by Stephen Yulish PhD
Posted: 12:00 July 17, 2008
Nearly 2000 years ago the physician Apostle Luke wrote of the missionary
travels of Saul and Barnabas. In one interesting passage he wrote:
"And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Papha, they found a
certain magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus who was with
the proconsul Sergius Paulus a man of intelligence. The man summoned Barnabas
and Saul and sought to learn the word of God. But Elymas, the magician (for
thus his name is translated) was opposing them and seeking to turn the
proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled
with the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes, his gaze upon him and said, 'you who are
full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil. You enemy of all
righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the
Lord? And now behold the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind
and not see the sun for a time.' And immediately, a mist and a darkness fell
upon him and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then
the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened being amazed at the
teaching of the Lord," (Acts 13:6-12). This is one of many examples of encounters between Simon Magus type magicians
(e.g. Acts 8) and early Christian apostles. This is of course not surprising
given the tremendous stakes is this battle between good and evil. What is
surprising and disheartening is that many bible commentators like F.W. Bruce
describe these purveyors of evil as mere charlatans and fakes. This is
unfortunate according to Dr. Ed Murphy author of The Handbook for Spiritual
Warfare because as he rightly states, these magicians were and are real and
are the enemy of Christianity. They are skilled in the arts of divination,
sorcery, witchcraft and spiritism and lead people way from the faith towards
deception and error. It is not that these things cannot be done but that God
commanded us not to do them. God was very clear: "Anyone who practices divination, witchcraft, interprets omens, or is a
sorcerer, casts a spell, is a medium, a spiritist or calls up the dead, is
detestable to the Lord" (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). While this is from the Torah in the Old Testament, the language is even
harsher in the New Testament. "These people will not inherit the Kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9) and
will "end up in the Lake of Fire for all eternity" (Revelation 21:8). Therefore we are warned to: "Stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against
flesh and blood but against the rulers of darkness in heavenly places"
(Ephesians 6:11-12). "Our gospel is veiled to those who are perishing by the god of this world who
has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). There are many false prophets out there so we need to test the spirits to see
if they are really from God (1John 4:1). In the case described above between Paul and Elymas, the Proconsul believed
but Elymas apparently did not but there were times when the magicians
themselves believed as Simon did in Acts 8:13 when he heard the preaching of
Philip and was baptized. I also described one such encounter between good and evil, between spirit
filled Christians and a kabbalistic magician in my first novel The Great
Harpazo Deception (pages 292-293). Here, the vicious, demonic, magician is not
only foiled by a spirit filled Christian but also finds the truth after a
personal encounter with Jesus Christ. There was a knock at the door.
"Because they want to see him and he is hiding here with all you
meshumedim(nuts)! Now open this door!" "Why should I open this door when you want to do, God knows what, to the poor
Rabbi? Do you think that I am crazy? Now be gone before I put a bullet in your
kishkas (stomach)." Rabbi Klingfeldt knocked down the door with his mind. It just fell open right
off of the hinges. Judah stood there in stunned disbelief. The Rabbi walked in
with his red hair flying and his eyes spinning even though the night air was
perfectly calm. He gave Judah the curse of the evil eye and then moved on to
Rabbi Waxman. Judah could not move. Yossi and Shmuel ran up to the crazed
Kabbalist but suddenly went flying backwards into the wall. Dawn picked up a
kitchen knife and tried to stab it into the Rabbis back but she could not
bring it down and it suddenly turned and stabbed her in the shoulder.
"Judah, do something", Dawn yelled as she fell over with the knife sticking
out of her shoulder. Judah began to pray and called upon the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) to cover
him with the armor of God. It had worked to battle AZAZEL (the
extraterrestrial fallen angel) and he hoped that it would work with the
likewise evil Rabbi Klingfeldt. After all, Sha'ul said to the people at
Ephesus that they should put on the full armor of God to help them stand firm
against the schemes of the devil, to battle the spiritual forces of wickedness
in heavenly places. This was not a battle with flesh and blood but was again
spiritual warfare with the forces of the Adversary. Judah was now clothed in
the full armor of God and first went over to assist his stricken wife. He
pulled out the knife from her shoulder and placed the tip of his sword against
the wound. The wound stopped bleeding. He then went after Rabbi Klingfeldt.
"Be gone from here you demonic presence!" Judah yelled at him. "My powers are greater than yours, Yehuda", The Rabbi replied as he stared at
Judah with his evil eye. "Turn into bone!" he cursed. Judah smiled and went right up to the Rabbi and removed his evil eyes with his
Sword of the Spirit and handed them to him. The Rabbi became hysterical and
ran from the house screaming obscenities in Yiddish and Hebrew. "I guess that He that is in me is greater than He than it is in the world,
Rabbi Klingfeldt", Judah shouted as he opened the door for the charging Rabbi
and guided him out of the house and pushed him into the street. Rabbi
Klingfeldt ran down the dark street holding his eyeballs and screaming
uncontrollably. "Maybe now you will be able to really see the Truth, Rabbi!" Judah yelled
after him and closed the door. Rabbi Klingfeldt darted aimlessly down the street unable to see where he was
going. He finally tripped and tumbled hard onto the cobblestones. He still
held his eyes in his hands however, fearful that to lose then would forever
trap him in this present darkness. Suddenly there was a bright light inside
his head. Everything became illuminated and the deep despair that he had felt
melted away. Standing in front of him in his mind's eye was Yeshua (Jesus).
The Rabbi recognized him by his nail pierced hands and he began to sob. The
Lord poured out His spirit of grace and supplication on the sorcerer. "Adonai, I am not worthy to be in your presence", Rabbi Klingfeldt sobbed as
he got to his knees. "Why do you come to this poor, pathetic, unworthy
sinner?" "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick;
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners", Yeshua said. "Go my son and
sin no more! God wants no one to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)
God said: "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses, now choose life"
(Deuteronomy 30:19).
"Who could that be?" Yossi asked. "Should I get it?"
"I would not", Judah answered. "It can only be one of our adversaries since
all our allies are right here in this room."
The knocking turned to banging and everyone became frightened.
"It is Rabbi Klingfeldt", a voice shouted. "Open this door right now or I will
break it down!"
"What do you want?" Judah yelled back as he stood in front of the door.
"I want Rabbi Waxman!"
"Why?"
"Because he is confusing the brethren!"
"What makes you say that?"