For those of you who do not
understand the Satanic significance of child sacrifice, abortion,
this is an insightful insight. Indeed, knowledge is power and
that power can be used to overcome the ignorance of self and others.
It is not our right but our duty to expose evil for what it is.
This is long but well worth the read.
THE
MASSACRE OF INNOCENCE
THE
OCCULT ROOTS OF ABORTION
By Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers
INTRODUCTION
"You practice your religion and let
me practice mine."
"My religion is a holy ritual child
sacrifice."
Patricia Baird-Windle,
Founder and owner of Aware Woman Center for Choice
* On August 4, 1992, two employees of
Aware Woman abortion clinic, Veronica Jordan and Rebecca Morris,
registered a non-profit religious corporation known as the Wiccan
Religious Cooperative of Florida (WRCF). The stated purpose of the
WRCF is to provide an umbrella organization for witch covens
throughout the state of Florida. The incorporation papers list two
abortion clinic employees as directors of the Wiccan organization.
* Shortly after the Wiccan Religious
Cooperative of Florida was founded, Carol Ebbing, another Aware
Woman abortion clinic employee ordered this book entitled: The
Sacrament of Abortion.
* The book, authored by a Ginnette Paris, a witch in France, presents
abortion as "a sacred act." Paris calls abortion: "a
sacrifice to Artemis, who refuses to give life if the gift is not
pure" (that is innocent or preborn life).
* The January 1993 issue of the Wiccan Open
Circle newsletter described the founding of the Wiccan Religious
Cooperative of Florida: "A year ago the dream of an umbrella
group under which many covens would function and be committed to
peace and harmony 'For The Good Of All,' was just that, a dream. But
now it is a reality and a very, very big part of the lives of many
people."
* This issue of Open Circle,
published at the time the pro-life organization, Operation Rescue
National, held an event in Melbourne, Florida, alerted Central
Florida area Wiccans and Pagans, "... steps are being taken to
protect not only Aware Woman, but a woman's right to choose. Work is
being done mundanely, financially, and magically, to help get
through the next few months and beyond."
* Readers of Open Circle were
encouraged to become "clinic escorts" and were told how
they could help fund the South Brevard National Organization of
Woman's program to "help low income women have abortions."
* Wiccans were also encouraged to work
their magic on the area surrounding the Aware Woman abortion clinic:
"... many individuals and groups have been helping to magically
protect the building and property ... This has been done by magical
and psychic shielding being put on and around the property...."
MASSACRE OF INNOCENCE:
THE OCCULT ROOTS OF ABORTION
In focusing on the subject of abortion,
much has been contended from a medical and social perspective. But
when we pull the lid off and look at abortion from a biblical and
spiritual perspective, the implications are far more profound and
staggering.
As we view the ties between occult
religion and the abortion industry, the conclusion will become
obvious. The promotion of abortion is not just a political and
social issue; it is part of a religious and spiritual agenda the
religion of witchcraft and child sacrifice.
Part 1
ABORTION IN BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
There is much medical evidence that human
life begins early in the development of a fetus. At only six to
eight weeks of development it is obvious that the developing fetus
is not "a blob of tissue," as pro-abortionists would like
us to believe, but a remarkably developed baby boy or girl.
But medical and scientific evidence is not
our primary source of Truth. The Word of God, the Bible, must be our
source for determining the sanctity of life from the moment of
conception. In fact, the very name of God points us in the direction
of the sanctity of life from the time it is conceived in the womb.
Let's first briefly review what the Bible
says about human life in the womb.
The Bible tells us in Exodus 34 verses 5
through 7, the name of the Lord followed by the revelation of His
character and nature, Jehovah Rachum, or "God is
merciful."
The root of the Hebrew word for
"merciful," rachum, and "mercy," rachamim,
was the first aspect of God's character to be revealed to the
prophet Moses on Mount Sinai.
Racham is also the root of the word in
Hebrew for "womb" rachum.
The womb then, in its original Hebrew
context, is the center or seat of mercy, the place from which the
child, being formed in the image of God, is conceived, formed,
nurtured and born.
Jesus declared in Matthew 5:7,
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
But the converse is also true. When men, for their own convenience,
would send their swords into that place of life and mercy, defiling
the sanctity of life within the recham the womb turning it from its
purpose, it may be necessary to consider Christ's declaration of the
wages earned by those who take up the sword: "Those who live by
the sword, shall die by the sword" (Matthew 26:52).
It is no coincidence that Jesus, the
Messiah, would be conceived in a womb and born of a woman after a
full term pregnancy.
We need look no further than the story of
Jesus' conception to see that life is indeed sacred from the womb.
Christ himself was both fully man and fully God from the moment of
His conception.
"And the angel answered and said to
her: 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Highest will overshadow you; therefore also, that Holy One who is to
be born will be called the Son of God'" (Luke 1:35).
We see the sanctity of life in the womb
outlined clearly in the Gospel according to Luke 1:26-41. Shortly
after Christ's conception was revealed to Mary through the angel
Gabriel, Luke tells us:
"Now Mary arose in those days and
went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and
entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And it
happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe
leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit."
In Luke 1:26, we are told that Jesus was
conceived exactly six months after Elizabeth's son, John the
Baptist. It was John who leapt in the womb at the greeting of Mary
and the coming of the preborn Savior into the house of his father,
Zechariah.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was
conceived six full months after John. Jesus had to be somewhere
within the first trimester of pregnancy the time when 88 percent of
the abortions in our nation are performed when John "leapt in
the womb" at the arrival of the Savior.
It is also interesting to consider that
the first "Gospel message" was preached at the coming of
Christ while He was still in the first trimester of development. The
"Good News" was initiated by the preborn infant John
proclaiming the divinity of the baby Jesus that the Savior had come
into the world.
It is clear throughout the Scriptures that
life begins at conception in the womb.
"For Thou didst form my inward parts.
Thou didst weave me in My mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalms 139:13).
"Before I formed you in the womb, I
knew you. And before you were born I consecrated you" (Jeremiah
1:5).
"... the Lord who made you and formed
you in the womb ..." (Isaiah 44:2).
According to Scripture, abortion is a sin
against God a violation of the sixth commandment, "You shall
not murder." It is the wanton killing of innocent human life in
the womb a place designed by God to be a refuge of life and mercy.
PART 2
THE ORIGIN OF CHILD SACRIFICE
In focusing on the sin of abortion, we
must keep our focus in spiritual perspective. The Bible tells us:
"Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly
places" (Ephesians 6:12).
Our enemy in fighting abortion is not the
abortionist, the courts, or those who are advocating for abortion
rights. Our enemy is the one who was a murderer from the beginning
Satan and the spiritual forces under his command.
Throughout history, certain pagan cultures
have sacrificed human infants to demons as a part of a complicated
ritual in return for favors asked of them. While few of those
involved in abortion today are consciously engaging in child
sacrifice, although that is precisely what abortion is the sacrifice
of a human life for the convenience or needs of others. In that
respect, it is no less barbaric than the human sacrifice practiced
to ensure, for example, a successful harvest. But beyond this, there
is a spiritual, satanically inspired dimension that gives
frightening realism to abortion's identification with literal child
sacrifice.
The Bible supports this idea as often we
see a particular action viewed by God as something of a more overtly
occult nature. Rebellion is called witchcraft; immorality is likened
to idolatry; hatred is akin to murder thus abortion is child
sacrifice.
