How do you see evil in our present day?
"Evil is back." Cover of The New York Times Magazine (6-4-1995)
"Your constant crusading against sin makes everyone feel guilty. We've voted to let you go." A cartoon showing board members looking accusingly at their director.
"Remove God from a throne in the sky and place God where God is -- in everything we call good, in that which we call evil and certainly in that which we call the human mind. It is time we begin to see God not as other but as ourselves." Deborah Turner-Bey, Creation Spirituality
"We are of God . . . [but] the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one." 1 John 5:1
Years ago, I picked up a free magazine called Well-Being Journal in a health food store. I threw it away a few days later, but I may never forget a comment I read. Apparently, the author had received this bit of wisdom from her inner guide: "Many people believe in evil, sin, and dark forces. It is your purpose to teach the opposite which is the Truth: there is no devil, no hell, no sin, no guilt except in the creative mind of humankind."
That people believe this lie suits the devil just fine. He has always tried to blur our view of evil and our sensitivity to sin.While the evidence for supernatural evil multiplies all around us, more and more people deny it. Sure, they may believe in cosmic forces and bad vibes. But sin or Satan? They don't fit the new paradigm.
In October 1995, our local school district held a large public meeting to discuss Halloween festivities. Most parent were angry at some proposed limitations on the traditional in-school celebration of a "harmless holiday." Why worry about the small minority who felt offended by its ancient link to a dead religion?
Only a few minority voices were heard. A former Wiccan priest explained that the old Celtic witchcraft that gave birth to Halloween is anything but dead. Flourishing in today's pagan revival, it has become an official religion with tax-exempt status. A few parents shared their concerns about programs that compelled children to celebrate occult themes. They knew well that pagan symbols and occult amusement were desensitizing children to a fast-spreading subculture obsessed with death, spells and black magic -- not just at Halloween but all year long.
The majority booed, jeered, and refused to listen. "These are religious objections to secular events," declared the president of the board, Phil Faillaice. Everyone seemed to have forgotten that a different minority had, only nine months earlier, banned Christmas songs as offensive to their beliefs. But times have changed. By the end of the evening, the pro-Halloween group had won its case, and the media spread the "good" news from coast to coast.
"We have the holiday back again," declared Bay Area witch, Zsuzsanna Budapest. "These pagan calendars are imprinted in our genes. They cannot be taken away."
"It's hard to give up a good party," added Daniel Melia, UC Berkeley professor of Celtic languages. "Satan is a Christian notion. This is a pre-Christian celebration."
He is wrong about Satan. The Old Testament mentions Satan fourteen times, and that doesn't include all his other names. From beginning to end, the Bible shows how Lucifer has always been stirring rebellion against God and hatred for His people. But then as now, the good news outshines the bad: the evil one could never cause more trouble than God would allow.
The clash between two cultures at Halloween is part of the war raging in the unseen, and the enemy's strategy hasn't changed since the Old Testament days when God warned, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
who put darkness for light, and light for darkness." (Isaiah 5:20) Year after year, Satan keeps on trying to trick us into believing the opposite. As Bibles gather dust, his influence multiplies.
Remember how Pat was "delivered us from the power of darkness" and transferred "into the kingdom" of God? Before she learned God's Word, she had no resistance to Satan's lies. Now she knows with the rest of us that "we are of God, and [that] the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one." Satan's influence is no small force to reckon with, and we had better know the enemy we face each day:
"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:11-12)
Those who don't love God, cannot "stand firm" against the "wiles of the devil." As Ephesians 2 warns us, they "walk according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience . . . ." Anyone not part of God's kingdom will be swayed by Satan's armies which have fine-tuned their skills. That's why there is evil in the world -- and why it intensifies when people turn from God's love to Satan's seductive evil.
Few understand Satan's schemes better than Valerie Duffy, the former witch whom you met in Chapter 6. "The feast of Samhain (sah-ween) is an unholy Sabbath observed by occultists worldwide," she explains. Freed from the demonic forces that once controlled her life, she now lives in an "upstate New York" community that often publicizes Wiccan coven meetings and "full moon" celebrations. Each October, she fights -- and wins 10 -- a spiritual battle against oppressive forces that intensify their attacks near the Wiccan holiday.
Valerie knows all too well why Neopagans love Halloween. The old Celtic "sabbat" is their main feast -- a window of time when the walls between the physical and spiritual worlds supposedly become thin enough to allow easy crossovers. This was the time to catch up with one's ancestors and other spirits from the underworld. But don't think the Vigil of Samhain was just a fun holiday. The "Lord of the Dead", Samhain himself, is no deity to laugh at. Valerie explains why:
"On October 31, black-cloaked Druids bearing torches would go door to door to select humans for their New Year's sacrifice to the Lord of the Dead. In return for the child or infant, they would leave a hollowed turnip with candle light shining through the carved face -- a satanic counterfeit for the biblical Passover.
