I will never forget the Revival I took part in with Time to Revive in Ashville, N.C. several years ago. Asheville is the home to many wiccan witches. Two came into the building we were holding the Revival in and tipped over the speakers and ran out! Witches in Asheville, NC

Why Witchcraft is on the rise in America

History of Witchcraft in New Mexico

We are so very thankful for this report from CBN. We also have reports from Dr. Jim Denison and Jerry Stewart. PTL!

CBN NEWS REPORTS:

0-29-2021
Charlene Aaron

When Jenny Weaver watched a movie called The Craft about a group of teen witches, she didn’t think much about it. Soon, she started following some of the occultic practices laid out in the film.

“What started off as something innocent where I’m just connecting with energy and the universe and vibes and all these innocent things that we see, took me down a path of just dark desperation,” Weaver told CBN News.

“I felt at one point I was living in like a haunted house,” Weaver continued. “I was hearing scratches on the wall right next to me. I would feel a brush by me and be terrified that somebody was here in the room with me. I always felt like I was being watched. It took me far into drugs. I ended up being homeless and on drugs, in and out of jails. For nine years of my life, I was in and out of a dark place.”Complete Report Here

 

Why do so many Americans believe in ghosts?

Today is October 29, 2021 | Read time: 7 minutes | Read online

© x.marynka/stock.adobe.com

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).

As Halloween approaches this Sunday, I found these facts about Americans to be relevant:

  • 70 percent of us will celebrate the upcoming holiday; the figure rises to 91 percent for parents with children in their home.
  • 88 percent of parents say they eat their children’s candy.
  • 32 percent say there is no age limit for trick-or-treating.
  • 46 percent believe ghosts are real.

As to why so many Americans believe in ghosts, the New York Times cites the rise of Americans claiming no religious preference and quotes sociologist Thomas Mowen in response: “People are looking to other things or nontraditional things to answer life’s big questions that don’t necessarily include religion.” Interestingly, Mowen says he is finding that “atheists tend to report higher belief in the paranormal than religious folk.”

In other words, many do not believe in the supernatural when it refers to God, but they do when it does not.

For example, the Washington Post is carrying a feature-length portrait of a “teenage witch” who lives in Austin Texas. The article reports that the hashtag #witchtok on TikTok has 19.4 billion views. The teenager profiled by the Post says, “I’ve never felt more peace than when I’m with my gods. Reading a prayer or doing a ritual. It’s like the earth is alive, a way of stepping into my power as a person.”

An illusion that illustrates a cultural fact

The “Delboeuf Illusion” is an optical illusion of relative size perception. The best-known version of the illusion is below. The two dark-circled discs are the same size, though the one on the left seems smaller than the one on the right.

The Delboeuf Illusion (Image credit: Public Domain)

This illusion illustrates a cultural fact: the more chaos we see in the world around us, the smaller our individual challenges can seem.

There was a day, for instance, when concerns about witchcraft and the occult in the Harry Potter series were front-page stories. Now the enormous escalation of interest in witchcraft raises few eyebrows. So many people are fascinated with astrology and occult practices that the phenomenon is being called an “occult revival.” In a day dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, political divisions, and natural disasters, this “revival” can seem innocuous. But this is far from true.

My purpose is not to disparage all Halloween activities. We took our boys trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, and they will do the same with their children this Sunday. Halloween can be a fun holiday and even a way of building relational bridges for the gospel with our neighbors and community.

It is estimated that Americans will spend $10.1 billion on Halloween this year, including $3.3 billion on costumes and $3 billion on candy. Such a popular event can be a great opportunity to reach out to those around us with Christian truth and love (Ephesians 4:15).

“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers”

Rather, I’d like to use what the teenage witch said in the Washington Post article to contrast Halloween and the day it precedes. She claimed that communing with her occult “gods” is “a way of a way of stepping into my power as a person.” By contrast, God’s word consistently forbids engagement with the occult:

  • “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them” (Leviticus 19:31).
  • Scripture says of King Manasseh that he “used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers.” As a result, “He did much evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ, provoking him to anger” (2 Chronicles 33:6).
  • “The household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd” (Zechariah 10:2).

Satan’s first strategy is always to claim that we will “step into our power as a person” by being our own god (Genesis 3:5). This is because the “will to power,” as Nietzsche described it, is basic to our fallen human nature.

As a result, we don’t have to engage in witchcraft and other occult practices to be tempted by the self-sufficiency our secular culture applauds and reinforces. I can refuse the occult but still write this article in my own ability for my own glory. You can read it in the same way.

If we do, neither of us will experience the omnipotent power available to everyone who refuses self-reliance for Spirit-dependence by yielding our minds and lives to the Holy Spirit.

Why we should “keep in step with the Spirit”

In contrast to Halloween, the following day is All Saints Day. (Halloween is a contraction of “All Hallows’ Eve,” referring to the day it precedes.) The day celebrates all the saints from Christian history.

But know this: all Christians qualify. We are all God’s “saints” (cf. Acts 9:13; 9:32; Romans 1:7; 8:27; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 4:12; Philippians 4:21). However, to live out our identity requires power beyond ourselves.