To discover the origins child sacrifice we
can examine a key passage of scripture. Genesis 19 gives the account
of Lot and his daughters, some of the early ancestors of mankind:
"And Lot went up from Zoar and stayed in the mountains and his
two daughters with him." Then the first born said to the
younger, "Our father is old and there is not a man on earth to
come into us after the manner of the earth."
Now it so happens that there were men
available just a few miles away geographically. But they meant
something different. The "earth" is throughout scripture a
symbol of a fallen unregenerate realm. James tells us that there is
a wisdom from above that is "pure and peaceable," but that
there is a wisdom from below which is "earthly, natural and
demonic" (James 3:15,17). In the same way that many modern
feminists want men purely on their own terms, Lot's daughters wanted
a man in this "manner of the earth."
"So they made their father drink wine
that night and laid with him" (Genesis 19:29-38). This was a
gross act of rebellion against both their father and God. As a
result both daughters had children. The oldest daughter's son was
named Moab. His descendents, the Moabites, ultimately became an
idolatrous nation that was one of the primary enemies of God's
people Israel.
The youngest daughter's son Ben Ammi
became the father of the sons of Ammon. 1 Kings 11:7 calls Molech
"the detestable idol of the Ammonites." The name Molech in
Hebrew means: "to ascend the throne" or, in other words,
to usurp God's authority. Leviticus 20:2 tells us that Molech
worship involved the sacrifice of one's offspring. While the
Ammonites primarily sacrificed post-natal children, it is no
coincidence that it is the Ammonites that God condemns in the book
of Amos for a particular form of blood-thirstiness:
"For three transgressions of the sons
of Ammon, and for four, will I not revoke its punishment, because
they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to
enlarge their borders" (Amos 1:13).
To "enlarge one's borders" is a
biblical metaphor applied not just to land, but to extend the
boundaries of acceptable human conduct. How common this is still
today as we hear cries of "It's my choice" and "Keep
your religion out of my life."
Baal and Molech Worship
"And they built the high places of
Baal that are in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to cause their sons and
their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech" (Jeremiah
32:35).
"They have built also the high places
of Baal, to burn their sons as offering to Baal" (Jeremiah
19:5).
Here the Bible implies what modern
archaeologists and anthropologists have recently discovered: that
Molech and Baal represent the same pagan god. The wife of Baal is
Asherah and the wife of Molech is Ashteroth. Asherah and Ashteroth
represent the same fertility goddess. This demon was known to the
Greeks as Aphrodite; to the Egyptians as Isis; and to the
Phoenicians as Tanet.
PART 3
HUMAN SACRIFICE IN HISTORY
As horrific as it may sound, one of the
most widespread forms of worship among ancient peoples was human
sacrifice. Not only in Canaan, but also in northern Africa, India,
Europe, and America, the ancients believed that the blood of the
sacrifice is what appeased the gods.
The pagan practice of blood sacrifice is
actually a perversion of the rites given by God to His people Old
Covenant Israel.
God instructed the priests of Israel
through Moses:
"For the life of the creature is in
the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make
atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement
for the soul" (Leviticus 17:11).
Sacrifice to any other god was condemned
as idolatry:
"They shall no more offer their
sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This
shall be as statute forever for them throughout their
generations" (Leviticus 17:7).
As we look at the practice of human
sacrifice among the nations in ancient times, keep in mind that,
according to God's perspective, these sacrifices were made to demons
the false gods of the pagan nations.
Carthage
The ancient city of Carthage was the
capital of the Phoenician empire. Their civilization was advanced
culturally and highly educated. But recent archaeological
expeditions have revealed its most notable feature the high
incidence of child sacrifice. Archaeological relics have been
uncovered, such as the altars on which children were sacrificed and
stone markers, which marked the burial place of the remains. Stone
carvings on the markers depict children who were sacrificed. Clay
jars were used to hold the remains. Entire burial grounds full of
these slaughtered children have been uncovered.
As barbaric as this sounds, we must
remember that this is precisely what we do through abortion. With
one obvious exception today we don't honor or bury the children we
kill.
The Carthaginians were descendants of the
ancient Canaanites and worshipped the same god, Baal or Molech.
Archaeologists have established that the primary deity that they
children were sacrificed to was the goddess Tanet, the name being a
regional representation of the more universal Ashteroth.
Archaeologists are horrified even today as they continue to unearth
body after body of children who were sacrificed as part of this
great holocaust. Written accounts tell us that the priests of Baal
would beat drums during the ritual of sacrifice in order to drown
out the cries of the crying mothers.
English historian G.K. Chesterton writes:
"There was a tendency to call upon spirits of terror and
compulsion. There is always a sort of dim idea that these darker
powers will really do things, with no nonsense about it. In the
interior psychology of the Punic peoples this strange sort of
pessimistic practicality had grown to great proportions. In the New
Town, which the Romans called Carthage, as in the parent cities of
Phoenicia, the god who got things done bore the name Moloch, who was
perhaps identical with the other deity whom we know as Baal, the
Lord. The Romans did not at first know quite what to call him or
what to make of him; they had to go back to the grossest myth of
Greek or Roman origins and compare him to Saturn devouring his
children. But the worshippers of Moloch were not gross or primitive.
They were members of a mature and polished civilisation, abounding
in refinements and luxuries; they were probably far more civilised
than the Romans. And Moloch was not a myth. These highly civilised
people really met together to invoke the blessing of heaven on their
empire by throwing hundreds of their infants into a large furnace.
We can only realise the combination by imagining a number of
Manchester merchants with chimney-pot hats and mutton-chop whiskers,
going to church every Sunday at eleven o'clock to see a baby roasted
alive."
The typical rationalist would attribute
the rites of Molech to superstition and would suggest that science
and intellectual advancement would cause this type of unfortunate
behavior to lessen and finally cease. But archaeologists have
discovered that over Carthage's history, the incident of child
sacrifice, even in the face of considerable intellectual advances,
actually increased until it suddenly stopped.
And how did it stop? When God judged
Carthage. Roman armies invaded and suddenly destroyed the entire
civilization. The stark ruins of Carthage are a testimony that God
is not mocked. We have to ask ourselves: How far are we from a
judgment for our own abortion holocaust?
Aztecs
When the Spanish conquistadors first
arrived in the new world in the 1500s, they were surprised to find a
highly advanced civilization the Aztecs of Mexico at one time their
empire stretched throughout central and North America. Their capital
city featured towering pyramids and beautiful palaces.
But the conquistadors were shocked to
discover that the Aztecs practiced a barbaric religious ritual of
human sacrifice. In fact, the Aztecs, from ancient times to the
1500s, may have sacrificed more people to their gods than any other
culture in human history.
When the great temple was dedicated in
1487, priests sacrificed thousands of people in a single day. The
Aztecs sacrificed to all the gods and goddesses often through
bloodletting on the heights of the pyramids. Again, we find that
this was not a primitive culture compared to the rest of the world
at that time. It was a highly advanced society of artists,
craftsmen, and priests. Yet they spilled more human blood tot heir
gods than any other culture in history.
One account by a Spanish conquistador
tells of a skull rack containing 136,000 heads of victims who had
been ritually murdered.
The Spanish were horrified. In response,
they massacred the Aztecs, tore down their temple and built a
cathedral in its place.
