August 24, 2025 • 31 mins
If you’ve ever flipped open your Bible to a random verse hoping for God’s guidance, you may have been practicing something far more dangerous than you realize. Join us as we discuss the practice of Bibliomancy, or "Bible Roulette."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Long for Truth podcast. I'm Robin Long.
Join my husband Dan and I as we explore the
roots of the early Pentecostal and Charismatic movements and we
shine a light on false doctrines and false teachers in
the modern church. Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone, Welcome along for Truth. My name is Daniel Long.
There is a form of Bible reading that some Christians
are doing that is actually a form of divination, but
they don't realize that they are practicing divination. And I
will tell you right now spoiler alert. I used to
(00:40):
read the Bible this way myself, and I didn't even
realize there was a name for this, and I didn't
even think about it being divination. But I was in
a discussion last week with Holly Pivoc and so I'm
going to play a clip for you right now and
have Holly introduced it, or introduce just what this form
(01:03):
of Bible reading is.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Watch you know.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And it's also just it's very presumptuous when people do that,
to assume that God will speak to them on demand
in that way. It's actually a form of divination, which
is explicitly condemned in scripture, like in Deuteronomy eighteen. It's
a form of divination. And interestingly, there's a term called
(01:29):
bibliomancy for this approach. I actually learned this just yesterday.
I stumbled across an article online where someone was promoting
bibliomancy and they weren't a Christian at all, and they
were just promoting taking any book off of your shelf.
It could be mobi dick, you know, it could be
any book you find and just asking a question and
(01:50):
opening it up at random and looking for an answer,
and so so there are quite a few people that
you can find online you aren't even Christian, promoting this practice.
But often they'll say, well, you can use the Bible too,
if that's the book that you know you want to use,
that's a good book to use as well.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Bibliomancy that is the name of what I used to
do and had no idea. Now, of course, as you
grow in christ and you learn how to read the Bible,
you realize that it's not the proper way. And I'm
wondering if there are some out there who are doing
the same thing. So let's talk about this bibliomancy, all right.
(02:29):
So yes, unfortunately, it is using the Bible for divination.
And as Holly said, there are there are non Christians
that are doing this and it's been going on for
a long time. So what exactly is bibliomancy? Right, Holly
(02:51):
kind of gave us a cursory definition, but let's talk
about what it is. Let's look at a fuller definition.
Bibliomancy is a form of divination that involves using books,
often a sacred text like a Bible, to seek guidance
or foretell the future. So there are those and i'll
(03:15):
show you clips in a little while. There are those
who are in the occult and they practice divination and
they use any book. It doesn't have to be the Bible,
but a lot of times they like to use these
sacred texts. And they do use the Bible because they
consider that a sacred book. So yeah, it's not just
(03:40):
the Bible that people are actually using. It is other
books as well. And it doesn't have to even be
a sacred book. It can be a book that you
think is sacred and I'll show you. I'll show you
that as well. Now, again, the typical method is to
ask a question or focus on a situation and then
(04:05):
open the book at random and read the first verse
or passage that catches the eye, interpreting it as an omen.
So when I was talking to Holly last week, I
actually she calls it the genie and the bottle effect.
I call it the eight ball effect. Have you ever
seen those eight balls that you buy or that you
(04:25):
used to used to mess around with as a kid.
I used to have one there that they look like
an eight ball from a pool ball, and it's got
liquid in it. It's got a little glassing at top
and your ship. You ask it a question, you shake
it up and the little answer floats at top. That's
kind of what this is really, And that's what I
used to call it. I used to call it the
(04:46):
the eight ball effect. So, yeah, you just open up
the Bible at random, and any passage that catches the eye,
you interpret it and you're interpreting it as an omen.
So yeah, let's, uh, let's take a look at what
it means in a Christian context. In a Christian context,
(05:09):
it usually refers to randomly opening the Bible to find
divine guidance. Well, you've heard the joke, right, Somebody says,
you know how dangerous is and listen, I'm really appreciative
appreciative appreciation. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate pastors
(05:29):
that warned their people against this kind of thing. But
you've heard the joke. You know, you don't do it
because you could open up the Bible and you see
the you know, your your your eye or your finger.
You put your finger on the verse and you look
at it says Judas hanged himself, and you're like, that's
not right. You open it again and you put your
finger on the verse and you see it saying, now,
(05:49):
go and do that likewise. I mean, you know that
kind of thing. But it's a dangerous it's a it.
