Christians and Magic

Lately I’ve been pondering the quirky behaviors I see in many believers, including myself. In some primitive religions, a medicine man may wave a magic stick around like it has power, or use some words that no one understands as an incantation that invokes spiritual power. Christians tend to do similar things; speak in tongues forcefully as if commanding something invisible; anoint things with oil or holy water; move their hands around like something is going to result from the action. It could be that such things do have spiritual meaning, and thus they are seen in both true and false religion. But most of the time, I don’t see any result from the actions, objects, and words, fervent though they be. This leads me to think that they are merely manifestations of superstition rather than something God backs with His power.

In the old covenant, God laid out very specific rules and diagrams of how to build the temple, and how He was to be approached. If the rules were violated, it could mean the death of the transgressor, as we saw with the sons of Aaron. There were specific kinds of objects created to exacting specifications, all because they were imitating the true tabernacle in Heaven. None of this could be considered superstition, because God commanded every detail of it. I think the problem lies in transferring the significance of the temple to other behaviors, objects, and words that we produce. For example, speaking in tongues has historically been a language of prayer, not of rebuking demons. Wearing a cross around your neck is not a talisman or good-luck symbol. Demons don’t flee because you wave a cross at them; they flee, or are thrown out, from the power of God being unleashed on them.

My point in all of this is not to mock, it is to understand what is real and what isn’t. If we are wasting our time with religious behaviors that don’t really have any effect, isn’t it better to stop doing them, and start doing the things that motivate the arm of God? Jesus said in a straightforward manner that those who believe in him would do what he had been doing, and even greater things, because he was going to the Father. That sounds wonderful. Why then is it that we are hard pressed to find such examples? Why is the church so seemingly devoted to the appearance of having God, while settling for no real results? The unbelievers look at us and wonder why we bother with religion when there is so much fun to be had. Many of us defensively glare back and speak in tongues at them – devils! True, they that reject God are of the devil. But what are we really? We claim a lot of things, but typically cannot demonstrate that our beliefs are real. Didn’t Jesus state that we would be like him in the world? Why aren’t we?

If it isn’t obvious at this point, yes, I’m comparing us to the tribal medicine man. Now I do get reports that some folks I know are seeing miracles of God’s power, and not uncommonly. These are the ones who attract my attention. They are doing something right, because God is backing what they are saying and doing. Every one of them is ministering to the poor and rejected in society, be it foreign or domestic. Jesus himself set this out as the dividing characteristic at the judgment – I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was in prison and you came to visit me. Simple stuff, but it shows the difference between someone who cares about those in need and someone who is only interested in his or her own wellbeing. This is the very cause that Abraham gave for the rich man being in damnation. Every day the rich man could have had mercy on Lazarus, the poor man who lay at his gate. But instead he ignored him and gave himself all the comforts available.

Jesus linked helping the poor in with all the miracles he did. When the disciples of John the Baptist came asking if Jesus was really the Messiah, he told them to report to John what they had seen: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Preaching the good news of Jesus to the poor, while caring for their needs, is integral to seeing the power of God released. God doesn’t give out his power to thrill you, or so that you can get a name as being a powerful speaker. God doesn’t share his glory. We are to go among the least, carrying His glory like the priests carried the ark of God – with reverence and humility. We don’t have to put on a show to get God to move, in fact the more hoopla we put into it, the less we are giving glory to Him. Just as when Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it (to get water for Israel in the desert), and God rebuked him for not trusting and honoring Him, so we must not perform for the eyes of people. Just give them the truth, help them with their needs, and expect God to help them when you ask.

Now there are times in the scriptures where believers do things that seem oddly similar to what we might describe as witchcraft, but not in the sense of dealing with demons. For example, in Genesis 30, Jacob worked out a deal with his father-in-law regarding sheep and goats: each lamb or kid that was spotted or striped would become the property of Jacob, and all the spotless ones belonged to Laban. This way they could tell instantly to whom the sheep belonged. In verses 37-43, Jacob does something akin to magic or witchcraft in setting striped and spotted tree branches by the watering troughs of the animals during mating season. It says, “When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.” Nowhere does it say that God told him to do this, or that he even asked God about it; he just did it and it seems to have worked. With our knowledge of genetics, we have never uncovered a connection between the appearance of one’s offspring and what was being looked at during the time of mating. So what was that all about?

