What draws people to magic?
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Unfortunately there is no easy answer to this question.
For some, it is the need for knowledge and/or power. For others, they are drawn towards them by various influences.
That list of influences just seems to keep growing, so I will take a look at some of the broad categories to start with.
Cultural influences are important here in drawing people towards this path.
Along those lines you have various movies and television shows which go to great lengths to portray magik as exciting and appealing. Then, of course, you have an assortment of books that have been written specifically to lead young people towards one magik path or another. With the most prolific authors along those lines being wiccan at the moment. It remains to be seen if those of another path will catch up or not.
Those movies and books fit in with various fiction works in print that also make magik seem to be an appealing form of empowerment.
What can be done about these from a christian perspective? As a parent you can and should be very aware of what your children are watching and reading. You should also pray for your children. Above and beyond that, there really is not much that you will be able to do about the various cultural influences, so lets look at the next item.
Peer pressure.
Think about it. Remember what it was like?
I thought you might.
When some of your friends seem to be involved in something ‘special’ or ‘cool’ and want you to join in. That can be hard to turn down at times. And it is natural for those who have found answers to spiritual questions to want to share them with their friends. So, people get introduced to the magik paths that way as well.
To be quite honest, there is really not much beyond prayer for you, as a christian, to do on that front either. Again, as a parent, be AWARE of what your children are doing. And don’t be afraid to discuss things with them.
The list goes on.. but as there is only one area that I can see for Christians to really affect, I will skip over to that part now.
Over these last few years, I have come to the conclusion that the largest contributor to the rise of neo-paganism and other magik paths in the Western world is really..
The Church.
How can this be?
It has to do with the ‘church’ losing it’s way.
Some of the issues that I have seen and heard of from others follow, in no particular order:
Extremely Liberal churches, Where the very power of God is shoved aside from thought and action, and God is thought of as not being interested in what is going on here on the earth. Where it almost seems as if they only exist as a social club that calls itself a church..
People there have a hard time finding answers to real spiritual issues. So when a seeker goes there looking for those answers.. and looking for God, they tend to leave again without finding either. So when they stumble across a magik path that has answers, they tend to follow it.
Word of Faith Churches, or, those churches that follow some form of those doctrines.
The farther they are from scripturally sound, the greater the damage potential. I have heard everything from ~you didn’t get healed because your faith is weak~ to ~if you give ‘x’ amount of money, God will do ‘y’~
and let me be real with y’all here….
If I wanted to do magik there are better ways than THAT to get it done.
People who escape from such places tend to view Christians as just out to part them from their money and time. To be avoided at all costs. So they go elsewhere looking for answers to spiritual issues, and if they land on one of the magik paths, they run with it.
Legalistic churches,
Sometimes hiding behind the name of ‘fundamental’, these churches tend to focus almost exclusively on the theological do’s and dont’s. You know the kind.. Christians behave thus and such… Christians don’t do that… etc..
What they forget, is to introduce people to our Saviour, Jesus. It seems that they have fallen into the trap of being to busy being correct all the time, and forgetting that they are also supposed to be compassionate. This also leaves people with a skewed view of Christianity. I have found many that walk the magik paths that have attended, or even grew up in this type of church. It seems that the very harshness of this type of fellowship drives them away even if they actually got introduced to Jesus while they were there.
Please understand that in each of those situations you may very well find some sincere, wonderful believers who are trying to do what they feel Jesus wants them to do. And what those people should be doing is praying for God to restore the fellowship that they are attending to a right perspective, and relationship with Him.
Even in churches that do not fall to those extremes, you will find a lack of understanding at times, and an unwillingness to dig for answers to inconvenient questions. This tends to drive away those who are curious about various things. Any topic from spiritual issues to scientific ones… if they keep getting stepped on for asking questions they will wander off to find what answers they can elsewhere.
I am drawn back to this verse here:
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land.
Christians,
My brethren…
I implore you to act on that verse, for the only part of the equation we can fix here, is ourselves.

