Magic and magicians

A Baptist preacher in Kentucky who has a YouTube channel, Spencer Smith, was given a brochure by local Masons. Part of it read:

"People talk about the 'Masonic secrets.' They are secrets because they literally cannot be talked about, put into words. They are the changes that happen to a man who really accepts responsibility for his own life and, at the same time. truly decides that his real happiness is in helping others.

"It's a wonderful feeling but it's something you simply can't explain to another person. That's why we sometimes say that Masonic secrets cannot, rather than may not, be told. Try telling someone exactly what you feel when you see a beautiful sunset or when you hear music like the National Anthem, which suddenly stirs old memories--you'll understand what we mean."

Smith's commentary: "Basically what they're describing is this feeling that you get when you join a Masonic Lodge and you start practicing the things they believe. The feeling inside that it gives you--that is magic.

"That is what the alchemist calls the quintessence; that is the ether, that is the Fifth Element. That is the inner secret thing that starts to go on inside of a man's soul when he joins this organization and starts practicing their rituals and traditions. That is, in so many words, them describing what magic is and the effect magic has upon man."

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Here's an excerpt from an interview with a Jewish magician that appeared in a local Jewish publication this week:

"Why is it that Jewish people make up .2 percent of the world population, yet in our field I would estimate, conservatively, that 30 percent of noteworthy magicians in history are Jewish? There's an almost 'magical' impulse in our field among Jewish people. It's incredible.

"The most famous magician in history? Houdini (Jewish). The most famous magicians right now? Copperfield and David Blaine (both Jewish). The most accomplished mentalist? Max Maven (Jewish). The best coin magician to ever live? David Roth (Jewish). The best magician at the turn of the 20th century? Max Malini (Jewish). The most revered sleight-of-hand magician of my era? Ricky Jay (Jewish).

"The list goes on and on. I have done many talks exploring why this might be. And I find the topic endlessly fascinating."

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Daniel 2: [27] Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;

[28] But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.

"The word magic comes from the Greek word magi, meaning 'wise men.' The magos were people who were prognosticators, star-worshippers, stargazers,” explains Richard Jordan. “We see in Daniel 2 that the wise men were really the magicians and the astrologers; the religious leaders of Babylon.”

"Isaiah 47:13 says, “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.”

“Isaiah 47 is a chapter about the fall and destruction of Babylon that looks over to ‘mystery Babylon the great’ in Revelation 17, but it also looks back to Genesis 11 where Babylon began. 

"These people, they claim, were able to predict the future by calculating the planetary positions, and that’s the same crowd as in Daniel 2.

“They are people who have a great deal of claim to being wise; to wisdom, counsel, knowledge and so forth. They were credited by those about them with profound wisdom, and with extraordinary knowledge that was gained by these celestial calculations of the stars.

“At one time God used the heavens as a means of communicating. Numbers 24, is when Balaam, one of the seers of Mesopotamia, is hired by Balak to curse Israel. He was one of these magi characters from the east.

"The prophesy he gives in verse 15 says there shall come a star out of Jacob. The passage goes on down and talks about the coming of Christ and His destruction of the enemies of Israel in the land.

“But notice he sees a star. He would be somebody interested in that kind of thing. In Genesis 1, when God created the sun and the stars, He made them for signs. He made them as instruments to teach and point to doctrine.

"There are verses in Job, the oldest written book in the Old Testament, that show they knew the constellations and the influences those constellations have. In fact, if you go to Amos 5, the Lord argues, ‘But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.’

“God made those signs and what Amos’ saying is, ‘What you need to do is not just try to read the stars; you better get in touch with the one who created all that.’ He’s talking to Israel here, by the way. The nation had become so corrupted that they had abandoned God’s Word for the pagan gods . . .

“Notice they had become attached to a particular star. The stargazers looked at all these stars, but Israel had become attached to a particular star; the star of their god Molech that they made.

"You remember when Moses is up on the mountain and Aaron gets all the gold, and all the earrings and bracelets, and makes the golden calf and says, ‘Here be thy gods O Israel that brought thee out of Egypt’?

“The indication is they really had two tabernacles in the wilderness. They had one God gave them through Moses but they also had another one; one that’s of this pagan god. They had become attached to a star in connection with him.

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“Not only is there a particular star, there’s a particular planet. As Paul reveals in Acts 14: 11-12, ‘And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.’

“Notice these guys down here who were worshipping pagan gods are priests of Jupiter. Now Jupiter, of course, is the father of the gods and it’s Zeus, the big god of the Greeks.

"Acts 19:35: ‘And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?’

"You see, these guys are worshipping these gods up there."