Elijah the prophet did a couple of things that were likewise peculiar. When an axhead flew off a borrowed ax and into deep water, he cut a branch and threw it into the water, and the axhead floated to the surface (2 Kings 6:6-7). In 2 Kings 4:38-41 a pot of stew that has a poisonous plant in it is reclaimed by throwing in a bit of flour. Now clearly, this man had special revelation from God and special gifting that the other prophets recognized. But the power of God had to back up these actions or nothing would have happened. In the gospels, when Jesus was healing people, sometimes he spoke and they were healed, and other times he did things that seem unusual. Once he put his fingers into the ears of a deaf man, sighed deeply and said, “Be opened!” Another time with a blind man, he spat in the dirt and made a bit of mud, which he smeared on the man’s eyes. When the man washed it off, he could see. He never explained why he did any of these things, and no one asked him. The apostle Paul was able to give people cloths that were taken to the sick, who were then healed of their ailments. Given that most theologians today look for patterns of scriptural behavior to emulate, why is it that we treat such things as superstition instead of acts of godly insight?

These things are not often discussed in churches, but we need to take them along with the other scriptures when we try to get a view of spiritual life. Way too often our culture sets the tone for what we accept as reality, and what we relegate to “ghosts and goblins” or the stuff of fairy tales. Am I suggesting that we randomly start behaving in these ways? Of course not, since those who did them in the scriptures did so with the backing of God. How did they know they had this backing? It came from the rest of their lives, lived out in devotion to God. In the same way that words spoken in faith brought the power of God to bear on a situation, these acts were done in faith that God’s power would accompany them.

There is more to the spiritual realm than most believers care to examine. Most are quite content to “just believe” whatever comes out of the pulpit, and most seminaries deal in theology rather than in spirituality. So when demons manifest, or the Spirit of God manifests, churches tend to freak out as though something really unusual were happening. We read the scriptures daily, which tell us about these things, but then go our merry way as though they are merely stories for ignorant ancient cultures. Some famous teachers deny their reality completely, taking them as parables or guidelines for life instead of glimpses into a reality that is far greater than our physical senses can describe. It is easier for some to pretend that we have things figured out, and to reject anything that doesn’t fit into the models of reality we have created. But God is not boxed by our theology, nor by our limited imaginations. He is who He is, and comes from a realm we know little about. He has powerful spiritual creatures around his throne that cover their eyes and bow in reverent awe, and shout “HOLY!” continually, as the waves of His majesty overwhelm them. Who of us has seen them firsthand, or has even recognized his angels sent to minister to us? Very few indeed, yet they still exist as much as we do.

So what shall I conclude from all this? In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, when Hamlet and friends are confronted by the ghost of Hamlet’s murdered father, Horatio was feeling overwhelmed by the strangeness of it:

HORATIO: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
HAMLET: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

That is how I see the church, for the most part, in dealing with spiritual things. We have such a lack of understanding, and of revelation, regarding these things. And we tend to fill in the blanks with guesses or rote religious observance, when really we are ignorant about much of the reality behind our faith. But then again, God isn’t really trying to educate us regarding the spiritual realm and the creatures and rules that govern it, though it is clear we are part of it and play an important role in revealing His character to the heavenly realms (Ephesians 3:10-11). He is concerned that we love Him and love one another. He will take care of the rest. We who trust that the scriptures are a valid representation of truth should not discount the spiritual “intrusions” into our lives, and seek God to gain real protection, revelation, and usefulness out of them.

I’ve had people write to me seeking information on demons, and responded that it is best not to study them, since most of the information on them outside the bible is misleading and dangerous. I’m told that bankers do not study counterfeit money, they study real money so that when a counterfeit comes along, they will spot it easily. In the same way, we should devote ourselves to God and knowing Him, then we will be able to spot counterfeits easily. The spiritual realm is odd to us because we know so little about it. But God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). The more we know God, perhaps the less weird the spiritual will seem to us.

Daily Cross, or Daily Dross?

Jesus said “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:22-24)

If I am to take up the cross daily, but have not been, is that not disobedience? If I am choosing to enjoy the world instead of dying to it, I am not taking up the cross. The cross is torture and suffering. The cross is not pleasant. If I am seeking to preserve my existence here and make it as comfortable as possible, I will lose it. If I lose my life here, I will gain eternal life. But it is said elsewhere of Jesus that “for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame”. He saw the joy that awaited his obedient suffering. He chose suffering because of the joy it would bring. “No man takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own will.”

If I have no persecutors, how then will I take up the cross? Perhaps I have no persecutors because I am hiding the light I have been given. Eventually, a fire will go out if robbed of oxygen. I do not desire a nostalgic Christianity that looks back a few years and comforts itself with what was done then. I do not want to merely quote the words of preachers and the Savior, as though I participated with them in suffering, while glutting myself on the pleasures of the world. This is hypocrisy and a damnable fantasy. I want the reality of “Christ in me, the hope of glory”. I want the truth of the statement “If we suffer with him, we will also reign with him” to be factual in my life.

