The biggest lie being perpetuated upon our society today is that we have become a secular nation. Although Christianity may be waning and is popularly frowned upon, America is not a religionless society.
Rather than eradicate religion, the elite, our educational system and our political institutions have sought to replace the Christian religion with ideologies they can embrace.
Wicca and other pagan and New Age religions are gaining in popularity because, unlike Christianity, there is no personal sin in which one must wrestled with. Rather, paganism espouses that we are all good. We are all our own gods and one must only tap into one’s own inner god to become his or her “higher” self.
In witchcraft, practitioners harness the use of the elements–earth, wind, fire, and water–and use the stars and moon to ask for knowledge, intervene in circumstances, or to invoke power over others.
Witches believe that by saying the right words in the right way, facing the right direction when celestial bodies are aligned in just the right way, they can invoke other gods and spirits to their benefit and gain secret knowledge, all of which the Bible tells us is against the knowledge of God.
“And lest though lift up thine eyes unto heaven and when thou see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, should be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.” (Det. 4:19)
Another prevailing precept in Wicca and New Age religions is that mankind can evolve. He or she can reach his inner potential, ascend to god or goddess status, and manipulate his own destiny and achieve immortality. According to William Schnoebelen in his book, Wicca: Satan’s Little White Lie, most witches believe in a form of Western reincarnation where humankind is reborn “forward.”
Whether it is accomplished through chants, incantations, vision casting, spells or meditation, people are hungry for power in a world where they often feel powerless and out of control. I get that.
For those people who tried on Christianity and found it lacking, Wicca and other pagan religions appear to offer them the chance to govern their own destinies. Indeed, it often does give practitioners a sense of power, even euphoria and favor—for a season.
Trouble is, most people that journey into the mystical are completely ignorant and unsuspecting of just what and who’s power exactly they are tapping into.
At the core of why these pagan mystery religions are growing faster than Christianity is that they are filling an enormous abyss of spiritual emptiness in the West, an emptiness encouraged and guided by malevolent spiritual beings masquerading as light bearers and by a society that embraced science and eschewed the spiritual.
While our society of twenty-something’s and their children are completely biblically illiterate, spiritual forces have been hard at work behind the scenes to give them the New Age philosophies and Wiccan ideals they hold. Ironically, because of their spiritual ignorance, they believe they are more enlightened than all previous generations rather than simply being duped.
And it is not just the world at large that is susceptible to Wiccan practices. Witchcraft has found its way into the modern church. While Wiccans call on the four elements, misled so-called Christians believe that by surrounding themselves with positive people and speaking positive affirmations they, too, can manipulate forces to, “have their best life now.”
The entire “name it and claim it” movement in the modern church is a farce. Unlike Wicca, Jesus tells us that rather than living our best lives now, “In this world you will have trouble. Fear not because I have overcome the world.” Jesus, not our inner selves, overcomes the world.
Today, entire congregations are standing in circles holding hands and facing certain directions to “harness” the power of God. They are oblivious to the irony of how these practices are no different than drawing circles and chanting phrases or casting spells.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that most of the post-modern church has been hijacked by the occult, particularly in the new nondenominational churches where little scripture is taught by pastors who have adopted the methods and buzz words of Scientology and New Age philosophers.
Many pastors are purchasing their Sunday sermons and teaching series from large Christian publishers, many of which are owned by Murdoch and other worldly billionaires. They are not seeking God or His word in order to preach a message apropo to their own flock.
Shepherds such as this would do well to understand that they will be judged by a different standard than a layperson. Certainly if our church can afford nice graphics and teaching materials, it would be foolish to not avail yourself of these teaching aides, however, it must be done prayerfully and responsibly.
Speaking positive affirmations into your life is the same as sorcery and Bible-literate Christians know better, but for the hordes of professing new “Christians” filling up abandoned stadiums to hear the likes of Joel Osteen and others, they have no inkling that they are just as lost as their professing Wiccan neighbor.
The sad reality is that despite having their Bible on their iphones and laptops, today’s Christian doesn’t know the Holy Scriptures any better than their Wiccan or New Age co-worker, oftentimes less so.
