I
had
cause
this
week
to
think
about Ouija boards. Premier
Christian Radio
contacted
me and asked if I was aware
they are readily
available in pound
shops,
as well as regular
retail outlets and
the most popular online outlets. Am I surprised? Not really; shocked
but not surprised.
Ouija boards, or some form or another of them, have been found to have existed as far apart as ancient Greece and China, in the Roman Empire and across Africa. People’s endless fascination with the dead feeds this demand, and where there is demand for the abominable there the devil is, stoking and supplying it.
The Unbeliever and the Ouija
Many, in particular unbelievers, see the Ouija as, ‘a bit of harmless fun.’ Who can blame them, given toy companies like Hasbro sell them along with other board games. Back in the day, Waddington’s carried a now much sought after Ouija board under their brand.
The Ouija board consists of a small glass and flat board that has the letters of the alphabet printed in a circle. The words, ‘yes,’ ‘no’ and ‘goodbye’ are also usually present. One person then puts their forefinger on the glass and whoever is in charge of the board calls on a spirit to enter the glass. Questions are asked and the glass moves by a force outside the natural realm, spelling out the answer.
What are you doing when you use a Ouija board? You are, purportedly, contacting the spirits of the dead. For the unbeliever, this is an important question. If that is what you think you are doing you are tacitly agreeing there is another, a spirit realm where the dead ‘live.’ Given that you cannot possibly see into that realm, what makes you think the spirit speaking is benign?
It is astonishing that people who readily recognise the manifold dangers of our own world assume that this other world is always safe and harmless.
You have relinquished control to something you can’t see, don’t understand, and can’t possibly control
At this point it is important to recognise that you have now relinquished control to whatever it is that speaks from that realm. You can’t know the disposition of what is speaking, you are in no position to judge. You are now trusting something you cannot see or possibly understand, and the consequences can be nightmarish.
Even secular psychologists recognise the inherent dangers of using a Ouija board. Exorcists and paranormal investigators issue serious warnings about the dangers of the Ouija. Of course, we are of those people who believe in spirits, malignant and benign, and we will come to that now.
The Christian and the Ouija
Through Moses, God issued this solemn warning:
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God,...” Deut.18:9-14
As Christians, we find ourselves surrounded by ‘the abominable practices of the nations.’ The every-day world is filled with occult practices, from angel worship, through reading omens, to mediums and necromancers. Remainder bookshops are generously supplied with ‘popular’ publications on the occult (right).
Despite the solemn warnings of Scripture, like Israel of old, we are drawn to the occult, the hidden, the abominable.
The key to understanding the real danger for Christians of dabbling in the occult is illustrated by this verse from Paul to Timothy, ‘Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons...’ (1 Tim.4:1)
God will not have his people devoted to any other, and certainly not to deceitful spirits. Using a Ouija board a Christian will, in effect, be breaking the first commandment, ‘You shall have no other gods…’ They will be derelict in their devotion in not heeding the warning in Deuteronomy 19 above. Each generation is convinced it will not make the mistakes of the ‘foolish and ignorant’ past. Such unfounded confidence is what lays us open to the very same temptations and abominable practices in the world around us.
The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that such foolishness comes from a lack of Christian maturity, a failure to carefully discern what is good and what is evil:
‘About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Heb.5:11-14)
How any pastors and teachers in the church weep for the immaturity of their flock, fervently pray for believers who are willing to, ‘have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.’? How many leaders look into the abundant supply of Scripture then turn to see an immature people who need to be taught again the basic principles of our common faith?
We are called to single-minded devotion to the one true God, rejecting anything and everything else that demands a share of that devotion. That is where our security lies, and our futures are in the hands of the God who made us. The dead don’t speak to us, the spirits that do have the single purpose of drawing us away from the God who saves. The consequences are eternal.
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