and depend on. You see, here’s one of our problems. Many times we want to learn what’s
going to happen when God simply wants us to learn how to trust him. So let’s conclude
with a number of takeaways. First and foremost, the Bible condemns all of these pagan practices.
Also secondly, they are heavily involved with and empowered by the demonic realm. These
things are very connected to the demonic realm and influenced by the demonic realm. Third,
the dead cannot communicate with the living. Also, these things remember, please, that
they serve as sinful substitutes for God and the Bible. So we should seek the one true
God and dig into his word. I really appreciate the question. I hope that this answer has
been helpful and I look forward to answering more in the future.