Welcome to AncientCrossroads
Thou Shalt not suffer...
Friday, 16 October 2009 21:23 | Author: Mark Bishop | 
The infamous verse that people like to throw in my face from time to time.
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Why don't we take a look at how this was handled in Bible times, by God's people.
That way we can get some thoughts as to how we should look at that verse today.
The Apostles.... you will find that they had to deal with witches of various sorts
during their time, so let's start with how Paul handled it.
When confronted by different types of occultists, who were distracting from
his work of spreading the Gospel, Paul reacted as directed by the Holy Spirit.
Let's take a peek at how it went.
In Acts 13
we have Elymus the Sorcerer trying to stop Paul from explaining the
Gospel to someone.
6 And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer,
a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus:
7 Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God.
8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them,
seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
9 Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him.
10 And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy
of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind,
not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness;
and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
12 Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the
doctrine of the Lord.
In Acts 16 we have this interesting scene.
16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with
a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants
of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.
18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit,
I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
And he came out the same hour.
19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone,
they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
Now you will note, that in neither of these scenes did Paul or one of the other
Christians who were with him kill anyone. I realize that this is contrary to
the stated views of some who do not seem to understand the verse in question
and would like to use it as a reason to hate.... or to fear in the case of pagans who
expect church folks to make life far harder for them that it should be.
Lets keep going, we're on to Ephesus now. In Acts, again, which should be the pattern
for the church to follow in many ways.
In Acts 19 , we find further evidence of how the Bible times christians behaved towards
the witches around them. Take a look.
17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus;
and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together,
and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them,
and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
They weren't killed either, just shown the Gospel. There are other instances, but we
should move on to look at how Lord Jesus treated the issue of witches.
You see, Jesus treated them like any other. Like the adulterer, the demoniac,
the tax collector and thief. Jesus offered them Mercy and forgiveness.
In John 3:16 , we find that Jesus went to Calvary for everyone... not just for
church folks. You will note, the verse doesn't say ~whosoever as long as they are
not a witch~
Instead, it says:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus went to Calvary's cross for all of us.
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Why don't we take a look at how this was handled in Bible times, by God's people.
That way we can get some thoughts as to how we should look at that verse today.
The Apostles.... you will find that they had to deal with witches of various sorts
during their time, so let's start with how Paul handled it.
When confronted by different types of occultists, who were distracting from
his work of spreading the Gospel, Paul reacted as directed by the Holy Spirit.
Let's take a peek at how it went.
In Acts 13
we have Elymus the Sorcerer trying to stop Paul from explaining theGospel to someone.
6 And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer,
a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus:
7 Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God.
8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them,
seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
9 Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him.
10 And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy
of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind,
not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness;
and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
12 Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the
doctrine of the Lord.
In Acts 16
we have this interesting scene.16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with
a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants
of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.
18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit,
I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
And he came out the same hour.
19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone,
they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
Now you will note, that in neither of these scenes did Paul or one of the other
Christians who were with him kill anyone. I realize that this is contrary to
the stated views of some who do not seem to understand the verse in question
and would like to use it as a reason to hate.... or to fear in the case of pagans who
expect church folks to make life far harder for them that it should be.
Lets keep going, we're on to Ephesus now. In Acts, again, which should be the pattern
for the church to follow in many ways.
In Acts 19
, we find further evidence of how the Bible times christians behaved towardsthe witches around them. Take a look.
17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus;
and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together,
and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them,
and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
They weren't killed either, just shown the Gospel. There are other instances, but we
should move on to look at how Lord Jesus treated the issue of witches.
You see, Jesus treated them like any other. Like the adulterer, the demoniac,
the tax collector and thief. Jesus offered them Mercy and forgiveness.
In John 3:16
, we find that Jesus went to Calvary for everyone... not just for church folks. You will note, the verse doesn't say ~whosoever as long as they are
not a witch~
Instead, it says:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus went to Calvary's cross for all of us.
_________________
|
|
