Cult and Occult
Part 4
“Snakes in the Sanctuary”
Galatians 3:1 βασκαίνω (bas-kah’-ee-no) To cast an evil eye, give the evil eye to, fascinate, overpower.
Like a witch would seek to cast a spell in order to gain control of a person, false teachers had gained a level of control over the Galatian church akin to a bewitching.
And the same thing holds true for the church today. The enemy has attacked churches with a variety of weapons, one of which is occult ideas and practices disguised as Christian.
Unfortunately, witchcraft is much more prevalent in pop culture now. It’s portrayed as darker, riskier, and at the same time more attractive. Today, the kids that are captivated by the witchcraft and wizardry of the Harry Potter fiction series have all sort of options to graduate to when they get older.
A statistic released by Barna Research a few years ago suggested that approximately three out of four American teenagers have had at least one significant experience with psychic phenomena or witchcraft beyond the reading of horoscopes. They are typically unaware that witchcraft and the occult are huge potential gateways for demonic activity.
Occultism is marked by the pursuit of hidden knowledge or power through three of those gateways—divination (fortune-telling), mysticism, and magic.
It poses a special threat to the church because it doesn’t operate like mainline religion. Instead, it spreads like a creeping fog, able to infiltrate most every cult, religion, and church.
The first way we can battle occultism is by identifying its appeal (the promise of secret knowledge and power), and the signs of its influence, including wide-spread beliefs such as self-deification, depersonalization of God, and magical thinking (if I think it, visualize it, and say it, I will have it).
A quick scan of recent history shows that occult forces in America have grown dramatically. Just a few years ago, Brooklyn area witches famously hexed Donald Trump and Brett Cavanaugh.
In another event, Satanists erected a goat-headed idol on the Arkansas state capital.
And in Kansas just a couple of weeks ago, the church of Satan tried holding a black mass inside the Kansas state capitol building. As police escorted the leader out he cried loudly, Hail Satan! Over and over.
The 2018 movie release of Wrinkle In Time—a famous 1960’s children’s story—traded the Christian message of its author for the New Age teachings of the director.
By some estimates there are as many witches in the U.S. as Presbyterians.
And, I would argue that there’s been an uptick in demon possession.
So occultism is growing, and its a big business too.
Streaming platforms like Netflix routinely offer programs based on the dark arts like it was a badge of honor!
Movies and series likeThe Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Charmed, The Craft, Grimm, Supernatural, Constantine, Van Helsing, Hemlock Grove, Practical Magic, American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful, Salem,Teen Witches, and many more litter the media landscape.
These kinds of programs have helped make the occult fashionable. The cosmetics distributor Sephora, trying to capitalize on the female-focused trend in witchcraft, attempted to launch a “starter witch kit” before being shouted down by actual witches that were offended at the insincere commercialization of their evil craft.
These things may be alarming, but occult influence in the church is even scarier. The good news is that most Americans still identify as Christian. Yet unfortunately, most Americans also blend Christianity with the occult.
According to a recent poll from Pew Forum, as many as 61 percent of those polled interweave their religion with belief in psychics, horoscopes, crystal-energy, astral projection, and reincarnation.
When you think about it, the allure of the occultic dark arts is as old as the Garden of Eden when Eve, the mother of humanity, entertained demonic whispers about secret knowledge: “You will not surely die…when you eat of [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God“ (Gen. 3:6 ESV).
Eve was tempted by forbidden knowledge. Since then, people have never outgrown the desire for hidden knowledge and power.
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The word “occult” comes from the Latin occultus, meaning secret, concealed, hidden. In religious studies, occult refers to secret or forbidden realms of knowledge and/or power that is identified by three domains: divination, mysticism, and magic.
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Now, just as the Galatian church had been bewitched by false teachers, many in the church today have been seduced by false, occultic, New Age practices and beliefs.
So let’s look at the three I listed:
I. Divination
Any attempt to gain knowledge of the future or any information by reading hidden meanings in nature or patterns through esoteric techniques (such as astrology or numerology), or via supernatural means (for example, psychic powers).
This is where false prophets would fit in. The internet and social media in particular, including many churches across America, are infested with false prophets and false prophesying.
