Becoming A Vessel Of Honor Rebecca Brown

160 of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Deut. 18:9-12

The Lord did not have to define the terms given in these verses because the people KNEW what He was talking about. Just as in the times of Jesus and the writing of the New Testament, knowledge about the occult and demons was widespread. In fact, it was widespread knowledge that demons could do all sorts of things.

"So general at the time of our Lord was the belief in demons and in the power of employing them, that even Josephus (Ant. viii.2,5) contended that the power of conjuring up, and driving out demons, and of magical cures had been derived from King Hezekiah, to whom God had given it. Josephus declares himself to have been an eyewitness of such a wonderful cure by the repetition of a magical formula. This illustrates the contention of the Scribes that the miraculous cures of our Lord were due to demoniac agency." (The Life and Times ofJesus the Messiah , by Alfred Edersheim, Vol. II, Eerdmans Pub. Co., © 1947, p. 762) "We must here bear in mind that the practice of magic was strictly prohibited to Israelites, and that —as a mat ter of principle at least - witchcraft, or magic, was sup posed to have no power over Israel, if they owned and served their God (Chull. 7b: Nedar. 32a). But in this matter also —as will presently appear —theory and practice did not accord. Thus, under certain cir cumstances, the repetition of magical formulas was declared lawful even on the Sabbath (Sanh. 101a). Egypt was regarded as the home of magic (Kidd. 49b: Shabb. 75a). In connection with this, it deserves notice that the Talmud [writings for Jewish made laws by the Rabbis] ascribes the miracles of Jesus to magic, which He had learned during His stay in Egypt, having taken care, when He left, to insert under his skin its rules and Chapter 10 The Spirit and The Spirit World