Every parent who has watched a child disappear into a fantasy novel knows the particular mix of delight and unease that can follow. The delight: a young imagination awakened, a love of story kindled. The unease: What exactly is my child absorbing? When dragons breathe fire and wizards wave wands, Christian parents rightly pause. But the question of magic in children’s literature is not merely a cultural skirmish over entertainment—it is a discipleship question, one that leads us directly to the character of God, the nature of power, and the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Read the source article by Korrie Johnson at Crossway, which offers a careful, biblically grounded introduction to this topic and is adapted from Stories Woven in Silver by Kathryn Butler and Korrie Johnson.
What Scripture Actually Forbids—and Why
The Bible does not leave us guessing about the occult. Deuteronomy 18 issues an unambiguous prohibition against divination, sorcery, mediums, and necromancers—practices that seek knowledge and power from sources other than the living God. The Hebrew terms span a wide range: qāsam (divination by lot), kāšap (witchcraft), šāʾal ʾôb (consulting a medium). In the New Testament, pharmakeia in Galatians 5:20 links sorcery to idolatry, and Revelation 21:8 places sorcerers among those who will face the second death.
“There shall not be found among you anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD.” — Deuteronomy 18:10–12 (ESV)
The pattern behind every forbidden practice is the same: a creature reaching past the Creator to grasp power or knowledge that belongs to God alone. It is the original sin replayed. In Genesis 3:4–5, the serpent promised Eve that eating the forbidden fruit would make her “like God, knowing good and evil.” Every act of divination and sorcery is a variation on that ancient lie—the belief that we can secure our futures, control our circumstances, or access hidden truth without submitting to the One who is truth. As Proverbs 9:10 reminds us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (ESV)—not the manipulation of spiritual forces.
Miracles Are Not Magic: The Source Makes All the Difference
Yet the Bible is also full of extraordinary supernatural events that God celebrates rather than condemns. Moses’s staff became a serpent. Elijah called down fire from heaven. Peter raised Dorcas from the dead. Handkerchiefs that had touched Paul’s skin healed the sick (Acts 19:11–12). Are these not also “supernatural”? They are—but the source is entirely different.
“God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.” — Acts 19:11 (ESV)
The hands were Paul’s; the power was God’s. This distinction is the theological key that unlocks the entire conversation about magic in literature. Forbidden occult practice seeks power apart from God, bending spiritual forces to human will. Biblical miracles are God’s sovereign acts, accomplished through willing instruments for His glory and the good of His people. The critical question is never how spectacular is the event? but whose power is at work, and to what end?
Jesus himself is the supreme miracle-worker, and his works bear every mark of divine origin. He healed the sick not by incantation but by authoritative declaration: “I will; be clean” (Matthew 8:3, ESV). He raised Lazarus not by conjuring a spirit but by commanding death itself: “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43, ESV). His resurrection on the third day was not a magic trick but the vindication of the Son of God, the firstfruits of a new creation (1 Corinthians 15:20). Every miracle of Jesus points beyond itself to the kingdom of God breaking into a broken world—and to the One who has authority over sin, death, and every power that stands against humanity.
Reading Fantasy with Gospel Eyes
So how does this biblical framework apply to the books on our children’s shelves? The good news is that Scripture gives us principles, not merely a prohibited list. When approaching fantasy literature, the discerning parent and child can ask two questions drawn from the biblical pattern above: Where does this power come from? and What are the practitioner’s intentions?
Well-crafted fantasy often uses magical elements not to promote occultism but to dramatize the very truths Scripture teaches: that good and evil are real, that power can be used selflessly or selfishly, and that sacrifice is the currency of redemption. In C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Aslan’s “deeper magic” overcomes the White Witch’s curse through self-giving death and resurrection—a barely veiled image of the gospel. Tolkien’s Gandalf lays down his life for his companions and is returned to them transformed. These stories do not teach children to seek power from demonic sources; they teach children that love is stronger than evil and that death is not the final word—truths that find their ultimate expression in Jesus Christ.
Practical Discipleship: Raising Discerning Readers
1. Know What the Bible Actually Prohibits
Equip yourself with the biblical categories above. The issue is not supernatural events per se but the source and intent of power. Read Deuteronomy 18 and Galatians 5:19–21 with your children and discuss what genuine occultism looks like—and why God forbids it.
2. Ask the Two Diagnostic Questions Together
Make “Where does this power come from?” and “What are the practitioner’s intentions?” a household habit. Apply them to every book, film, and story. This trains children in discernment—the very skill Paul prays for in Philippians 1:9–10: “that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent” (ESV).
3. Celebrate the Good, Name the Dark
When a story portrays selfless courage, sacrificial love, or the defeat of evil through goodness, name it as a reflection of God’s design. When a story celebrates divination, glorifies occult power, or blurs the line between the Creator and the creature, name that too—not with fear, but with clarity. Romans 12:9 calls us to “abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (ESV).
4. Use Story as a Bridge to the Gospel
Every story of a hero who sacrifices himself for others, every tale of darkness defeated by unexpected love, is an opportunity to say: “This is a shadow of something real. Let me tell you about Jesus.” Fantasy can be a doorway, not a destination.
5. Guard the Conscience, Respect Conviction
Some families will be more cautious than others, and that is a gift of the Spirit’s work in individual consciences. Romans 14:5 reminds us that “each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (ESV). Do not condemn the more cautious family, and do not despise the more permissive one. Walk together in love and mutual accountability.
The Gospel: The Deepest Magic of All
Ultimately, the reason Christians can engage culture—including fantasy literature—with confidence rather than fear is because we know how the story ends. We are not people who must guard ourselves against every shadow because we have no light. We are people who have been brought “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9, ESV).
Every human being is born into a story of spiritual peril. Sin has separated us from the God who made us, and no amount of human wisdom, power, or even well-intentioned spiritual seeking can bridge that gap. The occult is simply the most dramatic form of humanity’s oldest mistake: trying to become like God on our own terms. But God, in His mercy, did not leave us to that futile quest.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” — John 3:16 (ESV)
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, entered our broken story. He lived the life we could not live, died the death we deserved, and rose from the grave on the third day—defeating sin, death, and every power of darkness. His resurrection is not mythology; it is history, and it is the hinge on which all of reality turns. The invitation of the gospel is not to master spiritual forces but to surrender to the One who already has. Repent of the ancient lie that you can secure your own life apart from God. Trust in the finished work of Christ. And receive the gift of new life—not through incantation or ritual, but through grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
That is the deepest magic of all—and it is true.
