ARE CHRISTIANS TO BLAME FOR THE CRUSADES AND THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS? [2 of 3] The people convicting witches and carrying out death sentences made two mistakes. First, the witches were tried in court during this Christian Age ruled by our New Testament, a New Covenant of grace. Those meting out the punishment for the convicted witches were applying the Old Testament standard that has not been applicable for this past two thousand years of the Christian Church Age. Persecutors of witches during that time of unchristian sentencing in the courts were jumping back to Old Testament directives like those in Exodus 22 and Leviticus 20:"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” and "A man or woman that hath a familiar spirit [demon,] or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.”; So, the people in that day cited Bible verses like those as the reason to give the death penalty to some of the convicted witches. But, if that were the true way to handle it, then why does Acts 19 show Paul not doing the same when he was ministering to Ephesus with new Christians that had been witches and other occultists? Those people burned their expensive witchcraft books and confessed their sinful deeds. Instead of stoning them as required in the Old Testament, Paul welcomed them when they confessed and repented of their sins. Why? Because today and throughout the New Covenant under the New Testament, we don't kill witches. Like Jesus would, we witness to them. That does not mean we condone occult behavior but we do want to witness to them.