India Kali worship
Kali was the goddess of death and
darkness, demanded human flesh. From ancient times, the sacred
scriptures of the Hindus, the Vedas, spoke of the desire of the gods
for human sacrifice: "The sacrificer will sacrifice a man first
for man is the first of all animals. Thus he slaughters the victim
according to its form and according to its excellence" (Shatapata
Veda).
Note the deception contained in this
subtle twisting of Biblical truth. Genesis 1:26,27 tells of man's
primacy in God's creation. However, man is not an animal according
to the Bible. Man was created in God's own image, and it is
precisely for this reason that killing of innocent human life is a
capital offense in the eyes of God.
"Whoever sheds man's blood,
By man his blood shall be shed;
For in the image of God
He made man"
(Genesis 9:6).
Although the Hindu Vedas speak frequently
of human sacrifice, how often or whether these sacrifices ever
occurred has been a matter of controversy. When the British military
arrived in India in the 1820s, stories abounded of roving bands of
ritual murders who would capture strangers and sacrifice them to the
goddess Kali.
Kali is a frightening figure the goddess
of war, death, darkness and violence. She is depicted with the
blackest tone of skin; she is naked; and wears human fetuses as
earrings.
Stories of human sacrifice to Kali persist
in India until this day. Many are obvious rumors yet if some are
true, then India is no different from many cultures of the world
which have practiced human sacrifice. And Kali is possibly the same
demon worshipped by the people of Canaan and Carthage.
Celtic and Germanic Tribes of northern
Europe
In the 1950s, in a peat bog in Denmark
workers uncovered the remains of a middle aged man. The corpse's
perfect condition made the local authorities believe that it must
have been the murdered citizen of a local community. When experts
further examined the body, however, it was determined that the
victim was murdered before the time of Christ over 2000 years ago.
The astonishing preservation of the body was due to tannic acid
which had leached out of the peat moss tanning the man's skin to
give it a leather-like quality while buried deep in the bog.
At first the first the find seemed unique.
Soon, however, throughout northern Europe, from Ireland to Germany,
more of these preserved corpses were discovered.
Scientists have concluded that the similar
wounds found on all the bodies are evidence of ritual human
sacrifice. People believed that the gods or spirits lived out in the
swampy marches or bogs. They believed that if they were going to
offer some kind of gift to the gods, it had to be placed out in the
bogs. A blindfold was placed on the victim and a rope was tied
around the neck. The victim was bludgeoned to death sometimes having
his throat cut open. The victim was then dumped in a nearby lake or
marsh as a gift to the gods.
Other historians tell us that the Celtic
and Northern Germanic tribes the ancestors of English, German and
Scandinavian peoples were barbaric, pagan idolaters who sacrificed
their own people to the gods and goddesses.
The Roman historian, Tacitus, records that
the ancestors of the English speaking peoples, the Angles,
sacrificed to the Mother Earth Goddess. In his Germania, On the
Origin and Geography of Germany, Tacitus describes this gruesome
ritual as "a ceremony performed by slaves who are immediately
afterward drowned in the lake."
The ancient Canaanites, Carthaginians,
Indians, Aztecs, and Northern Europeans practiced human sacrifice as
an offering to their pagan gods and goddesses. And each culture in
turn was wiped out by an invading army. This demonstrates to us
today that cultures of even entire nations must obey God's eternal
Law concerning the sanctity of innocent human life or face the
consequences.
PART 4
WITCHCRAFT AND CHILD SACRIFICE
Mention the word "witchcraft"
and most think of the Salem witch trials or an outbreak of religious
hysteria among superstitious people. The term "witch hunt"
evokes the most negative images. From the beginning of our look at
witchcraft, we should dispel the Hollywood image of the old crone of
fairy tales such as Snow White or the Wizard of Oz. There is no
doubt that many of those executed for witchcraft in the Middle Ages
were innocent victims of gross superstition. But it is hard to cope
with the genuine instances of demonically inspired activity recorded
with full documentation.
The biblical injunction, "You shall
not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18) had nothing to do
with the medieval or modern conception of witchcraft. In Biblical
times, those executed for witchcraft were not punished for merely
casting spells. The death penalty for those within Israel practicing
sorcery and idolatry was prescribed because of their monstrous
practice of child sacrifice.
God had warned Israel not to intermingle
with the Canaanite tribes worshippers of Baal, Asherah, Molech and
Ashteroth because they were practitioners of child sacrifice. The
ancient Israelites were first enticed into sexual promiscuity
through the worship of Baal and Asherah, the sun god and fertility
goddess. The children of this generation grew up in a world in which
pagan sex rituals were deemed "normal." Soon Israel was
lured into worshipping Molech and Ashteroth, supposedly the same
deities; but darker and more sinister, demanding human sacrifice.
And like the ancient Israelites, 20th
century Americans were first enticed by the sexual revolution of the
1960s; and just a few years later, at the time of Roe v. Wade in
1973, we codified abortion as a "fundamental right" and
have since killed over one million unborn children each year.
Whenever pagan sexual immorality is
accepted, abortion and child sacrifice becomes a necessity in
covering up the fruit of sin.
As we look at revivals of neo-paganism in
modern history, the connection between abortion, child sacrifice and
witchcraft becomes even more apparent.
17th Century France
A revival of "neo-paganism"
occurred some three hundred years ago in France. Seventeenth century
France while not as egalitarian was still very much like western
society today. There was substantial material wealth and a large
leisure class obsessed with entertainment and sensual pursuits.
There was great sophistication in the arts and a dramatic decline in
morality. The age's philosopher was Voltaire who provided the
underpinning for the "Age of Reason." Its philosophy was a
reworking of the old idea that man doesn't need God, but through his
own efforts, now coupled with science, he can save himself.
The king was Louis XIV who had a painting
done depicting himself as a god with lightning bolts clenched in his
hand. This is the essence of secular humanism: man trying to be God.
Like many of the aristocrats of his time Louis was sexually
promiscuous. One of his mistresses, Madame de Montespan, was so
highly favored of Louis that many considered her the unofficial
queen of France.
During her reign a disturbing thing began
to take place. Many male members of Louis' court began dying for no
discernible reason. In order to investigate what appeared to be
murders, Louis employed a detective, Gabriel de La Reynie, the
Lieutenant General of the police in Versaille. His inquiries led to
a witch named la Voisin who provided the poisons that were
responsible for the deaths. This investigation also uncovered a
network of abortion services connected with satanic rituals. The
following is the testimony of la Voisin's daughter at the subsequent
trial:
"At one of Madame de Montespan's
masses, I saw my mother bring an infant, obviously premature, and
place it over a basin over which its throat was slit, and its blood
drained into the chalice....
"The child was held over the altar, a
sharp gash across the neck, a stifled cry, and warm drops fell into
the chalice.... The corpse was handed to la Voisin, who flung it
callously into an oven fashioned for that purpose which glowed white
hot in its fierceness."
Note that the child was premature,
obviously the victim of abortion. Then the cup filled with the
baby's blood was lifted up to heaven and this invocation was given:
"Hail Ashteroth and Asmodeus, Princes
of friendship, I conjure you to accept the sacrifice of this child
in return for the favors asked of you."
Ashteroth was the goddess wife of Molech.
Asmodeus is a transliteration of the Hebrew name for a demon that is
normally associated with lust. Aborted children were being
sacrificed in a satanic ritual designed to empower the
practitioners.