It really is a danger is practice. It's really not
something Christians should be practicing. So bibliomancy consisted in taking Now,
(06:10):
this actually comes from a book here I sh should
have started with. That comes from a book called the
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature by John mcclintuck,
and this is a passage from that book. Bibliomancy consisted
in taking passages of Scripture at hazard and drawing vents
(06:34):
indications of future things. It was used occasionally in the
consecration of bishops and was evidently borrowed from the Heathen,
who were accustomed to draw prognostications from the works of
Homer and Virgil. We find and this is another has
(06:57):
just another quote from that book. We find the practics
condemned by several councils, and the persons adopting it were
ordered to be put out of the church. But in
the twelfth century it was so far encouraged as to
be employed in the detection of heretics, so using books
(07:18):
then for divination. Before the twelfth century, and you know, councils,
there were some councils that condemned it, but then later
it was used again for finding heretics. Now this is
something that is practiced wide open in Catholic circles. In
some Catholic circles, I have a clip of at least
(07:41):
one Catholic priest, and I have not watched this show,
but I'm I'm now that I've looked at it yesterday
for the first time, I may start watching it just
to just to see what they what they do. But yeah,
this next clip is going to supprise, is really going
to surprise you. It really should, because you've got three gentlemen,
one of them at least is a Catholic priest. All
(08:02):
three of them could be Catholic priests, but they are
promoting this kind of Bible divination. So watch this clip.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Catholic
Talk Show. Today, we're gonna be doing the random Bible
Verse challenge.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
That's right, We're gonna be taking our Bibles and we're
gonna be randomly closing our eyes, pointing to a scripture
and seeing what it says.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
We're playing Bible rua today. It's gonna be a lot
of fun and we're gona see where the Holy Spirit
takes us.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
And here we go.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
So make sure you pull out your Bible and open
up to a random page, put your finger down, read,
and we want your reflection in the comments section below.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
It's because we're going to.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Enrich each other and make this truly a nice and
fun way to open up the Bible and share because
God's word doesn't live in our community and it does
bring us together. So we hope you enjoyed this process
as we continue to share this Bible roulette.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, it's good. Just do what we gonna do.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
It's the bad mister man, get your glasses on blinding.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Hi, and again at the start of a chapter. I'm
at the start of a chapter, chapter ten, and John Good,
I love John, Amen, I may amen Amen. I say
to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the
gate of times over elsewhere is a thief and a robin. Yes,
(09:26):
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of
the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the
sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep
by name and leads them out.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Now, one of the things that I'm going to point
out as we go through this and I show you
the other clips is the irony, because there is a
lot of irony there that they would open up the
passage right there to show the difference between the true
shepherd and the thief for the false shepherd, the one
who's not a shepherd at all but is actually a thief.
(10:01):
Pretty ironic there. And there is another clip later on
that I'm going to show you that's really really ironic
when this lady does this, and she's going to give
us an example, but that's for later. Let's get back
to the presentation here. So now we're going to be
(10:21):
looking at using.
Speaker 6 (10:26):
Not just.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
The Bible to practice bibliomancy. I have a clip now
for you from a lady that actually uses Doctor Seuss
to do this. So watch this.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
I want to say here is that I do not
want you to exclude like storybooks.
Speaker 8 (10:53):
They are powerful things. I've been known to use Doctor
Seuss my practice because he is sacred. Those books are
sacred to me. I don't know what it is about
his poems, but they put me to sleep. It's like,
I mean, it's like I'm snorting lavender when I read
his text. Okay, so doctor SEUs is sacred to me.
(11:14):
Certain kids books that I grew up with and that
I've read to my own children are sacred and hold
magic in them, and that's a sacred thing. This much
like Thus spoke tzar.
Speaker 7 (11:26):
Threustra by Nietzsche. It's kind of set up like like
if you you know how when you open a Bible
there's verses, right, It's kind of set up like that,
like verses. Real easy to bibliomancy. To perform bibliomancy with
this because of the way it's set up.
Speaker 8 (11:45):
It's set up like a Bible. You could use the
Bible if you wanted to, but uh, I'm not. Me
and the Bible have a very weird relationship.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So yeah, I guess if you are dabbling or your
practice you're a practicing which, then yeah, the Bible and
you would have a very weird relationship, especially if you're
practicing bibliomancy. Now let me just say this really quickly.
Does this mean that God cannot speak through this practice
(12:16):
at all? Well, no, it doesn't mean that he can't
do it. I mean we think of we can look
at examples in scripture and I'm thinking of one right now,
and that's Balim. You remember Balim. He was a false
prophet and he heard from God. God came to him
and he would and he was a guy that used
divination and he wasn't expecting to hear from God, but
(12:41):
God came to him anyway. So yeah, God can do this.
And perhaps maybe and I don't know that this is
true or not, but it's just something that just kind
of was thinking about. Perhaps the reason this lady is
having such a bad time using the Bible for this
(13:03):
is because perhaps perhaps she's opening verses to I don't know,
places that tell her to repent of this kind of thing.
Who knows, Who knows? But yeah, so that is kind
of the idea here with using any old random book.
(13:23):
Now there's also if you go back in Jewish history, well,
the Jews practice this kind of thing as well. So
this is again another quote from this book Cyclopedia of Biblical,
Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. A species of bibliomancy is used
(13:46):
among the jew In use among the Jews consisted in
appealing to the very first words heard from anyone reading
the scriptures and regarding them as a voice from heaven.
