TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN – WITCHCRAFT, WIZARDRY AND HARRY POTTER
Today, I sit before this computer with my notes on Harry Potter (once provided to a church I attended only for a very short time) beside me and I just cannot keep quiet about its contents.
This document began when the Harry Potter novels first entered the market place and subsequently our schools.
Today, God impresses upon my mind and heart that I should provide this information to everyone who is a Christian and also to those who just happen to read Christian Challenges.
People need to be equipped through the Word of God to deal with spiritism and its effects upon the mind and body.
The Bible records an event where Phillip is confronted with a whole city that had been taken captive through supernatural means by a fellow named Simon, who had been operating in the realm of the occult. The interesting thing about this story is, “they all, from the smallest to the greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God”. Acts 8:10.
You see these people did not know the difference between the supernatural of God and that of the Devil.
Far too many visible churches today teach Replacement Theology. It is little wonder the adherents of such establishments accept spiritism and so many other distortions of the Word of God.
Replacement Theology is a doctrine that places the Church as the Israel of God;
The unbiblical idea that the Church is “Israel,” is something nowhere found in Scripture. To be sure, believers are called the spiritual seed of Abraham (Romans 4:12-18; Galatians. 3:7-8, 29), but if Scripture is any indication, there is an important distinction between the spiritual seed of Abraham and the physical seed of Jacob. For nowhere in all of Holy Writ—not once—is the Church denoted by the word “Israel.” Those who confuse the Church with Israel are just one step behind many of the cults, such as The Worldwide Church of God or British Israelism, who want to oust Israel from her promises and substitute themselves instead. (For more on these movements, see Ten Tribes Lost?) The Church already has her own promises so why should we try to steal Israel’s too? Besides, the spiritual restoration of the Jews is attended with great blessings: “For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” Romans. 11:15).
Then there are those who believe Christians cannot have demons;
Infant baptism, for some, is also satisfactory, yet infants cannot be believers in the Messiah, how can they know the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)by which they are saved only by faith through God’s grace plus nothing.
Others believe that the 144,000 in the book of Revelation are merely symbolic when this is so far from the truth.
And I saw another angel ascend from the sun-rising, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, not the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel.” (Revelation 7:2-4)
In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, chapter 7, God foretells that He is going to select 144,000 Jews twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, to be His servants. I believe God’s purpose here is to ensure the Gospel is taken to unsaved Jews in the Great Tribulation. It is clear the Jews of the 144,000 will have an excellent knowledge of the Bible. This will result in one-third of the Jews being saved prior to the Second Coming of Jesus the Messiah.
There are other Pastors who deny the Rapture of the Church saints. They are blind to the truth that 1 Thessalonians 4 speaks of the Rapture where we meet our Lord in the air – not on the ground, whilst 1 Thessalonians 5 speaks of the Day of the Lord, which theologically, means the Battle of Armageddon or the day the Lord has His way and returns to deliver His people from the forces of the anti-Christ.
The same people deny the Millennium and say that Covenant Theology provides a fuller understanding of the Word. They practice denial of this and denial of that and thereby do not preach the full truth of God’s Word.
The Jehovah Witnesses preach a religion of denial – so does Covenant Theology.
Little wonder then that those who deny so much of the Word are unable to tell their congregations that God clearly warns us, that witchcraft and wizardry are an abomination to the Lord and are a stench in His nostrils and those who practice them will be destroyed by them.
Today, people desperately need educating concerning the facts on the occult, yet the world is now embroiled in the multi-million dollar, multi-faceted deceptive strategies of Harry Potter and similar works.
One of the devil’s key tactics is to masquerade as “an angel of light” or a servant of righteousness (1 Corinthians 11:14) Satan and his demons can imitate a good spirit or entity merely to suit their own evil purposes.
Is it then logical or wise to believe anyone, no matter how it is packaged, that their true motives are to help humanity? J.K. Rowling’s works are presented as an effective tool to “help children to read.” Scripture implicitly cites Satan or his demons as the reality behind occult involvement, idolatry and false religion. (Deuteronomy 32:16-17; Psalm 106:35-40; Acts 16:16-19; 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10; 1 Timothy 4:1).
The tragedy of sorcery, invocation of demons, and related practices is that those who carry on these activities refuse to face the fact that they always turn out for the worse. This “hidden or secret” wisdom refers to that which is beyond the range of ordinary, human knowledge. These include divination, fortune telling, spiritism and magic. The acquisition of its power and mastery is used to influence and manipulate people. Harry Potter novels and films are a gateway into an interest in the occult.
The author of the Potter books has put together an introductory course in magic designed to reach the young. These profoundly spiritual strategies will remain with our children more effectively than “Hans Christian Anderson”, R.L. Stevenson’s “A Child Garden of Verses” and Charles Kingsley’s “Water Babies” have ever done.
Even in modern day psychology, when dealing with those who suffer from “compulsive behaviour disorders” it is observed that people who practice throwing salt over their shoulders, or walking on lines, or numerology, believing that this will help set them to be set free, are found to experience severe adverse reactions to these pursuits. In fact, I know personally a Christian who was delivered of a demon relating specifically to his involvement in numerology and this manifested powerfully and his personality changed markedly following deliverance of this unclean spirit.
Today, Satan is becoming even more blatant in his attempts to take as many people as possible with him to hell for he knows his time is short. What a cunning master he is to those who are already lost in a spiritual vacuum of ignorance. What blatantly evil strategies he uses to seduce our very youngest, our precious children into the fascinating world of witchcraft. These strategies should shriek “danger” to the Christian who knows His Word. Instead, there are teachers within the visible Church who say that they believe the works of Harry Potter to be good because they are helping children to read. Surely the devil’s strategies have, and are working.
There are those who believe they are safe for Eternity merely by going to church. Perhaps they have never known what it means to be born again and the simplicity of salvation, simply by believing in the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) by faith through God’s grace has not been quickened to their minds and entered into their hearts. Yet if they do not have a recreated heart, and remain natural men/women they can easily be deceived by the evil one.
I am absolutely gob-smacked that anyone who calls themselves “Christian” would take themselves and their children to see such evil when literature and TV ads make it clear that it is all witchcraft. At the time of writing a local Reverend did just that and proclaimed this to be satisfactory to his congregation.
He declared to me later “You will probably be surprised but I do not believe in the Rapture of the Church.” No, I was not surprised, I had already observed he was an Amillennialist
The good Reverend provided an encouraging little article to his adherents: He discussed “Harry’s magic” in one way or another and actually acknowledged that it is magic and gave honour to this evil by his attendance with his young family to a Harry Potter movie. He may as well have paid homage to Vishnu in a Hindu temple and embraced multitudes of gods or attended a Mosque, removed his shoes and paid homage to Allah.
People need to turn away from this Harry Potter stuff, throw these books and other paraphernalia away and repent of possessing them.
God says: “Do not bring a detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it for it is set apart for destruction.” (Deuteronomy 7:26 and Psalm 135:15-18).
People are bringing occultic evil into their homes, inviting demonic activity around them and are placing themselves and their children into terrible danger. I repeat, this stuff represents evil, it is witchcraft and an introduction to its deeper things.
The Reverend I challenged obviously had no experience with those oppressed by their involvement in the occult. To be free from such activities they must acknowledge such practices are sinful before God and require confession (Deuteronomy 18: 9-12; 1John 1:9). In addition confession must be voluntary, from the heart, or it is worthless.
In fact, Doctor Kurt Koch, who was a world-renowned Christian counselor of people subjected to the occult, having counseled over 11,000 people in his lifetime, said “they should make an open confession of every single hidden thing in their lives in order to remove the very last foothold of the enemy.”
Further, “the confession should not only cover the occult, but also every other sinful area of his life.” In other words, nothing should be allowed to build up or develop which may give the devil an opportunity (Ephesians 4:27)
In addition, a prayer renouncing everything of an occult nature is important. Following confession there needs to be a prayer of absolution – the promise of forgiveness of sins by a trusted born again Christian friend. A prayer of renunciation is of great significance – why? Because every sin connected with sorcery is basically a contract with the powers of darkness.
By means of sorcery, the arch-enemy of mankind gains the right of ownership over a person’s life and because the powers of darkness may continue to claim their “right” of ownership and continue to harass a Christian from without.
Immediately after a person is converted, it is then that Satan makes his revenge felt, because he hates losing anyone he has kept in bondage. There are too many theologians who ridicule the whole idea but the devil is in earnest.
Anyone who has dabbled in the occult however slightly should pray –
“In the name of Jesus I renounce all the works of the devil together with the occult practices of my forefathers, and I subscribe myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour, both now and forever. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”
If you believe that Harry Potter is satisfactory you are wrong – you are dabbling in the occult.
Sorcery is bringing about the disintegration of society and Satan wants to have mankind obsessed with the occult and hedonism.
Harry Potter books are beckoning our children to participate in the occult. “Exciting things happen in Harry’s books,” kids intone. The Bible, by comparison, is boring they opine.
In light of all this, Jesus condemnation of the devil as a “liar” and a “murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44) is highly accurate.
IN HIS GRIP
Maureen Ray