Biblegateway.com, a website used by tens of millions of people each year to search and study the Bible, just released its most popular searches over the past 12 months.

It was a shocking to discover that the most searched Biblical words were terms related to sorcery, that registered a 193% increase over 2020.

The remaining top three searches included:

• ‘Slow to anger’ that had a 169% increase, and
• ‘In my Father’s house are many rooms’ that saw a 140% increase over last year.

Sorcery knocked out last year’s number one search, plagues and pestilence, which obviously spiked because of COVID. Searches for those terms actually saw a 71% decrease in 2021.

But it is strange why sorcery would see such a dramatic increase this year.

Biblegateway suggests that it may be due to sorcery being derived from the Greek word, pharmakeia, from which we get the English word pharmacy or drugs.

In his article on Biblegateway, Johnathan Peters explains:

The increase in sorceries is related to heightened interest in the Greek word pharmakeia which, according to the Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament means “employment of drugs for any purpose; sorcery, magic, enchantment” as used in Galatians 5:20

The Greek word pharmakeia refers primarily to the use of drugs and depending on context can be used in a positive sense describing medicinal drugs or negatively referring to poisons, potions, spells, and hallucinatory drugs, that sorcerers and magicians used in the practice of their black arts.

It is used in this context as a method of influencing and manipulating people.

In the three instances that th3 word appears in the New Testament (Galatians 5:20, Revelation 9:20-21, Revelation 18:23), it describes sorcery or spells.

But it also appears this sorcery or manipulation will play a major role in the end times.

In Revelation 18, the Apostle John talks about how Babylon and the spirit of the antichrist used magic arts or sorcery (pharmakeia) on a massive scale to deceive whole countries.

for your merchants were the great ones of the earth,
    and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. (Rev 18: 23 ESV)

One of the popular usages of pharmakeia involved describing drugs used to poison people, which was a popular method of murdering people in ancient times.

In this sense, the Apostle John uses the word to describe the poisoning of the mind, as he saw a mind-altering delusion falling upon the nations of the world, allowing the satanic realm to easily manipulate and control them.

But the verse implies that this deception was not limited to just government leaders, but suggests that this mass delusion or deception, where black becomes white, will fall upon whole nations.

In other words, the end times will be marked by an increased willingness for society to believe a lie. Some would suggest this is already happening.

READ: Sorcery Is One of the Most Searched Bible Terms on Bible Gateway in 2021 AND ‘Sorcery’ and ‘sorceries’ most searched terms on Bible site in 2021