Dr Kurt Koch On Divination And Fortunetelling
I am sending the following excerpts on divination and fortunetelling from the work of this godly man with the hope and prayer that the body of Christ and those with leadership position in the true church will wake up to the facts presented in this report and their impacts on the faith and fate of people.
[sgmb id=”1″]In line with Dr Koch’s warning, reports and teachings on fortunetelling and soothsaying, in fact everything that has to do with the works of the enemy must not be handled with levity. This is not for entertainment. It is a very serious thing. The alternative, however, is to write nothing on them and open new Christians to the danger of ignorance on the occult. If there is any area of life where ignorance is not golden, it is in these very sensitive spiritual areas. We must be grateful to God for what He caused Dr Kurt Koch to do in his lifetime for the church. I must also warn, that the main objective of this post is to both educate and warn readers about incipient occultism in the form of fortunetelling and soothsaying in daily life in most countries. The spirits don’t see these as things of fun and the cost is huge.
Very relevant Bible passages are provided by Dr Koch throughout the article. Please prayerfully read them.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with every child of God that reads this article. In case upon reading these materials you discover you need spiritual help, do not go to any ‘pastor’ involved in Pentecostalism, Charismaticism, New Apostolic Reformation, Dominionism, Word of Faith or Prosperity doctrines. Do not approach any ‘pastor’ that speaks tongue or that hides his tongue-speaking from the public or that associates with them in any form: they are the advance guards of the Enemy in corrupting the church with occultism, soothsaying and fortunetelling in our time. In Nigeria these include almost all the so-called churches – including the highly occultic Deeper Life Bible Church , the shamanistic Winners Chapel or the idolatrous Redeemed Christian Church of God. The Lord will guide and protect His own from all evil.
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Excepts…
“Fortunetelling or Soothsaying.
- History: The oldest form of fortunetelling is the use of rod and pendulum.
(See 51 in this section.) Rod and pendulum can be traced back six thousand years. The second oldest form is astrology (see 3 in this section). Astrology may be traced back five thousand years. The third form is palmistry, which goes back about four thousand years. Palmistry was practiced by the priests of ancient Babylon. The fourth form of fortunetelling is that involving the use of cards. The Romans had little wax tablets with symbols carved on them, which they used for telling the future. The practice of card-laying is about two thousand years old. A fifth form of fortunetelling is psychometry. Here the fortuneteller holds an object belonging to the person in his hand and then gives information concerning the person. A sixth form is fortunetelling with the aid of a crystal ball. A good example is that of Jeane Dixon, about whom there is another chapter herein.
Every pagan nation practices fortunetelling. In the Old Testament, too, we have continual warnings against taking part in these pagan activities.
One thinks of passages like Deuteronomy 18: 10-12, or Leviticus 19:31, 20:6,
20:27. I will quote the last three passages: “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God. . . . And the soul that turneth after such things as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a-whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. … A man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely, be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.”
The most important areas of fortune-telling are: astrology, card-laying, palmistry, using a rod and pendulum, mirror mantic, psychometry etc. A distinction has to be made between intuitive and suggestive types of fortunetelling.
Fortune-telling itself has two sides to it, influence and fulfillment. Possibly 95% of all fortune-telling, or even more, can be regarded as a matter of fraud, fake and the making of money. Yet because of its suggestive character, even fraudulent fortune-telling can be dangerous. The last 5% is dependent on extrasensory powers whose ethical character is disputed both by theologians and parapsychologists. The Bible, however, is absolutely clear on this matter. Prophecy is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is of God. Fortunetelling is inspired by the spirit of Satan and is of the devil. The effects of fortune-telling speak in a language which is equally as clear. The Scriptures label fortune-telling as blasphemy. And now some examples which could be supplemented by thousands of similar cases.
Ex. A 42-year-old woman had often consulted astrologers and had horoscopes cast for herself in her lifetime. She finally became very depressed and tried to commit suicide twice by taking sleeping pills. She was also plagued by sudden fits of anger. During the course of being counseled she confessed the things of her past life but was still unable to really believe. She had to struggle for months in order to get peace and an assurance of salvation.
Ex. A well-known Christian worker accidentally read a horoscope once while staying at a hotel. He usually had no interest in astrology and only read the horoscope because he saw it referred to his birthday. One of the things he
saw written was, “Anyone driving a car today must be particularly careful.”
“When he left the hotel he noticed that he was involuntarily driving his car at a slower speed. Because of this he commented to someone later on in the day that he must already be affected by astrology.