In the reveling that took place on that night to Samhain, the demons supposedly loosed for the night would pass over the homes "marked" by the carved lantern. Those families had provided the required gift or sacrifice. Other homes could be hit -- sometimes with sudden death.
The children selected for sacrifice were tossed into a bonfire. The Druids called it a bone-fire since only the bones were left. From the agonizing screams of the dying, the divining priests would foretell the future of the village.
Does the last statement sound familiar? Remember how the shaman or medicine man in Disney's Pocahontas read the future in the smoke from his ritual fire. When you look behind today's idealized images of the world's pagan religions, you find some awesome similarities. Small wonder since Satan, the mastermind behind the Druid rituals, usually repeats the same basic strategies wherever he works.
SATAN
Genesis 3:1-7 Twists truth to seduce God's people
1 Chronicles 21:1 Prompts people to sin
Isaiah 14:12-14 Determines to "be like the Most High"
Luke 4:13 Waits for "opportune" times when we are vulnerable
Luke 8:12 "takes away the word out of their hearts"
Luke 13:16 Puts people in bondage
Luke 22:3 Can enter into those who reject God
Evil is back
Throughout history, whenever God's people would trade truth for myth, they slid back into decadence. Today we see the same downward trend reflected in newspaper headlines such as these:
Senseless Slayings Baffle Police
Phone Sex Industry... Going Overseas
Teen Gambling Is the Latest Addiction of Choice
Youth Sex Offenders Younger Than Ever
Racial Tension at Colleges: Shocking but Real
Teen Gangs Vandalize Suburbs
Girl, 14, Slays 2 Boys and Self
Nine Texas Children Admit Torturing Horse
Some of the most shocking stories deal with children who run wild. Lacking any sense of shame, three teenage boys stabbed, strangled, and beat a 55-year-old man crippled by multiple sclerosis -- then feasted on the spaghetti in his refrigerator. He "didn't have a chance," concluded the Newsweek story. "The boys who allegedly attacked him. . .were ruthless."
Girls are fast catching up with boys. In New Orleans, a 13-year old schoolgirl pulled out a knife and plunged it into a classmate's back. "You name the crime, we have it; you think about the worst scenarios and we have them here," said Edward Cue, an official with California's "hard core" Youth Authority school in Ventura.
The lack of remorse baffles law officers. Why are both children and adults losing the old sensitivity to the horrors of evil? Why can't they tell right from wrong?
The New York Times cover story that declared "evil is back," raised the same questions: "What does it mean? Violence? Mindless wickedness? Malignant wickedness?"
The answer is: all the above. People love evil. Children gleefully watch televised death scenes that might have shocked hardened spectators in the old Roman coliseum. The lure of cruelty, violence, and occult horrors sell some of the most popular children's books as well as supermarket tabloids. By its mere exposure and availability, evil has been reinvented. Now it feels good, not bad -- exciting, not repulsive.
And Satan grins.
Fictionalized evil separates people from the reality of human suffering, which is just what the evil one intended. Many become spectators rather than participants in real community life. Eventually, both real and imagined violence becomes significant only as entertainment.
Some years ago, a car hit an elderly couple in a busy shopping complex. A crowd was already gathering at the scene when I happened to come by. It didn't take long to see the streams of blood from both their heads, yet no one had stopped to help or covered their shivering bodies. I cried out for blankets or jackets, scarves -- anything to stop the bleeding and slow the shock. Nobody responded -- neither men nor women.
When I tried to stop the bleeding from the woman's broken skull with a tissue from my purse, the spectators just stared with blank faces. I called to the owner of the car for a blanket or clothing. He didn't move. When I ran to his car and grabbed some dry cleaned clothes from his back seat, he protested. I suppose he didn't want blood on his clean clothes.
Eventually an ambulance came and took the victims away.
What happened to the Christian compassion that once built hospitals for the world's hungry and sick?
The Bible mentions people who act like animals. "What's wrong with that?" some might argue. "Animals are nicer than people."
Those who study animals see the harsh nature behind the soft fur, brown eyes, and flattering media images. An anthropologist had been studying a group of monkeys for some time when a party of chimpanzees invaded the territory.