By his Spirit who dwells in every Christian (1 Corinthians 3:16), God will enable us to defeat temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), guide us into “all the truth” (John 16:13), and empower our global witness and ministry (Acts 1:8). But if we turn to any other source—be it occult, secular, or self-reliant—we forfeit what our omnipotent Father wants to do with and through us.

I’ll close with an illustration: I walked early yesterday morning in our neighborhood in the midst of a windstorm blowing twenty miles per hour, with gusts twice that strong. When I walked against the wind, I had no help from its strength. To the contrary, I had to work much harder than if there were no wind.

But when I went with the wind, its force at my back enabled me to walk with power beyond myself. (For more, see my blog on my personal website, where you’ll find other blogs, videos, and a way to ask me questions about faith and life.)

Jesus likened the Holy Spirit to the “wind [that] blows where it wishes” (John 3:8). Scripture calls us to submit to this “wind” every day (Ephesians 5:18), refusing to quench (1 Thessalonians 5:19) or grieve (Ephesians 4:30) his power through sin.

If we will “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25), we will have his omniscient wisdom to guide us and his omnipotent power to strengthen us.

Would the Spirit say you are “in step” with him today?

If not, why not?

NOTE: I wanted to remind you one last time this month about our new resource that gives you the “rules of the game” for a life well lived. It’s the tenth and latest volume of my Biblical Insight to Tough Questions books — and you can request your copy for a gift of any amount through October 31. Please respond* before time runs out.

*You can also request the entire 10-volume set of Biblical Insight to Tough Questions. In it you’ll find dozens of our culture’s toughest questions — all answered, without apology, with Scripture.

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“The Scariest Halloween Ever in America” By Jerry Stewart

Last year, Halloween night, as I stood in my doorway, candy bowl in hand, watching all the little ones, and not so little ones, march by my door, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the scene – one of the most popular nights in our America and what are we doing? Dressing our children up like fantasy and cartoon characters, some even dressed like monsters or witches or ghouls, and then sending them out with bags in hand to collect candy and other treats. Truly an odd site. I am expecting more of the same this upcoming Halloween.

 

But the truth is this – terror and horror are big business in America. On Halloween the Haunted Houses are full and some of the biggest theatre box successes are horror films.

 

But did you know that one Halloween night in our America, over 1 million people were convinced that aliens had landed and were about to destroy us all? Here’s the true story of Halloween night in America, 1938.

 

In that year 1938, radio was in its heyday. One very popular weekly program was “The Mercury Radio Theatre” and it was presented live.

 

In keeping with the Halloween terror theme, the producers of the radio play decided to do an adaptation of the H.G. Wells, book “War of the Worlds”. The lead producer for that week’s show was Orson Welles, a young and soon-to-be very famous actor.

 

The show had a simple and truly terrifying plot. A meteor crashes in a farmer’s field in the small farming village of Grovers Mill, New Jersey. When the locals approach the fallen meteor to examine it, they soon find out that it’s not a meteor at all – it’s a ship from outer space full of horrible alien creatures; and almost immediately these aliens begin using their death rays to destroy the people and their community.

 

From there the aliens expand their web of terror, make their way to New York City, killing everyone, melting everything in their path, including the U.S. Army.

 

But you say, “How is it that the radio listeners came to believe that the simple radio play was real?” This is where the story becomes more intriguing. The Mercury Theatre plays were always presented as live dramas with actors and sound effects, making the stories seem very real- but there was something else – the program was what was called a “sustaining show” which meant that it ran without commercial breaks. Also, the program director, Orson Welles, designed the broadcast to be a series of news bulletins which sounded very real. So, with no periodic disclaimers, no commercial breaks, and very little in the way of communication in those days to find out otherwise, those who tuned in could not confirm or deny the program’s authenticity – and it sounded like the real thing.

 

But there was something else going on in 1938 in America and around the world – there was truly much fear. America was still in the midst of the Great Depression, and a real monster by the name of Adolph Hitler had already begun his march of terror across Europe with his own terrible invasions. All of these factors helped to prepare the listeners to receive a fictional radio play as truth, and to give us a moment in America which is now known as the “Scariest Halloween in U.S. History.

 

But there is something else to be considered here and a huge point for “We The People” of America today to remember – it is this – that true terror is a powerful tool. And that, given the right words presented in the right way, we human beings are easily persuaded – and easily terrified.

 

We have so many today, especially in our high political positions, trying to move us in a particular direction, trying to take away more and more of our say in this nation. Their most powerful tool? Terror. If they can convince us that we are on the edge of oblivion, then we can be convinced to agree to go along with anything they may want to do – and they will have their way with us.

 

Let us be careful and thorough as we study the facts of our own terror in America today. Let us ask ourselves the question, “What will happen if we do or don’t act right now? What will happen if we give over our permissions or authorities to others without completely understanding the consequences?” Let us not be so easily convinced that the solution to our problems is in giving away our rights too quickly.

 

Finally, let us remember and take to heart the words of President Franklin Roosevelt which he spoke to a very frightened America in 1933:

 

“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.

 

Unjustified terror must not be used by those in power today to manipulate and paralyze us.

 

May God Bless America.

 

Jerry Stewart

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