What Is Wrong With Magic and Sorcery in Entertainment?
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Is it wrong for Christians and Christian families to allow entertainment that includes magic, sorcery, and witchcraft?
This is a question that comes up a lot.
Some Christians look at this kind of entertainment as imaginative, since the sorcery is just make-believe, and not real.
But what does the Bible say? Does it say anything about this at all?
It’s been 25 years since the first Harry Potter book was published, a book – and subsequently movie – that was so polarizing in the church.
On one side of the aisle you had the Christians who saw the book and series as demonic and evil, while on the other side of the aisle you had Christians who deemed it as harmless entertainment and imaginative.
They considered each other as liberal and legalistic, too permissive and too uptight.
Now we have Netflix’s Lucifer and FX’s new adult cartoon Little Demon.
What Is Wrong With Magic and Sorcery in Entertainment?
This time of year the topic of paganism, magic, sorcery, wizardry, and witchcraft tends to come up more than at any other time of year because of Halloween and it’s pagan origins.
When people think of Halloween, they think of witches and Jack-o-lanterns, spells and graveyards, wizards and ghosts, and red devils with pitchforks and pointy tails.
Should a Christian allow Harry Potter, Hocus Pocus, and other seemingly harmless books, movies, TV shows, and cartoons that include magic and sorcery; devils and demons?
When you look at what the Bible says about witchcraft and sorcery, it is immediately clear that God dealt with this very strongly.
“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer” Deuteronomy 18:10
“And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.” Leviticus 20:6
And He will continue to deal with it strongly.
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21
Though there are many Christians who will argue that the sorcery and witchcraft in entertainment is just fiction, I believe we have to look at a few areas of concern.
1. It glorifies the worship of Satan
The purpose of entertainment is enjoyment; and this is precisely why entertaining ourselves with even fictional portrayals of sorcery, witchcraft, and wizardry is troubling.
How can we entertain ourselves with even a fictional portrayal of the worship of Satan?
Stop for a moment and reflect on this.
How can a disciple of Jesus Christ take enjoyment in the portrayal and glorification of worship of the archenemy of the God we claim to love and honor?
What an insult to God!
And dear friends, the Bible says that He will not be mocked. He will not tolerate being insulted. There is a price to be paid for this kind of entertainment.
How much more for the child of God who out of their mouth sings worship to Him on Sunday while allowing the worship and glorification of His enemy to be their enjoyment on Saturday?
2. It creates interest and curiosity for what is real
Many times, entertainment portrays witchcraft, sorcery, and magic as at least harmless, if not good and fun.
It awakens an interest for those things, especially for our children.
This was addressed in a very thought-provoking poem by Alexander Pope
“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
And this is what has happened with entertainment in Christian homes.
There was a time when Christians, disciples of Jesus Christ, strictly filtered their entertainment. There were movies, books, and music that were understood to not be part of Christian entertainment.
But, we began to let one thing slip…then another, to the point where we embrace them.
We love them. We can’t wait for the new book or movie to be released, because they have become some of our favorites.
3. It grows callouses on our heart
Reflecting back on Alexander Pope’s poem, we see the progression of a calloused heart when it comes to entertaining ourselves with the things God hates.
The more often we let things in our entertainment slip, because either it was too fun to turn off or put down…
Or our kids were enjoying it too much, and we didn’t want to disappoint them…
These depictions of evil — witchcraft, sorcery, magic, wizardry — were “seen too oft” and they became familiar to us.
Perhaps the first time we saw evil depicted as entertainment we were shocked and our conscience was pricked, but after a time, it no longer shocked us and we felt nothing.
We simply endured it and excused it. It became normal.
And the longer we allow it to be a normal and regular part of our enjoyment, we begin to embrace it.
How is it that a child of God, a disciple of Jesus Christ, can embrace, enjoy, and even call “favorite” something – even a fictional “something” – that so angers God?
It angers God to the point that He will cast into eternal fire and torment those who actually practice such things?
And, dear friends, should I dare even to say that if we enjoy these portrayals of evil that anger God to this degree, we are accessory to this evil?
