The following is Part 1 of a two-part series, a very condensed version of Linda Harvey's book, Not My Child: Contemporary Paganism and the New Spirituality. For more information about the original book, go here.
Introduction
The Faith That Now Dares to Speak Its Name
It seemed harmless to my friend and me--a wooden board painted with the alphabet and numbers. It had been around for decades and I had never met anyone, my parents included, who believed there was a problem.
In the 1890’s, a man named William Fuld introduced a novelty called the Ouija board into the recreational world of America. It was picked up for mass production by Parker Brothers in the 1960’s, and soon several million units were in the hands of American kids. Like me at age fourteen.
Anne and I giggled as we read the directions. “What makes this thing move?” I asked. We decided it must be our nerve endings, but each of us secretly believed the other one was pushing the little pointer used to highlight the numbers and letters. But as we asked it questions, each resting our fingertips lightly on one side, the little plastic device raced along, spelling out an answer. Often the response was gibberish, but sometimes it wasn’t. It told me, in answer to the question on every girl’s mind, that I was going to marry a guy named Phil.
I never married a Phil, and Anne and I soon put the board away and went on to other teen girl interests. Yet this episode remained at the hazy edge of memory, unexplained, until I became a Christian as an adult.
Traditional faith provides clear instruction about this sort of thing, but my teenaged mind had danced past it. It wasn’t as if I had no exposure to the Gospel message. Between the 11:00 a.m. services, Sunday school, vacation Bible school and confirmation classes, I spent a lot of time at our Episcopal church. But never to my recollection were we warned about certain practices like divination (fortune-telling) that are called “abominations” in Deuteronomy 18. In fact, a serious adherence to Scripture would have been way too fundamentalist and anti-intellectual in the Anglican faith climate.
So there was no reason to hesitate when, in my later teens and in college, I became fascinated by what is called “parapsychology.” I read about experiments at Duke University and other institutions, and all about Edgar Cayce, past lives and reincarnation.
As a young adult, I faithfully followed my horoscope and even bought Tarot cards, although they were soon collecting dust in the back of a drawer. By God’s grace, I never became immersed in occult practices, ultimately finding the star charts and card-reading too silly, overly complicated and weird to bring real meaning into a busy secular life. So I, like most of my generation, slithered out of sorcery’s grasp.
The decades of my adolescence were transitional ones, where an America in flux nevertheless retained a national ethic steeped in Protestant, biblical mores, and those of us raised in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s still benefit from immunities obtained then. Marriage, respect for God, virginity, honesty—all were the cultural norm as even those with flimsy faith got a free ride on the coattails of the Holy Spirit. Sure, a few of my counterculture peers dove into the Age of Aquarius head first, with all its meditation, trances, and channeling. Still, the gross numbers of converts remained relatively small.
With our kids, that is rapidly changing.
Today’s American child is a product of casual “spirituality,” “separation of church and state,” no prayer in school, abortion and “LGBTQ” rights. In their world, it’s going out on a limb just to say “God bless America.” So is it any wonder that so many are falling under the spell of the “ancient ways”?
Resistance will only be as strong as each child’s nonsense detector. Our self-indulged offspring are learning that they can and should construct designer gods to be what they need. They presume the supernatural is benevolent, ready to affirm one’s self-esteem, and they exclude the notion of spiritual evil as absurd and primitive.
Their amorphous deities can be manipulated at will to become one’s untapped mental abilities, a creative muse, an Amazon goddess, or a lover of Dionysian pleasures. Frequently these new gods are dressed in Christian garb with an altered “Jesus” who is no longer a savior, but can morph into a sentimental sap or a receiver of self-focused prayer as needed—or conveniently vanish in the light of the world’s temptations, freeing one to partake as guiltlessly as necessary. These squishy spiritual beliefs allow the self to be the real boss.
But no firm foundation can be laid with Jello and many wonder if this is a spirituality that has “a form of godliness but denying its power.”( 2 Timothy 3:5) Without the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit, who is one with our Savior, Jesus Christ, malevolent spiritual forces are free to step in. So the faith that for several thousand years of history dared not speak its name in the Western world, does so boldly now.
Essentially, it’s paganism.
Get rid of your fears, youth are told everywhere. Fear is taboo, unnecessary and irrelevant because you can always find power to slay your own vampires, or satisfy even the most remote desire. This power is within each of us, kids are taught, just waiting to be harnessed. That’s the only discipline anyone needs. But what would unbridled spiritual power be like in the hands of adolescents? What about curses or hexes? Such practices violate the ethics of “real” witches, according to many in the craft. And adults are evidently supposed to trust kids to stick to the “good” stuff.
Often it’s positioned as “white magic” as opposed to “black magic.” In Charlotte, NC in 1999, three middle school girls were suspected of casting death spells on their classmates, so school officials confiscated their books on witchcraft. The officials made the decision after several students approached school counselors, some upset and crying. The whole situation was creating too much disruption, the administrators said. But the mother of one of the girls, a seventh grader, said her daughter only practiced “good witchcraft.”
What‘s behind the rash of behavioral problems American children now experience? Childhood depression, hyperactivity, panic attacks, eating disorders, suicide, substance abuse, gender identity disorders, violent child criminals, early sexual experimentation, teen pregnancies, abortions, rage against authority—the list goes on. America’s youth are the most privileged, comfortable, and healthy generation in the history of humanity. Why in the world would something dark and pointless like sorcery appeal to them?
Because we have opened the gates of hell for them to peek into, believing it’s the Garden of Eden, our children are learning to welcome and embrace the darkness. Why do we not realize this will have drastic implications for their spiritual lives?