Both classes of “believers” and “non-believers” have been raised in this same secular vacuum of the West, a void that has categorically denied the spiritual and elevated the relative. And the spiritual forces behind all of this don’t much care what label we put on ourselves if it produces the same spiritual state of darkness.
So how fast is Wicca growing? According to Wikipedia, “The American Religious Identification Survey” gives Wicca an average annual growth of 143% for the period 1990 to 2001. And according to The Statesman, Anne Elizabeth Wynn claims, ‘The two most recent American Religious Identification Surveys declare Wicca, one form of paganism, as the fastest growing spiritual identification in America.”‘
Indeed, the growth of Wicca and paganism appears to be a mostly American phenomena. As a parent of young adult children, I have long unplugged from the youth culture. However, I would have to be blind not to have noticed the number of Wiccan books, pagan television programs and occult practices that have hit our society like an unsuspecting tsunami.
And there isn’t enough time to mention the music industry.
While we have been diverted by technology, individualism, multiculturalism, and frozen meals, a spiritual darkness has descended over our nation. The zombies are coming, along with the werewolves, vampires and ascended masters. In our land of the so-called free, the brave and the absolutely spiritually clueless, the mystical has taken over. And taken over it has.
While doing some research for this article, I became absolutely overwhelmed by the sheer number of occult television series, books, movies, video games, and other entertainment aimed at children and young adults. Just a simple purview of Publisher’s Weekly’s best-selling books for children frightened me.
The website girlgogames.com, a site aimed at prepubescent girls, features a host of online occult fun. One such game, “Magical Academy,” asks the question, “If you had magical powers, how would you use them? For cute costumes, of course.” Other games on the site include “Emily & the Magic Maze,” “Devilish Trick,” “Vampire Queen Makeup,” “Beauty Potion,” and “Twilight Triangle,” among others.
There are virtually millions of these websites aimed specifically at young girls. Parents who don’t actually view or play the games, may be misled into thinking the games are harmless fairy or dress-up games and will miss the point that they are pagan to the core. Even sadder, these young parents have no foundation of knowledge to even recognize that they are occultic.
One board game teaches girls the mystical art of divination. Hasbro’s, “That’s So Raven Girl Talk Game,” marketed to girls aged eight and up, contains a crystal ball. Under its instructions, you’ll find the following: “This game plays best indoors, under normal lighting. Very bright or halogen lighting may temporarily cause your Crystal Ball to lose its powers….”
How did we get so far as a nation that the occult is now considered harmless child’s play? “Only take heed to thyself, and keep they soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and lest they depart from thy heart all of the days of thy life; but teach them to thy sons and thy sons’ sons.” (Det. 4:9)
Fairies and crystal balls seem harmless to spiritually asleep parents, but are they? “There shall not be found among you any one that make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination (that crystal ball), or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God will drive them out from before thee.” (Det. 18:10-12)
Humans are spiritual beings who occupy a physical body in a physical place. We are not just terrestrial beings devoid of a soul and spirit. And we are not alone in the physical spaces we occupy. Although our Western cultural has taught us that if matter cannot be perceived with the natural eye, it does not exist, this is simply a contradiction. Although we cannot see sound waves or viruses, we know they exist.
And other spiritual beings do exist, just ask the witches, warlocks and werewolves that call on these spirits and practice these mystical arts around you. If the occult had no power, it would have no appeal. And because our Western society today feels powerless because the essence of their spiritual nature has been systematically denied in academia and culture, they are drawn to the occult like moths to a flame.
After centuries of ignoring the spiritual dimension of our humanity, it is no surprise that our young people are flocking to the occult to fill this natural void. But what is behind this resurgence in old pagan religions such as Wicca? And why is it that it is mostly our young people who are so eagerly following this pagan pied piper.
Spiritual forces have had thousands of years to study human behavior and they have been patiently waiting for this last generation of tepid Bible believers to be removed. These wicked spiritual beings in high places are not coming for you, but for your children and their children.
Beginning sometime in the 1960s, the teaching and preaching of God’s word came under attack and for the first time in modern history, our nation’s children did not know the word of God. Dangerous indeed.
