Animism in the Bible

2012-08-10

Exodus 32:1: “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.” There is a tendency for people to connect spiritual beings with nature. Jeroboam son of Nebat did the same thing (1 Kings 12:28), and the Apostle Paul explains how this happened in Romans 1:22-25. People see God as remote because he cannot be controlled, so they turn aside to things they can manipulate.

Leviticus 19:31: “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.” Contacting spirits and ancestors were done in ancient Near Eastern religions, and God tells his people not to do those practices. He is God, he is the creator, and he is intimately involved with his people. He expected that same intimacy back from his people, and not to go after the things of Satan. King Saul did this, in order to manipulate spiritual things for his own purposes (1 Samuel 28:7).

Numbers 24:10: “And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times.” Balak sought to manipulate God for his own purposes, seeking the power of Balaam to curse Israel. However God cannot be manipulated by anyone. Balaam was a wicked man with serious problems, but he was smart enough to recognize that the Creator God cannot be manipulated: “And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness” (Numbers 24:1).

1 Kings 20:28: “And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” The Syrians believe that gods are territorial, and they seek to manipulate the spirit realm to get their way in battle. But God cannot be controlled, and he is God of the entire creation, not a localized spirit.

Acts 8:9: “But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one.” Simon would be what we would call a shaman. In Acts 8:10, people had said of him: “This man is the great power of God.” He had great control in the city of Samaria. When people started getting saved, he lost that power, and even got saved himself in Acts 8:13. But this also is a good example of syncretism. He wanted to experience that power of being a religious leader and practitioner again, so he asked for spiritual power by offering money in Acts 8:18-19. Elymas the sorcerer is an another example of such a shaman or animistic practitioner in Acts 13:8ff.

Acts 17:23: “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” When addressing the Greeks in Athens, Paul recognizes that the unknown God to them is the Creator God. As written previously, the Creator God is unknowable in animistic cultures.

Acts 28:3-6: “And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.” These “barbarians” were typically people that did not speak Greek, the lingua franca of the first century A.D. These people assumed that the event of the snake bite was attributed to something Paul had done, and by implication there was a spiritual reason for this to have happened. When Paul did not die, they believed there was some kind of intrinsic power about him.