At the trial, there was testimony that
regular traffic had been carried on for years with beggar women and
the lowest prostitutes, who sold their children for this purpose.
At her trial, la Voisin confessed that no
less than 2,500 babies had been disposed of in this manner.
One might ask: why aborted prenatal
children? For one thing, it is easier to mistreat or abuse someone
who doesn't look just like us. This is the root of racial prejudice
as well as the view that unborn children are somehow less human than
ourselves. Second, since the distinction from fetus to infant
relative to their humanity is in fact meaningless, the sacrifice of
a fetal child serves the same purpose as the sacrifice of a
post-natal child or an adult.
20th Century Wicca
In the 1930s, Dr. Gerald Gardner
discovered a practicing coven of witches in England. Gardner, an
anthropologist, had studied groups practicing religio-magic or
"sympathetic magic" around the world, but believed that
witchcraft had been extinct for centuries. Gardner discovered what
he believed to be one of the last surviving covens in the world. He
became a witch himself by being initiated into the coven. He became
familiar the rituals of the ancient religion, many of which he
believed had survived until the present day.
At the time of Gardner's discovery,
witchcraft was, in fact, on the edge of extinction. There were no
known covens in the United States and some countries such as
England, had laws on the books outlawing witchcraft. On the
publication of Gardner's book, Witchcraft Today, he began to
hear from many covens throughout Europe which had also survived.
Gardner spent the rest of his life writing on Wicca and promoting
witchcraft throughout the world. Gardner is regarded as the
grandfather of modern Wicca being solely responsible for igniting
the flame of Wiccan revival in the 20th century.
One of Gardner's followers, Raymond
Buckland, who was initiated into the craft one year before Gardner's
death in 1964, introduced Wicca into the United States in the 1960s.
Gardner and Buckland believed that in modern day Wicca, the rituals
of the ancient earth religion had survived.
Says Buckland about the Wiccan rituals:
"Although we don't know the exact format used by the witches of
old, it's certain that centuries ago many of them living far from
any village or coven followed the same sort of procedure in
dedicating themselves to the gods in whom they believed.
"Universally, whether we are talking
about initiation into the ancient Greek mysteries, the modern Wiccan,
Australian aboriginal puberty rites, African rites, Haitian Voodoo
initiation, Amerindian rites of passage, Egyptian mysteries, or
whatever, they all follow the same pattern."
What exactly then, is modern Wicca?
Modern 20th century Wiccans draw their
religious ideology from the Mother Earth cults of the Celtic and
Nordic peoples of pre-Christian Europe.
The word "Wiccan" first appears
in an early manuscript of an Anglo-Saxon scribe in the alliterative
phrase: wyccan and waelcyrian, "witches and valkyries."
The word in Old English denotes both men and women using magic arts.
Modern Wiccans claim that their name means "wise one" and
was the name of a matriarchal leader of a tribe skilled in healing,
herbal lore and magic arts.
In a paper submitted to the Council for a
Parliament of the World's Religions, Michael Thorn writes:
"Modern Witchcraft (or Wicca) is the most common expression of
the religious movement known as Neo-paganism.... Its practitioners
are reviving ancient Pagan practices and beliefs of pre-Christian
Europe and adapting them to contemporary American life.... Wiccans
focus their liturgy and worship around a Goddess and a God. Rituals
and services are timed to the phases of the moon and to the Wheel of
the Year (i.e., the solstices, equinoxes, and the days falling
midway between these such as May Day and Halloween). Most witches
treat their practice as a priesthood, somewhat akin to the mystery
cults of classical Greece and Rome, involving years of training and
passage through life transforming initiatory rituals."
Raymond Buckland explains what is know as
the "Wiccan Rede": "All witches agree on the ethical
code, 'An it harm none, do what ye will'; in other words, 'Do what
you believe is right, but let no one be harmed by your
actions.'"
By the most conservative estimates, there
are 200,000 women and men practicing Wicca in the United States
alone. The Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa
Barbara, California, claims that Witchcraft and Paganism are the
fastest growing religions in the country.
Do Wiccans worship Satan?
Although witches claim not to believe in the Christian concept of
Satan, they do worship "the European Pagan Horned God, who has
been depicted as Pan.... Our Horned God is neither evil nor a source
of evil; He is the energy of nature, of plant and animal life, which
energy manifests for people in music and dance, intoxication and
ecstasy, and all joyous activities, including lovemaking."
What about bloodletting? Although
Wiccans deny using animal and human sacrifices in their rituals they
do admit that they "pour out libations ... Some female Witches
use their own menstrual blood in spells; other witches may prick
themselves ... and offer a drop or two of their own blood. But the
only blood a Witch has the right to offer is her/his own."
Do modern Wiccans view abortion as
child sacrifice? To be fair, we must say that in our
research we've received literally hundreds of letters and electronic
mail from Wiccans around the world. The vast majority of Wiccans and
Pagans deny that they have anything to do with human or animal
sacrifice. They also deny that Wicca has anything to do with the
abortion industry, nor do they view abortion as the sacrifice of the
unborn in their rituals.
But all modern day Wiccans freely admit
that the modern religion is traced to ancient Celtic and Northern
German people.
In Power of the Witch, spokeswoman
for the Witches League for Public Awareness, Laurie Cabot, extols
the paganism the ancient Celtic world in which fornication, adultery
and homosexuality were "normal." The Mother Goddess cult
is presented as "a joyous, playful, sensuous, peace-loving
culture."
Cabot describes the permutation of the
Mother Goddess into an old crone and the Horned God into a ravenous
animal. Cabot's description closely mirrors the transformation of
ancient deities from sensual sun gods and fertility goddesses into
demons of ritual human sacrifice. Child sacrifice and abortion were
practiced and were accepted as facts of everyday life the necessary
consummation of rampant sexual immorality.
Although the vast majority deny that they
have anything to do with the practice of child sacrifice, Wiccans
are hard pressed to explain the emergence of a small minority of
witches, such as Ginnette Paris, who writes in The Sacrament of
Abortion:
"It is morally acceptable that a
woman who gives life may also destroy life ... whoever kills a fetus
commits a murder....
"It is not immoral to choose
abortion; it is simply another kind of morality, a pagan one....
"Obviously everyone has a right to
his or her religious beliefs, but what if mine are pagan?...
[O]ne can occasionally resort to abortion
when it is necessary to sacrifice the fetus to a higher cause ...
"Abortion as a sacrifice to Artemis.
Abortion as a sacrament for the gift of life to remain pure."
[Ginnette Paris, The Sacrament of
Abortion, Spring Publications, P.O. Box 222069, Dallas, TX
75222, 1992, pp.53, 56, 107 & back cover. ]
Is there a connection between the Wiccans
and the Aware Woman abortion clinic in Melbourne, Florida?
We found that the post office box of an
Aware Woman abortion clinic employee, Veronica Jordan, (P.O. Box
060192, Palm Bay, FL 32906) the same mailing address for the Open
Circle the Wiccan newsletter which recruited volunteers to work
magic around the property of the abortion clinic.
Why then, if Wicca does not promote
abortion as part of their religious belief, does this newsletter
recruit "abortion clinic defenders" and rally Wiccans for
pro-abortion demonstrations?