The reason this falls into the category of divination is that a false prophet is not speaking by the power and revelation of the Holy Spirit. The Bible warns,
“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: What sorrow awaits the false prophets who are following their own imaginations and have seen nothing at all!’–Ezek 13:3
Jer 23:16 “This is what the Lord says to his people: “Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you, filling you with futile hopes.They are making up everything they say. They do not speak for the Lord!”
So false prophets are practicing a form of divination by guiding and influencing others by a spirit that is not God!
And this is also where personal prophecy comes in. Personal prophecy is the practice of claiming to speak directly from God about someone’s future, or what God is allegedly telling them to do in their current situation, i.e. change jobs, quit work, move to another location, who to marry, get off of your medicine by faith, and so on.
Remember, the core motivation of witchcraft is to control people and circumstances.
The real danger with personal prophecy and false prophecy in general is that, once it is delivered, the recipient has little choice but to obey since, after all, it came directly from God.
ILLUS: personal testimony
So false prophets are just one of several ways divination has infiltrated the church.
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Then next we have:
II. Mysticism
Mysticism: Spiritual knowledge that comes primarily by direct subjective experience.
One of the tenets of mysticism is to place a top premium on experience, even if the experience cannot be validated by Biblical truth.
Unfortunately, this mindset has grown enormously in certain segments of the church.
If I feel or experience it, it must be true. In fact, it IS true. Truth is measured by experience, not truth. Experience trumps truth. Emotions prevail over sound teaching.
The Bible has been given to us by God for several purposes according to 2 Timothy 3:16–DOCTRINE (teaching), REPROOF (evidence or proof of what is right or wrong), CORRECTION (setting straight), INSTRUCTION (discipline, training).
It is the yardstick by which we are to judge all matters of right and wrong, good or bad, light or dark, godly or demonic.
All experiences, emotions, and incoming claims of truth are to be held up to its light.
When we experience something or are confronted by an alleged truth claiming to be of God, it should easily be found in and validated by Scripture.
Our salvation, the transformation it brings, the love of God poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, the conviction of sin, the revelation that Jesus is Lord and Messiah, the gathering of the local church, the legitimate gifts of the Holy Spirit…all these and more are validated by the pages of Scripture.
And yet experiences and practices that cannot be found anywhere in the Bible have crept into some of God’s house.
CRYSTALS: The belief that crystals (or any inanimate object) are beneficial for attracting wealth, rekindling romance, or warding off evil spirits. But this is NOWHERE found in the bible and is actually a New Age, occultic practice.
FIRE TUNNELS: In a nutshell, a fire tunnel is when people who are deemed more mature in the faith form two lines (a human tunnel) that novices are made to go through so that those forming the tunnel may lay hands on them and transfer into them the same “anointing” that they supposedly carry.
The million dollar question is: where is this practice found or validated in the Bible? That should matter.
GRAVE SOAKING: Where people go to the grave of a deceased famous minister–Kathryn Kuhlman, A.A. Allen, T.L. Osborn, etc, and lay across the top of the grave in the belief that “the anointing that rested on them would be transferred to the grave soaker. In Bible?
NUMEROLOGY: The practice of seeking hidden messages and divine guidance in numbers. Again I would ask: where in the Bible do we find any of the Apostles or early Christians involved in this practice? Or teaching or recommending it?
The bottom line: Christians are never to place experience or emotions over Bible truth.
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For time’s sake let’s get to the last one:
III. Magic
Also known as sorcery, magic is the use of spiritual powers outside of God to control others and make things happen that would usually be impossible. Magic is essentially a counterfeit of the spiritual gifts.
We’re warned in the Bible by Jesus Himself and other Bible writers that magic will be employed by the Antichrist and the false prophet (a religious figure), in order to deceive the world of the last days into following Antichrist.
Matt 24:24 “For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.”
Rev. 13:11-13 “Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. He did astounding miracles, even making fire flash down to earth from the sky while everyone was watching.“
So false messiahs and prophets, said Jesus, will rise up and perform signs and wonders not from God! That’s magic!
I believe some of what’s happening today in churches claiming to be God is in this category Jesus warned of.
So I hope this helps, and that this series has armed you with wisdom!