God has given us so much, and yet we thumb our nose at Him, bowing down instead to the goddess of American pop culture. One vision of judgment is fire and brimstone. Yet in reality, our end may come as we gently, peacefully get what we wish for. Our over-indulged offspring are spiritually starving. Can’t we offer them something besides the empty plate of sorcery?
Chapter 1
The Framework of Today's Paganism
“I am a 16- year- old high school junior, and I am a natural Wiccan. This is the religion chosen for me by my parents on the day of my birth. I am also a bisexual, and am open with such a fact each day in my Catholic high school…”
E-mail message to author
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“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6
First, a preliminary definition is needed. Paganism, witchcraft and sorcery involve a number of practices by which practitioners seek to contact supernatural forces and use them for their own purposes. And, most importantly, these forces are, through ignorance or deliberate rebellion, not the Christian God of the Bible. We will go more deeply into a description in chapter 2.
Some call it the fastest-growing religion in America. The number of adherents is difficult to determine, but estimates are that over 1.5 million pagans and witches exist in America, and the number is rising each year. Those are the adults. Today’s primary growth is among youth.
Several broad cultural changes have facilitated the pagan incursion among youth:
- The empowerment of youth outside the bounds of the family
- The decline of respect for biblical Christianity
- An intense focus on nature and environmentalism
- “Human rights” agendas that overturn tradition, particularly feminism and “LGBTQ” rights
- Popularity among youth of intense anti-Americanism
- Renewed interest in alternative religious practices—even in nominal Christian churches
These aren’t solo influences but rather interlocking choruses making strident, incessant noise that it’s impossible to tune out.
Dissing the Past
How do we prepare the soil for the new spirituality? First we have to clear out the field, and that means sweeping away all that has gone before. Christianity, got to go. American patriotism, out of here. Male leadership, forget it. Traditional methods of parenting and instruction, hit the road.
Parents meantime are trying to cope with the social implosion, most without realizing that worse is coming, or in some cases is already here. It’s one thing to deal with a daughter who hates males but can debate with you about the issue; it’s quite another to deal with a child who is hearing voices telling her to do something violent about the male “problem.”
To make matters worse, new educational and parenting philosophies along with weak Christian role models have created an impression among youth that they can and should leave the past behind, that the old ways have no convincing truths and new “progressive” ideas about social roles as well as spirituality are superior. With few adequate defenses of past heritage, they see simple solutions: more women in charge, more respect for Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and fewer remnants of Western culture, which is (children learn everywhere) responsible for vast, mostly unspecified evil.
Diversity and multiculturalism dominate elementary and middle school social studies curricula, as well as high school literature required reading lists. Yet of late the themes are less often racial, religious or cultural harmony, and more about acceptance of any idea or behavior, no matter how bizarre, high-risk, or downright phony. The unique and outlandish is in. One must have no committed beliefs at all, lest one be too exclusive or even “hateful.” This unjustly isolates and depicts biblically-faithful Christians as being backward, even inhumane.
In fact, the all-pervasive anti-bias curricula today generally have a three- pronged focus: teaching tolerance on the basis of race, religion and “LGBTQ” identities. But often, the new “tolerance” actually foments more divisiveness. The religious component of many of these programs present garbled messages that leave kids with the impression that fervent Christian faith equals rabid racism.
The Dark Side of Entertainment
When we allow kids total freedom to explore the media world of today, all hell, literally, can break loose. The Internet greatly reduces the ability of parents to monitor a child’s spiritual (and other) influences. Here’s how quickly kids can get off into strange territory.
At school, a fourth grade class may read a book about “native American spirituality” as part of multicultural education. They’ll read about dreamcatchers, worshipping “Raven” and “Bear,” the revered status of medicine men, etc. So your curious child decides to search for more information on the Internet. Quickly he may learn about current practices among Native Americans, which is likely to involve nature-based rituals and shamanism (which is a type of sorcery).
Or let’s say your daughter’s eighth grade class is studying the Salem witch trials. As she decides to look up material for a school report, guess what pops up? Spells, real wiccans, and more.
And then, consider books for youth. The categories of fantasy and science fiction are wildly popular among pre-teens and teens, as are the “manga” graphic novels, which have taken off as a result of the influence of popular Japanese “anime” cartoons. In all these categories, the level of occult practices used in story lines has ratcheted up enormously in recent years. In a general sense, it isn’t our purpose to recommend keeping kids away from all fantasy/science fiction and other imaginative material. But a lot more monitoring is needed because there are some real dangers out there, simply because of the domination of these themes. Where can kids go to just read about pets and sports anymore?
Taking Christ out of Christianity
Reinforcing the idea that the past and parents must be left behind is the growing disenchantment with and even outright antagonism toward traditional Christianity. We’ve already mentioned that this attitude prevails throughout the public school system, but amazingly, this approach dominates some Christian circles as well, and our youth are listening.
Three decades ago, a fledgling movement called “feminist spirituality” grew in intellectual circles and on university campuses, championed by feminists primarily from mainline Christian denominations who were taking “consciousness raising” to a new level. The movement sought to discard biblical standards of sin and atonement as well as God the Father in favor of a feminized deity with Eastern, pagan and Native American religious elements. Many adherents remained in their congregations with the goal of revolution from the inside out, and have subsequently introduced feminist theology and its heresy into “Christian” churches.
When I attended a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1993, I had to sign an agreement to adhere to a policy of “inclusive language.” I didn’t realize this would mean that I and other students would be chastised in class if we referred to God as “He.” I was stunned the first time this happened to me. ( Read more HERE.) This oppressive climate of political correctness has become common in mainline Christianity, shutting out the true light of authentic faith.