And what about Wiccan bumper stickers
appearing on cars of abortion clinic workers, such as, "THE
GODDESS IS ALIVE AND MAGIC IS AFOOT" and "IN GODDESS WE
TRUST"?
There is no doubt that there is a
self-conscious identification between the Wiccan religion and
so-called "abortion rights."
PART 5
OCCULT ROOTS OF NAZISM AND MARGARET
SANGER'S PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Nazi Germany
If you don't believe that the revival of
neo-Pagan religions represents a threat to a sophisticated nation,
such as America, consider 20th century Nazi Germany one of the most
advanced civilizations ever to arise on earth and yet another
example of how a revival of neo-Paganism led to human sacrifice.
In The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,
William L. Shirer points to a sterilization law passed in 1933 as
the event which began the persecution of Christians and Jews
throughout Germany.
Resolutions were drawn up requiring all
pastors to take an oath of allegiance to Hitler and insisting that
all churches institute the Aryan paragraph and exclude converted
Jews. Pastors who resisted were jailed.
According to Shirer: "Not many
Germans lost much sleep over the arrests of a few thousand pastors
and priests or over the quarreling of Protestant sects. And even
fewer paused to reflect that under the leadership of Rosenberg,
Borman and Himmler, who were backed by Hitler, the Nazi regime
intended to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and
substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and
the new paganism of the Nazi extremists. As Bormann, one of the men
closest to Hitler, said in 1941, 'National Socialism and
Christianity are irreconcilable.'"
The Nazi holocaust becomes even more
disturbing when the occult roots of the Third Reich are examined
more closely. Many see the origins of the Nazi vision in the
teachings of the science of eugenics that only by breeding from the
racially pure can the greatness of the Aryan be restored. The
formation of the Nazi Praetorian Guard, the S.S., was based on the
legal control of human breeding. That only the most valuable members
of the society, the full blooded Germans, to have the largest number
of children.
The Nazi faith in the destiny of the
German/Aryan race is not an invention of Adolf Hitler, nor is it
found in the ideology of eugenics. It's origins lie in the teachings
of mystics, clairvoyants and secret societies dedicated to the study
of the occult.
Since the late 1800s, an increasing
fascination with the occult had swept the German aristocracy and
educated classes. This became so widespread that one of Germany's
highest ranking generals, Erich Lutendorf, believed that the
national salvation of Germany lay with reviving the worship of the
Norse god, Woden. Lutendorf freely spoke of being in psychic
communion with the Nordic "race soul."
When Lutendorf led a political coup in
Bavaria, his ally was the then little known political agitator,
Adolf Hitler.
Many within Lutendorf's closest circle
were members of an occult group known as the "Edda
Society." The Edda society believed that by deciphering the
ancient Icelandic script known as the "Runes" and studying
the secrets found in Norse mythology contained in the "Elder
Edda."
The Edda Society believed that they could
rediscover the magical heritage of the vanished Aryan god-men. They
wrote in widely published periodicals that traces of the blood of
the Aryan gods lived on within the German people.
This creed was adopted by this man,
Heinrich Himmler, Reichfuhrer of the S.S. As a youth, Himmler avidly
read the writings of the German occultists. He was obsessed with
astrology, spiritualism and herbalism.
He adopted the mystical doctrine of the
Aryan. If the blood of the Aryan race ran most strongly in the
German people, he reasoned, then by breeding out the imperfections
of inferior races, he could produce a genetically superior master
race in which the Aryan psychic power would grow ever stronger.
Himmler used the Aryan requirement for
enlisted men in the S.S. only that those of 100 percent German
ancestry could enter this elite corp. The S.S. man was subject to a
year long rigorous training camp and was required to master a set of
doctrines in the S.S. catechism which taught that God is synonymous
with their supposed ancestors, the Aryan race.
Q: "Why do we believe in
Germany and the Fuhrer?"
A: "Because we believe in God;
we believe in Germany which he created and in the Fuhrer whom He has
sent to us."
No S.S. man could marry unless his wife's
ancestry was approved by the S.S. Race and Resettlement Bureau.
The S.S. man's family was then entitled to
wear the coveted badge of the S.S. clan membership a sunflower
bearing the "Rune of Fertility."
Within months of Hitler's election as chancellor, laws were passed by the
state regulating the breeding of Germany's civilian population.
Those suffering from a variety of mental or physical ailments were
sterilized. In 10 years 400,000 Germans were sterilized. Abortion
was also made illegal during this time for those of the
"Aryan" race the Germans but was legalized and encouraged
among non-Aryans.
All those civilians wanting to marry were
required to submit to a medical exam. Marriage was forbidden to
those suffering from diseases thought to be hereditary.
Intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews was forbidden. The task of
deciding who could marry was entrusted to the Race and Resettlement
Bureau. Laws were passed requiring government officials to have
children. Childless couples were fined after five years. Grounds for
divorce for Germans were broadened to include the inability to bear
children. Laws were relaxed making it easier for German women to
have children outside of marriage.
Himmler began a chain of breeding centers
and maternity homes for his S.S. racial elite. "Nursery
gardens" were begun for the breeding of babies of pure German
blood. In an initiation ceremony, children were named by being
touched on the forehead with an S.S. dagger symbolizing immersion
into Himmler's mystical order.
But Heinrich Himmler's vision of creating
a master race went far beyond eugenics. He intended to create a
religious order steeped in Aryan mysticism and the worship of the
Norse gods.
With the help of German mystics and
clairvoyants, Himmler made plans to create an S.S. spiritual center
a worship temple for his S.S. order. The Castle of Wedelsberg on
Germany's eastern border was built in the 1600s on the ruins of an
old Saxon fort. The S.S. purchased the site and began
reconstruction. Himmler's researchers claimed to have found a
written prophecy a legend in which Wedelsberg was to become a
stronghold against an onslaught from Asia the final conflict which
would bring in the millennial reign of the Third Reich.
To govern the S.S., Himmler appointed a
council of 12 of the highest ranking S.S. leaders. The ritual center
for the council is the castle of Wedelsberg. In the north tower of
the castle is a circular hall surrounded by 12 columns and a
swastika mosaic decorating the floor. Here Himmler and his council
members communed with the "Aryan race soul."
Wedelsburg was to become a city. The north
tower was to be the center of vast circular grounds. Surrounding
them is to be built an enormous complex of administrative centers,
libraries and research institutes for astrology, astronomy and
Teutonic history.
This was the spiritual impetus which
brought a revival of human sacrifices coupled with ancient Teutonic
rituals to the forefront. The Holocaust was preceded by vast
pageants which Hitler used to promote his version of neo-Paganism.
What followed Himmler's mad mysticism was
the Nazi holocaust in an attempt to found an Aryan empire through
the conquest of "inferior races." In the countries Hitler
invaded, a reign of terror was unleashed against teachers, doctors,
officials, aristocrats, Catholic priests and other upper-class
leaders of the nations. Finally, a law was passed identifying the
Jews as "non-persons." Hitler's "final solution"
the attempted genocide of the Jews began in full force.
But could such a ridiculous scenario
happen in our own country?
Consider the following: Like the
successful and educated people of Nazi Germany, the vast majority of
Americans have stood silently by and even encouraged the
proliferation of this medical holocaust. Like the Germans, we fell
victim to a campaign of rhetoric and propaganda that blinded us to
the reality of what was taking place.
Like the Germans, our courts have the
arrogance to declare an entire class or people as
"non-humans."