Ex. A woman used to have cards laid for herself by various people and on different occasions had detailed horoscopes cast by one particular astrologer.
She also bought herself letters of protection and fortune-telling letters. She began to have suicidal thoughts and she found that she was very defensive towards the things of God. A doctor of nervous diseases said she was suffering from hysteria.
Ex. A young woman wanted to learn how to tell fortunes. She was taught by her sister who already practiced occultism. One day there was a meeting in her church. Both the sisters went to the meeting. The second sister was converted and became a Christian. Immediately after this she herself began to experience scenes of persecution at night. Invisible forces beat her until she even bled. It was this that brought her to be counseled.
Is it not part of God’s mercy to us that the future is veiled? If we knew everything that lay ahead of us, decisions would be impossible, initiative would be paralyzed, and we would be robbed of our joy of living. The silence of God is far more merciful than the unveiling of the fortune-tellers, although they seek to do it as a service to man. And this neglects the fact that most of this so-called ‘unveiling’ is of a dubious nature and carries with it much oppression and many burdens.
- More examples: I shall not here deal with the forms of fortunetelling to which special chapters in this book are devoted. Let us begin instead with palmistry.61The fact that palmistry is related to astrology is evident from the division of the palm into seven planet mountains. From the index finger to the little finger these are the Mercury mountain, the Apollo mountain, the Saturn mountain, and the Jupiter mountain. Below the thumb is the Venus mountain and the Moon mountain. In the lines of the hand, four main lines are distinguished:the heart line, the head line, the life line, and the line of destiny. According to this system, one can speak of intuitive palmistry and suggestive palmistry.In this account, we are concerned only with genuine cases, not with suggestive or fraudulent cases.Ex 58: My informant is a Christian woman with a university education. Her cousin lives in Rügen. One day a gypsy woman came to him and read his palm. “Your father,” said the gypsy, “will win a great sum of money one day. Then he will die at the age of sixty.” The young man laughed, and then she said: “And you will have to die at the age of twenty-seven.”One day the young man received a letter telling him that his father had won DM.50,000. Then, on the father’s sixtieth birthday, a telegram arrived to say that the father had had a fatal accident. The son became anxious. He was afraid that he would die when he was twenty-seven — and that is what happened. Here we have a genuine example of prediction of the future.
Ex 59: When I was preaching in Graz, a doctor’s wife came to me for counseling.This woman had studied medicine. While she was a student, she had joined a student group going to Hungary for the weekend to taste the Hungarian wine. On the way back they met a gypsy woman. The young people were in hilarious mood and let the gypsy examine their palms and tell their fortunes. In the case of one young man, the gypsy refused to say what the future held for him. The group went on their way. A young lecturer who was with the group went back to the gypsy and asked, “Why did you refuse to tell the young man’s fortune?”
“This young man will meet a violent death in the next six weeks,” replied the gypsy woman. “I did not want to tell him that.”
The young man was not told about this prophecy. He was not, therefore, influenced by suggestion. The six weeks went by, and then the young man received a telegram calling him to go and see his father who was dying.
Two of his friends went with him to Graz railway station. He got on the train for Salzburg. A few hours later, a special announcement was made that the two rear coaches of this train had been derailed. Among those who had died in the accident was the student. Here we have another example of genuine prediction of the future.
I return to the doctor’s wife who told me this story. She too was told her future by the gypsy woman. The prediction caused this woman many years of unhappiness. I will not go into the details.
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Occasionally fortunetellers give a person genuine information, for which the person will pay dearly. The effects of occult practices are the subject of the second part of this book.
Questions are also raised by what is known as psychometric clairvoyance.
The clairvoyant who uses psychometry concentrates on an object for a few seconds and then gives information about the circumstances surrounding the object and the past, present, and future of its owner. Some parapsychologists like Rüsche, Osty, Price, Gumpenberg and Gatterer, think that a person impregnates his clothing and all the objects he uses with aspects of his personality. On this view psychometric clairvoyants have the ability, when in a trance or semi-trance, to read and interpret these mental impressions.
One would have to admit the possibility that this theory might explain statements made about a person’s past. But psychometric clairvoyants are also able to give information about the future. And the future cannot be tied up in a person’s clothing. It is impossible to account for this phenomenon of psychometric precognition in terms of parapsychology. One could more readily accept the theory of Carl Gustav Jung that at a higher level, past, present, and future are all present. If one goes on to ask how a person can reach this higher level, Osty and Hartmann would reply by saying that people who are psychic have the ability to attain a mystic union with the world soul. The world soul contains all the plans and life histories of men, and these can be discovered by tapping it. (This is an aspect of what occult, Word of Faith and prosperity ‘pastors’ teach)
From a Biblical point of view, this is an impossible process. For us, the world soul is the living God, and He does not allow fortunetellers to pry into His secrets. It is always the same. Learned men bring out the most absurd theories in order to escape facing up to the truth. The Bible describes the whole complex of fortunetelling as a demonic practice which stands under the judgment of God. Those who get their guidance from the Bible will not be impressed by these strange parapsychological theories.
