Superstition and Ancestors

Someone gave me a lucky rabbit’s foot when I was a kid. I lost it, but it was no great loss. After all, the bone that I could feel through the fur kind of grossed me out. I don’t have a lucky penny, or a lucky horseshoe over my doorway. I don’t even know how to make lucky things work. Do you?

I guess people usually think that lucky items simply bring good luck. But I saw someone in a movie rubbing her lucky charm when she was afraid. (It didn’t turn out good.)

Just for fun I jumped onto the Internet to solve my quandary. I read things about the lucky horseshoe that were amazing, confusing, and mysterious. Ha! The website was about a video game!

Now, doesn’t that sum it all up? Superstition is made up. It comes from the minds of people, like a video game; nothing real, no substance.

Is it really bad luck if a black cat runs in front of you? If you step on a crack, will it really break your mother’s back? While some superstitions are simply ridiculous, others have grown out of religious beliefs, yet with no basis in Scripture.

Superstition has been used to frighten children (and adults) into obedience. Superstition has been used to promise good things. But how? Where does superstition get its power?? Is it unharnessed power that you can possess with the right charm or potion or words? Why is the horseshoe lucky instead of bringing a curse?

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:

Instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.

—1 Timothy 1:3-4

Myths. Superstitions are myths.

“The administration of God” that Paul referred to is God’s management of His divine will. So, putting faith in empty, speculative superstition, works against the will of God. Superstition is a matter of misplaced faith. Avoid it!

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Perhaps you’re heard of those eastern religions that have ancestor worship. It’s a good thing we don’t do that kind of thing! It was a problem in ancient times. God warned the Israelites to avoid the occult practices of the pagan nations. One of their practices was attempting to call up the dead. (Deuteronomy 18:11)

In the New Testament Jesus told about a man who died and ended up in Hades, the place of the unrighteous dead. In torment he cried out for relief but received none. Only then did he cry out with concern for his living relatives. He asked that someone be sent back from the dead to his living brothers to warn them.

The response he received: “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”

God wants His people to listen to Him, not dead ancestors. I can assure you that your dead ancestors have no concern about their pets or your pets, your love life, or your career. They have no desire to send you warm, fuzzy messages from beyond, or status reports on other deceased loved ones. If they have any message at all would be a single unified message:

     If they are in the Paradise of God, they would tell you, “Follow Jesus.”

     If they are in the torment of Hades, they would tell you, “Follow Jesus.”

Anything else is superstition, just another idol.


Mark Stinnett

July 2, 2023