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we should take seriously what God takes seriously. What angers Him should anger us.
What insults Him should insult us.
And if it doesn’t, we have grown a callous on our heart.
4. It violates Scripture
There are Scriptures in the Bible that command us to avoid all evil, even the very appearance of evil.
“When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.” Deuteronomy 18:9
God commanded the Israelites to not to learn to practice the rituals of the nations around them.
God called the pagan worship of the nations the nations which God was casting out of the Promised Land “abomination”.
Disgusting
Abhorrent
And He feels no differently about magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and wizardry.
Abstain from every form of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:22
The words “every form” is both literal and figurative. You can paraphrase this verse as “Keep yourself from every figurative/fictional portrayal and literal form of evil.
It is clear.
God’s desire is that entertainment that glorifies the worship of Satan through magic, sorcery, and witchcraft has no place in the life of a Christian!
5. We are consecrated for holy use
When we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord, He sanctifies us for holy use.
What does this mean?
When the Israelites built the Tent of Meeting in the desert, and made all of the utensils that would be used for worship in the Tent of Meeting, they sanctified them.
This means, those utensils were to be used only for worship in the Tent of Meeting and for nothing else.
They were not to take them home and use them to serve food or eat.
They were not for common, everyday use.
In Daniel 5, we read that Belshazzar used the utensils that were raided during the destruction of Solomon’s Temple for his great banquet.
During this banquet they used these utensils and “praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.”
Not only was their idolatry insulting to God, they insulted Him while commonly using what was consecrated for His worship alone!
A finger of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the wall: “Mene, mene tekel, upharsin”.
“God has numbered your kingdom and finished it, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it; you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”
And Belshazzar died that very night.
We cannot insult God without consequence!
Dear sister, we are consecrated for the worship of God alone. And when we become bystanders, fellowshippers, and accessories to the glorification of Satan and sorcery, we insult God and His purpose for our lives.
This is not without consequence.
I realize that there will be those who will think that I am taking things too far, I am being too legalistic and perhaps even judgmental.
But I do believe that God does take these things seriously.
And what is serious to Him should be serious to us.
What we entertain ourselves with shapes our worldview. It shapes our convictions. It shapes how we view God and His Word.
And we cannot afford to allow what shapes our worldview, convictions, and perception of God and His word to:
Walk in the counsel of the ungodly
Stand in the path of sinners
Sit in the seat of scoffers
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thank you
I’ve been wondering how this applies to some Christian favorites such as Tolkien’s books and the Chronicles of Narnia? Some say that you don’t actually see them use spells etc in the Hobbit, for example, and so it’s mostly just fictional creatures even though they are called wizards and said to have and use magic. But it is only what you may call a fictional world where the characters have fictional talents…
Then there are classic fairy tales etc.
We are using a lot of classics in our homeschool curriculum and I’m going to have to make a decision on whether to include Tolkien and C. S. Lewis
Such a good question. And one that I have grappled with myself. My concern with these classics that they could become gateways for my children to other books with outright sorcery, and I have finally decided not to use them in our homeschool. When my children grow older, if they decide to read them, that decision will be theirs, and by that time I pray a strong enough foundation will be laid that they will be able to wisely discern the voice of the Holy Spirit. But, for me, it’s a little too fine a line. I personally have never read either, and while I watched the first Chronicles of Narnia movie, it didn’t sit right with me for this very issue.
Great article, Rosilind. I’m glad someone else sees this matter the same as me. I’m tired of Christians watching and/or reading these types of storylines and treating it like it’s no big deal.
I was praying about my grandchildren, along these lines, this evening and wondered if you had written about this topic. Sooo thankful that you had, even though I’m seeing it now! God bless you in obeying His voice and sharing God’s ???? and thevtruth of His Word❣
Thank you for sharing God’s broken heart over these dangerous yet slyful ways children and adults have been entertained. To lose His Presence over making excuses in order “to make someone happy” is most likely another piece of equipment in the devil’s playground!