Welcome to Witchcraft and Wizardry Week on the Aspester John podcast, driven by our Bible reading.

We begin the week asking if there's good magic and edifying sorcery.

The question is a popular one about Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and fantasy literature in general.

And the question comes to us today from an anonymous woman. Pastor John, hello, and thank you

for this podcast. I have a question for you about an ongoing debate among my Christian friends

over whether there's such a thing as good or righteous signs and wonders done at the command

of a miracle worker. A lot of godly Christians

think novels like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are forbidden because they feature even a

good use of spells and sorcery. The mere existence of sorcery in a novel makes it bad.

But on the other side of the argument, we read in the Old Testament

itself that God's holy men seem to respond to sorcerers with a matching supernatural power,

creating a black and white contrast. We read about all the incredible things God did at the hands of

Moses and Aaron in the plague accounts, which, by the way, we just began reading today in our Bible reading plan,

and we'll carry on here for a while.

Back to the question.

Aaron throws down his staff and it becomes a devouring snake, the same staff that will cause the Nile to become blood, all in Exodus 7.

Aaron holds his staff and frogs emerge from the Nile and taps the ground, and Nats cover everything, all in Exodus 7. Aaron holds his staff and frogs emerge from the Nile and taps cover everything,

all in Exodus 8. Moses holds his staff and hail rains down on Egypt in Exodus 9, uses his staff to

rouse the wind to deliver devouring locusts in Exodus 10. Most famously, Moses lifts his staff and

splits the Red Sea in Exodus 14, the same staff

he uses to hit a desert stone to draw out water in Exodus 17. And even recently, in the New

Testament, we read about Paul's supernatural response in Acts 13 versus 6 to 11, who met a magician

...