Like the Germans, once the public was
desensitized and the legal sanctions were provided, virtually
anything was possible. Crimes against humanity included
experimentation on living humans. And even the utilization of body
parts for cosmetics and novelty purposes. Point by point, we are
seeing today a replay of Nazi Germany's history.
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned
Parenthood, is perhaps the best 20th century example of the
destructive power of spiritual deception found in occult religion.
That she was wallowing in deception can be seen in a quote from a
book written by an admirer: "She had tried to dispel depression
by sex, travel, Rosicrucianism (a cult), numerology, now she tried a
new panacea astrology."
Sanger was a confirmed adulteress who
consistently and publicly supported a "woman's right to
destroy." She became deeply involved with Havelock Ellis, a
modern day false prophet who advocated a variety of bizarre sex
practices supposing them to be the keys to spiritual enlightenment
and power. For Margaret Sanger and her militantly (even religiously)
promiscuous lifestyle, abortion became a necessary backup for
contraceptive failure.
The legacy of Planned Parenthood becomes
even more ominous when we note the admiration Sanger had for Adolf
Hitler and the eugenics policies of Nazi Germany. She became
convinced that the "inferior races" were in fact
"human weeds" and a "menace to civilization."
She yearned for the end of the day of what she termed the Christian
reign of benevolence towards the unfit.
Sanger's eugenicist ideology can be
clearly seen in the articles published in the Birth Control Review.
In 1920, she published her lover Havelock Ellis' favorable review of
The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy by Dr.
Lothrop Stoddard. Ellis wrote:
"The diminishing value of our racial
stocks is reflected in the folly of our statesmen, heedless that the
crisis we approach is of their own creation reckless that if they
make possible another white civil war our whole civilization will
collapse by the sheer weight of its imbecility."
At first, Sanger's efforts were not
directed so overtly racist, but focused on the mentally retarded and
those with hereditary diseases. She sought to encourage only the
"fit" to have large families. The "fit" as it
turned out were the upper class, highly intelligent whites.
Sanger's "Positive Plan of
Eugenics" or "Plan for Peace" was to encourage who
she saw as "the mentally, morally, and physically fit to marry
and reproduce, tot he end of racial improvement if not
perfection."
"The best stocks must be encouraged
to marry and reproduce; for, as far as the future welfare of society
is concerned, nothing can equal the importance of Eugenic
marriages" (Birth Control Review, December 1924).
Sanger advocated, among other measures,
"A License for Mother's to Have Babies" and "Permits
to Become Parents."
By 1939, however, Sanger began what she
termed the "Negro Demonstration Project" which was a plan
to win the trust and support of blacks in several key southern
states in a campaign to introduce birth control into the Black
population.
Part of Sanger's strategy was to enlist
Black doctors and ministers who would enthusiastically support her
Eugenics policies, and act as liaisons between the Planned
Parenthood Federation and the Black communities. At one point in her
letters, she worries that more sinister intentions might be
discerned in her "Demonstration Project."
"We do not want word to go out that
we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the
man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of the
more rebellious members."
The "Negro Project" was
successful. Soon Planned Parenthood's birth control clinics were
distributing contraceptives to Blacks. Since has been legalized in
America, the long-range results of Sanger's "Demonstration
Project" have become even more debilitating to Black Americans.
According to a Health and Human Services
Administration report:
* Forty-three percent of all abortions are
performed on Blacks.
* The sterilization rate among Blacks is
45 percent higher than among whites
* In most Black communities, abortions
outnumber live births three to one.
The overall effect has been the actual
decrease of the Black population in the United States from 12
percent in 1973 to 8 percent by the 1990s.
Recently, thousands of documents have been
made available to the public through collections of Margaret
Sanger's never before published writings.
One of the most shocking pieces is this
correspondence between one of Sanger's board members, Dr. Charles F.
Dight, and her fellow eugenist, Adolf Hitler:
August 1, 1933
Chancellor Adolf Hitler
Berlin, Germany
Honorable Chancellor,
I enclose a clipping from the Minneapolis
Journal of Minnesota, United States of America, relating to, and
praising your plan to stamp out mental inferiority among the German
people.
I trust you will accept my sincere wish
that your efforts along that line will be a great success and will
advance the eugenics movement in other nations as well as in
Germany.
Sincerely.
C.F. Dight
President Minnesota Eugenics Society
Planned Parenthood shared the agenda of
Adolf Hitler. Need we say anything more?
Modern Feminism
A more recent example of the spiritual
deception that so often leads to the trampling of the sanctity of
human life can be found in a newsletter published by the National
Abortion Federation. It provides an account of the 1985 national
convention. One of the speakers was Carter Heyward, an ordained
Episcopal priest who has been active for many years in the feminist
movement. This quote was taken from her address: "If women were
in charge, abortion would be a sacrament, an occasion of deep and
serious and sacred meaning."
That an ordained leader of a church that
supposedly represents Jesus to the world could describe child
sacrifice as a sacrament or holy rite of the church without facing
excommunication is a staggering illustration of the collective
deception we are facing as a nation.
Several other examples are found in the
December 1985 issue of Ms. magazine the undisputed leader of
feminist publications. This particular issue was completely
dedicated to exploring the new emerging spirituality in modern
feminism. Much space was given to goddess worship or adulation of
the various demons associated with child sacrifice (including Isis
and Aphrodite). The central article in this issue of Ms. is filled
with testimonies showing the gross deception that has already taken
captive much of our nation men and women alike.
"The feminist spirituality movement
began to emerge in the mid-1970s and has become one of the largest
sub-movements within feminism. It's amorphous, blending in a
surprisingly smooth amalgam radical feminism, pacifism, witchcraft,
Eastern mysticism, goddess worship, animism, psychic healing, and a
variety of practices normally associated with 'fortune-telling.' It
exists nationwide and takes the form of large, daylong workshops,
small meditation groups, and even covens that meet to work spells
and do rituals under the full moon. But to the women in feminist
spirituality, witchcraft had even a more fundamental meaning. It is
a woman's religion, vilified by patriarchal Christianity, and now,
finally, reclaimed."
Laurie Cabot, in Power of the Witch,
concurs with the rise of feminist activism within Wiccan covens that
worship the Goddess Diana:
"In Dianic covens great emphasis is
placed on the Goddess and the role of priestesses. Covens and
organizations are matrifocal and center around women's issues. The
current women's movement has inspired much of the political activism
that some covens engage in.... radical feminism, including
lesbianism, has found a place in Dianic covens...."
This represents just the tip of the
iceberg as we are witnessing an explosion of books, magazines,
"how-to" manuals, artwork and the inevitable paraphernalia
that accompanies the development of any organized religion.
Today we have given the demons of human
sacrifice new names: "Career" "Convenience"
"Money" "Lust" "Self." But beyond
this, we have come full circle; today's rationalism has given way to
a new feminist spirituality that honors these same demons actually
calling them by their proper biblical and historical names. Is it
just a coincidence that the hottest sub-movement within the feminist
movement that began to emerge just after the Roe v. Wade decision
is goddess worship? One of the primary deities that is being
worshipped is Aphrodite the goddess of child sacrifice.
PART 6
BATTLING JEZEBEL
In one of the few instances where they
agree, both Ms. magazine and the Bible label these various
permutations of spiritual deception as "witchcraft."
