Does Fortune-Telling Work?

Does Fortune-telling work?

Well, this is not the most fundamental question. The first question is: if it did work, how would it do so? God has withheld from us the detailed knowledge of the future. We are welcome to use our knowledge, intelligence and science to make reasonable predictions of the future, but fortune-telling is a means of trying to get the answers by means of spirits or occult powers. In doing this we are stepping outside the power and authority given us by God. We are like small children peeking in the door before the surprise party. And if we do see, it spoils the surprise and the party. Because it is an attempt to usurp the Providence of God, the church has always taught that this is a very serious sin against God.

So does it work? Well, if we are lucky, the fortune-telling is either fraud or total nonsense. But it is definite teaching from Christ Himself that the devil and the evil spirits are real. Dabbling in the occult is placing ourselves within the orbit of power of evil forces of which we have only the haziest detailed knowledge. Imagine leaving the safety of our own home to meet a stranger in the middle of an unlighted field at midnight, because he has promised us a secret message. Following his conditions, we are going there alone. What foolishness, what imprudence! Yet this is exactly comparable with what we do when we abandon the Sacraments and Holy Scripture and seek for forbidden knowledge away from the power of God and the Protection of the Church.

Those with first-hand knowledge of the devil, from within the Church (and there are such people) have said that even Satan cannot see more than two days into the future – and that is only by the application of natural science and knowledge. He also has access to genuine prophecies from Heaven that we might be neglecting. This knowledge may at times appear magical to us in our ignorance. But never forget: the devil is a liar, and the father of lies. and he is our enemy. How likely is it that he will be telling us anything for our good? How much more likely that it will be lies and half-truths designed for our ruin.

But the most important point, for any of us who wish to please God, is that recourse to fortune-telling is a very grave offence to God. We are meant to live by Faith, use our natural wits, and try to serve Him who made us.

The Other Side