"The results were devastating," he wrote. "During the hour-long hunt, seven [monkeys] were killed; three were torn apart in front of me. Nearly four hours later, the hunters were still eating. . .while I sat staring in disbelief at the remains of many of my study subjects."
Were these animals evil?
No. Evil is unique to humanity. We alone are given a moral choice and God's Word to help us resist temptation. Animals are expected to follow their natural instincts, but humans are held accountable to God's standard. Ignorance of that standard doesn't cancel the consequences for not heeding it. "They are without excuse," the Bible tells us.
America seems embarrassed to talk about God's standard these days. We're ashamed of what He calls good, but we "don't even know how to blush"19 at what He calls sin. No wonder evil is rampant and people are desensitized to evil, horror and human suffering.
I stopped by a large bookstore one day and discovered a huge new display inside. Startled, I stared at an child-sized open casket filled with vampire books. The wooden casket was leaning against a large imitation stone altar. On it, stood an embellished cross with candles on each side. In the center, displayed like a Bible, lay a large book. Horrified at the mockery of Christianity, I checked the cover and found Memnoch the Devil, the latest top-selling vampire book by Anne Rice. On the gray cathedral-like wall above the altar hung a cross. I hurried out of the store.
The two sides of evil
Imagined horror not only desensitizes us to God's good, it opens people to real demonic horrors and deadly occult bondage. Yet, bad as overt occultism is, neopaganism is far more seductive and just as effective for Satan's purposes today. Both paths link human minds directly to the realm of demons. Both lead to the same devastating end. But all too often, neopaganism looks deceptively light and kind.
Johanna Michaelson showed its enticing side in her eye-opening book The Beautiful Side of Evil. Her exploration into the realm of psychic surgery uncovered demonic activities far more horrible than the diseases they supposedly healed.
Some years ago, I talked with a nurse involved with holistic medicine. Jane and her husband had learned an holistic form of massage therapy that seemed to relieve her back pain, at least for a while. Like the Chinese ch'i and the Hindu prana (taught at the Re-Imagining conference), a spiritual force would flow through their hands, bringing healing by balancing their energies.
But as the time passed, Jane grew more and more dependent on her husband's treatment. Each time he massaged, the pain would fade. But the pain-free periods between massages grew shorter while the pain that soon followed grew more intense. She became desperate for lasting relief.
Lying in bed one night, Jane sensed something dark approach her. Terrified, she cried out, "In the name of Jesus, get out of here!" The unearthly presence left, but Jane and her husband realized that something was terribly wrong. What had they done to invite this kind of demonic manifestation?
After a brief search, they found a pastor who helped them understand the occult links to holistic healing. Like Valerie, they had to confess, renounce and stop all the practices they had learned to trust. Guess what happened to Jane's back? God healed it. When she chose to trust Him, He set her free.
Please don't think that all illness is demonic and can end so quickly. God can heal any of us in a moment, but He seldom chooses the smoothest path for us. Sometimes prolonged illness becomes our best opportunity to demonstrate His overcoming life and peace to others.
The point of the above story is: what seems so good may prove very dangerous. It's not easy to tell the difference. Without God's Word as our standard or reference point, it is impossible. Remember, Satan counterfeits every good gift God has given us.
Nothing blurs that line more than today's popular angels. "What idea is more beguiling than the notion of lithesome spirits, free of time and space and human weakness, hovering between us and all harm?" asks Nancy Gibbs in
Time magazine's 1993 cover story "Angels Among Us."
"They're non-threatening, wise and loving beings," says Eileen Freeman, publisher of a bimonthly newsletter called AngelWatch. "They offer help whether we ask for it or not."
Since angels abound in the world's pagan religions as well as in biblical history, they fit the need for multicultural gods. Sophy Burnham, who has studied Buddhism and Hinduism and written the two bestsellers, A Book of Angels and Angel Letters blend the "best parts" of many religions. "People are looking for hope," she says. "In the media, we hear of so much horror and despair.
But angels make us know we are loved - these wonderful beings are protecting us."
And how do you contact these sweet feminine helpers? "It's simple," said Ms. Burham. You simply "go inside yourself... Then you ask for what you need, you sit back, and you wait. It will come."
Today, it probably will. As Alma Daniels points out in her best-seller Ask Your Angels, everything has changed. Whereas in pagan cultures, only the shaman or medicine
man had direct contact with the spirit world, now everyone can be led by their personal demon. As Ms. Daniel says, "We stand on the brink of a massive change. On the one hand, we face apparent global disaster, and on the other, there is the potential for the most glorious spiritual transformation our species has ever seen...