Biblically, witchcraft is linked to rebellion specifically,
rebellion against God's authority.
This can be heard in the feminist chant:
"Not the church, not the state, women must decide our
fate!" It is true that the state should have minimal say in
deciding anyone's fate male or female. But the state's intrusion
into a woman's fate in forbidding abortion is infinitesimally small
compared to the abortifiers decision that the unborn child's fate
should be death. But the Church, as God's representative in the
earth, should assist in deciding the fate of all those who desire to
do God's will. The only alternative is to "choose one's own
fate" or one's own will. And this is rebellion the foundation
of all witchcraft.
When we consider the word
"witchcraft," one Bible personality comes to mind Jezebel.
In 1 Kings 18:19, Elijah the prophet of God mentions Jezebel along
with some of the deities we know about. He asks to see "the 450
prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at
Jezebel's table." Jezebel represents the corrupting influence
of witchcraft.
Jesus spoke to the Church of Thyatira
about another Jezebel: "But I have one thing against you, that
you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and
she teaches and leads my bond servants astray so that they commit
acts of immortality and eat things sacrificed to idols"
(Revelation 2:20).
This admonition cuts to the heart of the
Church in America. Truly, the Church in America and much of the
world has become the modern equivalent of the Church of Thyatira.
Jezebel has been tolerated and even ordained.
According to WORLD magazine:
"One of the Religious Left's premier organizations is the
Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights. RCAR is a hard-line
supporter of federally funded abortions and the Freedom of Choice
Act. RCAR represents groups of liberal Presbyterians, Episcopalians,
Lutherans, Brethren, Moravians, Jews, Humanists, and
Unitarians" (Steve Beard, WORLD magazine, May 22, 1993).
God's command is that the Church
"repent of her deeds" and drive Jezebel out of the Church
and from our nation. To help us understand the magnitude of the
battle which this represents, the prophet Malachi announces that God
will send the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of
the Lord. 400 years later, Jesus connects John the Baptist with the
ministry of Elijah. The distinguishing feature of both Elijah and
John's lives was their boldness in confronting wickedness and their
command to repent.
Scripture calls this ministry
"Preparing the Way of the Lord." In the same way that
Elijah confronted the wicked rulers of his time, in the same way
that John prepared the way for the advent of Christ, so God's man in
the earth, the Church, will prepare the way for a complete
reformation of society according to biblical principles and
ultimately the return of the Lord.
There are many ways in which the Church
has been called to "prepare the way" the most notable
being the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the
gospel. But just as Jezebel was Elijah's greatest challenge, we too,
must confront and defeat the forces of witchcraft that have
manifested through abortion. And just as Elijah was almost defeated
by Jezebel and John was killed by the witchcraft of Herod's wife, we
must also realize that this battle is a deadly one. There can be no
victory without the radical commitment to fight witchcraft.
Spiritual Warfare
The spiritual pattern that led us to
America's abortion holocaust is thus summarized: the demons gained a
foothold in the earth through the incestuous acts of Lot's
daughters. Their descendents, the Ammonites, became possessed and
worshipped this spirit (identified variously as Asherah, Ashteroth,
Molech or Baal) through child sacrifice. The gods and goddesses of
fertility were worshipped throughout the ancient pagan world as a
part of a widespread "Mother Earth" cult. In
seventeenth-century France, the goddess resurfaced as Ashteroth.
Witchcraft, as an organized religion, was revived in Europe and
America beginning in the 1950s and 1960s. And finally, goddess
worship has resurfaced in a new 20th century feminist spirituality.
And its no coincidence that abortion today's form of child sacrifice
came right along with it.
It is important today to note the historic
rationale of those who in ancient times offered up their own
children to idols that the sacrifice of blood rejuvenated and
strengthened the deity to whom it was dedicated at the same time
binding him to the offerer of the sacrifice. In other words, when
they sacrificed their children to an idol, they became spiritual
slaves to the demon it represented. Even more frightening was the
effect upon the spirit greater power was released through the
outpouring of innocent blood.
This principle is borne out in scripture.
In 2 Kings 3:26,27, one of the descendents of Lot's daughters, the
King of Moab, was about to face certain defeat at the hands of the
Israelites. To prevent this from happening, he offered up his oldest
son as a sacrifice. The fact that it was a burnt offering tells us
that it was undoubtedly made to Baal, Molech or Ashteroth. What is
sobering is that it worked: the Moabites defeated the Israelites.
The spiritual heritage of the Moabites and
the Ammonites is passed down to our own day through abortion. Today
the church is fighting against those same spiritual forces for the
very survival of our nation. Without all out spiritual warfare, what
are our chances of victory when the demons' lust is being gorged on
the blood of not just one, but over one million children killed each
year?
The land that God chose to bring His
people into after their long captivity in Egypt was filled with
nations that practiced child sacrifice. And what was his commandment
to Israel?
"When you cross over the Jordan into
the land of Canaan, then shall you drive out all the inhabitants of
the land before you. And destroy all their molten images and
demolish all their high places" (Joshua 33:51,52).
This scripture provides a model for our
response to child sacrifice in our era. The Old Testament is not
just a collection of stories, but provides temporal examples of what
we must accomplish in the spiritual realm. In the same way, for
example, that the people of God, Israel, followed a man named Joshua
into the promised land, so the Church, spiritual Israel, follows a
man named Joshua, or Yeshua (Jesus), into the land of
promise. Everything that the Israelites underwent has a direct New
Covenant application. In this passage, God commands His people, past
and present, to destroy all idolatry.
How do we accomplish this in light of the
New Covenant? Should we, like the ancient Israel, begin to attack
the individuals responsible for the idolatry? Of course not.
"Our battle is not against flesh and blood" (Ephesians
6:12).
In Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit
had not yet been given in the way that we experience Him today. Man
had neither the anointing nor the authority to confront the demonic
powers directly. In order to defeat the forces of wickedness, there
was no recourse except to destroy the people through whom those
forces acted.
But with the coming of Jesus, the whole
scenario changed. For the first time we see a man directly
confronting the spiritual forces of darkness. In Luke 11:20, Jesus
even defines this as one of the primary signs that the kingdom of
God has come into this world: "But if I cast out demons by the
finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." At
last God's people could direct their efforts to the real problem:
the spiritual realm. Instead of destroying his human adversaries,
they could begin to love them and work for their salvation.
Jesus expects His Church to manifest the
same authority and power as He did during His life on earth as a
man. In Matthew 28:18, Jesus said: "All power and authority has
been given to me in heaven and earth." He commanded His
disciples to go into all the world wrenching it from the control of
Satan and his forces. In John 14:12, Jesus said: "He who
believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater
works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father." In
Mark 16:17, He said: "And these signs will accompany those who
have believed: in My name they will cast out demons." In Luke
7:28, He makes a clear distinction between the realms of power of
the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, when He said that of all the
Old Covenant prophets, there was none more powerful than John the
Baptist, but that now, even the least Christian (this includes even
you and me) is greater in power and authority than John.
Immediately after Joshua led Israel into
the promised land, they zealously began to obey God's commandment.
Often their obedience necessitated the obliteration of entire
cities. In the same way, God wants us to be just as committed, just
as ruthless as Joshua and his armies in destroying the forces of
idolatry on the world. Only now, we are to direct our attention to
the real enemy the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly
places.