The following is an instance. Rabbi Oker, having committed many crimes,
(14:06):
was led into thirteen synagogues. In each synagogue, a disciple
was interrogated and the verse he read was examined. In
the first school, the following words of the prophet Isaiah
were read, there is no peace unto the wicked Isaiah
forty eight twenty two. In another, these words of the
(14:27):
Psalmist unto the wicked God, saith, what hast thou to
do to declare my statutes? Or that thou shouldest take
my covenant in thy mouth? Psalm fifty sixteen. Similar sentences
being heard in all the synagogues Against Oker, it was
(14:47):
concluded that he was hated by God. Yeah, I mean
so that is a good example of ancient practice, the
ancient practice of this kind of thing. It's been going
on for a long time. There's nothing new under the sun, folks.
I've got another clip for you now. I want you
(15:09):
to pay really close attention to this lady's iPad screen
because this is this is not only done with physical books, Okay,
this kind of thing is practice with kindle books as well,
including the Bible on kindles. So this is a woman.
If you go on her YouTube channel, she's all of
(15:31):
her videos have to do with tarot cards. That's what
she does. She has tarot card readings, but she's practicing
bibliomancy here. She's a little bit difficult to understand, but
hopefully you'll be able to get what she's saying here.
But I want you to pay it close attention to
her iPad screen because she holds it up. She holds
(15:54):
it up for you to see. Pay close attention to that,
and then we'll talk about it after this clip.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
Watch now, I'm in the Bible, and I'm gonna use
the Bible in this small tutorial because the Bible is
a is a it's a good book. For because it's
already a spiritual book, and so it kind of gives
you spiritual answers to whatever your question is, so kind
(16:22):
of makes you like stay in theme sometimes. And so
I'm gonna ask a question here just to show you
guys how this works. So I'm gonna ask a different
question than I did in the last divination video. So
I'm gonna in the last divination video asked about the
(16:43):
meaning of life, and so I'm not gonna ask that
question this time. This time, I'm gonna ask something different.
So I'm gonna ask about what happens when we die?
And so he it's this here.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
He is like.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
A tree planted by water that sends out its roots
its roots by the stream and does not fear when
heat comes for it leaves, for its leaves remain green
and is not anxious in the year of drought, for
it does not cease to bear fruit. So it's or
(17:33):
just that like, don't fear anything, because you will live
that out of you will grow a child or something
like where you will even if you diet, the tree
(17:54):
of of your your ancestream will still remain. And so
you what happens when you diet, does not really matter,
because you're part of a picker, a picker tree that
will keep like when when you die another when you're
(18:19):
a small leaf on the on this tree, and and
when you die, another leaf will will grow out where
you where you left off. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Okay, that was awkward. But did you catch the verse?
If you didn't, you can go back. I'm going to
tell you what it is. But if you don't believe me,
you go back and rewind it. Pause the video, rewind it,
and take a look at what that verse was right
under that. It was Jeremiah seventeen nine. The heart is
(18:58):
deceitful and desperately sick. Yeah. Hopefully God does use his
word in situations like that, and those who are practicing this,
like this young lady here, will repent. So now let's
(19:19):
talk about casting lots. Because some people would ask, Okay, well,
they cast the lots in scripture, so how is that
different Because we see people in the Old Testament casting lots.
We know that the Apostles casted lots in the New Testament,
at least in Acts chapter one. When I was researching
(19:41):
this on in my Bible program, I used logouts Bible
software and I typed into the smart search field and
I got a really good answer. Let me just kind
of show you here what it said. I just copied
and pasted it here. You got a picture there of
the apostles, And this is really weird because because it's
an AI picture and there's only like ten of them.
(20:04):
I think got the count wrong there. But anyway, the
casting of lots in ancient Israel was not considered divination
due to its unique theological understanding and application. Unlike other
forms of divination, which were forbidden in ancient Israel, lock
casting was seen as a means of allowing God to
(20:26):
make choices and reveal his will. This practice was based
on the belief expressed in Proverbs sixteen thirty three, which
states that while humans cast the lot, the decision comes
wholly from the Lord. Lock casting was used for various purposes,
including apportionment, selecting individuals for specific duties, and making important decisions. However,
(20:55):
it's important to note that lock casting was distinct from
other forms of divination that involved complex procedures or attempts
to coerce deities. The practice was seen as a simple,
non coercive way to seek divine guidance. Rather than an
attempt to manipulate supernatural forces. Additionally, the use of lots
(21:18):
in Israel was often associated with sacred functions and was
sometimes performed by religious leaders, further distinguishing it from prohibited
prohibited forms of divination. Block casting was something that was
divinely sanctioned. Participants sought God's will in prayerful community context.
(21:44):
And we see an example of that in Acts chapter one,
with the one hundred and twenty disciples in the room,
and they all prayed for God to show them who
the next apostle would be to take Judas's place, Acts
one twenty four through twenty five. In the prayed and said, you, Lord,
who know the hearts of all, show which ones of
(22:05):
these two you have chosen to take the place in
this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas turned aside to
go to his own place. And we know the lot
fell Matthias was chosen as the replacement of Judas. Now,
this was not something that was done lightly like popping
open a bookwrit random to try to figure out your fortune,
(22:27):
or try to figure out some kind of financial decision
you need to make, or try to figure out some
kind of other decision like where you're gonna move or
something like that. This wasn't done lightly or for personal gain.