“You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.” (Det. 11:18-19)
Obviously, God thought it was paramount that we teach His word to our children.
God knows that unless we understand history, we are doomed to repeat it. The nature of humans does not change. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecc. 1:9)
It is for this reason that God presses upon us to teach our children about Him and His laws and why these spiritual beings have fought so vehemently to remove God from all facets of public life. “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and lest they depart from thy heart all of the days of thy life; but teach them to thy sons and thy sons’ sons.” (Det. 4:9)
Lenin is credited as saying, “Give me one generation of youth and I will transform the whole world.”
Marilyn Ferguson, the darling of the New Age and author of the 1980 best-selling Aquarian Conspiracy, when speaking of her yet untitled work said, “While outlining a not-yet-titled book about the emerging social alternatives, I thought again about the peculiar form of this movement; its atypical leadership, the patient intensity of its adherents, their unlikely successes. It suddenly struck me that in their sharing of strategies, their linkage, and their recognition of each other by subtle signals, the participants were not merely cooperating with one another. They were in collusion. It—this movement—is a conspiracy!”
Now, more than 20 years later, Ferguson’s words have become fact. Ferguson is quoted as saying, “There are legions of [Aquarian] conspirators. They are in corporations, universities, and hospitals, on the faculties of public schools, in factories and doctors’ offices, in state and federal agencies, on city councils, and the White House staff, in state legislatures, in volunteer organizations, in virtually all arenas of policy making in the country.”
Is the conspiracy working? It’s working in spades. Teenage girls flocked to the cinema by the millions to follow the Twilight series, an epic romance between a girl and a vampire. Yet God tells us, “You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying.” (Lev. 19:26)
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series undoubtedly celebrates the craft, but most disturbingly, she has provided entertaining manuals for our youth to practice the occult. Today, the Harry Potter books are used in classrooms and unenlightened Sunday school rooms across the nation.
And unenlightened so-called Christians are reading and practicing the teachings found in Mark Batterson’s circle praying. Just because a publisher or an individual puts a Christian label on a book, doesn’t make it so.
If you are not a Christian, it may surprise you that the Bible has a great deal to say about these other spiritual beings that occupy our universe, as well as the existence of other gods, moon and star gazers, soothsayers, mediums, witches, etc. God never, ever denies the existence of other entities in our universe.
Throughout the pages of the entire Bible, God speaks of these other supernatural beings and gods and warns us not to become involved with them or to worship them. In fact, becoming involved in the occult was so egregious, God commanded that anyone who practiced such things as witchcraft, divination, sorcery, astrology, enchanting, necromancy or consulting with familiar spirits, be put to death.
To our modern ears, this seems like an extreme and unreasonable command from a controlling, manipulating and austere God. “For they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they knew not, and who He had not given them. (Det. 29.26)
The truth is, if you are a parent, you teach your child not to cross a busy highway. Why? Because you don’t want them to be killed by a car. Love, not control, is at the core of God’s admonitions to steer clear of these wicked and dangerous spirits.
God repeatedly warn us not to engage with these other gods and worship them because these spirits and are not the light and love they often present themselves to be, but rather they are wicked. In Psalm 82, we read of how God will one day judge these evil spirits.
“God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the ‘gods’: How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. ‘The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.’” (Psa. 82)
Engaging these evil spirits is so dangerous that God reserves some of his most stern warnings for those who would dabble in the occult. “If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after He hath done you good.” (Josh. 24:20)
Chillingly, these warnings are still applicable today. The Bible tells us that, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb. 13:8) God is not limited by what we call time. “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (2 Pet. 3:8)
So is the Christian God of the Bible a malevolent, jealous God with histrionic tendencies? Does God want humans to remain unenlightened? Enslaved? Is He the “force” keeping mankind chained to an unjust world? Are we, as New Agers believe, our own god?
It may surprise you that God not only desires that we be enlightened about the spiritual realm with all of its gods and drama, He desires to show us the mysteries of the universe!
“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” Secret mysteries of the universe belong to God and his followers, not the pagan god’s followers.
According to Cooper Abrams in his book, Mysteries of the Bible, the word “mystery” is used 28 times in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God tells Jeremiah, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jer. 33:3)
Jesus himself tells us that the mysteries and secrets of the Bible are available only to believers. “For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” (Matt. 13:17).
