Questions & Answers

Fortune Telling

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › Other Churches and Faiths › Fortune Telling

The question

Concerning evil spirits and fortunetelling, St Anthony the Great writes: "to reveal secret things and to make known aforetime what is to be performed are matters which are in the hands of God alone." But what about fortunetellers who claim to "predict" the future? Could you please explain?

The answer

Fortunetellers pretend to foretell future events. Most of them just predict events to come. Some of them are actuated by evil spirits. These evil spirits do not know the future but they are very smart to predict it so they can dictate ambiguous answers to those who consulted them. God would permit such things to gratify the vain desire of wanting to know things to come. Fortune telling can only lead to deception.

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

Questions answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab) of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Question 218 on the Diocese’s Q&A site. Questions and answers © Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. All rights reserved.