A Word in Due Season Newsletter (October 1990)
As a good Baptist teen-ager I felt that there had to be something supernatural, something beyond our normal “human” abilities to life. I had enough spiritual insight to know that there was “something” supernatural available to mankind, but not enough to know what! I was totally ignorant of God’s supernatural, that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, healing and the miraculous. My church taught that all of God’s supernatural had been done away with, and we were left assuming God had “gotten tired” or something. To me as a young Baptist lad, the Holy Spirit was an “it”, not a “He!” (The Holy Spirit IS, of course, a “He!”) However, due to this desire for something supernatural in my life, I was pulled into a study of the “scientific” aspects of the occult. Or, at least, I thought they were scientific! The word, “occult”, by the way, simply means “strange” or “unknown.” It is not the same as the word, “cult,” which means a group that follows a leader blindly and has unorthodox doctrines. There are, of course, cults that practice occult practices, but the two words mean two different things.
I reasoned, at the time, that perhaps there were unknown abilities and powers that man may have that we are not familiar with, such as, telepathy, or mind-to-mind communication, psychokenesis, the supposed moving of physical objects with the mind, etc. At the same time as I was “experimenting” with these things, I was attending church every Sunday, I held various offices in the church… in short, I was a “good little Christian!” I had then, as I have today, a great respect for God’s Word… but I was ignorant. But, Praise God! Ignorance can be cured! After buying many books on the so-called “paranormal,” and spending several years dedicated to studying such things, I found some Scriptures one day that made me “drop it like a hot rock!” Look with me at Deuteronomy 18:10-12. I have expanded, in parentheses, the Hebrew meanings of the words from my study:
“There shall not he found among you any one that maketh his son or daughter to pass through the fire (human sacrifice), or that useth divination (casts lots, or other means to “divine” information, this would include so called “water witching”, or “divining”), or an observer of times (several meanings here…one meaning is being a member of a “secret society” having “special, or secret knowledge”, another meaning is one who plots the course of planets, stars, in time and space to foretell events, or… Astrology. By the way, God says, speaking of those that the children of Israel turned to rather than God, that the “Astrologers… shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame.” See Isaiah 47:12-14,) or an enchanter (this means to hiss, or whisper, as in a spell, to prognosticate, or try to foretell the future,) or a witch (to whisper or enchant a spell), or a charmer (again, several meanings, one denotes a member of a secret society, another, one who uses some means to “fascinate”, or in modern day usage “hypnotize” a subject,) or a consulter with familiar spirits (to inquire, request of, or demand from a “familiar” spirit, or a spirit that you have a special “rapport” with, today sometimes known as “channeling.” The “spirits” in these cases are demonic spirits satan is sending to deceive people,) or a wizard (a “knowing one,” a conjurer, one possessing special supernatural powers, such as telepathy, psychokenesis, etc.,) or a necromancer (to seek, to ask of, and thereby to worship, the dead). For all that do these things are an abomination (something that literally, in the Hebrew, “stinks in the nostrils” of God!) unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”
You can imagine my reaction! I was amazed! Here was the Bible, that I respected so much, telling me that the activities that I was involved with, such as hypnosis, telepathy, etc. were abominations to God, and that those that did these things actually STINK in God’s nostrils! I wanted the sweet odor of my praise in his nostrils, not the stink of the occult! Yet no one had told me it was wrong! Well, it didn’t take me long to repent! I did just what the people in the Book of Acts (Acts 19:19-20) that practiced the occult did, I brought all my occult books together and burned them! And as with them, the Word of God grew mightily in me and prevailed!
You can see now why I don’t take the occult, or its yearly celebration, Halloween, as a light thing. “Halloween” is a contraction of “All Hallows Eve”, or “All Saint’s Day,” which is a holiday invented by the Catholic Church in medieval times to try and get the people that followed the arcane witchcraft religion of the Druids to celebrate a “Christian” festival during this time of year, rather than their Autumnal celebration to appease the “earth spirits.” The druids believed that the earthly elements had spirits associated with them, and to be assured a good harvest they would do human sacrifice to appease the spirits. From the memory of these evil practices came “trick or treat”… originally, one was to leave a gift to appease the evil spirits that roamed on the festival night, or the spirits were supposed to visit them with death and destruction of their property. Satan comes to “steal, kill and destroy.” (John 10:10) Have you ever wondered why there is so much destruction at Halloween? The “glorifying” and celebrating of this time is the closest thing to worship of demonic spirits as modern man gets! No wonder these spiritual forces are “loosed” in many peoples lives to have a “heyday” and spur some people to destructive behavior!
I have been asked, “Should Christians celebrate Halloween?” Think about this! It is like asking, “Should we celebrate the devil’s activities?” No, a thousand times, no! I find it interesting that there are many organizations that try and stop the public celebration of Jesus’ birth. Yet, while Christmas is a time that brings thoughts of peace on earth to Christian and non-Christian alike, no one condemns, opposes or speaks out against Halloween! Yet, the very “spirit” of those involved in its activities is one of evil, greedy, selfish and destructive behavior. Witchcraft (or Wicca) is by definition of its own practitioners a religion, Satanism has IRS Section 53 tax exempt status… why aren’t these organizations trying to ban its mention in our public schools?
I didn’t write this article to “rant and rave”… but to inform you about issues that we as believers face every day!
