In Search of the Mysterious…
What does this mean?
"The search for knowledge about the unknown, in order to control future events, by using mysterious spells and charms of supernatural forces… It involves something that goes beyond the five physical senses. It is supernaturally involving the spiritual realm - the kingdom of darkness…"
Friday, the 20th of July at midnight London time, the author of the well known Harry Potter books launched her latest version called, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The world was excited about this, but the question is, "How should we as Christians respond?"The Bible Says
Deuteronomy 18: 9 - 14
Vs 9 - "When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. Vs 10 - There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, Vs 11 - or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. Vs 12 - For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out before you. Vs 13 - You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. Vs 14 - For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you." (New King James Bible)
Acts 19: 19
"Also many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all."
Avoid Wicked Customs…
Looking at the above Scripture we can clearly see that God is warning us against something… Something like J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter… Some Christians, sad to say, are ignorant and blind to the realities and the battle that the Body of Christ is facing everyday… They simply put on a blindfold and pretend the danger does not exist… "After all, isn't this just innocent fun for our kids?" Covered under the holy shroud of religion, Satan through the New Age Movement has very subtly moved right into our homes, schools, churches and especially the lives of our children through books, TV-shows, films, video-games, toys, cartoons and school programmes where occult practices are masqueraded as innocent child development programmes…
Christians should be aware of the forces against them and learn how they can effectively overcome them. The tremendous growth of occultism, spiritism, and the false cults needs to be confronted by every Spirit filled believer of Jesus Christ. The problem with most of us is that we do not spend the necessary time to uncover and learn spiritual truths… The world around us is trying in so many ways to replace God's Truth with technical and intellectual ideologies. There are even some Christians do not believe that demons still exist in our present generation… Pastors should urgently teach their congregations the truth from the Scriptures and help them to fight and to protect themselves and their families from the enemy…
For the past 8 years I have been full-time involved with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in countries like Russia, Egypt, Kenya and my homeland South Africa, and I am amazed how the works of the enemy are rapidly increasing… We can see his manifestations in crimes, deceit, lust, moral depravity, wars, homosexuality, fears, disease, anxiety, demonic possessions and many other activities. This is a reflection of the spiritual emptiness which the world has created…
We are living in a time in which we cannot afford to ignore the many activities of and the numerous attacks from the devil... David W. Hoover in his book, "How to respond to the Occult", points out some alarming statistics:
· In Great Britain it is estimated that 50% of the people are involved in some way with the occult. By contrast, only 2% attend church…
· The London Times reported that there are over 8,000 practicing witches in Great Britain…
· Over 40,000,000 Americans trust in the stars (astrology).The USA has 10,000 full-time and 175,000 part-time professional astrologers. They have turned the Zodiac into a $200,000,000 a year business!
· One bookstore in America carrying occult literature worth $25,000 turns over 65% of its stock each month along with its offering of a day-long crash course in palmistry at $25 per person…
· Over 1,200 of the USA's 1,750 newspapers currently carry daily horoscope advice. In contrast to that, 25 years ago there were less than 200 newspapers covering astrology…
· Astrological magazines sell about 2,000,000 copies monthly. Dell's Horoscope leads the field with a circulation of about 500,000…
· In Los Angeles there is a Temple of Tarot and Holy Qabalah with a bustling mail room which sends out a dollar-a-week occult lessons and Tarot decks which the student colours himself…
· In San Francisco, the First Satanic Church has more than 10,000 carefully screened members. Led by demonic Anton LaVey, it reverses Christian forms and rituals and has placed more than 250,000 copies of the Satanic Bible on the market…
· In France, 60,000 sorcerers (those practicing magic through occult formulas and mystic mutterings) earn about $200,000,000 a year…
· It is estimated that today there are over 100,000,000 people around the world who adhere to spiritism…· In Brazil there are over 150 spiritist newspapers, promoting the belief that one working through a medium may communicate with the dead…
We as believers of Jesus Christ should realize the seriousness of spiritual warfare. The Bible speaks of nations which have been destroyed because they worshipped demons, like the Canaanites - Deuteronomy. 18: 9 -12 and the Babylonians - Isaiah. 46: 1-7. Historically we have seen what Satan can do to nations whose rulers are given to demonic powers. For example, the downfall of the Roman Empire was a result of occultic practices. Hitler and his ministers were also involved in occultic activities; as a result they allowed themselves to be used by Satan to destroy millions of lives…
Jesus did much work of various kinds when He walked on this earth more than two thousand years ago, but one thing He did over and over again was to set the captives free. He was serious with His mission on earth, and the CHURCH of today should also be SERIOUS with its commission to the lost world… Thank God for the message of the TRUE GOSPEL…
Rick Grobler
Christian Life Ministries
Njoro - KENYA