"At this time of personal and planetary acceleration, previous rules and old forms are being discarded. Contact with the angels, which used to take years of meditation and dedication, is now available to all who seek it, because the angels are closer to us, and more open to working with us on a conscious level, than they have been in thousands of years...
"The angels aren't making contact just with special people, or in a secret way. They are doing it openly, joyfully... (Emphasis added)
"There was a time when I was on a quest for power, knowledge and alliance with unseen powers," said my friend Jane Gorevin, an Oregon mother. "I discovered a multitude of angelic beings within a spiritual hierarchy, each with distinct character, area of influence and level of power. My mind and power was no match for these forces, but God was!
He enabled me to see behind the seductive masks into the face of willful, malignant evil."
"Angels, both good and evil, have been present since the beginning of time," Jane continued. "God's angels serve as ministering spirits to His people. Fallen angels masquerade as caring helpers--but only until they accomplish their purpose. In reality, they hate everyone, even each other. I finally renounced the forces of Satan, then God showed me genuine love--something 'the angel of light' can never counterfeit."
Demons that masquerade as angels love to twist and distort God's truths and whisper deadly advice into their subjects' ears. They are evil, not good, and we need to know the difference. Use God's Word as your standard, and study the following chart.
TWO KINDS OF ANGELS
GOD'S ANGELS FALLEN ANGELS
Accountable to God (Job 2:1) Oppose God
Sent by God (Ex. 23:20) Requested by humans
Respond to God's will (Psalm 91:11) Respond to rituals (at their will)
God chooses which angel (Matt. 18:10) We choose our favorite angel
Fulfills God's will (Luke 4:10) Fulfill our will (at first)
Speaks in the name of God (Luke 1:28) Speak like us (if they choose)
Brings awe, respect, fear (Luke 1:11-13) Appear friendly and natural like us
Did you notice the similarity between angels and the self-made goddesses in Chapters 2 and 3? Remember that people who create their own deities usually imagine them in their own image. No wonder, then, that today's angelic goddesses reflect their maker's noble dreams and human cravings. Designed with a little help from the "angels", they have become alluringly approachable.
We all want an accessible God who loves us as we are. The true God fits that need, but the evil one is always trying to tell us otherwise. His goal is to draw us to himself so that he, not the Holy Spirit, will guide our thoughts and actions.. And since Satan can tailor-make his counterfeits to match Christian as well as pagan wants, even committed Christians are vulnerable.
Deceiving spirits
The shift from a truth-based Christianity to a feeling-based spirituality has swung wide the door to deception. Today, if a teacher or "prophet" majors in manifestations rather than biblical truth -- or if anyone suggests that you seek an experience rather than a deep understanding of God through His Word -- beware.
God wants you to delight in His presence, but seeking ecstatic experiences rather than oneness with His heart and purpose can lead to deception.
My British friend Tricia learned this lesson the hard way. During a time of loneliness many years ago, she tried to visualize Jesus and feel His presence. But instead of meeting the biblical God, a demonic spirit came to her posing as Jesus. As the months went by, she kept using visualization to invoke the actual presence of what seemed to be a loving divine being.
The feeling that came over her "seemed not in the slightest evil," she says. "It seemed full of love and peace."
At first, she couldn't believe that this presence might be deceiving her. "What nonsense! Of course I can feel the love of God!" she thought when a book she was reading suggested that the experience could be demonic.
"I wasn't prepared to let it go," she explained later. "It already had me bound."
Tricia pondered the warnings as she kept reading the book. Yes, God desires her love, but not just warm bodily feelings or ecstatic emotions. He seeks a love that is committed to knowing His Word and serving His people.
Finally another experience confirmed her growing concern. "I lay in bed one morning and the same presence came over me," she said. "Suddenly I felt as if I were floating in the air. I don't know if I actually lifted off the bed or levitated, but it certainly felt that way!
This surely isn't right, she thought. In the name of Jesus, she told anything that was not of God to leave, and immediately the sensation faded. The deceiving spirit never returned, and Tricia committed herself afresh to the true God and His Word.
Never will she forget the warning in 1 John 4:1: "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God."
Did you notice the similarities between Tricia's story, and those of Pat and Valerie? (Chapters 3 and 6) All describe encounters with demons disguised as God.
What made Tricia's story different was her relationship to God. She was already joined to Jesus Christ and loving His Word. The counterfeit spirit inspired her through its outer presence, not its inner guidance. Instead of enslaving her, the demon tried to block her effectiveness for God. Pat and Valerie, on the other hand, were being trained as effective servants for the domain of darkness.
