Magism in Christianity – Rashin
In essence, all spiritual aspirations of humanity boil down to two main paths: the path of magic and the path of worshiping God.
The second one—worship of God—has an internal distinction: there is genuine worship, based on truth and revelation, and there is false worship, when people, considering themselves servants of the Most High, are in reality following human delusions.
The first path, despite all its variety, is built on one conviction: that through certain means, a person is capable of influencing higher powers and subjecting them to his will.
The mindset of people adhering to a magical worldview is revealed to us through the testimony of Holy Scripture.
The Philistines captured the Ark of God (1 Samuel 5) and God began to punish them (1 Samuel 6) with tumors on their bodies and mice devastating their land. The Philistine lords turned to their priests with the question: “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord?” (1 Samuel 6:2). Let us read this passage in full, 1 Samuel 6:2–4:
2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.” 3 So they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but by all means return it to Him with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.” 4 Then they said, “What is the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines. For the same plague was on all of you and on your lords.”
Why does the guilt offering take the form of tumors and mice? Because the idea of magism is that to influence a certain force, one must reproduce its image. The plague from God came in the form of tumors and mice, so they needed to depict this force by bringing a sacrifice to the God of Israel in order to influence His decision, 1 Samuel 6:5:
“Make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, from your gods, and from your land.”
Another example of magical thinking can be found in the Book of the Prophet Daniel.
King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he saw a statue. God revealed this dream to Daniel, Daniel 2:31–35:
31 “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. 32 This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
And its meaning, Daniel 2:36–45:
36 “This is the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. 37 You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; 38 and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold. 39 But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. 41 Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. 43 As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44 And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45 Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
So, all these parts of the body represent kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold. But the time will come when his kingdom will be replaced by another—one of silver.
Nebuchadnezzar then makes a statue like the one he saw in the dream, but entirely of gold. Magical thinking is primitive: one must make what was seen in the vision, take all the designations from the interpretation of the vision, and perform a ritual to change the plans of the “higher powers.” And since the Babylonian Empire is the golden head, now the statue must be entirely golden so that the empire will be eternal, Daniel 3:1:
Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
To bring the action to completion and give it power, the culmination of the ritual was universal worship of the statue by all peoples, Daniel 3:4–5:
4 Then a herald cried aloud: “To you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.”
Thus, worshiping what has been made in miniature should influence the original. According to the magical worldview, now “gold” will not be replaced by “silver.”
Even in our time, a similar method is widely known—the voodoo doll. An image of the person one wishes to influence is made, and whatever is done to this image will happen to the person to whom it is “tied.”
Such thinking is not foreign to modern Christians either. To influence some decision of God, one must perform certain actions before His image. One needs to place more candles before an icon—and preferably ones rolled by the petitioner himself—then there will be more grace, and thus the request will be more effective. And it does not matter at all how you live, how you confess God. What matters is knowing the special ritual and performing it correctly: the right candle is needed, a memorized (but not understood) prayer is needed; in some communities, one must stand exactly opposite the icon, and only then…
All of this is closely intertwined with the theme of the “cult of ceremonialism.”
Sometimes Christians come with some personal problem and a request to “do something spiritual for us,” expecting that now thunder will roar, the heavens will open, and they will begin to levitate from an overflow of grace. But the true God is different from the magical conception. Consider 2 Kings 5:9–15:
9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ 12 Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. 13 And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”
The Syrian king Naaman was sick with leprosy, but having learned that there was a certain man of God, Elisha, he went to him.
Upon arrival, Elisha did not even come out to Naaman himself but sent a message through a servant that he should wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman became angry at such advice, because there should have been some ritual, yet everything turned out so simple…
As was said earlier, for magical thinking, how you live does not matter—what matters is the ritual. A similar example of “influencing through the right words” is found in the New Testament, Acts 19:13–16:
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” 16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
The demon replies: “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” The fact that you know the names, some expressions, and actions, repeating them after the apostle Paul—has no significance. It does not matter what words you know; what matters is who you are in the eyes of God.
This passage clearly shows the failure of magic: even a demon needs to know who you are, not what names and actions you know.
Sceva was not actually a high priest but an impostor. From Acts 23 we know that during the time of the apostle Paul, the high priest was Ananias, and in no Jewish or general historical source does the name Sceva appear in the list of high priests. An interesting feature is highlighted in his commentary by the Venerable Bede (735), in his Exposition on the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 19:
“Sceva” is translated as “barking little fox.” This animal, exceedingly skilled in cunning and deceit, symbolizes the Jews, pagans, and heretics who are always plotting against the Church of God and raising a clamor against Her.
It should also be emphasized here how deceptive this approach is: a person only thinks that he is mastering certain “forces,” whereas in reality they are subjugating him, creating an illusion of control. In truth, evil spirits can turn against the person himself.
One cannot overlook the “magic of special places.”
Some are simply convinced that if they go to a special holy place or even undertake a pilgrimage, then everything in life will surely work out and all their prayer requests will be fulfilled.
But let us turn again to Scripture. Does everything really depend on the place, or is this a magical delusion?
In the Book of Numbers, chapter 22, there is the account of how the pagan king Balak, through his messengers, asks the prophet Balaam to curse Israel. But God directly forbids him to go and curse Israel, because the people are blessed. Balaam informs the messengers of the prohibition. Balak sends more influential messengers with promises of rich rewards. Balaam nevertheless goes with Balak’s messengers, but each time he receives an indication from God, and an angel warns him to say only what the Lord directs. Thus, instead of cursing Israel, Balaam blesses it. The pagan king Balak does not understand what is happening, for he gave valuable gifts to the prophet and he went with him. Perhaps now the issue is the place? The ritual is not being performed in the right location?
The first place of the ritual, Numbers 22:39–41:
39 So Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kirjath Huzoth. 40 Then Balak offered oxen and sheep, and he sent to Balaam and to the princes who were with him. 41 So it was, the next day, that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal, that from there he might observe the extent of the people.
But instead of the expected curses, Balak hears blessings, Numbers 23:11–12:
11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them altogether.” 12 So he answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?”
Now they move to another place, hoping that it will work there, Numbers 23:13–14:
13 And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them all; curse them for me from there.” 14 So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
And again nothing happened. Balaam continues to speak what God puts in his mouth, Numbers 23:25–26:
25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!” 26 So Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All that the Lord speaks, that I must do’?”
Balak changes the place again, Numbers 23:27–29:
27 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you can curse them for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland. 29 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
Just like the pagan king Balak, some Christians seek out “special, prayer-soaked places” where supposedly all their desires will come true, not realizing that everything depends not on the place, but on God. That is why He rejects sacrifices, to remind people of the importance of true knowledge of God (Hosea 6:6).
Worship must not turn into magic according to the principle: “stand here, read this, do that, and God will surely fulfill your desire.” When faith is built on understanding God’s teaching, awareness comes: God is not a magical spirit. True connection requires personal relationship with Him, not the performance of formal rituals. For even the sacraments, when approached with a “special” method, can easily become magic. Reading a forty-day memorial service for the health only by candlelight, being baptized specifically in a cold river, and similar inventions are entirely foreign to Christian teaching.