So your daughter Kristin, who goes to her youth group at the local United Methodist or Presbyterian USA church, may hear things that would curl your hair. Being inclusive may be the least of it. Taking the Bible seriously may be ridiculed, along with believing Christ is the only way to salvation. She may hear that humans aren’t really sinful at all, or if so, only when we fail to love ourselves enough by following our own desires and dreams.
Even honoring a goddess won’t shock most of our children now. Kids are being drilled at church camps and at youth group meetings, reinforcing what they are told at school, that we are to honor the Earth as a divine or semi-divine entity. One Sunday in April is set aside in many mainline congregations to celebrate Earth Day.
Concepts of “eco-justice,” “sustainable” living, and animal rights and of course, “climate change,” abound in church youth group curricula, many of which agree with the principles of the United Nations’ Earth Charter, affirming the rights of indigenous people to their “spiritual well-being.”
Worship of an idea of a “goddess” is a belief among many pagans, but how it is understood is important for parents to discern. Donna Steichen, in her book Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism, explains that most followers of witchcraft “…prefer a feminine deity, revealed only in human experience; they encounter her in their own impulses and worship her by obeying them ( p. 74).”
This is why paganism appeals to today’s spoiled American youth. It finds a spiritual rationale for doing just about anything one wishes. “What a great religion,” the uninformed, unchurched adolescent will think.
The American left has been anxious to silence orthodox Christian voices, with carefully crafted nonsense that appeals to spiritually undiscerning youth and their uncritical parents. In coming years, the ACLU will achieve increasing successes as they defend the expression of alternate spirituality in American culture while restricting religious freedom for Christians. Under such a culture, Christians are becoming increasingly marginalized.
To the mainstream media, being a witch has little shock value anymore. Even many “Christian” parents regard the practice with little concern. Open practitioners of witchcraft and uncensored discussion have created a flood of new and casual initiates. The barriers are down because Christians have failed to preserve their influence in the culture, and are themselves suppressing any alarm bells that may be going off.
There’s an element of testing here, I believe, about where our priorities and loyalties really lie. What does our Christian gut instinct tell us, the moment we hear the words “pagan” or “witchcraft” in connection with our kids? We hand them the Bible with reverence, and they learn Scripture passages such as the First Commandment, that we are to worship no entity but God. They also read that “witchcraft is rebellion” (1 Samuel 15:23), and read about practices like sorcery and divination (trying to foresee the future) being abominations to God, as stated in Deuteronomy 18.
Then, with those same parental hands, we turn around and buy for them books packed with sorcery, fortune-telling and “magick.” Now multiply these books, with their Christless plots and flirtation with the occult, times twenty or more, as your avid-reading child traverses his/her pre-teen and teen years. Does anyone doubt this will have an impact on this child’s spirituality? But these practices can’t be all that offensive to God, our children may well think, if my parents are okay with it.
Why aren’t more parents willing to say no? One reason is that Christians—those who should know better—are much more influenced than we should be by political correctness and the desire to avoid the “fundamentalist” label. We don’t want to be one of those despised members of the religious right going out on the much-feared “witch hunt.”
The task before us is to get out priorities straight and courageously and show our kids the value of truth and the Christian worldview. We must teach them how to be discerning about spiritual evil, and to question the growing cacophony of voices that would lead them away from Christ.
The bottom line is both faith and the ability to practice it freely in America. If some form of paganism becomes the preferred spiritual practice, there will be no room for an “exclusive” belief in one Savior. Worshipping Christ openly in a church might become a vague memory of an idyllic past.
There’s only so far one can retreat from Satan. As the sworn enemy of Christ, his main objective is to separate humans from the love of Christ through any means possible. He has never left the Lord’s followers alone, but strikes when defenses are down. To assure the faith of our children and grandchildren, and their ability to practice it openly, we must teach them to recognize the devices of the enemy and how to turn them to his disadvantage. Some of these challenges can become fodder for deeper faith and opportunities to share the hope of Christ.
Chapter 2
Do What You Will: The Core Tenets of the New Spirituality
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” 2 Corinthians 11:13–14
Our children can now be tutored in pagan practices through their growing acceptability in a fearless culture. It’s no wonder most American kids today don’t recoil in horror, as their parents once did, when a friend says he or she is a witch. Clueless about Christian doctrine and with more and more self-proclaimed pagans in their classrooms, churches and neighborhoods, few kids feel any trepidation about such beliefs.
Yet Scripture could not be more stern in its condemnation of pagan practices:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image –any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them” (Exodus 20:2–4).
“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the lord” (Deuteronomy 18:10–12).
The Invisible Battle
In our material, Western world, many people have trouble with the idea of a real spiritual realm. Yet not only do most other cultures in the world accept this as fact, but Scripture clearly describes this reality. The Holy Spirit, after all, is the Spirit of our Christian deity. If one believes He exists, why not heed the rest of Scripture as it paints a picture for us about the whole universe of supernatural beings?
Accepting this model of the unseen world, though, has huge implications for mystics, pagans and wiccans and what they believe, because it would point toward an enormous lie. No one wants to face the crumbling edifice of a false faith.
Yet there is a deliberate and unrelenting battle to deceive people. We are told in Scripture that Satan and an army of fallen (demonic) spirits is real. Satan is a “roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus told us the devvil is also a murderer and a liar (John 8:44). But in everyday terms, how does this work?
The best way to describe it is in terms of a battle of ideas and feelings. We are told that our primary struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it is against “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Satan’s goals are to separate people forever from God. How does this happen? At some level of thoughts and spiritual input, this enemy uses one’s own tendency to sin and amplifies it. Satan and his army of fallen angels do have influence on one’s thought life, particularly upon unbelievers or those who are not walking closely with God.
So, in a battle, a clever foe will use whatever works. Satan’s tactics fall into several categories:
- Deception
- Dissension
- Distraction
- Destruction
What is a Pagan?
In this context, current neopagan trends need to be seen for what they are. They are not “progressive” new spiritual insights, but as old as humanity. It should not be a surprise that Satan is especially interested in misleading young people.
In defining paganism and current witchcraft, considerable disagreement exists among today’s practitioners about what a “pagan” or “witch” is. Among the e-mails I receive, many argue vehemently that “wicca” is this or it’s not that. “You don’t understand our beliefs at all!” is a frequent refrain.
What is really meant is that I don’t see it from their viewpoint, and that’s of course true. From a pagan worldview, a person is free to construct a faith shaped however they wish, and then they operate as if it’s real. But from the Christian viewpoint, there is a big gap between these beliefs and truth itself.
Those involved in sorcery often don’t grasp what it is they are doing and why it’s a problem. A few pagans do understand and have made their choice anyway for their own purposes. Yet deliberate rebellion versus default rebellion through ignorance may serve to describe the state of one’s heart, but in biblical terms, each person is still responsible. Rebellion is still rebellion.
Paganism and witchcraft didn’t make much sense until I became a Christian. Then the patterns, practices and ultimate error of paganism came into sharp focus through its contrast with Christian principles. Like a knock-off designer dress hung next to a genuine, the distinctions become obvious and glaring.
Because of this, I define paganism as the practice of attempting to harness the power of the supernatural for one’s own purposes, and the power being sought is deliberately, sometimes defiantly Christ-less, with no room for "inclusion" of our Almighty God.
The “pagan worldview” is appealing for reasons other than its truthfulness. This postmodern generation doesn’t often like hard facts or believe they matter. Being a pagan appears to allow one to be in charge and change the rulebook at will. It offers the tantalizing promise of mysticism; it guarantees sexual self-determination. You don’t have to worry about “evangelizing,” so one can totally focus on what’s in it for oneself. For feminists, it claims to be egalitarian. And it revels in sensual experience, allegedly glorifying the erotic, the beautiful in nature and in oneself. On the face of it, there’s seems no reason to resist. It sounds too good to be true.
And, of course, it is. Ultimate lies and traps are buried here, the primary one being the illusion that you are in charge. If the God of the Bible exists, with Christ as Savior, then goddess worshippers and sorcerers are in real trouble.
Many parents and adults believe correctly that it is possible for a teen to be involved in these activities but not make contact with a “spirit” at all. Since it has a growing favorable reputation, particularly in more liberal circles, there are many “bubble – gum” witches out there, young teens who are trying on paganism as today’s current costuming. However, this does not mean it’s harmless. The teen who just downloads a couple of spells from a web site, tosses together a few herbs and lights a candle in her room, still faces spiritual accountability, starting with not worshipping God Almighty, which happens to be the First Commandment.
It is clear that some seekers do make spiritual contact, and this is the ever-present danger, as is the rebellious attitude toward God that prompts this exploration in the first place.
The Source of Pagan Power
There are several primary ideas among pagans about where they think power originates. The individual pagan, with others in a coven or circle, or as a sole practitioner, can call upon this power and then direct it to a specific use. The power as they envision it may emanate from one or more presumed deities (goddesses and/or gods), or a more generalized all-powerful deity. Again, in the witch’s mind, none of these deities will resemble the Christian Almighty God, nor is there any place among these deities for a Savior like Christ.
Of course, a few pagans will call on “God” or “Jesus,” but it soon becomes clear that they have a completely different “Jesus” in mind than the King of Kings.
Some pagans or witches may also ascribe to the Hindu concept of a universal force connecting a polytheistic realm, with higher and higher degrees of possible spiritual achievement. It’s very common for pagans to believe in reincarnation.
The non-specific Great God may also resemble the primary deity of many Native Americans. There is a whole American arm of witchcraft that follows the image of the female shaman, or “medicine woman.”
Another common view is that the power comes from within oneself, and is really part of an untapped energy source—a “higher order thinking,” or the unused portions of one’s brain. The prolific witch writer Starhawk (a.k.a., Miriam Simos) says this energy resembles what the Chinese call “chi.” It “flows in certain patterns throughout the human body, and can be raised, stored, shaped, and sent.” This recalls elements of Jungian psychology with its “collective unconscious” and archetypal myths. The irony is that believing one is a god was the original sin of Adam and Eve. Such profound implications still fail to move many pagans who brazenly plunge ahead into the current iteration of ancient heresy.
A combination of these two viewpoints (external vs. internal source) is common among witches, the internal power usually linked with a female deity (“the goddess in you”).Or, an unnamed force may reside in all things, stored in animals, plants, rocks, trees, pyramids, amulets, and even one’s computer or clothing.
And usually witches maintain that power can be “good” or “evil,” the idea of “white” witchcraft vs. black magic. Modern witchcraft has a saying, probably developed by Gerald Gardner in the 1950’s even though it sounds medieval, “An ye harm none, do what you will.” As we will see, the authority on what constitutes “harm” is the individual sorcerer, whose decisions can accommodate various needs and situations.
Peter Jones, Ph.D. has written several profoundly insightful books about the American and global descent into paganism. He believes the contemporary interest in witchcraft is the latest manifestation of alternate spirituality, fueled by popular feminist political goals. In his book Gospel Truth/ Pagan Lies, he summarizes the five principles of Gnostic/pagan belief, which he calls monism:
- All is one and one is all—the universe is God
- Humanity is one, all connected
- All religions are one
- One real problem—good vs. evil, male vs. female, should be resolved by unification, or blurring of absolutes
- One solution: we save ourselves, through meditation or recognition of our own divinity
The flexibility of this belief system resonates with today’s youth, especially in America. Though structurally unsound, it allows the appearance of religious faith while retaining the option to binge on the blessings of affluence, peace and prosperity. Since the biblical foundation of American life and our nation’s fruitfulness are intertwined, as individuals feed on rotten spiritual nourishment, their well-being may deteriorate along with that of the nation.
The central issue is reality. The Christian faith is based on historical and spiritual truth and teaches principles that are in direct opposition to the neopagan view. This precludes blending the two faiths. Christians would say that sadly, the “power” felt by the pagan is the person’s own sinfulness in contact with the demonic spiritual realm. These demonic spirits can disguises themselves as necessary to gain entry into one’s life (as described in 2 Corinthians 11:14). They can be your dead Uncle Harry, Alexander the Great, one’s own personal spirit guide, a beloved saint, or even a false “Jesus.”
Very few pagans acknowledge anything like this, and will emphatically state that they do not worship Satan. Christians would maintain that in essence, it is Satan’s army of demonic spirits that ritualists may contact, even if they do not realize it.
The actual practice of sorcery is what today’s neopagans call “magick” or “ritual,” and these are really terms for spells. This is not like Christian prayer for many reasons. One is that various props like herbs, candles, wands, and incense are utilized. The activity is performed in a sequence. Such spells vary greatly, and pagans can invent their own spells.
The objective is to make a change—get a desired job, lover, grade on a test, date for the prom, money in one’s bank account, etc. The idea of prayer to Almighty God and trusting Him with whatever outcome He decides is not at all compatible with the mind-set of the pagan practitioner. The pagan wants, therefore has to make it happen on his/her timetable. It gets down to an issue of control directed by the self, through the ritual actions and intentions.
Words or numbers can carry a lot of power and significance, the pagan believes. So the number 3 that repeats itself during one day and again in a person’s dream, can be interpreted as a message from the divine. Language that is “negative” or that doesn’t express what the pagan likes is not to be mentioned, because to say something gives it power. I’ve had pagans write to me and say that they don’t acknowledge Satan, because to do so would give him power.
This is classic superstitious thinking that can become bondage for the person who is constantly looking for, and then responding to, certain symbols, words, and messages. By contrast, Christianity frees the individual from such confusion.
Disinformation and Delusion
In order to be seduced into paganism, a child’s mind must be vulnerable to adopting its worldview. The concepts that shape this worldview can be summarized as follows:
- Focus on self, will and pride
- Focus on immediate gratification
- Preference for sensual pleasure over virtue and idealism
- Fascination with the mysterious and dangerous
- A bias against Christianity
The youth who has been propped up with inflated self-esteem, indulged from birth, provided shortcuts to avoid learning patience and diligence, and tantalized with sensational entertainment will naturally gravitate toward paganism. What seals the bargain is to prevent this child from seriously evaluating the claims of Christianity, which could bring truth, light, goodness and humility to his/her life.
Chapter 3
The Real Jesus Christ
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4: 1
Most false faiths carry some seeds of truth, but the test is to ask where they lead. Like any journey, it’s wise to know the destination before one starts, and in faith, that’s where the genuine becomes distinct from the counterfeit.
There is no other model on earth of a faith that has a God like Christianity. Jesus Christ is identified in Scripture as God in the flesh on earth. He was still fully human yet without sin. He voluntarily, humbly and yet powerfully sacrificed Himself for His own creatures, then overcame death to demonstrate what really constitutes power, faithfulness, truth and love.
The tangible, practical evidence to support Christianity is throughout the world—in places, traditions, archaeology, language, and the sacrifices of countless Christians. The most compelling evidence is Christ Himself and how and why He came to earth. Rather than God continuing to be separate and unseen from His creatures, Christ’s birth, death and resurrection demonstrate through historical fact and in historical time the reality of God’s promises to Israel and then to the rest of humanity. As a pivotal spot on the timeline of human history, there is no comparison to the event splitting “B.C.” from “A.D.”
Christ was the Light of the World (John 8:12), the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), the Bread of Life (John 6:35). He declared to the Jews in the temple (John 8:54–58) and told the woman at the well (John 4:26) that He was the Messiah. He also told Peter and some of the disciples (Mark 8:27–30), the blind man to whom He gave sight (John 9:35–37), and did not deny Martha when she stated as much (John 11:25–27). He was most emphatically not simply a “good teacher” but was the Creator and Savior of all humanity.
As deity, Christ was “in the beginning… with God” (John 1:1–2). All things came to existence through the creative agency of Christ (John 1:3; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16). So Christ was not simply a wise man, or just a prophet. He was fully able to set the parameters of sin in His eternal law, then forgive and save us from sin, since He was and is God. After granting humans total free will starting in the Garden of Eden, God also graciously provided a way for us to be reconciled to Him, through the personhood of Christ.
Christ was and is the beginning of all real love (Ephesians 3:18–19). He commanded believers to seek peace and love (Colossians 3:12–15). Yet He was also one tough customer, with justice, truth and virtue as His goal. His primary message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). He accused the leaders of Judaism, the scribes and Pharisees, of being hypocrites (Matthew 23) and declared them a brood of vipers (Matthew 12:34). He condemned in advance any community that would refuse to hear the preaching of the gospel by His disciples, saying it would “be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city” (Matthew 10:14–15; Mark 6:11).
He will ultimately be each person’s judge (John 5:21–22). Christ Himself defined the “exclusivity” of the Christian faith, when He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Yet no one who chooses to confess sin, repent and believe in this Savior is excluded from access to Him (John 3:16).
Christ said that His true followers would not always be honored but would be “hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9). He said that the world “hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil” (John 7: 7).
Since Christ has been since “the beginning,” He was fully present as part of the divine Godhead in the Garden of Eden at the fall of mankind. “Let us make man in Our image,” notes Genesis 1:26, referring to the Trinitarian nature of God. Christ fully understood that humans are not basically good, but that we always gravitate toward selfishness and sin without God (Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 14:1; Romans 3:23). He also knew that, unlike what modern psychology would later claim, humans do not need more self-esteem, but more humility and that in fact, the only real peace and security comes from acknowledging our sinfulness before God and inviting Christ into our lives. This decision cannot be forced, but the free will to choose Christ—-or reject Him—is given by God to every person. Yet it is the duty of every Christian to tell people about the Gospel so as many as possible know about this option (Matthew 28:18–20).
As part of the Trinity, Christ witnessed the giving of the Ten Commandments and other laws in the Old Testament. This includes the First Commandment: “I am the Lord your God…You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2–3). Forbidden were the practices of false faith: witchcraft, sorcery, divination (fortune-telling), consulting mediums, calling on the dead, and worshipping or praying to false gods and idols (Deuteronomy 18:10–12; Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 19:26, 31; Leviticus 20:6; 1 Samuel 15:23; 2 Kings 21). These same prohibitions are echoed in the New Testament (Acts 16: 16–18; Acts 19:11–20; 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; Galatians 5:19: 1 Timothy 4:1; Rev.9:20–21; Rev. 21:8 and Rev. 22:15).
He was fully present when the ancient nation of Israel, after being led by God out of Egyptian slavery into the promised land of Canaan, deliberately turned to the worship of false gods and goddesses (Isaiah 2; Isaiah 44:9–20; Isaiah 45:20; 1 Kings 14; 2 Kings 17; 2 Kings 21; Jeremiah 7) as well as to sorcery, astrology, and nature worship (Isaiah 2:6; Isaiah 47:9–13; Jeremiah 8:2; 2 Kings 21;2 Chronicles 33). Ignoring many divine warnings delivered through the prophets over several hundred years about the consequences of this spiritual unfaithfulness, the Hebrews were eventually conquered by the pagan nations of Assyria and Babylon.
Christ was well aware of the nature of the spirit world, for He is One with the supreme spirit, the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit guided the Old Testament prophets as well as Christ’s direct confrontations with Satan (Matthew 4; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). The Holy Spirit has been present and accessible to all true believers in Christ since Christ ascended to heaven, and is our spiritual Teacher and Helper, as well as the Spirit of Truth (John 14:16–17). The Holy Spirit embodies the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 2: 10–13), and indwells those who have been “born again” through belief in Christ (John 3:3-5, 1 Peter 1:3).
Christ, together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, has power over all things, including Satan (Mark 1:27; Philippians 2:9–11;1 John 4:4).
The demon world is answerable to God (Job 2) and demons tremble before Him (James 2:19).Yet God allows Satan and his army of demons to exist for now, as humans continue to accept his deceptive ideas and temptations, a process started in the Garden of Eden with the choices made by Adam and Eve. Satan saw his own eventual destruction at Christ’s resurrection. Still, he is committed to a fierce struggle to take as many souls with him as possible (Luke 8:12; Ephesians 6:11–12; 1 Peter 5:8). All who do not believe in Christ will join Satan in hell for eternity (Matthew 13:31–43; John 3:16). This is a choice people make themselves, by rejecting the free gift of salvation through Christ.
The Reality of the Spiritual Realm
Most church-goers in America as well as the other Western nations are basically secular in their approach to faith, operating as if Christianity is simply a code of values. They have trouble grasping the concept of the omnipotent, present power of God and the existence of an unseen spiritual world, even if they give lip service to it. Or rather, it’s easy to accept the good spirits—like angels and of course, the Holy Spirit—but Satan and demons belong to the category of folklore and myth.
The West is unique in this denial. John P. Newport makes this point in his book, The New Age Movement and the Biblical Worldview: “The field of anthropology reveals that throughout Asia, Africa, the Pacific islands, among folk Muslims –virtually anywhere that the Western worldview has not permeated – the idea of evil spirits is an integral part of the worldview of many groups.”
Christian missionaries have encountered difficulties, Newport notes, because often they have become so secularized that they do not understand how to operate in the spirit realm. In such cases, the casting out of evil spirits ironically continues to be done by local shamans. A truly multi-cultural approach would investigate what these other cultures may understand that Western culture doesn’t.
Rejecting the dark side of spiritual forces is an arbitrary decision. Of course we would all like to believe that only “good” spirits exist, but what does the evidence show? Christians in particular err in choosing to ignore this aspect of Scripture. We counted thirty–two references in the Gospels alone (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) where Satan or demons are encountered or their activities described.
One doesn’t have to become obsessed with exorcism or blame every human ill on demons, to accept the truth of spiritual evil as presented in the Bible. C.S. Lewis makes this point eloquently in the preface to The Screwtape Letters, when he states that there are two typical approaches to the idea of Satan and demons—either to be overly preoccupied with them, or to disbelieve they exist. Both are biblically unsound attitudes.
Christ casts out demons not through ritual, dance, mindless meditation, shouting, wailing, chanting, drumming, praying over certain territories, or other questionable practices that often accompany human endeavors. He exerted authority over them with simple verbal commands (Matthew 8:28–33; Mark 1:27; Luke 4:41). His encounter with Satan in the wilderness (Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 4) involved a battle of ideas. Satan verbally assaulted Christ with twisted versions of Scripture, and the incarnate Deity resisted fleshly temptation while correcting Satan’s deception, finally calling a halt by reminding him that, ”It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the lord your God’”(Luke 4:12).
Christ’s authority and the truth of His word are the essential weapons against the demonic army. Believers are told to pray fervently and arm ourselves with the “full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10–18). This armor includes righteousness, knowledge of God’s word, our salvation promises, a peaceful attitude, and strong faith.
In dealing with the immaterial, certain pagans may have the advantage over many self-labeled Christians. If one has already encountered the spiritual realm, it may be easier to accept the saving faith of Christ and quickly grasp the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our youth dive into witchcraft often believing it will be their “salvation” from the evils of Western patriarchal culture. How cruel it will be to learn too late that this view was false and had steered them not into paradise, but off a cliff. If it’s true that Jesus Christ was the savior of the world, then the consequences of dismissing Him are enormous and eternal.
One wiccan wrote that she might consider returning to a Christian church “when Christianity decides to reflect Jesus, a man who was very unlike the men of his time.” What is meant by this? Yes, he supported women—but not to wreck their families, distort their femininity, or blaspheme the Almighty. As with many other postmodernists, she diminishes the totality of who Christ was. If she understood, she would realize why He opposed witchcraft as well as other false belief—and why this is a good thing for all humanity.
The Tactics of a Formidable Enemy
As said previously, not all people who practice witchcraft will encounter spiritual forces. God is merciful in allowing many who dabble in the occult to fail to make contact with enemy spirits. But any spiritual encounter that is made during spell-casting or rituals will not be from the good side of the spirit world—i.e., God and/or angelic beings. Since the practitioner is violating God’s prohibition against sorcery, any contact made will be with demonic spirits. This is true regardless of whether the witch understands this, or whether the spiritual force, if communicating, identifies itself as such.
Classic demonic activity is evident in American life today especially among “superstar” New Age personalities, many of whom have been embraced in mainline Christian denominations. Mediums who have contact with “spirit guides” or who channel communications from spirits have published best-selling books with their messages. Some masquerade as “Christian” messages. A Course in Miracles by psychologist Helen Schucman was published in 1975, and has served as the basis for instruction in many Christian churches. It has also been featured on PBS and has over a million copies in circulation. Schucman said this material was dictated to her by an inner voice which identified itself as “Jesus” and said, “This is a course in miracles. Please take notes.”
Course is a rambling nonsensical presentation which uses Christian terminology, even the name of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but radically contradicts scriptural precepts in its ideas. Only a few points are even coherent, and they are the same diabolical message usually conveyed: we humans are gods ( or we and God have the same mind).There is really not good and evil—these are only false perceptions. The only sin is a lack of the all- encompassing universal “love.” Forgiving oneself is the starting point. There is no punishment—only the correction of this mistake in perception. All of this is “special” secret knowledge that only a few enlightened people will grasp. If you do, you are obviously one of the gifted.
Like many counterfeit messages, it has a comforting and simple appeal at first, because it would simply allow a person to do exactly what they wish and justify it. Hurting others would only be a mistaken impression.
All people have souls that will live eternally either in heaven or hell, depending on our belief (or not) in Christ, rather than our love of worldliness and evil (John 3:18-21). We are responsible for the sins we commit (James 1:12-15) even if demonic forces influence our lives, because we are fully able to resist Satan through the power we can call on in the name of Christ (James 4:7-10).
The primary goal of Satan is to separate human souls eternally from God. As the master of pride( Isaiah 14: 12-15), he abandoned allegiance to God because of his belief in his own abilities (Ezekiel 28: 12-19).Winning souls to his side is part of his contention with the Almighty.
The tactics of Satan can be low key, if that’s all it takes to keep someone from God, or they can be strong and overwhelming. They take the form of deception, distraction, or destruction. Satan is the father of lies and murder (John 8:44) and tempted Eve and Adam in the Garden through appeals to their pride, when they believed the lie that they could be like God (Ezekiel 28:13; Genesis 3:4-5).
The secular narcissism of America culture and its delusion that Satan doesn’t exist has been exploited by dark powers to the hilt. Satan hides “in plain sight” while evidence of demonic influence is everywhere, from increased psychiatric visits and anxiety disorders, to youth rebellion, to moral and civil chaos on many fronts. Yet most of the intellectual, political and even religious elite discount the biblical model describing the spirit world.
The seduction of Satan can be disguised as something beautiful, noble or intensely exciting. “For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light,” 2 Corinthians 11:14 tell us. Elizabeth Hillstrom notes in Testing the Spirits that the current New Age spiritualism:
"….acknowledges the existence of other spirit beings…and tacitly assumes these beings are good and have our best interests at heart. In strong contradiction to the Bible (see Deut.18:9-13), it assumes that contacting these spirits, interacting with them and heeding their advice is a beneficial thing to do."
Yet nothing is beneficial from the demonic realm, and Scripture tells us to use God’s wisdom and protective measures to discern deceiving spirits and overcome them. This is why we are told to “test the spirits.” The test is as follows: “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.” (1 John 4: 1-3) Acknowledging the reality of Christ on earth is a critical element separating false from real faith.
