Question:  Dear Greg,

            We had an outreach over the summer to reach the lost.  As one of our activities my pastor performed a magic act.  My friend said that it was wrong because magic is forbidden in the Bible and because you cannot win people by ungodly methods.  She also doubted if Jesus would have done that. 

            What do you think about this?

            Ryan

Answer:  Dear Ryan,

            There is magic and then there is magic.  Magic acts which are sleight-of-hand, card tricks, etc. are simply illusions and are not the kind of magic the Bible forbids.  The Bible forbids what we often call “black” magic, or even “white” magic, for that matter, which involves sorcery, contact with or assistance from the fallen world of demons and Satan.  The Bible forbids that kind of magic.

            Jesus and magic?  Jesus had and has a sense of humor.  Sometimes Christians paint Jesus as a drab, cranky, out of touch, cantankerous man who never smiled, never played a joke on someone or laughed when one of the disciples tried to play one on him.  This characterization of Jesus, and of Christianity, is a distortion and robs us of the joy in Christ that we have when he lives his life within us.

            I would have to presume the tricks your pastor displayed were sleight-of-hand and not in any way black magic.  There is more than one way to lead people to Christ.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht