Mainstreaming Occultism

by Maria Kneas

　Our nation is inundated with occultism, from cute little Smurfs doing magic in children’s cartoons to overtly evil occultists in adult movies. Paganism and occultism (which often go together) seem to be everywhere. They are in popular music, books, movies, TV shows, and video games. They are openly endorsed on tee-shirts and tattoos, in jewelry, in sculptures and pictures, and on bumper stickers.

Many people are fascinated with vampires and zombies and werewolves. There are popular romance novels about normal humans falling in love with such things. One example is the "Twilight" movies, where girls swoon over a handsome vampire.

There is also a fascination with death. One form is "death metal" rock music, and the popularity of skulls and other signs of death on clothing and even in tattoos. A more extreme form of attraction to death is people who like to spend the night at cemeteries, hoping to encounter spirits of the dead.

Such things remind me of a warning that God gave us in the Book of Proverbs:

"But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:36, emphasis added) 

Ancient pagan religions are being revived. There are neo-pagans and modern druids. The Norse god Thor is being worshiped again, and people wear Thor’s hammer on chains around their necks, similar to the way that Christians wear crosses. The old Celtic gods and goddesses are being worshiped again, as are ancient Greek and Roman and Babylonian deities.

WITCHCRAFT

In our post-modern world, witchcraft has become so mainstream that it is being taught in universities and nursing schools. Practical witchcraft is also being taught to young children in some of our public schools.

Witchcraft has gotten into some mainline churches. There are ordained female ministers who are also practicing witches at the same time. Two clergywomen who went through a witchcraft initiation ritual were so enthusiastic about their experience that they wrote an article praising it in a publication for clergywomen. Their bishop (a woman) had attended many such rituals, which means that she approves of them. So there is at least one woman bishop who is a practicing witch but claims to be Christian.

My article "Goddess Worship in America" has some eye-opening information about such things, and it is all thoroughly documented.

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/009/goddess-worship.htm

In America, Wicca is a tax-exempt religion. It is based on witchcraft, goddess worship, and nature worship. We have Wiccan chaplains in the military and in many prisons. One such chaplain calls herself Rev. Witch.

The soap opera "Charmed" was about three sisters who were good witches. It was so popular that for years people watched the current episodes in the afternoon, and reruns of old episodes in the evening. I learned about this when I was in the hospital, because my roommate was a fan of the show. Although she called herself a Christian, while she was watching one show I heard her say to herself, "I wonder if I have powers."

SORCERY

Somehow "wizard" sounds nicer than "sorcerer," doesn’t it? But it’s the same thing. In the old days, they were also called alchemists, or those who "practice magic arts."

Sorcery used to be done in secret, by men who hid what they were doing. However, thanks to the popularity of Harry Potter, people have become far more open about it.

When the first Harry Potter movie came out, I searched the Internet for things relating to Hogwarts (his school for wizards). Many of the websites were just entertainment, but some of them featured real live sorcerers who gave practical instructions in sorcery to people who came to those sites.

GOD FORBIDS OCCULTISM

Thanks to popular books and movies, many people today believe that there is "white witchcraft" which is done by "good" witches—as opposed to the bad witches. And they also believe that there are "good" wizards (sorcerers).

However, that is not what God says in His Word. God makes it very clear that any kind of occultism is absolutely wrong. He calls it an abomination:

"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire [child sacrifice], or that useth divination [fortune telling], or an observer of times [astrology], or an enchanter [working spells], or a witch [practicing witchcraft or consulting a witch], or a charmer [using charms, amulets and other objects for protection or "good luck"], or a consulter with familiar spirits [channeling, or using Ouija boards], or a wizard [doing magic], or a necromancer [spiritism, contacting the dead]. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

Many people think that using Ouija boards is just a game. However, if it "works," then that means that they have made contact with a spirit.

SATANISM

When it comes to overt evil and blasphemy, satanism is the ultimate. In spite of that, in America, they are a tax-exempt religion that is recognized by the state.

A friend of mine who served in the Air Force had a commanding officer who was openly a satanist. My friend told me that satanists are attracted to the military because satanism is a protected religion there. In addition, satanists can rise in the ranks and get power over other people, and they like to have power.

Some satanists are trying to change their image. For example, a satanist "church" in Oklahoma City rented out the civic center to do a "blasphemy ritual" that was open to the public. This particular ritual was described as being a "parody of the Catholic rite of exorcism." The purpose of the ritual was to cast out God. In other words, they openly hate God and they want to get rid of Him.

This event was advertised, and the group was interviewed by ABC News. The satanic "church" sold tickets to the event.

This satanist group claims to be benign, and to have replaced devil worship with "a religion where god doesn’t exist but rituals are used to empower the believer." Their leader said, "We don’t kill animals, we don’t kill children."[1]

If God doesn’t exist, then why would they do an "exorcism" to try to cast Him out? They don’t want Him to exist. But He does. And at some level they must know it.