It may be that I have no persecutors due to the present political/sociological situation where I live. Apathy is more commonplace than violence. This is true both in the world and in the church. Michael Card says in his song Scandalon (Christ the stumbling stone), “Today it seems the Scandalon offends no one at all, the image we present can be stepped over.” Political correctness has replaced the fire of God in many who call themselves believers. My wife has had church elders walk away shaking their heads when she mentioned God raising the dead and healing the sick. Zeal for God is seen by some church leaders as a corrupt doctrine to be excised. No fire burns in their hearts and they fear it in others. They would rather preach that the church needs to rest on a “soft pillow”, because of the hardships it has gone through (this was actually preached in a congregation I was part of some years ago. That was the last sermon I tolerated there.)

In the days of Caesar, Christians were given a choice to either confess publicly that Caesar was a god (a patriotic gesture), or be put to death in a variety of ways, many of which were torturous. To be a Christian meant to place one’s life on the line daily. In the communist countries today, believers are still tortured for their confession of Christ. They are model citizens who do not steal, cheat, or otherwise break laws. But they will not turn their backs on the king who saved them, and so they are tortured, raped, electrocuted, drugged, maimed, and killed. Men, women, and children are all abused daily for the sake of Jesus. Coptic Christian girls in Egypt are raped and forced to marry Muslim men, even while the governmental laws state they have freedom of religion. The police look the other way, because they secretly agree with the practice. Sudanese Christian men are castrated, and their wives’ breasts are cut off by the Muslim soldiers. The children are commanded to become Muslims, and are thrown on the fire if they refuse. Just because you don’t see it on Fox News or CNN every night doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. The world is much more than you see on your TV screen.

American and European believers for the most part lead very comfortable lives. We don’t typically have persecutors breathing down our necks. Many believe that this situation will not last, and that the dragon will rear its head in fury against any pretense of faith in Christ, demanding allegiance to itself alone. Many in churches who are unprepared to suffer will gladly become traitors to protect their investments, houses, jobs, and comfort. Others believe that the dragon has a better harvest keeping churches rich, lazy, and self-satisfied, and so it will encourage the apathy and indulgence that destroys souls.

My wife and I know families of Russian immigrants in our area. They said that in Russia, they had to fear the Red Dragon of persecution. In America, they face the Green Dragon of money and prosperity. They recognize that their children are not going to grow up with the suffering and persecution they faced, and they see how many are leaving their commitment to Jesus for the pleasures of the world. Those who have suffered need to tell the next generation in detail and not expect them to simply understand, because the young face many distractions that the elders never knew. Even now their congregations are full of those who have felt the wrath of the KGB, and they know many others who died at the hand of persecutors. This precious suffering must be recounted as truthfully as possible to the young, along with the faith that endured it. Reading it in a book is not as powerful as hearing it from the lips of grandma. Videotape those who are willing to speak, to let the next generation know. We don’t know how long the freedom will last here or in Russia. We must prepare for suffering, and to love our enemies.

Let us go to Christ outside the camp and bear the shame of public reproach with him. He suffered for us to bring redemption. We must suffer with him to demonstrate his sufferings to the world, to offer his gift in person to the world he came to save. And in this we have a joy and a treasure set before us that will never fade, stored up in Heaven with Christ our Bridegroom. That should spur us on to reject the world’s offers of peace (and damnation), and joyfully accept the sufferings they gave to our precious Christ.

An early church father, Jerome, wrote, “The church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others, by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it”

Eusebius wrote, "They are put to death, and they gain new life. They are poor, and make many rich; they lack everything, and in everything they abound. They are dishonored, and their dishonor becomes their glory; they are reviled and abused and yet they bless: they are insulted, and yet they repay insult with honor”

I recommend a book called “The Triumphant Church”, a compilation of writings by Richard Wurmbrand, John Piper, and Milton Martin. It is like a training manual for the Underground Church and demonstrates how to survive suffering for Christ. The book is available through Voice of the Martyrs.

Fantasy and Belief

I saw a news program today about pedophiles and how they use the Internet chat rooms to find their victims. They showed man after man that they lured into a sting operation (19 in all). These guys are now facing federal charges for attempted sex crimes. They came from all walks of life, and various levels of intelligence. One was a rabbi, one an orthodontist, and so on. The program didn’t go into detail about how each of them arrived at the place of seeking sex with underage partners; it just showed that they were so caught up in their desire that they were easily caught in a trap. They fully believed that they would be encountering a 13-year old girl or boy, but instead were met by a news team with a camera. Their fantasy had so occluded reality that they threw caution to the wind and committed a federal felony on national TV.

Since I have recently been pondering the nature of church and why we do things the way we do, I wondered if there could be similarities between it and the news program I saw. Now, I am certain of the reality of God and his work on our behalf in Jesus. But it seems like churches across the country are caught up in traditions and expectations that are not necessarily from God. It seems like there is a fantasy that covers the minds of some believers, and blinds us to the daily realities. We go on week after week assuming that what we are doing is pleasing to God, never really questioning if our meetings are useful. There is no question that they are expected of us, by other believers I mean.