Disobedience of God's People
What ultimately happened to the
Israelites? The book of Judges recounts their initial steps to
apostasy. Instead of totally destroying and driving out the
Canaanites, they began to enslave them. The result of their
disobedience is seen in one of the most tragic passages of
scripture: "They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord
commanded them, but they mingled with the nations [the unbelieving
heathen world] and they learned their practices and served their
idols which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons
and daughters to devils" (Psalms 106:34-37; Judges 1:28).
Through abortion, we have followed
precisely the same slippery slope to destruction. In fact, we are
already there. Ezekiel 16:20 gives us even further evidence of our
guilt today. "Moreover, you took you sons and daughters which
you bore unto me and you sacrificed them to idols to be
devoured."
What does the Bible mean by "sons and
daughter which you have bore unto me"? The Bible gives us the
key. Exodus 13:2 says: "Sanctify unto Me every first born, the
first offspring of every womb of the sons of Israel, both of man and
beast. It belongs to me." The firstborn was traditionally
considered "born unto the Lord." History and archaeology
has shown us that child sacrifice, as with the example of the King
of Moab, centered on the first born child. Is it simple irony or
coincidence that the majority of children that will face the
abortionist's knife in this country are also first born "set
apart for the Lord"?
"You slaughtered my children and
offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire.
And besides all your abominations and harlotries, you did not
remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare and
squirming in your blood" (Ezekiel 16:21,22).
We would all do well especially those who
are pro-abortion to remember that we were once naked, bare and
dependent on others older than ourselves for the chance to live.
The Israelites chose for the site of their
sacrificial rituals, a place called the Valley of the Son of Hinnom.
This valley, which still goes by that name today, is right outside
of Jerusalem. The Valley of the Son of Hinnom translates into Greek
as "Gehenna" which also the word for hell. It is
significant to note that Jesus himself introduced and used this word
one that was fully recognized by the common people of His day as the
name of a valley where child sacrifice took place. He used this word
to describe the eternal habitation of Satan himself.
In light of this, Jesus' words in Matthew
16:18 become a stirring cry to action for His church to fight
abortion: "And upon this rock, I will build My Church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Gates are not offensive weapons but
defensive. The gates of hell are erected to protect Satan's kingdom
and to keep the Church out. Jesus' use of the word Gehenna clearly
substantiates that there is no greater manifestation of hell on
earth than the sacrifice of children.
Today, walls both spiritual and natural
have been erected to protect this so-called "right." Jesus
Christ has called and anointed us to tear down those walls and
proclaim deliverance to the captives to "rescue those who are
being taken away to the slaughter" (Proverbs 24:11 TLB).
History tells us that neo-Paganism has
experienced sporadic revivals, but also that the Church has had
great success in openly confronting witchcraft and the practice of
child sacrifice. But whenever the Church has compromised with pagan
culture, she herself has become paganized eventually committing the
same practices that she was commissioned to destroy. Pagan cultures
that have worshipped false gods and practiced human sacrifice the
Canaanites; the Carthaginians; the Celtic and Nordic people; the
Aztecs; and Nazi Germany faced immanent destruction.
This scenario is being replayed today. We
now have laws that make it a federal felony for Christians to
peacefully blockade an abortion clinic and are on the verge of
making "mercy killing" legal. We are facing the immanent
paganization of our culture and the inevitable judgment of God.
CONCLUSION
America is turning towards pagan religion
only because the Church has become culturally irrelevant and is not
having an impact on our society. Christians are losing the battle
for the same reason that the pagans are gaining a foothold.
Most modern Christians are ignorant of the
historical precedent for revival even in the face of militant
paganism. The average Christian is content to meet on Sunday to
worship God, yet is not politically active and will not contribute
in such a way as to Christianize our nation. With pagan immorality
being codified at the highest levels of government, there is a great
need for the Church to fulfill her prophetic role in resistance to
idolatry. (Proverbs 28:4)
But it is still possible for God's people
to turn the tide towards righteousness! So that we don't succumb to
defeatism, let's consider the dark hour that Israel was in when she
was in bondage to slavery in Egypt. In that day, thousands of baby
boys were slaughtered by Pharaoh in an attempt to stamp out the
prophetic deliverer who was about to come on the scene. Although
Satan tried to do away with Moses, his life was spared and he grew
to be a man within the Pharaoh's own courts! Later Moses delivered
Israel out of bondage. In Elijah's day, the prophets of Baal
sacrificed thousands of the first born on altars in defiance of
God's law. Yet Elijah slew the prophets of Baal and God later raised
up a company of 7000 young men who defeated King Ahab and Queen
Jezebel. Then just before Jesus was born, the wicked King Herod
learned through astrologers that another King was about to be born
in Jerusalem. Yet the baby Jesus' life was spared so that he might
grow to be a man offer the final sacrifice the only one that is able
to cleanse us from our sins and deliver us from all unrighteousness.
We have to ask ourselves: Is history
repeating itself today? Although the hour is dark for America, does
God have a prophetic generation today who are destined to go forth
in the spirit and power of Elijah to confront wickedness and change
our nation?
If the Bible is true, then we can only
answer: "YES!"
Practically, there are many ways in which
you can begin to resist modern paganism.
1. Recognize that abortion is a
spiritual issue. Abortion is the sacrifice of human preborn
infants on the altar of convenience by those with a pagan worldview.
Abortion is not just a political or social issue; it's a spiritual
issue. Witchcraft is the spiritual force behind the politics of
abortion.
2. Engage in spiritual warfare against
demonic forces behind child sacrifice. There are many forms that
this can take, but spiritual warfare is most effective when you
appear physically at the abortuary nearest to your home. It is
important for the Church in America to go to the places where the
killing is taking place and intercede on behalf of the unborn.
Prayer for the mercy of God to spare the unborn and put an end to
abortion in our nation must be accompanied by real activism on the
part of the Church. Jesus said: "The gates of hell shall not
prevail against the Church" (Matthew 16:18).
3. Evangelism. Many abortion
advocates are not secularists, but are deeply spiritual people. They
are drawn to the spiritual power of occult practices. Some of the
most meaningful evangelistic outreaches occur before the very gates
of hell the abortion clinics of America. Two of the most notable
examples in recent years are Norma McCorvey, the Roe of Roe v. Wade,
and Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortion doctor, both of whom
were reached through the evangelistic witness of pro-life activists.
God can pour out his grace on those practicing human sacrifice, but
they must repent. Pray that God will touch that deep spiritual
impulse in abortionists to seek reconciliation with their loving
Father.
4. Become politically and socially
involved. Don't be fooled by the modern prevailing notion that
God is not involved in politics. Isaiah described the role of Jesus
Christ in governing the affairs of men: "And the government
shall be upon His shoulders" (Isaiah 9:6). This government
includes individual, family and church self-government, but this
verse also applies to civil government. Civil government is not
"secular" or evil, but should be occupied by Christians
who rule by the moral law of God.
5. Give generously to ministries that
are committed to reforming our society. There are many
organizations that are committed to fighting the war against
abortion. But reformation must happen at the grass roots level among
committed individuals.
"Those who forsake the law praise the
wicked;
But such as keep the law contend with them."
Proverbs 28:4
For a list of media resources and
information on how you can resist the flood of evil in our country,
write:
Media House International
P.O. Box 362173
Melbourne, FL 32936-2173
ERIC OF THE WEST
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