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By Rowena Miers

Does the spiritual world exist?

For a long time as a young Christian I had questions about whether there was a spiritual world out there that people talked about. I’d never seen any evidence of this spiritual world (or so I thought) and so I had great suspicion of those who said they had. To deal with the questions I had about the existence of the spiritual world I turned to at what God said about this spiritual world in the bible.

In the bible God makes it quite clear that there are spirits that work within the physical world and which at time interact with the experiences of humans. Some examples of this occur in the context of Jesus’ ministry where he had quite a lot to do with healing people who were possessed by evil spirits (see Matthew 4:24, 8:25, 12:22, 17:15-18).

Other parts of the bible also speak specifically about the spiritual world and people interactions with elements of it. Some stories include the magicians of Pharaoh who tried to mimic the wonders that God performed through Aaron (Exodus 8), the visit King Saul makes to the “witch” (2 Chronicles 33:1-8), and the story of Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:9-25).

Summary: The spiritual world is a very real thing.

How should we respond to the spiritual world?

In both the old and new testaments God’s people are warned to steer clear of spirits, as spirits can be in opposition to God. 1 John 4:1 shows this: “dear friends do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world”. Later in the New Testament the struggles of the early church against the destruction of the spiritual worlds are clearly seen where 1 Timothy 4:1 says, “the spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons”.

Both the Old and New Testaments outline that fraternising with forces in the spiritual worlds that oppose God is a sin where in Galations 5:20-2 we are told “the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God”.

Just like any other sin, fraternising with forces in the spiritual worlds that oppose God has as its motivation the rejection of God’s rule where the individual seeks their own good at the cost of others and in rebellion to God. In appealing to forces other then God is to break the first commandment “you shall have no other God;s before me” (Exoduc 20:3) by placing trust in another force when you should be placing your trust in God. God says to have nothing to do with forces of the spiritual world that oppose God “what fellowship can light have with darkness, what agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). God tells us to “flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14) just as we are to flee from all sin.

Summary: As believers we are to be very careful and steer well away from forces in the spiritual world that oppose God. Fraternising with forces that oppose God is sin. God tells us to flee from these things as we would flee from sin.

What exactly are the spiritual world that God in the bible tells his people to keep away from?

There is some dispute about what these forces are that we are told to steer clear of. Deuteronomy 8:9-13 is the most explicit passage in the bible that talks about this where God says:

“When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.”

From this passage it is clear that the main things that God tells his people to keep away from are actions relating to trying to tell the future and those that consult with spirits or the dead. Based on this definition, the magic God warns his people against is magic associated with abnormal spiritual activities and not the medieval magic traditions of witches with pointed hats and flying broom sticks, fairy tales or folk law.

While these common views of magic are not necessarily the things God is talking explicitly about in Deuteronomy 8:9-13 if they are forces (real or imagined) that distract people from serving God Christian’s should have nothing to do with them where 1 Timothy 4:7 says “have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly”.

Summary: The forces of spiritual world that God tells us to have nothing to do with includes: future telling, consulting with spirits consulting with the dead. In addition to these things we should also have nothing to do with any other forces (real or imagined) that may district us from serving God.

How should we respond to those who fraternise with spiritual forces that are opposed to God?

As Christians who know what it means to be saved by God’s grace, it is only natural that we should want to see others saved and come into a relationship with God. People who are involved in witchcraft or other spiritual forces that oppose God along with all other non-Christians need to hear the word of God in order that they might be saved. In responding to these people we ought to have courage and share with them what it means to be a Christian. “How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14).