Divination

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Divination

• Blurring the Prophetic

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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
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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,

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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

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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)

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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

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The Idolatry of Israel

• Worship of Foreign Bodies Chiun, the Planet
  Saturn
• Am 525,26 "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,

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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

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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.

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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 1716,17).
• 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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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