Temple of Apollo at Delphi

These pictures are of the temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece, which I visited a few years ago. It was the home of the 'Oracle', in the shape of the 'python' or prophetess, a woman who sat on a three legged stool answering questions from visitors. Her answers were often vague and couched in ecstasy. For example, when King Agamemnon came to ask whether to go to war against the Persians, the response was— ‘if you go to war against the Persians, a great victory will be won’. Very helpful. 

In Acts 16:16, Luke tells us 'And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying'. This slave girl was possessed by a 'python' spirit, linking her fortune-telling to the temples of Delphi. As Paul goes on to expel the spirit, and the girl had previously made her owners rich, we can assume it was a real entity that offered accurate knowledge. 

This suggests that Delphic Oracle was not just man-made mumbo-jumbo, but a seat of real spirit activity. How is it possible for fallen spirits to possess such knowledge? And why would they wish to share it with humans?

Spirits are far more intelligent and knowledgable than we humans. What we discover by science they already know and very much more beside. As a wise parent can predict that a drunken teenage house party will result in damaged furniture, so spirits can reasonably estimate the outcomes of human endeavours. 

They share such information not out of kindness or benevolence toward our race, but because such divining is forbidden by God. Participating in such knowledge-sharing with dirty spirits confirms our fallenness and shared sentence at Judgement Day. It also helps to satisfy our spiritual yearning without our having to hear the gospel, which they loathe. 

Contrast pagan prophecy with New Testament prophecy- the clear forth-telling of God's word and proclamation of His will. Simple, plain, open and clear.