It was a corporate appeal to God's sovereignty in a
one time leadership position or decision. And this is speaking
of what took place in Acts chapter one. It was
(22:53):
also not a prescribed personal practice. The Bible described these occurrences,
but never commands believers to use lot casting as a
routine spiritual practice. The casting of lots and scripture was
a specific God governed exception, not a general model for
(23:16):
us to discern personal guidance. By chance. We should be
careful not to take narrative descriptions and turn them into
blanket prescriptions. And we've talked about that here before many times.
There is a difference between descriptive texts and prescriptive texts,
(23:37):
and the lot casting is that you see in scripture.
Those are prescriptive texts. Now, yes, the apostles did it,
and yes, some of the leaders in the Old Testament
did it, and it was used often. However, there's no
biblical text that tells us that this is something that
(24:00):
you should do. There's no text that prescribes us Christians
to use lot casting for making decisions. We have the Bible, now,
we have the scriptures for that now. And besides, this
is something that is different in nature from bibliomancy. Bibliomancy
(24:25):
as practiced later involves an individual privately manipulating the text
by course, opening it randomly to get a secret answer.
It borders on seeing scripture as an enchanted object. Casting
lots in Biblical usage was more kin to submitting a
(24:45):
matter to God's control and stepping back, Like we see
that passage in Proverbs that says the lot is cast
into the lat but it's every decision is from the Lord,
the lot falling where it may. It did not seek
a cryptic message to interpret. Bibliomancy, however, seeks omens in
(25:11):
the content of a verse, whereas lot casting sought God's
choice in a decision. Today, however, we are to be
using scripture to make our decisions through the guidance of
(25:32):
the Holy Spirit. After Jesus' assension, believers are taught to
rely on the Holy Spirit's guidance. Romans eight fourteen is
a good example of this. It says for all who
are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
The apostles themselves when writing letters, never instruct the churches
(25:53):
to use random lots or verses for answers. Instead, they
encourage diligent study and holy spirit illumined understanding of the Word.
This underscores that normal Christian practice for knowing God's will
involves prayer, wise counsel and consistent engagement with scripture, not
(26:14):
chance methods, which is what bibliomancy is. So let's look
at some Biblical warnings against divination. But before we do that,
I want to show you an example of a form
of divination that was practiced in early Babylon, and this
is a clay model of a liver. Animal livers and
(26:38):
other organs were often used to predict the future in
the ancient world. Before going into battle, Nebuka Nezer examined
a liver in order to decide where he should attack
Ezekiel twenty one, twenty one. Clay models like this. Clay
models like this one of a sheep's liver were used
to teach students learning divination. So what does the Bible
(27:03):
say about divination? Well, we have plenty of examples in scripture.
I'm just going to read a few to you. Deuteronomy
eighteen ten through twelve says, there shall not be found
any 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
(27:27):
a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of
the dead. 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. And then we
have the example of the slave girl that the apostle
(27:50):
Paul casts the demon out of An Acts sixteen sixteen
through eighteen. Luke says, as we were going to the
place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl
who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners
much gain by fortune telling. She followed Paul and dusk,
crying out, these men are servants of the Most High God,
(28:12):
who proclaimed to you the way of salvation. And this
she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed,
turned and said to the spirit, I command you, in
the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her.
And it came out that very hour. And then finally
(28:32):
the Latians five nineteen through twenty one. Now, the works
of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and
things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before,
(28:53):
that those who do such things will not inherit the
Kingdom of God. So Paul counts sorcery there you can see.
I've got that underlined in yellow or highlighting yellow. Paul
count's sorcery as a work of the flesh. It's something
that does not please God. So, folks, I hope that
this video has been helpful, and I hope it's helped
(29:16):
maybe those who are practicing this now or who have
done this in the past, that this really is not
the way to read the Bible. And as a matter of fact,
it's a form of divination and it needs to be
repented of and turned away from. And there is of
course forgiveness. Like I said, this is how I used
to read the Bible, especially when I was when I
was a younger Christian. But there is forgiveness for this,
(29:40):
just like every other sin. Christ died even for these
kinds of sins, all right, And if you are not
a Christian and you're watching this video and you realized, wow,
I had no idea that this was evil, that this
was sinful, that I'm you know that, I'm I'm practicing divination.
(30:03):
Christ bled and died for all of your sins, every
single one of them. He lived a perfect life in
your place as your substitute, and then went to the cross,
took your sins, every single sin that you have ever
committed upon himself, and God punished Christ in your place
(30:25):
for every one of the sins that you committed. God
treated Christ as if Christ committed all of your sins,
and Christ was sinless. And then he went into the
grave and three days later rose again on your behalf.
And He did that for you. Repent and believe that,
and you'll be forgiven folks again. I hope this video
(30:48):
is helpful. If you know someone who is caught up
in this kind of practice, Christian or not, I hope
that you will pass this video along to them. Thanks
for watching, Lord Will We'll see you next week.
