Diplomatic neighborhood or tolerant co-existance
Regrettably, but we don’t know about Jesus’ attitude to occultism, because He walked on the territory of the church, but not on the territory of pagans (such as was the former USSR, for example). And only in the Old Covenant we see the real attitude of God to this demonic family. But the Old Covenant confirms correct attitude of the Catholic church in relation to witches in Western Europe of middle ages. The holy inquisition acted strictly in order with regulations of the Old Covenant and according to Fathers’ commandments, when it burned extra-senses alive on fire. And if inquisition acted under the Old Testament, God Himself would bless inquisition and would spread it all over the earth. But it happened visa versa — the Western Europe reaped the harvest for the physical destruction of witches, white magicians, shamans and other kind of evil forces. German Nazis payed back the christian Europe for this purely mechanic destruction of occultism (I mean when they only physically burned witches alive). And these methods seem quite attractive in relation to witches and extra-senses even nowadays. But under the New Covenant the Lord cut us short of the right to kill other people, even for such a sin as occultism.
The Nazies even did such things, as searching the churches archives in attempts to find the names of witches, who had been burned by christians for their witchcraft. But the problem is not only in the fact that the second commandment was violated (which says to love your neighbor with whole heart). The problem is that you can not avoid fasting, prayer, devotion, a prayer of agreement, a strength of your faith and preaching of Gospel even nowadays, when you have all these modern nano-technologies and laser equipment.
Even if we destroy all witches and extra-senses on earth in an instant, then after a short period of time this satanic gift will be inherited by their relatives or other people who are cursed. And the consequences can be even more tragic than it was with Nazis Germany.
As a missionary, I found myself in the land, where witchcraft and evil spirits were spread like milk and honey. Once I went to the school library and found the documents about historic roots of this territory, and this document told that the initial name of the village was Vedmovka (the place of witches). But the most indignant fact was that the house of the local orthodox priest was in the same village. Let’s imagine an interesting situation: for example, a pastor and an extra-sense are neighbors, who are living on the same staircase. How should pastor treat the extra-sense according to the second commandment? Would he greet the extra-sense in the morning, wishing him good health, or would he chase demons out of him?
If we come back to Jesus’ attitude to occultism, I believe it’s identical to the attitude of God the Father in the Old Covenant. He hates it, and it is abomination in His eyes (Deuteronomy 18:10-14). After several years of ministry, when I realized what was the source of evil on that territory, I started to actively fight against the disgusting spirits. We prayed for those satanic workers, and then I started to visit the homes where witches lived. In the result, none of them repented. Some witches dies, the husband of one witch also died. But my conclusions were that a church must raise on that place — it must pray with fasting, it must preach Gospel, and not only one day or two days, but for all the time, till the second coming of Christ. We often desire to ruin a huge problem by one or two prayers with one or two times of fasting. And it really happens sometimes, but it doesn’t last long. And we never come back to this problem again. That’s why it slowly comes back and gets even stronger.
In such cases the words of Jesus show how it works — a demon comes out, then walks in waterless places, looking for rest. When he doesn’t find rest, he returns to his previous house, which he left. Any revival came to an end sooner or later, and it’s a great pity. And then the revenge came, I am sorry to say this. Because the spiritual balance was upset.
Now let’s touch upon the influence of occultism as it is. Since 1998 I keep in my memory the question, which many pastors asked God: what is the leading spirit, which holds back the revival in Ukraine? That is, they realized that there is always the leading spirit, which holds back any revival. But they couldn’t understand who that spirit was. And along with this, they were showing us a film called «Reformation» (Transformation) about revival in Kala and other places on earth described in the film. The pastors saw the film. And after watching it, they asked God questions. All episodes of the film had something in common: it was occultism. But a delicate and romantic christian soul wanted something special, delicate, heavenly and extravagant. It wanted to see an angel enter the secret room and produce a trumpet sound, like it was with Mary the virgin, etc.
A drug-addict, an alcoholic, a fornicator is doing a sin against his own flesh, not having a deep spiritual contact with satan. As for witches, extra-senses, magicians — it’s quite a different case. They not merely demonstrate miracles, such as «healings», but also activate the powers of hell around through their cooperation with demons. They anoint with demonic power not only their own life, but also the life of other people, who are looking for easy ways of solving their problems, or who are looking for the so-called «miraculous» healing. Divorces, drug-addiction, alcohol addiction, cancer — all this is the result of influence of occultism.
But modern church doesn’t pay serious attention to this fact. They are fighting alcoholism and drug-addiction, which are simply consequences of occultism. The power of corruption, fornication, divorces is hidden nowhere, but in witchcraft. This is the power of strength and protection for the people involved in all these spheres (such as corruption). But the church is not interested in all this, because christians are free from it. And believers simply want to live, and to live a beautiful and sweet life. Nobody wants to look deep into the root of spiritual problems. Why do it? I live only once, and all that happens, happens according to the will of God (such is the opinion of an egoist). What do I have to do with it, if God allows it to happen? And people want to get enjoyment in this life.
If we want to win a certain territory for Christ, we can’t avoid this revelation. In 90% the evil forces have their roots in witchcraft. And only a little percentage belongs to idol-worshipping. Pagan times were stuffed with occultism and witchcraft. And take a note, idol worshipping is not so widely spread as occultism. I am not calling you to stone, or to burn or to kill extra-senses, witches and fortunetellers. There is no use doing it, because demon will find another victims for this work. But a prayer of agreement, like in the film «Reformation», can not only destroy occultism, but also its consequences on peoples’ lives and attitude to Jesus and evangelic faith. The year 1917 and the things which were happening in those times with Orthodox church, didn’t teach christians anything. Those were times, when the demonic forces raised on the whole territory of a big country, which was christian only by its name (in spite of the fact that little churches were in each and every village). And these forces destroyed all pure and good things. Instead came idol-worshipping (lenin), murdering people and hatred. Evidently, it happened because of the tolerant co-existance of churches with occultism and witchcraft. The great magician and occultist of Russia Rasputin found himself close to the orthodox Tsar of Russia, and we all know the result. And it became possible because the church was indifferent to occultism.
So, the root of all evil in the New Testament is peaceful, tolerant co-existance of church with occultism. AMEN!!!
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