I will give two examples of psychometric soothsaying. One of them concerns a pastor’s family, the other a doctor’s practice.
Ex 60: A French pastor’s wife came to me for a talk. She had been suffering for years from depression. The depression could not be accounted for medically. The pastor’s wife told me the story of her life. It included a case of fortunetelling. One day when her son (now grown up) was ill as a baby, a man from the parish came to the door of the house. “I know that your son is ill,”the man said.
“Please give me something that belongs to the child. I am able to heal him.”
“What do you want to do?” asked the pastor’s wife. “We have a doctor. I should like to talk it over first with my husband. He is away at the moment.” “I have heard,” said the man, “that your child has a high temperature.” The mother replied that the baby’s temperature was 104° F. The man said,
“You can see how urgent it is. If the child dies, you will be responsible, because God has given me the ability to heal diseases.”
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A mother who is anxious about her beloved child is, under some circumstances, open to persuasion. So she went into the house and brought one of the baby’s dresses. The man went home with it. A short while later, the fever abated and the child recovered.
But the child’s development was unusual. He was not normal. He was very clever and went to the high school. But when he came home from school he would stand against the wall and, for about two hours, knock his forehead against it. He could not be persuaded to stop this. His mother also had spiritual problems. She was hardly able to pray or to read the Bible, and she started to suffer from depression.
Ex 61: Now for the example from a doctor’s practice. It is not only quacks and amateur healers who use occult methods of diagnosis and cure; there are also a few occultists among doctors. The doctor in question is not only a fully qualified M.D., but is also a psychometric clairvoyant, clairsentient, and fortuneteller. He takes a drop of blood from his patient. This blood sample is not tested in a laboratory. It suffices for the doctor to hold the drop of blood up against the light and to concentrate on it. Then he gives his complete diagnosis. Undoubtedly many diseases can be diagnosed by examination of the blood. I have had a blood test myself. The doctor had the blood tested in forty different ways in the laboratory. It is not possible to do that with just one drop of blood, and some of the laboratory checks take a long time. This doctor is an occultist. All the patients who undergo this occult diagnosis come under a ban.
While we are talking about doctors, I will mention another example. I was told in the course of counseling about a school doctor who asked for samples of urine. He does not make the usual urine tests for protein, sugar, hemoglobin and so on, but he uses it like the doctor in the last example. He concentrates for a few seconds on the urine, without sending it to the laboratory for examination, and then makes his diagnosis and prescribes his cure accordingly. This too is a case of occult diagnosis.
Thus it is not only quacks and healers who use occult methods. There are doctors who do the same thing under cloak of their professional qualifications. I will give one more example, this time of card laying, and then make some final comments on the whole subject of fortunetelling. Basically, the problem is always the same: people make use of dark powers at the cost of their inner peace or even their salvation.
Ex 62: A minister took up card laying as a hobby. I do not mean ordinary card games, but fortunetelling with the aid of cards. He used the cards not only to guide himself and his family, but also his church, for many years. The effects were evident. His wife became addicted to alcohol, and his daughter became interested in white and black magic. When the girl was seventeen years old, she became deranged and was admitted to a mental hospital.
Card laying was the ruin of the minister’s whole family.
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- Warning against the various forms of fortunetelling
It is not enough to issue a warning against the various forms of fortunetelling. There is another problem tied up with the whole complex of divination. It is the question of whom we trust, of to whom we are willing to entrust our lives. It is easy to understand why people seek guidance when they are in a difficult situation. It is also easy to understand that people are afraid of the future and its threatening events. But we must take this fear and anxiety to the right place, to the One who said: “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28). It is Jesus Christ who has given us the promise:
“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).
The Bible contains thousands of promises to encourage us, promises which are strong enough to take away all our fear. The Psalms, in particular, are a great treasure house from which we can daily take all that we need. Think of the most well-known psalm, Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not
want.” I often use it when praying with my children. Or consider Psalm 37:5,
“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to
pass.” Read through the Psalms with a red pencil in your hand, underlining
all the verses which give courage and strength or which offer protection concerning the unanswered questions of life.”
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with every child of God that reads this article.