At 11:15 PM 10/3/2002 -0400, you wrote: >Actually, I have to disagree here. Christians hold by the 5 books of Moses >as well as their own testaments. One of the few direct laws concerning the >occult is a straight forward prohibition against necromancy. If necromancy >didn't work, then why is there a prohibition against it?
Mind you it's been a while now since I've re-read any of the books, but if I understood what it was saying (as opposed to what modern Christian preachers say it says) the reasoning was this: That the dead are dead, and necromancy doesn't work. If you do try to talk to the dead and some... thing answers, it is not your deceased beloved but a demonic presence *pretending* to be them. As to what it seeks to gain by this deception you'd have to ask it. At any rate, that was the reasoning behind the prohibition against talking to dead things as I understood it -- that in your obvious desperation to talk to your beloved dead that you'd be receptive to anything the dark powers told you and thus and easy to manipulate to their own ends. Again, mind you, this is simply how it read to me. Even if you can read ancient Aramaic and Greek there are many sayings and general assumptions whose context has been lost over the ages making it difficult to understand what they are truly saying, especially when they take poetic license. (Such as the phrase "40 days and 40 nights" -- supposedly this was simply a common phrase that meant "a long time", and not necessarily 40 actual days. I am amused, continuing on that point, that most people though think the entire "flood" incident took 40 days. As I recall, it actually says from the day Noah and kin got on the boat till they finally embarked was about 1 year and 1 week.) >In the Jewish realm of writings, there's a lot more dealing with necromancy >and necromancers. A few pages of Talmud Sanhedrin (The Talmud is basically >commentary on the oral law) deals with the punishment for necromancers and >other places talk on the what and how of it. It's been many a year since I've read through the Jewish books... the one with the talking mule(?) and the angel who stops in for a bite to eat come to mind though. Or perhaps I'm just recalling some of the Nag Hammadi books. Something to add to my winter re-read list to refresh my memory. :) One thing the Christian community could borrow from Jewish tradition is semi-mandatory reading of the Bible as adults. Aside from preachers/deacons I could easily count the number of people I know that have read through it as an adult on one hand. --min > ______________________________________________________________________ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