Another attempt to mainstream satanism was to have a "black mass" at Harvard University. The local Catholics protested so much that the ritual was held off campus instead of being done at Harvard. However, since it had received a lot of publicity, I suspect that some Harvard students and local people attended, if only out of curiosity.[2]

In describing this event, Reuters called it a "parody" of the Catholic mass. They failed to mention that it includes a serious attempt to blaspheme God by desecrating bread and wine that has been consecrated by a priest. This requires having an ordained Catholic or Orthodox priest who is also a satanist priest.

Does this sound impossible? Not really, because people can change. For example, according to Pastor Richard Wurmbrandt, Karl Marx started out as a devout Russian Orthodox and wound up being a satanist. You can read about this in his book Marx & Satan.

Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is literally present in the consecrated bread and wine. Satanists also believe this, which is why they desecrate the bread and wine. They are trying to hurt and humiliate the Lord Jesus Christ.

Protestants don’t believe that doctrine. If you don’t believe it, then try to put yourself in the shoes of somebody who does, so that can understand what was going on here. The intention of the satanists is obvious, and the Catholics were absolutely right to be distressed about it and to do whatever they could in order to try to prevent that "black mass" from taking place.

There is another significant attempt to mainstream satanism. The Satanic Temple from New York is trying to force Oklahoma to allow them to put a satanic statue in Oklahoma’s State Capitol. This statue will be seven feet tall, so that group must have a lot of money.

Some of the height of the statue comes from a throne that the devil is sitting on. The back part of the throne features a huge pentagram that is above the devil’s head. The devil has big horns, but because they are in front of the throne, they don’t stand out. Because of the throne, you don’t see the shape of horns sticking up in the air by themselves.

This statue tries to make the devil look benign. He has a goat’s head with horns, but his face isn’t nasty. They have softened it. He is sitting on a throne that has a large pentagram, but the pentagram isn’t part of him. His bat’s wings looks softer than demonic pictures normally do. He is modest, as his body is covered by draped cloth.

There is a little girl on one side of him, and a little boy on the other side of him. The boy seems to be smiling. The devil’s lap is about waist high for the sculptured children, so real live children would be able to climb up into his lap and sit there.[3]

The article about this mentions that this is a portrayal of Satan as Baphomet. However, it fails to mention that this is very different from the usual statues or drawing of Baphomet that are intended for the use of fellow occultists. That one is is naked, with the large breasts of a woman. He has a thick pentagram on his forehead. His face is so evil that I wish I had never seen a picture of it. And he has a large phallus sticking up, with two snakes twined around it.

You can find pictures of Baphomet by searching for his name online. However, if you are a visual person, then I don’t recommend doing it because it’s better not to have seriously evil images get into our heads. Personally I wish that I had never seen this thing because its face is so evil.

The statue that they are trying to put in Oklahoma is an attempt to make something horribly evil appear to be harmless. And to make it appealing to children. One article about this said that the statue is intended to be "interactive with children."

Earlier I mentioned the satanic group that rented out the civic center in Oklahoma City. The group’s leader said that they don’t kill animals or children. Well, maybe that group doesn’t. (But he could have been lying about that.) Whether or not he was telling the truth, there definitely are satanic groups who kill children and animals.

I have a Christian friend who used to be a satanist. According to him, satanists kill animals during their rituals. And some satanists kill people.

I have another Christian friend who is a psychiatric nurse. She has worked with many patients who were victims of satanic ritual abuse. Many of them were raped. Some of them were forced to watch people be murdered as blood sacrifices to the devil. And some of them went through other kinds of horrible experiences.

There is an important book about this kind of thing. It tells about nation-wide child trafficking, satanic ritual murder, and political corruption at high levels, including within the FBI. The book is titled The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska. The author is John W. DeCamp, who is an attorney who is representing some of the victims. I’m grateful that the book exists, but I don’t recommend reading it unless you have a "need to know." Some things are so evil that it is better not to get them into our heads.

This stuff is for real. But the public relations arm of the satanists is trying to lure people into thinking that satanism is benign and misunderstood. They make satanism appear to be moderate and reasonable—a matter of symbols and pageantry and the empowerment of man, rather than worship of the devil. However, when listening to them, we need to remember that they serve the father of lies. Jesus said:

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44, emphasis added

Therefore, why should we believe anything that satanists say? They are openly serving the father of lies.

Smooth-talking satanists can make it look reasonable and benign and fascinating. And then when people are drawn to it, the satanists can spot the individuals who are ready to go "deeper" (i.e., become more overtly evil), and draw then into an inside group that does things that the other people aren’t aware of. God warned us:

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!" (Isaiah 5:20-21

People’s attitudes and beliefs vary widely. Therefore, I would expect to find "denominations" among satanists, just as there are among Christians. And even within those "denominations," there could be a wide variety of beliefs and practices, just as there are within Christian denominations. For example, the Presbyterian Church USA has voted to accept homosexual marriage. But there are some smaller, more conservative Presbyterian groups that refuse to accept it.