But what do our meetings and rituals produce? Are they for God or for us? I saw an adaptation of the story of Hercules tonight, and one of the characters watching a ritual commented that these rituals were based on things passed down from long ago, but their meaning has since been forgotten and the magic is being misused. The realities behind them still exist, but mortals have replaced them with the rituals. In church the rituals can be as much charismatic as they can be high-church. Just because we are used to doing things a certain way doesn’t make them “from God”. Just because other Christians expect you to go along with the program doesn’t mean their expectations equate with the heart of God. Manipulation through guilt is a long tradition in the church.

God has not changed. He is who He is. When God gave the covenant to Moses, He laid down patterns of priestly observance that had to be followed exactly, because God is Holy and must be approached with caution. God also required many things of the people in the covenant, to show them that they were to be different from the world. But prior to the covenant of Moses, God walked with man in the garden. God called Abraham prior to the law. God revealed Himself in mystical and mysterious ways to Abraham, and yet spoke to him as a friend. Jesus told his apostles that he no longer regarded them as servants, but as friends.

I feel a call of God internally, without words. I don’t know how to phrase it exactly. But I see Jesus say things like “He who believes in me, as scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” “The wind (or spirit) blows where it wills, you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with those born of the spirit.” I want that. I want to be that. And blindly following the traditions of the church is not causing it in me or in those I have met. Occasionally, we do feel the Spirit. But to me, that is not a validation of the methods, but a wooing to follow the Spirit. I want to be of God, not just an adherent of a methodology of a system of beliefs. I want to bring the reality of God into daily life. I know people with diseases and disabilities that I want to see cured, and the reality of God demonstrated to them in ways that shake their worldview and cause them to grapple with a God whom they have heretofore treated as a myth.

As I said on the main website: “We must demonstrate the reality of God by intruding, as it were, into the fantasy of those around us with the living presence of God. The world assumes that this "natural" world evolved on its own, while we know it was spoken into being by God. But most of us who claim to believe this don't live as though we saw it happen. If we don't live in God's presence and deal with others from that reality, our words to this deceived world can only come across as more religion and philosophy that can be discounted and dismissed.
Attaining His presence is not a matter of techniques, but of trust, and actively dealing with others as though God has told us the truth. We learn our "Christian" behaviors from those around us in the church, but given the enormity of the unbelief in the church, we end up as a hollow shell of what we were intended by Christ to be.”

As I stated at the top, I believe that a lot of our traditions have become a “pretend God” to us, and have displaced the real Spirit. They become a fantasy that occludes the reality of God. But to deny the validity of these traditions invokes a variety of unhappy reactions from those steeped in them. Coldness, rejection, hostility, silence, accusation of sin, and so on. But my hope is that as the news team confronted the pedophiles and exposed their fantasy to the light of reality, those who are being saved will hear the call of God and pull away from the emptiness of mere tradition, and the expectations of those who content themselves with it, regardless of the temporal consequences and the sting of rejection.

Testing of Prophesy

TESTING OF PROPHESY GIVEN BY KIM CLEMENT December 31, 2005

Someone forwarded to me a prophesy by Kim Clement (www.kimclement.com) made on December 31, 2005, and distributed via the “Elijah List”.

Several statements in this prophesy are made regarding measurable events and timelines, so I am going to keep track to see if they come true or not. According to the following prophesy, these events must happen by June of 2007:

· no death, only life; no sickness, only health; no poverty, only riches
· a group of youth from Georgia, Illinois, Florida, and California, will arise and change the laws in the nation
· On Christmas (no year specified) God will send signs (apparently an earthquake) in the Middle East to get the “perpetrators” out of their hiding places to be publicly humiliated.
· A new source of energy will be revealed in America in the next 18 months (by June of 2007) from “…garbage, from insects, shall come from beneath your feet: a new source of energy. Not ethanol only; something else…”
· The prophets will be shown where to invest money regarding the new energy source.
· The new energy source is somehow related to what (Albert) Einstein was working on, before God “took him” to prevent it from being revealed too early.
· America shall apparently become debt-free “America--no deficit! America--no deficit!"
· A Christian will be president for the next three terms (12 years)
· Great prosperity is promised over a four-year period.
· Youth shall be saved and become apostles and devoted to studying the scriptures, and America will rejoice.
· A vague statement about God multiplying in 2006. A later statement says
“For what you lost in 2003 and in 2004 and in 2005, I WILL MULTIPLY IN 2006!”
· Muslims and Russia will be involved in using “radiation” against Israel (the people of God), but God will stop it and reveal the perpetrators.
· One of the Kennedy family members will lose a limb and become a strong believer that will champion the way of God.
· God will give houses and land;
· wheat and other harvest will increase
· The NASDAQ will rise to the highest point ever