Opening the bible at random? bibliomancy?divination?

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hello,
I did a Bible study about 6 years ago at my Catholic Church. It was called Weighdown Workshop and based on the Bible. It is a weightloss program. Anyways it is not Catholic and ended up finding out that it wasnt even Christian (denies the Trinity). The head of this program Gwen Shamblin promoted asking a question of God and then opening the Bible for an answer. I had never done this or heard of this before. I began doing this as at the time I dont know if it is Catholic or Christian. Later I looked this up on the internet and it came up "bibliomancy " are we are not suppossed to do this, is it divination? or bibliomancy? I am not sure so that is my question? I have seen a couple priests say they did this. They didnt seem to say this was wrong or against our religion. One priest was on EWTN and said this was how he discerned God was calling him to be a priest. He did state that he didnt recommend this practice to others. I am still unsure. I am not sure if asking God a question and randomly opening the Bible to see if there is an answer on that page to my question.Does anybody know anything about this? I do NOT want to do something that is not from God.
 
When I was a Protestant, we called this “Bible roulette” and it was considered to be an incorrect practice.
 
I don’t think it is recommended, but in the 1970’s, I was at my wits end in making a decision and tried it and it was very clear I did get an answer.
I had to make a decision on moving out of town, and possibly out of my home state for a career move. I was very torn about taking my family away from the only home they knew, a small town, and go to a large city. We loved the house and area and had all our friends. I was in agony intellectually and couldn’t make up my mind, but had to give the company an answer the next morning. My wife had said it was entirely up to me and she would go along with whatever my decision.
The night before I had to tell the company, my wife was out shopping, the kids were in bed and I was praying over the decision. During that period of my life I was doing some pretty heavy duty bible study and had several different translations on the table. It entered my mind to pray for guidance, open the bible, run my finger down the page, and go from there. I prayed to God to help me as I so much needed His guidance asking Him if I should go or not. I picked up the closest bible, opened it to a random page, ran my finger down the page with my eyes closed and stopped my hand. Directly above my finger tip, were the words “do not depart”. I couldn’t believe it. We accepted it as divine guidance and did not move and never regretted it.
I have never used that method since as I don’t want to “abuse” the method, but it sure worked for me that time. I was in dire need of a decison at that time and God blessed me with an answer I have never doubted.
So, can it work? It did for me that one time, but I wouldn’t use it as a crystal ball.
btw, the bible was the New King James Version, Proverbs 5:7. The whole context of the verse was not about departing from somewhere, but my finger tip had stopped directly below the exact words “do not depart”. It was loud and clear to me.
Thanks for listening.
Dan
 
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rubycanoe:
hello,
I did a Bible study about 6 years ago at my Catholic Church. It was called Weighdown Workshop and based on the Bible. It is a weightloss program. Anyways it is not Catholic and ended up finding out that it wasnt even Christian (denies the Trinity). The head of this program Gwen Shamblin promoted asking a question of God and then opening the Bible for an answer. I had never done this or heard of this before. I began doing this as at the time I dont know if it is Catholic or Christian. Later I looked this up on the internet and it came up "bibliomancy " are we are not suppossed to do this, is it divination? or bibliomancy? I am not sure so that is my question? I have seen a couple priests say they did this. They didnt seem to say this was wrong or against our religion. One priest was on EWTN and said this was how he discerned God was calling him to be a priest. He did state that he didnt recommend this practice to others. I am still unsure. I am not sure if asking God a question and randomly opening the Bible to see if there is an answer on that page to my question.Does anybody know anything about this? I do NOT want to do something that is not from God.
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The problem with bibliomancy - apart from the fact that it is a form of superstition - is that it treats the Bible as what it is not: a disconnected string of texts, rather than a body of books which were each composed and edited for a purpose, as a coherent text.​

Besides, it sometimes has absurd results, as in the example of the man who picked out:

“And it was night”
  • found it unhelpful, and had a second try:
“And he went and hanged himself”
  • found that unhelpful, and tried again:
“What thou doest, do quickly”.
  • and gave up.
AFAIK this is a joke - and it certainly makes the point: biblomancy can lead one to pick any verse, however irrelevant to one’s circumstances, as though it would necessarily be appropriate and helpful. “Adam, Sheth, Enosh” may be 1 Chronicles 1.1 - but it is hardly illuminating advice.

The Bible is to be read with intelligence - it is worth reading intelligently; and bibliomancy is an unintelligent & lazy approach: as is divination by reading a Classical author, such as Homer or Vergil. ##
 
I believe St. Augustine’s conversion began when he opened a Bible and fell on a certain passage. I’m not certain about this, if anyone has more information or could correct me please do so.
 
Sometimes I just open the Bible randomly for the fun and see what comes up.

Like right now:
“who slew many nations and slew many kings”
Psalm 135:10

I never take it as relevant to anything.
 
Anima Christi:
I believe St. Augustine’s conversion began when he opened a Bible and fell on a certain passage. I’m not certain about this, if anyone has more information or could correct me please do so.
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From Augustine’s Confessions:
I was asking myself these questions, weeping all the while with the most bitter sorrow in my heart, when all at once I heard the sing-song voice of a child in a nearby house. Whether it was the voice of a boy or a girl I cannot say, but again and again it repeated the refrain “Take it and read, take it and read”. At this I looked up, thinking hard whether there was any kind of game in which children used to chant words like these, but I could not remember ever hearing them before. I stemmed my flood of tears and stood up, telling myself that this could only be a divine command to open my book of Scripture and read the first passage on which my eyes should fall. for I had heard the story of Anthony, and I remembered how he had happened to go into a church while the Gospel was being read and taken it as a counself addresesd to himself when he heard the words: Go home and sell all that belongs to you. …
So I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting, for when I stood up to move away I had put down the book containing Paul’s Epistles. I seized it and opened it, and in silence I read the first passage on which my eyes fell: “Not in revelling and drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, spend no more thought on nature and nature’s appetites.” I had no wish to read more and no need to do so. For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled. …
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The quotation could continue, with pertinence, as beautifully, but I’ll leave it at that. 🙂
 
Asking God a question and then just opening up the Bible expecting an answer would be wrong. Instead, ask God that by reading the Bible you will be able to better understand of the truth, or may obtain guidence in a certain situation.