If the mind is engaged and dwells on truth, it will likely gravitate toward Christ, who is the cornerstone of all truth. Many people know the familiar verse, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32) But the verses before and after tell us how Christ defines truth: “If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. Then you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32) He goes on to tell us what “free” means: it means free from the bondage of sin. He talks about slavery and that “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” (John 8: 34) It is, again, Christ (not the individual human) who defines what sin is through His law-- the commandments.
Because Christ embodies truth and has authority over deceiving spirits, He is the One who is feared and resisted by followers of false faith, even if they do not understand this is their motivation.
One Christian precept builds upon another, and together they make a very solid and truly enlightening faith, one that transforms the mind. Once that happens, God can effect in each of us seemingly impossible alterations( Romans 12:2). But they are made by the Creator Himself, so why would we expect anything less?
The Confusion of Religious Syncretism
When a person takes on witchcraft, they embrace the world in ethereal form. Seemingly progressive yet elemental and primitive, the beliefs and practices appeal to fantasy, vanity, beauty and desire. The goddess promises unlimited exploration of spiritual and human power, relationships, and sensuality. By contrast, the way of Christ appears dull and limiting.
Appearances are often deceiving. “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35) Even those who choose other roads sense Christ’s real power and life-giving qualities. The danger in Christian America is syncretism, thinking one can have it both ways. This “value-added” package is being sold to many youth today who do not realize the real cost.
In reality, witchcraft is totally incompatible with Christianity. As a belief system, it justifies violating many if not all of the Ten Commandments of the Bible, beginning with Number 1: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3)
In addition to these pillars of the Christian faith, the detailed directives supporting the Ten Commandments are also routinely and enthusiastically smashed through witchcraft practices. As mentioned earlier, the Old Testament is full of warnings against all the creative ways humans devised to violate the First Commandment. Pagan worship of false gods included practicing sorcery (contacting spirits through ritual, trance, etc.); attempts to foresee the future (divination), such as astrology; or attempting to manipulate one’s future (charms, potions, etc.); and attempting to contact the “dead” through séances or possession by a spirit. Actually, demons pose as dead relatives or famous personages to deceive the unwary.
These practices are forbidden because God doesn’t interact with His followers using these methods. Prophets of God do foretell the future, but the visions, dreams and messages are always initiated by God and not the prophet, and authentic contact from God will never communicate anything that violates what He has already communicated in His word (Scripture) and His commandments. There is no need to conduct any ritual as such to get God’s attention. It’s a good bet that many of God’s chosen prophets many times wished God would leave them alone, for the path of following Him and delivering His messages was usually a solitary and difficult one.
Another reason these practices are forbidden is that they arise from the person’s need to know something now. The ungodly, pagan mind has a frenzied desire to control situations rather than trusting God to reveal His plans on His timetable under His direction. Since God doesn’t use such methods, any attempt to make supernatural contact along these lines will not put one in touch with God, but instead one or more demons will mimic whatever the human wants. Demons have personalities and can take on human qualities; they can vary voices, languages and accents; and they can even have some limited knowledge about future events. All combine to fool the person into believing he/she has contacted “God;” an “Ascended Master,” (an occult spirit identity); the deceased Eleanor Roosevelt; one’s Uncle Albert; or even a self-named “Jesus” who will deliver very un-Jesus -like messages.
By contrast, true believers in Christ do have instant access supernaturally to God through Christian prayer. Just to clarify, the term “prayer” is tossed about casually today, and much praying that is undertaken may not reach the ears of the Almighty. If one prays and has in mind a deity that has qualities other than Jesus Christ or Almighty God as described in Scripture, there’s an excellent chance it is falling on deaf ears. For instance, the young witch who has been incorrectly told that she can pray to a feminine version of the Christian God will probably not get much response from the true Almighty. There is a possibility that the demonic may do whatever possible to accomplish such a prayer request, just to confuse the issue and continue the deception, but in general terms, access to the real Father is not achieved this way. The prophet Isaiah mentions false prayer by the person of compromised faith:
Hear the word of the Lord…
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord…
“When you come to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?...
Your New Moons and appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.”
Isaiah 1:10-15
The New Testament is just as unyielding as the Old Testament in its condemnation of sorcery. In Ephesus, after hearing the preaching of Christ’s disciples, “...many who believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.”(Acts 19: 18-19) In Galatians, Paul lists the “works of the flesh” as “…adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you…that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (5:19-21) By contrast, “.. the fruit of the Spirit [the Holy Spirit] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (5:22-23)
The element of “self-control” does not mean repression, but instead Christians under the internal direction of the Holy Spirit have knowledge to do what is authentically right, and have the liberty to make those choices with this full knowledge. One of Satan’s tricks is deception, making sin seem appealing. Believers by contrast can know the whole truth. So they have foresight to understand the consequences, for instance, of adultery—all the people who will be hurt, how ultimately unsatisfying it will be—and because of that, are armed with increased information, along with heightened wisdom and good judgment. The Holy Spirit equips each believer, and the extent of knowledge depends on how much the individual deepens his faith through study of Scripture and prayer.
Witchcraft is named in 1 Samuel 15:23 as “rebellion” and idolatry is “stubbornness.” Scripture forbids us to make up our own version of truth, but to keep our focus on the revealed truth of God:
"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…" 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
One of Satan’s hallmarks is to plant misleading information in the human mind about who God and Jesus Christ are. He works diligently to hide the truly attractive qualities about the freedom and life-affirming qualities of a real relationship with Christ, while disguising the bondage that embodies spells, ritual and invocation of demons. The young life that casts aside the Savior and takes up sorcery has traded a “pearl of great price” (Matthew 13:46) for a worthless amulet.
( For Part 2, go HERE)