Speaker 6 (31:16):
H
Welcome to the Long for Truth podcast. I'm Robin Long.
Join my husband Dan and I as we explore the
roots of the early Pentecostal and Charismatic movements and we
shine a light on false doctrines and false teachers in
the modern church. Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone, Welcome along for Truth. My name is Daniel Long.
There is a form of Bible reading that some Christians
are doing that is actually a form of divination, but
they don't realize that they are practicing divination. And I
will tell you right now spoiler alert. I used to
(00:40):
read the Bible this way myself, and I didn't even
realize there was a name for this, and I didn't
even think about it being divination. But I was in
a discussion last week with Holly Pivoc and so I'm
going to play a clip for you right now and
have Holly introduced it, or introduce just what this form
(01:03):
of Bible reading is.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Watch you know.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And it's also just it's very presumptuous when people do that,
to assume that God will speak to them on demand
in that way. It's actually a form of divination, which
is explicitly condemned in scripture, like in Deuteronomy eighteen. It's
a form of divination. And interestingly, there's a term called
(01:29):
bibliomancy for this approach. I actually learned this just yesterday.
I stumbled across an article online where someone was promoting
bibliomancy and they weren't a Christian at all, and they
were just promoting taking any book off of your shelf.
It could be mobi dick, you know, it could be
any book you find and just asking a question and
(01:50):
opening it up at random and looking for an answer,
and so so there are quite a few people that
you can find online you aren't even Christian, promoting this practice.
But often they'll say, well, you can use the Bible too,
if that's the book that you know you want to use,
that's a good book to use as well.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Bibliomancy that is the name of what I used to
do and had no idea. Now, of course, as you
grow in christ and you learn how to read the Bible,
you realize that it's not the proper way. And I'm
wondering if there are some out there who are doing
the same thing. So let's talk about this bibliomancy, all right.
(02:29):
So yes, unfortunately, it is using the Bible for divination.
And as Holly said, there are there are non Christians
that are doing this and it's been going on for
a long time. So what exactly is bibliomancy? Right, Holly
(02:51):
kind of gave us a cursory definition, but let's talk
about what it is. Let's look at a fuller definition.
Bibliomancy is a form of divination that involves using books,
often a sacred text like a Bible, to seek guidance
or foretell the future. So there are those and i'll
(03:15):
show you clips in a little while. There are those
who are in the occult and they practice divination and
they use any book. It doesn't have to be the Bible,
but a lot of times they like to use these
sacred texts. And they do use the Bible because they
consider that a sacred book. So yeah, it's not just
(03:40):
the Bible that people are actually using. It is other
books as well. And it doesn't have to even be
a sacred book. It can be a book that you
think is sacred and I'll show you. I'll show you
that as well. Now, again, the typical method is to
ask a question or focus on a situation and then
(04:05):
open the book at random and read the first verse
or passage that catches the eye, interpreting it as an omen.
So when I was talking to Holly last week, I
actually she calls it the genie and the bottle effect.
I call it the eight ball effect. Have you ever
seen those eight balls that you buy or that you
(04:25):
used to used to mess around with as a kid.
I used to have one there that they look like
an eight ball from a pool ball, and it's got
liquid in it. It's got a little glassing at top
and your ship. You ask it a question, you shake
it up and the little answer floats at top. That's
kind of what this is really, And that's what I
used to call it. I used to call it the
(04:46):
the eight ball effect. So, yeah, you just open up
the Bible at random, and any passage that catches the eye,
you interpret it and you're interpreting it as an omen.
So yeah, let's, uh, let's take a look at what
it means in a Christian context. In a Christian context,
(05:09):
it usually refers to randomly opening the Bible to find
divine guidance. Well, you've heard the joke, right, Somebody says,
you know how dangerous is and listen, I'm really appreciative
appreciative appreciation. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate pastors
(05:29):
that warned their people against this kind of thing. But
you've heard the joke. You know, you don't do it
because you could open up the Bible and you see
the you know, your your your eye or your finger.
You put your finger on the verse and you look
at it says Judas hanged himself, and you're like, that's
not right. You open it again and you put your
finger on the verse and you see it saying, now,
(05:49):
go and do that likewise. I mean, you know that
kind of thing. But it's a dangerous it's a it.