Such variety can even be found within individual churches. For example, I used to attend a Baptist church whose pastor described himself as being "conservative but not fundamentalist." However, over a period of time we came to realize that he allowed serious heresies to be taught in his church. In addition, some of his sermons suggested that people should be open to such teachings. But he did it in a way that sounded learned and reasonable.

My Bible study group consisted of older people who really believed the Bible. But in that same church, there was a study group that took the teachings of the book The Shack very seriously. Instead of refuting it, they embraced it. The Shack portrays God as being a woman. It also denies sin and the need for repentance. It portrays God as having a mushy kind of love that makes no demands on His followers.[4]

The Bible calls such teaching "doctrines of devils." (1　Timothy 4:1) But the Baptist pastor who had described himself as being "conservative" defended that book when we confronted him about it, and he also promoted the book in the church’s newsletter.

So within the same church there was a wide variety of people. Some were faithful Christians who believed the Bible, studied it carefully, and took God seriously. Others did not really believe the Bible, and they were wide open to any strange teachings that came along. The Bible tells us not to be "…children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive" (Ephesians 4:14) And it warns us:

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

We are living in times when "unthinkable" things are happening in the world and in the church. Some men who call themselves Christian pastors are actually atheists. There are so many of them that they have an online support group that helps them "move beyond faith."[5]

If Christian churches can have such a wide variety of teachings, then why couldn’t satanists also have a wide variety of teachings?

In addition, a "liberal" or "moderate" satanist group could be used as a recruiting ground for identifying people who have the potential to become more hard core. Such people could be invited to participated in things that are "deeper" (i.e., more overtly evil). They would become part of an inner circle that the uninitiated were not aware of.

This could be an incremental process, bringing them into deeper and deeper depravity, but doing it one small step at a time, so that the people don’t recognize the degree of change that is occurring. Incrementalism has proven to be very effective at gradually turning people into communists. (Saul Alinsky has a book titled Rules for Radicals which gives practical strategies for doing that.) Well, the same principles can be used to incrementally change people in other ways.

As a result, somebody could start out with satanism because it seems to be hip and cool, and his favorite musician or Hollywood actor does it. And then he could wind up taking the devil more and more seriously, and participating in rituals that are more and more overtly evil. And eventually he could get to the point that he does things like raping and murdering children in order to get spiritual power.

The starting point for such things can be something as simple as watching the Grammy Awards. This year (2014) they featured a music video called "Dark Horse" that is overtly occult, and has been described by some people as being "satanic." An enthusiastic review of this music video by a popular gossip columnist referred to the two singers as being "fiery satanists." Millions of people world-wide watched the Grammy Awards, including multitudes of impressionable children. In addition, as of mid-June 2014, the online music video of "Dark Horse" had been viewed over 400 million times.[6]

WHAT CAN WE DO?

In the face of such evil, we need to keep reminding ourselves that God is still on His throne. The devil is on a leash. God sets limits to what the bad guys can do. Also, God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. (2　Corinthians 12:9) In addition, as Corrie ten Boom said, "If God sends us on stony paths, He provides strong shoes."

If we love God, then no matter what happens, God will use it for our long-term, eternal good. (Romans 8:28) He will use it to bring us closer to Himself, and to teach us to trust Him more, and to develop more Godly character.

That also applies to the people we love. If they love God, then God will make everything work out for their good. But if they don’t love God, then nothing will do them any good. What is the use of having a pleasant life here and then going to hell?

Therefore, nobody is at the mercy of men or of circumstances. The bottom line is our relationship with God.

Do we love Him?

NOTES

1. "Satanist Church Rents Out Oklahoma City Civic Center for Exorcism," September 1, 2010. (This article is two pages. The link below goes to the first one, which leads to the second.) http://abcnews.go.com/US/satanist-church-rents-oklahoma-civic-center-exorcis-ritual/story?id=11524098

2. "Plans for ‘Black Mass’ at Harvard Anger Boston Catholics," May 9, 2014. www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/09/us-usa-harvard-satanists-idUSBREA480OD20140509

"Amid Outcry, Black Mass at Harvard Is Called Off," May 13, 2014. www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/12/cardinal-sean-malley-expresses-disappointment-harvard-decision-allow-black-mass-campus/tUjYx2817C65LAHousRIeP/story.html

 3. "Devil-Worship Group Unveils Satanic Statue Design for Oklahoma State Capitol," January 7, 2014. www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/devil-worship-group-unveils-satanic-statue-design-oklahoma-state-capitol-article-1.1568893

 4. "Deceived by a Counterfeit ‘Jesus’: The Twisted ‘Truths’ of The Shack and A Course in Miracles." www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/shack.htm

 5. "The Clergy Project." www.clergyproject.org/

 6. "Dark Horse (Katy Perry Song)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Horse_(Katy_Perry_song)

 7. "Katy Perry & Juicy J Are Fiery Satanists As They Perform ‘Dark Horse’ At The 2014 Grammys!" January 26, 2014. http:perezhilton.com/2014-01-26-grammys-2014-katy-perry-p