What does the Bible say about witchcraft
The Bible speaks clearly about witchcraft: it forbids it because it means seeking power or answers apart from God. It also teaches that believers do not need to live in fear, and that there is forgiveness for anyone who turns away from these practices.
1. The Bible clearly forbids it
In Deuteronomy, God lists several practices He did not want among His people: divination, sorcery, enchantments, and consulting the dead. This is not a minor theme: it appears consistently in both the Old and New Testaments.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12, KJV)
2. The deeper issue: seeking power or answers apart from God
Witchcraft is not limited to movie images. In the Bible it includes any attempt to know the future, control others, or gain protection through occult means. At its root, it is a question of trust: who do I turn to when I am afraid or need answers?
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? (Isaiah 8:19, KJV)
3. The New Testament says the same
Paul lists witchcraft among the works of the flesh, next to idolatry. And in Ephesus, people who came to Christ publicly burned their books of magic as a sign of real change.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21, KJV)
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. (Acts 19:19, KJV)
4. What about tarot, horoscopes, spiritual "cleansings," or charms?
The Bible does not name these modern practices, but the same principle applies: seeking guidance, luck, or protection from spiritual sources other than God. That is why most Christian traditions, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant, agree in discouraging them, even when they are presented as harmless or as a family tradition. If you are unsure about a specific custom in your culture, it is worth talking it through with a pastor or priest from your church.
5. There is no need to live in fear
The Bible does not invite believers to obsess over witchcraft or to see curses everywhere. It teaches that Christ has already triumphed over spiritual powers on the cross, and that those who belong to God are in good hands.
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4, KJV)
6. If you have been involved, there is forgiveness
The believers in Ephesus openly confessed what they had done and started over. That same path is open today for anyone who sincerely returns to God.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, KJV)
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