It really is a danger is practice. It's really not
something Christians should be practicing. So bibliomancy consisted in taking Now,
(06:10):
this actually comes from a book here I sh should
have started with. That comes from a book called the
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature by John mcclintuck,
and this is a passage from that book. Bibliomancy consisted
in taking passages of Scripture at hazard and drawing vents
(06:34):
indications of future things. It was used occasionally in the
consecration of bishops and was evidently borrowed from the Heathen,
who were accustomed to draw prognostications from the works of
Homer and Virgil. We find and this is another has
(06:57):
just another quote from that book. We find the practics
condemned by several councils, and the persons adopting it were
ordered to be put out of the church. But in
the twelfth century it was so far encouraged as to
be employed in the detection of heretics, so using books
(07:18):
then for divination. Before the twelfth century, and you know, councils,
there were some councils that condemned it, but then later
it was used again for finding heretics. Now this is
something that is practiced wide open in Catholic circles. In
some Catholic circles, I have a clip of at least
(07:41):
one Catholic priest, and I have not watched this show,
but I'm I'm now that I've looked at it yesterday
for the first time, I may start watching it just
to just to see what they what they do. But yeah,
this next clip is going to supprise, is really going
to surprise you. It really should, because you've got three gentlemen,
one of them at least is a Catholic priest. All
(08:02):
three of them could be Catholic priests, but they are
promoting this kind of Bible divination. So watch this clip.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Catholic
Talk Show. Today, we're gonna be doing the random Bible
Verse challenge.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
That's right, We're gonna be taking our Bibles and we're
gonna be randomly closing our eyes, pointing to a scripture
and seeing what it says.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
We're playing Bible rua today. It's gonna be a lot
of fun and we're gona see where the Holy Spirit
takes us.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
And here we go.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
So make sure you pull out your Bible and open
up to a random page, put your finger down, read,
and we want your reflection in the comments section below.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
It's because we're going to.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Enrich each other and make this truly a nice and
fun way to open up the Bible and share because
God's word doesn't live in our community and it does
bring us together. So we hope you enjoyed this process
as we continue to share this Bible roulette.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, it's good. Just do what we gonna do.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
It's the bad mister man, get your glasses on blinding.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Hi, and again at the start of a chapter. I'm
at the start of a chapter, chapter ten, and John Good,
I love John, Amen, I may amen Amen. I say
to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the
gate of times over elsewhere is a thief and a robin. Yes,
(09:26):
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of
the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the
sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep
by name and leads them out.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Now, one of the things that I'm going to point
out as we go through this and I show you
the other clips is the irony, because there is a
lot of irony there that they would open up the
passage right there to show the difference between the true
shepherd and the thief for the false shepherd, the one
who's not a shepherd at all but is actually a thief.
(10:01):
Pretty ironic there. And there is another clip later on
that I'm going to show you that's really really ironic
when this lady does this, and she's going to give
us an example, but that's for later. Let's get back
to the presentation here. So now we're going to be
(10:21):
looking at using.
Speaker 6 (10:26):
Not just.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
The Bible to practice bibliomancy. I have a clip now
for you from a lady that actually uses Doctor Seuss
to do this. So watch this.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
I want to say here is that I do not
want you to exclude like storybooks.
Speaker 8 (10:53):
They are powerful things. I've been known to use Doctor
Seuss my practice because he is sacred. Those books are
sacred to me. I don't know what it is about
his poems, but they put me to sleep. It's like,
I mean, it's like I'm snorting lavender when I read
his text. Okay, so doctor SEUs is sacred to me.
(11:14):
Certain kids books that I grew up with and that
I've read to my own children are sacred and hold
magic in them, and that's a sacred thing. This much
like Thus spoke tzar.
Speaker 7 (11:26):
Threustra by Nietzsche. It's kind of set up like like
if you you know how when you open a Bible
there's verses, right, It's kind of set up like that,
like verses. Real easy to bibliomancy. To perform bibliomancy with
this because of the way it's set up.
Speaker 8 (11:45):
It's set up like a Bible. You could use the
Bible if you wanted to, but uh, I'm not. Me
and the Bible have a very weird relationship.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So yeah, I guess if you are dabbling or your
practice you're a practicing which, then yeah, the Bible and
you would have a very weird relationship, especially if you're
practicing bibliomancy. Now let me just say this really quickly.
Does this mean that God cannot speak through this practice
(12:16):
at all? Well, no, it doesn't mean that he can't
do it. I mean we think of we can look
at examples in scripture and I'm thinking of one right now,
and that's Balim. You remember Balim. He was a false
prophet and he heard from God. God came to him
and he would and he was a guy that used
divination and he wasn't expecting to hear from God, but
(12:41):
God came to him anyway. So yeah, God can do this.
And perhaps maybe and I don't know that this is
true or not, but it's just something that just kind
of was thinking about. Perhaps the reason this lady is
having such a bad time using the Bible for this
(13:03):
is because perhaps perhaps she's opening verses to I don't know,
places that tell her to repent of this kind of thing.
Who knows, Who knows? But yeah, so that is kind
of the idea here with using any old random book.
(13:23):
Now there's also if you go back in Jewish history, well,
the Jews practice this kind of thing as well. So
this is again another quote from this book Cyclopedia of Biblical,
Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. A species of bibliomancy is used
(13:46):
among the jew In use among the Jews consisted in
appealing to the very first words heard from anyone reading
the scriptures and regarding them as a voice from heaven.