Well, I guess I will start with this.

My name is Mark Bishop.

As a former witch who is now involved in outreach to the folks walking in witchcraft’s many forms, I feel the need to respond to yet another article that has been brought to my attention dealing, erroneously, with the subject of Halloween.

As the author of a piece at Answers in Genesis, Paul S. Taylor has trotted out a few of the half-truths that have been running around the church for years and deserve to be looked at with a different light. I have no issues at all with his assertion that this is one heavily debated topic in the western church. His next paragraph contains some good and some bad.. :

“The history of Halloween should give cause for concern.” Why? I would think the present of Halloween would be of more concern.

“It was originally the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. This was a night when the spirits of the dead allegedly walked abroad, and it was thought that they could be conjured to do the will of those who summoned them.” Actually, not quite right here either. The Celts lived in many areas and had their harvest festivals roughly at that time of year. Samhain is somewhat different as it is a season where the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds is thinner for some reason that I have never figured out. It’s not actually tied to the man made calender that we use.

Rather than continue point by point, we’ll cut to the chase.

Halloween is not an ‘occult’ holiday. If anything, it is the candy maker’s holiday. Do some evil things happen then? yes. Sometimes even more than on other days. October 31st is a day that the Lord has made, and we should rejoice in it too! All the more since the local mission field will walk the path to our respective doors looking for treats, and getting prayer as well and maybe even age appropriate Gospel tracts to go with those treats. No, the witches don’t really do much with Halloween except perhaps to make it a party, Any real work is done elsewhere, on a day usually not too far from it.

Are parents opening their children up to occult influences by letting them go ‘trick or treating’? not really, but if the child goes, the parent better go since there are bad people in the world. That is the real danger that is posed in the current times. A little different than in years gone by but not really different from any other day of the year when you shouldn’t let your children go wandering around unattended.

Yes, the culture is going downhill fast in many places, and this does have an effect on all days, including October 31st. As with many things though, it is a matter of intent. You won’t be accidentally dabbling in the occult by celebrating Halloween, just don’t engage in some of the more ignorant things that go on… such as intentionally trying to contact the spirit world…

There is much more to the subject, but it will have to wait for another time.

Imagine, if you will, that you are in church.. in your usual seat.

The preacher is a guest evangelist, a Brother in the Lord that has been used to introduce many people to Jesus over the years. Somehow he gets to the topic of Halloween and it’s associated evils…..

I know how it happens… He spoke of things that he learned back when even more of the church was in the thrall of Irvine, Brown and others with their tall tales about things they used to do. Personally I tend to view their books as church horror novels, rather than non-fiction.

So…. come a little further with me and hear this dear man of God say that Halloween is Satan’s HIgh Holy day, and that the missing children on various signs won’t be seen again because they’ve been killed by satanists. Then there is the point about LaVey being active and recruiting in the military.

Now as you hear this, remember that you are hearing it with the understanding borne of many years in the occult. After all, you are a Former Witch. So you know that he’s wrong on these points, and you know that there is not one thing you can do to keep the rest of the brethren from hearing and believing these statements….. And wondering what they will inadvertently say to some witch or pagan to drive them further away from Jesus due to this night.

Thank you for walking with me through my Sunday evening service Nightmare. Instead of just hoping no one paid attention to those points of the message, a little bit of education follows:

Halloween: currently the Candy Maker’s holiday, with a little thrown in for costume makers as well. A day loosely corresponding with Samhain and various harvest festivals in the Northern hemisphere. Another day that the Lord has made. 🙂 Rejoice and be glad in it, and pray for all the children that beat a path to your door that day.

Missing young folks: I will give them this; there are people out there that kill. Some for spiritual power. Some of them might even be in this country. Maybe. The vast majority of witches, satanists, wiccans, neo-pagans, satanists, neo-druids etc.. wouldn’t dream of such behavior. Yes, I did list satanists twice. There are at least two main types… theistic (worship satan) and philosophical (worship self).

