Divination

1. Divination Blurring the Prophetic

2. Blurring the Prophetic • Divination is the act of obtaining secret knowledge, especially that which relates to the future, A Power in man which forsees and explains those signs which the gods throw in his way.“ Cicero

3. Two types of Divination • Artificial and inspiration • Artificial divination depends on the skill of the agent in reading and in interpreting certain signs called omens. • inspirational or natural divination the agent is professedly under the immediate influence of some spirit or god who enables the diviner to see the future,

4. Different types of Divination • Astrology, or astromancy, is but one form of divination and it rests upon the ultimate belief that the heavenly bodies are deities controlling the destinies of men and revealing the future to those who have eyes to see. • hepatoscopy, or divining from the liver • Necromancy: Speaking with the dead

5. Other forms of Divination • Lot: a way of choosing • Hydromancy, or divination by water • Rhabdomancy, or the use of the divining rod, • Teraphim: Household Gods or stautes • Divination through the sacrifice of children by Fire (Molech, Kronos, Saturn)

6. Astrology Different types • dividers of the heavens: divided into four parts, each part is significant • Star-Gazers, or Seers of the Constellations: each constellation tells a story • Monthly forecasters, or Men Who Knew the Omens of the New Moon

7. The Idolatry of Israel • Worship of Foreign Bodies: Chiun, the Planet Saturn: • Am 5:25,26: "Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of your king (the King James Version Moloch) and the shrine of (the King James Version Chiun) your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. • Stephen in his defense, "And they made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets,

8. Golden Calf: Molech or Saturn • Moloch the king, the idol of the Ammonites and Phoenicians, was intimately connected both with the solar bull and the planet Saturn • his statue was of brass, with a human body but the head of an ox • Among the Carthaginians there was a brazen statue of Saturn putting forth the palms of his hands bending in such a manner toward the earth, as that the boy who was laid upon them, in order to be sacrificed, should slip off, and so fall down headlong into a deep fiery furnace • Moloch was the sun as king

9. False Glory • The Israelites professed to be carrying the tabernacle of Yahweh upon which rested the Shekinah glory; but in spirit they were carrying the tabernacle of the cruelest and most malignant of all the deities of the heathen, and the light in which they were rejoicing was the star of the planet assigned to that deity.

10. The ten tribes did the same thing • "They forsook all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments" (2 Ki 17:16,17). • Saturn's Day--became the Sabbath, the Day of Rest, because Saturn was the planet of ill-omen and it was then unlucky to undertake any work

11. Alexander brought astrology to the greeks • In Babylonia the stars had been consulted for the benefit of the king as representing the state; amongst the Greeks, with their strong individualistic tendency, the fortunes of the individual became the most frequent subject of inquiry • Of the converts at Ephesus it is written, "Not a few of them that practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the price of them, and found it 50,000 pieces of silver." it is likely that the almanacs, tables and formulas, essential to the astrologer for the exercise of his art, were also in the number.

12. Divination and Prophecy • Inspirational divination and Old Testament prophecy have much in common. Both imply the following conditions: (1) secret knowledge, especially that relating to the future; (2) the belief that such knowledge is given to certain spiritual beings who are willing on certain terms to impart it; (3) such secret knowledge is imparted generally to special classes of men and women called diviners or (Bab) seers and prophets

13. O.T. Prophets and Greek Mantis • The Old Testament prophet believes in a personal God whose spokesman he considers himself to be. When he spoke or wrote it was because he was, at least professedly, inspired and informed by Yahweh. • The Greek and Roman mantis, on the other hand, worked himself up to the necessary ecstatic state by music, drugs (intoxicants, etc.), sacrificial smoke and the like. • The mantis practiced his art as an occupation, charging high fees for Prophecy and refusing in most cases to give without financial compensation

14. True Prophetic Gift • Comes only from the Father to the son, through the spirit • Given by Holy Spirit: all can Prophesy • Simple prophecy: encouraging, comfort • Freely given: never a charge • Never looks at signs but comes through Holy Spirit inspiration

15. Biblical Prophets • Not New Age Diviners. • They are a Gift from Christ to the Church • They are the gift, but work with the Holy Spirit in Word of Knowledge, Word of Wisdom, and Prophecy. • Character and holy Spirit anointing is the foundation of ministry

16. Three types of Prophets • Inspiration or motivation: they have a breakthrough anointing like Haggai • Revelation: They Hear, see, and feel, from the Holy Spirit. They recieve Visions like Ezekiel or Jeremiah • Strategic: The see how to build and work in the building process like Apostles: Isaiah, Nathan