God Bless,
Andrew
 
Thank you for the quote from St. Augustine’s confessions.
God wants us to read the Bible. When I read it by opening it randomly after prayer, He sometimes rewards me with the specific words I need. But I don’t think we should depend on doing that always because He also wants us to learn the Bible, and that’s generally done with a less random, more disciplined approach. Rather than always depending on His divine intervention to show me the right passage, I also need to learn to find them.

I don’t think we should use the Bible as a type of “magic 8 ball” toy that we can ask a question, then open randomly to recieve an answer. If a person is doing that, it’s inappropriate. But God will sometimes guide a person to the right passage that they need to read, as the story someone posted by St. Augustine showed.
 
It’s one of those things, I think, that we cannot do ourselves and still be in the right. God might guide us to a certain passage of Scripture for whatever reason; but as gardenswithkids said, the Holy Scriptures are not a magic 8 ball. We cannot open at random any time we may please any book of the Bible and expect a clear answer to any problem we might have. That would be akin to opening the Catechism at random to find the Church’s teaching on a specific point of theology.

The Holy Scriptures were written with a specific purpose, and it is best to take them all in their proper contexts. But God made the rules, and therefore transcends them. In the same way that a vision or apparition is not the norm, it is still completely legitimate.
 
Hi Ruby,

I once read that when you’re hesitating between two solutions, you should flip a coin and see whether you’re happy with the coin’s decision. It is something that helps you know your own mind.

I guess one can use the Bible the same way. But you should not take it as a message from God.

Using the Bible as a sort of ouija board, however is something very close to divination. It should not be encouraged.

Verbum
 
just returned from a seminar on lectio divina, given by a highly respected teacher who dealt with this very question. using the bible solely in this way is wrong and violates the Church’s prescription to read the bible contextually. For someone who is already praying with scripture regularly, pursuing growth in the spiritual life through prayer and sacraments, and is already in the habit of prayer and confiding his troubles, intentions and decisions to God in Prayer, this can be useful at times. This is because it reflects what is already a habit, listening to God speak in scripture to us personally. But to regularly use the bible as a crystal ball or horoscope is wrong. Someone who has not formed the habit of listening to God, and reading scripture in the spirit in which it was written, is unlikely to get a reliable message by dipping randomly into the book like putting a quarter in a gumball machine.
 
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puzzleannie:
For someone who is already praying with scripture regularly, pursuing growth in the spiritual life through prayer and sacraments, and is already in the habit of prayer and confiding his troubles, intentions and decisions to God in Prayer, this can be useful at times. This is because it reflects what is already a habit, listening to God speak in scripture to us personally.
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And this is the crux of the whole matter. I do this myself prayerfully to know God’s will in my life. And, on the whole, Scripture does provide me with whatever I need at the moment. Whether, it be a blessing or an admonition. I am part of a couple of different spiritual associations and on the one, I was called to discern the Spirit’s movement. Twice, through this method, the Lord told me bluntly to shut up! (I can talk a lot :o ). The whole issue was, if a priest asks me to discern, how can one do it if she talks all the time???

Catherine Doherty also did this to know God’s will for her. She picked ‘Sell everything you have…’. She did not want to believe it, so she went to her local library and picked up a bible there and her eyes rested on the same quote. In the end, she sold everything and lived poor with the poor. She founded Madonna House and has been declared a Servant of God in the church on her journey towards beatification.

It must be a small part of the bigger picture of a relationship with God. Otherwise it does become a superstitious thing…motivation also is important. The Lord does know our hearts…and always tends to it.

Blessings,
Shoshana
 
This is just my personal opinion, but I believe it makes sense. Personal opinions should always make sense. It can be fun to open up the bible and see if something jumps up at you that answers an immediate need. The problem comes when you expect something to just jump up at you. For instance, if you are praying for God to give you wisdom on how to deal with a mean boss and you open up to 1st or 2nd Kings, you might be influenced to “smite” him or her if you’re convinced the first thing you read on the first page is the exact answer to your prayer. Of course this is extreme, but there is always a danger of reading Scripture out of context to fit wants. God gives us answers in time. They are not always quick answers. Quick answers are gifts.

Another issue with opening up the bible at random is the ‘randomness’ of it. God gave each of us a free will. When I open a bible, I am opening it. The Holy Spirit isn’t necessarily guiding my hand to find the right page I need. He may have whispered for me to grab the Bible, but it’s up to me to search for the answers in a prayerful manner.

Can God guide our hands to a needed passage? Of course. Does He ever guide us to open up the passage we need at a particular moment? In my experience I believe He does. We should not, however, insist that the first page we open is the particular answer to the particular question we are asking. God gave us all of the Holy Scriptures. He gave us a Church to guide us. There are many resources to help someone who is searching for answers. Why limit ourselves to one page for an particular need?
 
I’ve heard it said that, when a man who was in great financial difficulty desired to find out what God wanted him to do, he opened his Bible, and, with his eyes closed, jabbed his finger onto the open page. It rested on, “Chapter 11.” 😃

In other words, please be prudent about this.
 
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