Personal encounters with "Jesus" and "angels" are becoming more common -- just as Alma Daniels predicted. Even in churches caught up in this movement, few take time to "test the spirits."
So when Marianne Williamson, who popularized A Course in Miracles, cloaks her occultism in biblical terms, church women listen. "We spiritually reconstitute our lives by asking Him to enter us," she says referring to a pantheistic God. "We ask Him into every situation . . . . to change dramatically our orientation."
Embraced by the Light
Few authors have changed our spiritual orientation more than Betty Eadie who wrote Embraced by the Light. During her supposed "near-death" experience
she met a loving "Jesus" who appeared "more brilliant than the sun."30 With three "angels" as her guides, she was shown an occult spiritual system that fused her Mormon and Native American heritage with contemporary New Age teachings. Her supposedly "Christian" experience contradicts the Bible on every point. Who do you think was her source of "wisdom"?
Many people see near-death experiences as opportunities to preview heaven. Few know the darker side.31 In pagan cultures, shamans often "met" their personal animal spirit (spirit guide or demon) during childhood near-death experiences which opened doors to demonic spirits and visions. Apparently, Betty Eadie did. During a serious illness after her mother, a "full-blooded Sioux Indian", had left her at a boarding school, the girl slipped into a coma. While in this trance-like state, she saw a spiritual being whose beard sparkled with light.
"Most shamans receive an 'initiatory call' ... during a personal illness serious enough to induce a coma (a form of trance),"33 wrote William Lyon in his biography of Indian shaman Black Elk.
Unlike Christian families who come under God's protection, tribal cultures are driven by superstitions, fears, and rituals that buy protection from certain powerful spirits or demons against more frightening ones. Today the same occult rituals merge with all kinds of occult arts and teachings.
"Angels are firmly rooted in the collective unconscious of the human race," writes Geoffrey James, who looks at angels through the filter of Jungian psychology. "Their energy can be tapped by practicing the Western magickal system of Angel Magic. . . a practical application of the Cabal (or Kabbala, an ancient form of Jewish occultism), Tarot, and Astrology."
Evil is back by popular demand. And while, Satan, masquerading as 'an angel of light,' can only oppress Christians to the extent God allows,35 he has all the rest of humanity to trap and train as counterfeit "ministers of righteousness."
Their main work is to turn people away from God and link them to the occult. (Nothing fits their plan better than "Christians" who receive their lies and proclaim them to others as prophecies from God.)
Most of these "ministers" fit one of the following levels of service:
1. Pagan priests, shamans, spiritists, and New Age teachers -- people who actively seek to harness occult powers and lead others into the occult.
2. Followers and supporters -- those who promote the new spirituality and participate in its rituals.
3. The deceived masses -- those who flow with the social changes and deny the realities of God.
4. So-called Christians without a personal relationship with Christ -- those who bear Christ's name but don't follow His ways. They serve Satan by discrediting Christ outside the church and confusing Christians inside the church.
Deliver us from evil
Neither sin nor evil can be imagined away. Nor is anyone immune to Satan's lies or temptations. That's why the apostle Paul reminds us to "put on the whole armor of God." When he looked at life's struggles from God's perspective, he saw how God used evil for His good purpose. Realizing how pride could have blocked his vision of God, he welcomed the pain that made him strong in Christ:
"Lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. . . . I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me,
"'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.'" (2 Corinthians 12:7-12)
I understand what he is talking about. Disappointments, divisions, slander, and persecution often break our hearts and test our faith as we try to serve our King.
Yet they serve God's purpose, for they help us see the malignancy of what God calls evil. Better yet, they also prompt us to trust God rather than our feelings, to exercise the faith and discipline needed to respond with love, and to make every effort to avoid the consequences of tolerating evil.
Thus evil, when seen from His perspective, becomes a catalyst to make us strong in Christ, not in ourselves.
As we come to Him in humility, gratefulness, and obedience -- the exact opposite of what feminism demands -- He reminds us that the hurtful things that touch our lives keep us where we long to be: close to Himself at the foot of the cross. There, each morning, we can give Him our lives, our minds, our plans, and all the struggles that would distract and defeat us that day. Freed from the lures of resentment and self-pity and filled with His life and peace, we can say with Paul,
"God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."41
Hidden in the true Jesus, we are ready to face evil in His strength. Like Jesus, we have the Word of God, which "isliving and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword."
When we speak it in faith, it cuts through the veil of illusions, shows us the truth, and frees us from the seductive pull of the particular evil that might have corrupted our thoughts and defeated our witness:
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
Notice the last part. New thoughts and arguments that oppose God's Word on every point are driving the feminist movement.