Think that’s confusing? Wait! there’s More!…. more flavors of witches than flavors of christians. Lump them all together, you can not.

As for Lavey…. unimportant. There have been atheists, witches, wiccans, healers, and satanists in the military since well before his arrival on the scene. At least when they come out into the open, you can know who to pray for.

Mark Bishop

It’s here!!!!

“From the Craft to Christ” is now showing on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/From-Craft-Christ-Witchcraft-Response/dp/0984952349/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409705529&sr=8-1&keywords=from+the+craft+to+christ

You’ll find it to be a solid resource and remember…. I’m chapter 15. 🙂

Mark

Well, it’s arrived. The newest ExWitch book is about to hit the stores..
My copy has come and been read already.

In this work, “From the Craft to Christ” By S.A. Tower, is anaccounting of variousformer witches and their paths through life on their way to walking with Jesus.

It is straightforward in the beginning sections where the discussion trendsto why people land on the magik paths and what the church should be doingin response to this trend. As well as discussing some of the newer fadsin the church that smack of witchcraft, and some of the church myths areaddressed as they pertain to what witches really do and are.

The work is written primarily from the perspective of Wicca, which makessense as most of the folks involved, including the author were Wiccans.

As normal, I don’t fit the cookie mold. But Ms. Tower put my testimony as chapter number fifteen anyway. 🙂

Pre-ordering is done and they have shipped, but this book should be
available in the stores on Sept 14th.

I truly do recommend it as a sane,honest treatment of the subject of witches and the church.

http://fromthecrafttochrist.com/

So here we go again.

Honestly though, is seems like nothing has changed, which is a pity.

I came across this picture on facebook that addresses things which I have had to deal with in the past.. so here…. lets start with what it says.

“Hebrew Roots is an occult?

Christianity has adopted Christmas/pagan idol worshiop of winter solstice yule god, pagan idol worship of Ishtar/Easter, 40 days of lent/40 days weaping for Tammuz, The Lord’s day/pagan day of Sol invictus the sun god.

I’m sorry…. who is in an occult? ”

Now, discounting the poor wording and grammar, we’ll take a look at the content.

First, I don’t know who ‘Hebrew Roots’ is, I would think they are an offshoot of the Messianic movement which is fine by me.. The problem here is that this person is spouting the same nonsense I found on the web years ago.

Christmas. Okay, since when is celebrating the birth of Jesus pagan?… and ‘winter solstice yule god’ really? Why do people think that celebrating the Saviour’s birth is worshiping that creature? Something to ponder there…. moving on now.

Pagan idol worship of Ishtar….. does not equal Easter at all, which is when I celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

’40 days of lent/ 40 days weaping for Tammuz’ so okay… I have no idea and am not even looking it up right now.. I admit to having lint in my dryer but that’s about it.

‘The Lord’s day/Pagan day of Sol Invictus the sun god.’ The first day of the week was designated as the Lord’s day… has nothing to do with Sol Invictus… sun god my eye…. in which tradition?

I think what disturbs me most is the exwitch that was seemingly in agreement with this mess… She should know better since with worship, it is a matter of intent more than anything else. I am sorry for them if some misinformed folks are equating them as being in the occult, but….. the followers of Jesus are not.

I am actually going to deal with something else as well… just for those who buy into the whole ‘pagan christianity’ nonsense. If you are going to say that because some pagan somewhere did things on a certain day or in a certain way, that christians are pagan….. you better stop cooking your food, and living in shelters because pagans did that… oh and birthdays…. oh yeah, before I forget; there is pretty much a pagan holiday on every calender day of the year somewhere,in some tradition or other so you better stop using the calender and stop celebrating on those days…. or worshiping on them… or anything else…… feel free to go hide in a dark corner somewhere safe though.