Jesus desires that we understand the mystical dimension of the world we live in. “He answered and said unto them, ‘“Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.’“ (Matt. 13:11)
In fact, throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, He spoke more about the spiritual realm than any other speaker in the Bible. And no where else in the Bible do we see account after account of encounters with demons than we do in the gospels of Jesus and His apostles.
It was the apostle Paul who said, “Finally, my brother, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:10-12)
And indeed we do. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel, he told him that his prayers had been heard by God but that he had been delayed 21 days in his coming by evil spirits.
“Then he continued, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.’ ” (Dan. 10:12-13)
Gabriel was not speaking of earthly princes and kings, but rather spiritual beings fighting in the angelic realm that were attempting to keep Michael from delivering God’s word to Daniel.
Those who practice the craft and other forms of paganism are communicating with these very same evil and lying spirits spoken of by Gabriel. “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
Dabbling in the occult is dangerous business with eternal consequences. “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8)
Scripture also warns us that we are not to believe every spirit, which again attests that God speaks of “other” spirits. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)
So how can one discern the spirits? I once had an encounter with a co-worker who went out of her way to tell me that she was spiritual, not religious, and that she was somewhat of a “hippy.” She went on to tell me that she didn’t believe in the Christian religion, but that she often meditated.
She then shared with me that after she meditated, she often received answers to problems as well as feelings of peace and euphoria. I asked her how she was sure she could believe these emotions and impressions she received and who she believed was communicating with her.
Knowing that I was a professing Christian, she turned the question around on me and asked me how I could be so sure that I was experiencing a relationship with God. I was so glad she asked! I went on to tell her that there is no book in all of human history, no religion, or no prophecy more sure and accurate than the prophecies contained in the 66 books of the Bible.
Because of this living, breathing, guide book, I have a sure foundation on which to test any revelation, feeling or experience to see whether it is of God. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:5).
Every spiritual impression or communication can be examined in relation to the word of God. If you receive a revelation that simply does not line up with God’s word or character, you are hearing from a lying spirit. God does not contradict Himself in his word.
When Jesus was crucified he made an astonishing statement, “It is finished.” And we cannot add or subtract anything from God’s word. It is a finished work yet there are still events to come.
Like my co-worker who had no specific belief system other than inclusiveness and relativism, we have become a nation of people who can be seduced by almost any spirit. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (1 Tim. 4:1)
Nobody wants to be deceived, but when people embrace esoteric philosophies and religions, there are no guidelines. There is no ancient pagan book that speaks of the past and the future and that nails every single prophecy that has occurred in human history.
As Aleister Crowley so infamously said, “Do what thou will is the whole of the law.” “You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.” (Jer. 9:6)
Crowley’s fascination and service to the occult can be summed up in this simple statement, that is “be our own god,” with your own rules. Scary indeed.
Witchcraft today has been repackaged by Wall Street media moguls and pushed on our society in glossy pink books, movies, games and white magic, all designed to fuel the fire of a rebellious and sinful generation. But the truth is much more sinister.
Everything that is actually true in the occult is cloaked in symbolism and mystery by the father of lies. And for those of you who pride yourselves on being free spirits, have you taken the time to examine why it is that Wall Street has repackaged the occult to attract you? Are you really free or once again playing the pawn in the big man’s game?
If you have been drawn into the occult, I encourage you to read the book of John in the Bible. Do not be deceived by believing everything you have heard about the truth or accuracy of the Bible. There is a war on for your soul.
You must have a yardstick to discern the spirits you are in contact with. Witchcraft is not white and it is not harmless. I do not doubt that your experiences are real. Satan was endowed by God with power at his creation and he is very much alive and at work in our world. He was created by God to be a beautiful and powerful creature:
“‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.” (Ezek. 28:12-15)
God’s warnings to us about our involvement in the occult do not come from a place of control but rather His great love for us. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Pet. 5:8-9)
There is an expected end for Satan and you can be assured he wants to take as many of you with him as he can because of his hatred for the one true God. “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Col. 2:8) #Reignwell