Throughout recorded history human beings, made in the image of God, have instinctively probed the unknown realms beyond; people are curious because they know in their hearts that life is more than just what we can see, feel, hear, taste, and touch.
We are made for contact with an unseen, spiritual realm. But if there are not responsible religious guidelines, this curiosity often leads into darker realms. That’s why necromancy—that is, communicating with the dead—was prohibited in the ancient Jewish scriptures.
There is a path to the supernatural, to an understanding of God and even a relationship with Him, through the Christian faith. But those who ignore that continue to probe and search in misguided ways. In the early part of the 19th century, for example, people were caught up with the idea of the transfer of souls from one body to another. Even today, 25 percent of the American people claim to believe in reincarnation. And astrologists do a thriving business.
The Christian teaching is that we can understand the supernatural only through the One who created both nature and that which is beyond nature, that we will one day understand it completely when we live in God’s presence. We are taught in the meantime to avoid things like the paranormal, which too easily fall into the realm of black magic.
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