by Andrew J. Zintl

Created on: August 30, 2008

The Bible would never have been written if paranormal phenomena did not exist. Every miracle recorded in the Bible is an example of an event that occurred outside the ordinary limits of nature; from the plagues brought down on Egypt to the Resurrection of Jesus, each miracle was wrought in defiance of the laws of nature. Thus, the Bible itself is an affirmation of the possibility of the paranormal, without which neither Judaism nor Christianity would exist.

However, the Bible divides paranormal phenomena into two categories: good and evil. Miracles performed by God obviously fall into the good category, regardless of their effect. Even the death of all the first-born Egyptians was good according to the Bible, or at least allowable, although it might seem horrific to the modern reader. In fact, only paranormal phenomena brought on by the power of God is deemed allowable by both the Old and New Testaments. The Jewish people were forbidden in Deuteronomy 18:10 from practicing witchcraft or any other form of magic, such as divination. In Acts 8, Simon the sorcerer was condemned by Peter for practicing magic to gain power and trying to gain the Holy Spirit to increase his power.

Clearly, the Bible treats paranormal phenomena as a fact of the world, regardless of the fact that no one can explain how it happens. It is also obvious that the Bible does not regard God as the only potential source of any supernatural occurrence. There are countless references to magicians who derive their power from other sources in the Bible. There are also numerous accounts of people possessed by demons in the New Testament. Miracles performed by God, however, are always more powerful than magic performed by drawing power from another source. For instance, when Aaron and the magicians of Pharaoh all throw down their rods to turn them into serpents in Exodus 7, the serpent that is created from Aaron's rod is clearly superior to those of the magicians as it quickly eats the other snakes.

Therefore, the Bible, although admitting the existence of paranormal phenomena, forbids people from attempting to bring them about through their own efforts by turning to magic or the occult. The only paranormal phenomena that meet the standard set forth by the Bible are those performed by God himself. The only proper way that people can be involved in the creation of supernatural occurrences is by praying to God to perform them. Anything more than that is strictly forbidden.

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