The following is an instance. Rabbi Oker, having committed many crimes,
(14:06):
was led into thirteen synagogues. In each synagogue, a disciple
was interrogated and the verse he read was examined. In
the first school, the following words of the prophet Isaiah
were read, there is no peace unto the wicked Isaiah
forty eight twenty two. In another, these words of the
(14:27):
Psalmist unto the wicked God, saith, what hast thou to
do to declare my statutes? Or that thou shouldest take
my covenant in thy mouth? Psalm fifty sixteen. Similar sentences
being heard in all the synagogues Against Oker, it was
(14:47):
concluded that he was hated by God. Yeah, I mean
so that is a good example of ancient practice, the
ancient practice of this kind of thing. It's been going
on for a long time. There's nothing new under the sun, folks.
I've got another clip for you now. I want you
(15:09):
to pay really close attention to this lady's iPad screen
because this is this is not only done with physical books, Okay,
this kind of thing is practice with kindle books as well,
including the Bible on kindles. So this is a woman.
If you go on her YouTube channel, she's all of
(15:31):
her videos have to do with tarot cards. That's what
she does. She has tarot card readings, but she's practicing
bibliomancy here. She's a little bit difficult to understand, but
hopefully you'll be able to get what she's saying here.
But I want you to pay it close attention to
her iPad screen because she holds it up. She holds
(15:54):
it up for you to see. Pay close attention to that,
and then we'll talk about it after this clip.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
Watch now, I'm in the Bible, and I'm gonna use
the Bible in this small tutorial because the Bible is
a is a it's a good book. For because it's
already a spiritual book, and so it kind of gives
you spiritual answers to whatever your question is, so kind
(16:22):
of makes you like stay in theme sometimes. And so
I'm gonna ask a question here just to show you
guys how this works. So I'm gonna ask a different
question than I did in the last divination video. So
I'm gonna in the last divination video asked about the
(16:43):
meaning of life, and so I'm not gonna ask that
question this time. This time, I'm gonna ask something different.
So I'm gonna ask about what happens when we die?
And so he it's this here.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
He is like.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
A tree planted by water that sends out its roots
its roots by the stream and does not fear when
heat comes for it leaves, for its leaves remain green
and is not anxious in the year of drought, for
it does not cease to bear fruit. So it's or
(17:33):
just that like, don't fear anything, because you will live
that out of you will grow a child or something
like where you will even if you diet, the tree
(17:54):
of of your your ancestream will still remain. And so
you what happens when you diet, does not really matter,
because you're part of a picker, a picker tree that
will keep like when when you die another when you're
(18:19):
a small leaf on the on this tree, and and
when you die, another leaf will will grow out where
you where you left off. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Okay, that was awkward. But did you catch the verse?
If you didn't, you can go back. I'm going to
tell you what it is. But if you don't believe me,
you go back and rewind it. Pause the video, rewind it,
and take a look at what that verse was right
under that. It was Jeremiah seventeen nine. The heart is
(18:58):
deceitful and desperately sick. Yeah. Hopefully God does use his
word in situations like that, and those who are practicing this,
like this young lady here, will repent. So now let's
(19:19):
talk about casting lots. Because some people would ask, Okay, well,
they cast the lots in scripture, so how is that
different Because we see people in the Old Testament casting lots.
We know that the Apostles casted lots in the New Testament,
at least in Acts chapter one. When I was researching
(19:41):
this on in my Bible program, I used logouts Bible
software and I typed into the smart search field and
I got a really good answer. Let me just kind
of show you here what it said. I just copied
and pasted it here. You got a picture there of
the apostles, And this is really weird because because it's
an AI picture and there's only like ten of them.
(20:04):
I think got the count wrong there. But anyway, the
casting of lots in ancient Israel was not considered divination
due to its unique theological understanding and application. Unlike other
forms of divination, which were forbidden in ancient Israel, lock
casting was seen as a means of allowing God to
(20:26):
make choices and reveal his will. This practice was based
on the belief expressed in Proverbs sixteen thirty three, which
states that while humans cast the lot, the decision comes
wholly from the Lord. Lock casting was used for various purposes,
including apportionment, selecting individuals for specific duties, and making important decisions. However,
(20:55):
it's important to note that lock casting was distinct from
other forms of divination that involved complex procedures or attempts
to coerce deities. The practice was seen as a simple,
non coercive way to seek divine guidance. Rather than an
attempt to manipulate supernatural forces. Additionally, the use of lots
(21:18):
in Israel was often associated with sacred functions and was
sometimes performed by religious leaders, further distinguishing it from prohibited
prohibited forms of divination. Block casting was something that was
divinely sanctioned. Participants sought God's will in prayerful community context.
(21:44):
And we see an example of that in Acts chapter one,
with the one hundred and twenty disciples in the room,
and they all prayed for God to show them who
the next apostle would be to take Judas's place, Acts
one twenty four through twenty five. In the prayed and said, you, Lord,
who know the hearts of all, show which ones of
(22:05):
these two you have chosen to take the place in
this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas turned aside to
go to his own place. And we know the lot
fell Matthias was chosen as the replacement of Judas. Now,
this was not something that was done lightly like popping
open a bookwrit random to try to figure out your fortune,
(22:27):
or try to figure out some kind of financial decision
you need to make, or try to figure out some
kind of other decision like where you're gonna move or
something like that. This wasn't done lightly or for personal gain.
It was a corporate appeal to God's sovereignty in a
one time leadership position or decision. And this is speaking
of what took place in Acts chapter one. It was
(22:53):
also not a prescribed personal practice. The Bible described these occurrences,
but never commands believers to use lot casting as a
routine spiritual practice. The casting of lots and scripture was
a specific God governed exception, not a general model for
(23:16):
us to discern personal guidance. By chance. We should be
careful not to take narrative descriptions and turn them into
blanket prescriptions. And we've talked about that here before many times.
There is a difference between descriptive texts and prescriptive texts,
(23:37):
and the lot casting is that you see in scripture.
Those are prescriptive texts. Now, yes, the apostles did it,
and yes, some of the leaders in the Old Testament
did it, and it was used often. However, there's no
biblical text that tells us that this is something that
(24:00):
you should do. There's no text that prescribes us Christians
to use lot casting for making decisions. We have the Bible, now,
we have the scriptures for that now. And besides, this
is something that is different in nature from bibliomancy. Bibliomancy
(24:25):
as practiced later involves an individual privately manipulating the text
by course, opening it randomly to get a secret answer.
It borders on seeing scripture as an enchanted object. Casting
lots in Biblical usage was more kin to submitting a
(24:45):
matter to God's control and stepping back, Like we see
that passage in Proverbs that says the lot is cast
into the lat but it's every decision is from the Lord,
the lot falling where it may. It did not seek
a cryptic message to interpret. Bibliomancy, however, seeks omens in
(25:11):
the content of a verse, whereas lot casting sought God's
choice in a decision. Today, however, we are to be
using scripture to make our decisions through the guidance of
(25:32):
the Holy Spirit. After Jesus' assension, believers are taught to
rely on the Holy Spirit's guidance. Romans eight fourteen is
a good example of this. It says for all who
are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
The apostles themselves when writing letters, never instruct the churches
(25:53):
to use random lots or verses for answers. Instead, they
encourage diligent study and holy spirit illumined understanding of the Word.
This underscores that normal Christian practice for knowing God's will
involves prayer, wise counsel and consistent engagement with scripture, not
(26:14):
chance methods, which is what bibliomancy is. So let's look
at some Biblical warnings against divination. But before we do that,
I want to show you an example of a form
of divination that was practiced in early Babylon, and this
is a clay model of a liver. Animal livers and
(26:38):
other organs were often used to predict the future in
the ancient world. Before going into battle, Nebuka Nezer examined
a liver in order to decide where he should attack
Ezekiel twenty one, twenty one. Clay models like this. Clay
models like this one of a sheep's liver were used
to teach students learning divination. So what does the Bible
(27:03):
say about divination? Well, we have plenty of examples in scripture.
I'm just going to read a few to you. Deuteronomy
eighteen ten through twelve says, there shall not be found
any 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
(27:27):
a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of
the dead. 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. And then we
have the example of the slave girl that the apostle
(27:50):
Paul casts the demon out of An Acts sixteen sixteen
through eighteen. Luke says, as we were going to the
place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl
who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners
much gain by fortune telling. She followed Paul and dusk,
crying out, these men are servants of the Most High God,
(28:12):
who proclaimed to you the way of salvation. And this
she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed,
turned and said to the spirit, I command you, in
the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her.
And it came out that very hour. And then finally
(28:32):
the Latians five nineteen through twenty one. Now, the works
of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and
things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before,
(28:53):
that those who do such things will not inherit the
Kingdom of God. So Paul counts sorcery there you can see.
I've got that underlined in yellow or highlighting yellow. Paul
count's sorcery as a work of the flesh. It's something
that does not please God. So, folks, I hope that
this video has been helpful, and I hope it's helped
(29:16):
maybe those who are practicing this now or who have
done this in the past, that this really is not
the way to read the Bible. And as a matter of fact,
it's a form of divination and it needs to be
repented of and turned away from. And there is of
course forgiveness. Like I said, this is how I used
to read the Bible, especially when I was when I
was a younger Christian. But there is forgiveness for this,
(29:40):
just like every other sin. Christ died even for these
kinds of sins, all right, And if you are not
a Christian and you're watching this video and you realized, wow,
I had no idea that this was evil, that this
was sinful, that I'm you know that, I'm I'm practicing divination.
(30:03):
Christ bled and died for all of your sins, every
single one of them. He lived a perfect life in
your place as your substitute, and then went to the cross,
took your sins, every single sin that you have ever
committed upon himself, and God punished Christ in your place
(30:25):
for every one of the sins that you committed. God
treated Christ as if Christ committed all of your sins,
and Christ was sinless. And then he went into the
grave and three days later rose again on your behalf.
And He did that for you. Repent and believe that,
and you'll be forgiven folks again. I hope this video
(30:48):
is helpful. If you know someone who is caught up
in this kind of practice, Christian or not, I hope
that you will pass this video along to them. Thanks
for watching, Lord Will We'll see you next week.
Speaker 6 (31:16):
H
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