Conclusion of Astrology and Fortune - Telling --Windows to the Future?

FORTUNE -TELLING

From ancient times, people have consulted fortune -tellers.  Some practitioners looked for meaning in such things as the entrails of animals and humans or the way a rooster pecks at it grain.  Others made projections based on patterns in the tea leaves or coffee grounds.  Today, they use tarot cards, crystal balls,  dice, and other means to "read" a person's future. Is fortune -telling a reliable way to discern the future?  No, it is not.  Let us reason on the matter.

Consider the issue of consistency.  The predictions of differing  fortune-telling methods often contradict one another. Even when the same method is used, forecasts vary.  For example, if a person asks two fortune-tellers the same questions about the future based on the "reading" of  the same cards, logically the answers should be the same.  But often they are not.

Fortune - tellers' methods or motives have come under suspicion.  Critics say that the cards or crystal balls are mere props and the fortune-teller reads the  person's reactions rather than the props.  For example,  a skilled fortune-teller will ask general questions and carefully watch for verbal and nonverbal clues that could reveal something about the client. The fortune-teller  will then take credit  for knowing  facts and situations that the client has just unknowingly given away.  Having won the client's trust, some fortune-tellers  have been able to obtain large sums of  money from their customers.

WHAT THE BIBLE TELLS US

The practice of astrology and fortune-telling implies that our future is predetermined. But is it?  The Bible tells us that we have the ability to choose  what we believe or want to do and that our choices affect our future. - JOSHUA 24:15.

Worshippers of God have an additional reason to reject astrology and fortune-telling-God condemns all forms of divination.  In the Bible we find these words:  "There should not be found in you anyone . . . who employs divination, anyone practicing magic, anyone who looks for omens, a sorcerer, anyone binding others with a spell, anyone who consults a spirit medium or fortune-teller, or anyone who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to Jehovah." -DEUTERONOMY 18:10-12.

Next time: Prophecies That Have Come True

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