Arguing with a Pentecostal Diviner
Divination is alive and well under the umbrella of the church of Christ, the Israel of God. Spiritualists, acting as false prophetesses, tell people of the dreams and visions which God spoke to them. In the quest for spiritual power and control over others, they inform their audiences of the latest news from the throne of God. The challenge for us is not that these charlatan soothsayers are promulgating a false religion; rather, it is that they are pretending to be Christians.
The blind will always be leading the blind into the pit, but what should our message be to them? In what spirit should our confrontation with these posturing angels of light be conducted? Why should we engage them at all? What outcomes should we expect from arguing with those in the church who are practicing divination?
First, anyone who claims to have a “word from God” through any means other than the Bible is a fraud. God spoke to Israel in the Old Testament through the prophets He had appointed. Then, the Word of God came in the flesh with the advent of Jesus, the incarnate Word (Jn 1:14; Heb 1:1–3). To ensure a consistent message the Holy Spirit inscripturated the Word that God spoke through the men of God, employed to write as the Spirit of God led them through divine inspiration (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20–21).
The Bible provides its own explanation for the inspiration and authority of Scripture. It also assures its reader that it is sufficient revelation for the salvation of God’s chosen people. As a picture of spiritual warfare, the Bible is described as a doubled-edged sword and the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12). It is the Holy Spirit’s prerogative to employ the written Word He inspired through men of God employed to preach it.
The Pentecostal diviner claims that nothing has changed from the Old Testament. She says that God is still speaking to the people through people like her. She argues that Christians put God in a box when they limit God to His revealed Word, the Bible. Diviners claim to read their Bible, but they have only searched the Scriptures enough to twist them for the justification of their deviant practices, “Did God not speak through men and women of old? Did God change? How dare you question what I am telling you God said to me, so that I might tell the world.” “You have a demon,” she says to the Christian who questions her method and her message.
The Bible promises the children of God that false prophets and false teachers will trouble the body of Christ until He returns. These people will boast in their exalted position as messengers of God. Their messages are not in alignment with the message of the Bible, however.
Recently, in confronting a Pentecostal practitioner of divination, I pressed her to repent of her methods and her message in favor of the Bible. It was like fighting a multi-headed dragon as her friends came to her rescue. It was me writing, “Read your Bible,” and “Do as the Bible says,” and “You would know you are wrong if you simply studied the Bible,” and “Consider the sufficiency, clarity, necessity of the inspired, authoritative, infallible, inerrant text of Scripture,” to no avail.
While I was pointing this Christian spiritualist to Holy Writ, her “friends” were assaulting me with ad hominem after ad hominem. It was meaningless to my accusers that their logic fail was epic. They did not care which fallacy they employed. One witness declared his sadness at the public display of God’s children fighting with one another. I assured him that his assumption of our being brethren was not valid, either. To me, this was spiritual warfare as in biblical truth versus conjured lies (Jn 8:32, 44; Eph 6:12).
Exposing evil is never appreciated by those who are practicing evil (Jn 3:20). Having trolled my Facebook information, the tactic was to focus on me and my theological learning as opposed to my argument. It never dawned on my opponents that they were claiming to be Christian while fighting with someone who had one message through the debate, “Repent of your methods and message by learning what the Bible has to say about practicing divination over and against the Scriptures.” In other words, “Read the Bible,” is the ultimate offense to the spiritualist.
At the end of the debate, I had not convinced the Pentecostal diviner of anything. I remain convinced, however, that only God’s Spirit and God’s Word can change the heart and mind of spiritualists posing as Christians within churches. Those churches that advocate divination are actually synagogues of Satan.
Spiritual warfare is taxing work, but it has its place in the Christian life and ministry. Truth is always light exposing the lies of darkness. One who champions the written Word will invite the wrath of charlatans, but they will be exposed for who they are and what they are doing as miscreant deceivers.
Finally, I have faith that whether the task is cultivation, seed planting, watering or harvest, the fact remains that God uses everything for good for bringing His chosen people out of bondage to demonic forces of deception. Engaging the enemy is costly to time and reputation, but we believe the Bible, therefore we speak an apt word of repentance and faith to the Pentecostal diviner, as a demonstration of our own faith in the Word of God — incarnate glorified and written for our profit…and hopefully theirs moving forward.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
October 27, 2021
