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Clearly we aren't to try to "divine" things ("divination") that aren't give to us to know.. people's "forturnes" and that nonesense. But what if the mind had by nature a number of abilities we have sense lost because of the fall? What if some rare people are able to, to some degree, recover these suppressed abilities? Do we know enough about the brain to say definitively what it can and cannot do? (nope) I've encountered people who sometimes have an uncanny ability to know what your thinking or know information they couldn't have gotten by other means -- and it served no demonic or godly purpose. It was just there. Why think it has to be angelic or demonic? Couldn't it just be natural?

Of course, a person who had such a gift could USE it either for God or for demonic purposes. But the ability itself could just be natural.

Greg

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Old Testament scholar Eugene H. Merrill gives a general definition of divination: “The phrase ‘practicers of divination’ refers generally to the whole complex of means of gaining insight from the gods regardless of any particular technique.” Here is another definition: “[The] practice of making decisions or foretelling the future by means of reading signs and omens” All pagan societies, ancient and modern, practiced divination. They knew they lived in a world of spirit beings and “gods,” and needed ways to gain information about the spirits that they believed created good or bad fate. Various techniques were developed to gain this knowledge. There is no logical limit to the varieties of techniques that might work. These techniques persist because they do work to some extent and the spirits are all to willing to provide their deceptive information.

There are general categories of divination that were popular in the ancient world. One of the most prevalent ones was reading anomalies in nature. The ancients believed that the gods were behind the events of nature. When extraordinary events occurred, the ancients saw the possibility of learning from the gods. “These anomalies were understood as allowances by the gods in order to communicate a message to humans (as more direct forms of communication were not normally possible).” The practice of astrology arose because planets were anomalies in that they took a different course of movement than the stars. People used to examine the liver or entrails of animals to gain information from the gods. This is mentioned in the Bible: “For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the household idols, he looks at the liver.” (Ezekiel 21:21). What they were looking for was abnormalities that might be read as signs. The arrows might be poured or tossed out of a quiver and the direction or pattern in which they stuck in the ground could be read so as to indicate where to attack.

Not all forms of divination had to do with reading anomalies. Some forms were means of making direct contact with spirits. Necromancy is one of them. “Necromancy, consulting the spirits of the dead (Lev. 19:31; Isa. 8:19; Isa. 19:3), is a way of obtaining foreknowledge from a supernatural source which was illicit among the Jews . . . but licit amongst all other peoples.” What divination is always looking for is secret information whether about the past, present or future.

Divination is often linked with sorcery, enchantments, and other practices. For example: “Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him. So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah” (1Kings 17:17, 18). The phrase “made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire” is also mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:10 along with divination. It is quite possible that in this context it was a specific means of divination rather than child sacrifice. Possibly it was a form of divination that involved interrogation by fire. The exact nature of the practice is not certain. But what is certain was that it was a pagan practice linked with divination and forbidden by God. In many passages a number of closely related terms are cited to show that all such activity is forbidden. For example, speaking of Manasseh: “And he made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger” (2Kings 21:6).

There are a couple of practices that can be seen as divination in a pagan sense or something God uses. One example of this is the interpretation of dreams and another is the casting of lots. There is a technical term for dream interpretation which is described as follows: “Oneiromancy, the interpretation of dreams, is tolerated in the OT (Gen. 40:5-8; Dan. 1:17). The narratives attribute interpretation completely to Yahweh, seeming to the exclusion of the interpreters being trained in the disciplines of dream interpretation (which was of enormous interest in Egypt as well as Mesopotamia).” In the Bible God provided the interpretation of a dream at His discretion through specific individuals such as Joseph and Daniel. Pagan dream interpretation was an art that was practiced like other forms of divination. A dreamer of dreams needs to be judged like a prophet does, Deuteronomy 13:1-5.

The practice of casting lots to determine the Lord’s decision was allowed under certain circumstances. The Urim and Thummim of Aaron’s breast piece evidently served that purpose (see Exodus 28:30 and Numbers 21:7). This passage shows that God did not always answer: “When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets” (1Samuel 28:6). When that happened, Saul departed from what God ordained: “Then Saul said to his servants, ‘Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.’ And his servants said to him, ‘Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at En-dor’” (1Samuel 28:7).

Any of the means God did ordain, be it dreams, prophets, or the casting of lots, could be misused. The means God provided in the Old Testament could only be used through people He truly called and ordained and in the manner He ordained. There are tests the Lord gives to determine if they are legitimate. It is also important that all other methods of seeking spiritual information are illegitimate in every case.

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Originally posted by quest for truth

Spenlake, I thought of weather forecasting and the flipping of the coin before the game when I read your definition.

I think Greg is on to something when he said "But the ability itself could just be natural."

All good gifts come from above. Perhaps the ability to know thingsin this way is a natural way God wired us and perhaps this ability has been corrupted by Satan. Like Greg said, perhaps we have lost a number of the abilities God originally created us with prior to the fall?

Interesting. I had never thought about that before in this context.

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