Witchcraft is the practice of seeking spiritual power, influence, or hidden knowledge through means that God has forbidden.
Scripture names it among the works of the flesh and among the abominations of the nations.
It is not a cultural curiosity or a harmless craft; it is rebellion against the Lord and fellowship with darkness.
The gospel calls every person involved in witchcraft to repent, abandon the practice, and turn to Jesus Christ.
The law of God lists the witch, the sorcerer, the charmer, and the one who inquires of the dead among those whose practices are detestable to the Lord. Israel was not to learn the ways of the nations in these things. In the New Testament, witchcraft (often translating the same family of words as sorcery) appears in the catalog of the works of the flesh. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. When the word of the Lord prevailed in Ephesus, those who had practiced magic arts confessed and burned their books. Witchcraft promises control—over people, circumstances, or the unseen—yet it delivers bondage. It substitutes technique and forbidden alliance for trust in the living God. The believer’s calling is a clean break: no participation with the unfruitful works of darkness, and a life filled instead with the Holy Spirit.
- Witchcraft is explicitly forbidden in the law of God and listed among the works of the flesh.
- It seeks power and knowledge apart from submission to the Lord.
- Scripture links it with idolatry, deception, and demonic influence.
- Genuine conversion includes the public abandonment of occult practices and materials.
- Those who practice witchcraft will not inherit the kingdom of God.
- Christ’s victory at the cross has disarmed the powers that stand behind such practices.
- The Holy Spirit, not hidden arts, is the source of true spiritual life and power.
- Forbidden by God – Named in the law as an abomination and not to be learned from the nations.
- Work of the Flesh – Listed with idolatry and other sins that exclude from the kingdom.
- Seeking Forbidden Power – An attempt to influence people or events through spiritual means God has not authorized.
- Connection to Darkness – Bound up with demons, false worship, and deception.
- Call to Renounce – Believers in Acts confessed and destroyed their magic books.
- Final Exclusion – Sorcerers and those who practice such things are outside the holy city.
- Gospel Alternative – Repentance, faith in Christ, and the filling of the Spirit.
- Deuteronomy 18:9-12 – “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 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.”
- Exodus 22:18 – “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.”
- Galatians 5:19-21 – “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery… I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
- 1 Samuel 15:23 – “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.”
- 2 Kings 9:22 – “And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, ‘Is it peace, Jehu?’ He answered, ‘What peace can there be, so long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?’”
- 2 Kings 21:6 – Manasseh “burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.”
- Micah 5:12 – “And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes.”
- Nahum 3:4 – “And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms.”
- Acts 19:18-19 – “Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.”
- Acts 8:9-11 – Simon had previously practiced magic and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.
- Acts 13:8-10 – Elymas the magician opposed the gospel; Paul called him a son of the devil and an enemy of all righteousness.
- Revelation 21:8 – “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
- Revelation 22:15 – “Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
- Revelation 9:21 – “Nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
- Isaiah 8:19-20 – “And when they say to you, ‘Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,’ should not a people inquire of their God?… To the teaching and to the testimony!”
- 1 Corinthians 10:20-21 – “No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.”
- Ephesians 5:11 – “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”
- Colossians 2:15 – “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
- Leviticus 19:31 – “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.”
- Leviticus 20:6 – “If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.”
Witchcraft is not a hidden path to wisdom or power. It is named by God, forbidden by God, and listed among the works of the flesh. Those who practiced magic arts in Ephesus did not keep their books as souvenirs; they burned them in the sight of all. The same call stands today. There is no place in the kingdom of God for the practice of witchcraft, and there is no need for it. Christ has disarmed the rulers and authorities. Inquire of the living God, not of forbidden spirits. To the teaching and to the testimony. Turn, repent, and walk in the light. The Holy Spirit gives life and power to those who belong to Jesus, and the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.