Friday, March 20, 2020

Thoughts on the Rise of Witchcraft in Our Time

*If we add a lovely tune, we'll just make it the Outlander intro

This is by no means an exhaustive account of any subject at all, but I will assume that any topic mentioned below is something that you as well as I can research further and assess. That being said, what are people supposed to make of all the insane topics that are, as of today, March 19th, 2020? I’m not going to mince words. I’m simply going to write what I believe people either assume or believe about controversial topics; so let’s get started.
Common responses to topics such as aliens, the Illuminati, biblical giants, and secret societies are almost universally met with skepticism, disbelief, revulsion, and mockery. Rather than write pages on these and other topics, such as the drinking of blood/adrenochrome, cannibalism, Satanism, or post on ridiculous conspiracy theories based on YouTube videos one peruses in the late night hours, the fundamental question before starting anywhere at all is: 

What is truth?

            In order for anything to make sense at all in the world, that question must be adequately explained. Rather than attempt to prove God to the unbelieving naysayer who states that the burden of proof lies with the believer, the focus should be on the logical direction faith points a person toward through faith. Since every origin belief for life itself has to be explained with some measure of faith, then the burden of proof isn’t in proving God, but rather does the earthly evidence point toward or away from a Creator.  

            Almost certainly anyone, who has ever taken a glance at my Facebook profile, knows I’ve harped endlessly about The Franklin Cover-Up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska by the former Nebraska senator & lawyer, John DeCamp. When you pick up a book on the literal torture, rape, and murder of children, it has a way of changing your perspective on life. To know if such a bag of horrors could possibly have any truth to it, one has to understand evil must have an origin as well. Like cold being the absence of heat, evil is the absence of God. As Jesus stated in Mark 10:18, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God.”

            For someone who doesn’t believe that Jesus is the only way to God, keep in mind that all major faiths have absolute claims that are intolerant of other truth claims. Even Pontius Pilate asked Jesus what is truth? But in the previous verse, John 18:37, Jesus already told him that the reason he came into the world was to testify to the truth. The reason people care about this subject is because our very inherent worth and value as men and women must be found in God alone. If we find our worth in each other, in material possessions, our work, or our finances, in a fleeting moment, which may be all gone. In a secular worldview, the attachment to the macroevolutionary idea of the changing of kinds of species from one to another, ultimately gives mankind no worth above the animals. However, any real study shows that the atheistic eugenics movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries used that exact ideology to butcher millions under various guises of so-called progress. According to the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, the very word, secular, means, “Pertaining to this present world, or to things not spiritual or holy; relating to things not immediately or primarily respecting the soul, but the body; worldly.”
            In The Real Face of Atheism, Ravi Zacharias states, “The farther we move from God, the more we devalue man.” Which is interesting that I ran across this quote again today. This morning, we sat to do a family devotional and we watched one of Jonathan Cahn’s Book of Mystery videos based off of his 365-day journal. Cahn is the author of the popular prophetic books: The Harbinger, The Mystery of the Shemitah, The Paradigm, and The Oracle. As Cahn points out in 2 Thessalonians, the Greek word, apostasia, comes from two Greek words: apo meaning to depart from and stasia meaning your stand. So apostasy in the biblical last days is a walking away from your faith, your morality, or your stand, but it also means the departure from of being or existence. When the culture departs from the Judeo-Christian faith, men will depart or abandon manhood/fatherhood. Women likewise will abandon womanhood/motherhood. Family, marriage, and humanity itself will ultimately abandon all of their designed roles in creation. Keep in mind that some solid bible teachers from years back are now denying there is even a literal hell as if a loving God would ever do something so barbaric as to condemn anyone to such a horrific fate. However, that begs the question: WHY did Jesus die on the cross if there was no need to redeem anyone from even the concept of hell?




*“Prepare to be stomped like a late harvest Gevertstemener!” – Niles Crane, not King Ahab


            What does this have to do with The Franklin Cover-Up book, you might ask? Well, if the intrinsic worth of man has been so devalued to the point that survival of the fittest becomes the ultimate in subjective morality, then departure from the faith becomes the ultimate evil in the eyes of God. If life is meaningless, then why does everyone attach some meaning to their lives? The problem with nihilism is that it somehow attempts to attach meaning to its own belief system while rejecting all religions and moral principles. But if life is meaningless, how is there meaning attached to that very phrase? The Law of Noncontradiction states that no statement and its opposite can be simultaneously true. Therefore, the nihilistic premise negates itself and ironically becomes unlivable when attempted. Anyone who says that this assumption is wrong misses the point that secular ideologies often draw from Christianity for their own worldviews to make any sense and more often than not, those demographics do not even realize it. 
            When people say religion (and here in the United States, they’re almost always referring to Christianity) is a crutch or something to help people make sense of the world they live in, the people making those statements don’t realize that they’re using a form of reductionism. They’re making absolute claims based on a measure of faith that they assume they can make sense of the world on their terms while denying the divine component of existence. Essentially, they’re pointing fingers at others while ironically using faith-based claims to assume their materialistic worldview somehow makes sense. As Nancy Pearcey explains in Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, & Other God Substitutes, “Recall that in materialism, the idol is matter. Everything else is reduced to material objects produced by material forces. Anything that does not fit in the materialist box is dismissed as an illusion, including spirit, soul, will, mind, and consciousness. Reductionism is a strategy for suppressing truth: For if we can reduce humans to machines operating by natural forces, then we can explain their origin by purely natural forces.”


*“Well, I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie.” – Don Draper who lies for seven seasons

             Now you may be wondering how all of that ties into the chaos that is bombarding the culture in the news, the TV shows, movies, and anything & everything online. Jesus states, quite clearly, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:37). Timelines and dates aside, any student of eschatology (study of the end-times) knows that Matthew 24 is essential to understanding what will come on the scene prior to Jesus the Messiah’s return. Anyone who has watched the AMC show, Mad Men, knows that advertising was and is huge business. Television changed the culture on a global scale and nothing like it really has been invented before that we know of. People like to casually point out that what they watch on television can influence them, but that it doesn’t when they they’re entertaining themselves with something questionable. If that were true, show me a young couple who will make the hard choice of putting their kids in front of the TV knowing that they can trust themselves and their kids to watch Curious George over say…, The Human Centipede. Then explain why the latter is wrong at all, which ironically, wouldn’t be a difficult decision for most anyone regardless of what you believe. There is that pesky issue of borrowing from Christianity in regard to morality (and don’t look up The Human Centipede – I was just illustrating a point). 
            So, what was going on in Noah’s time, that Jesus felt he needed to warn people about concerning the last days? Now if people can be desensitized in terms of morality, at what point does immorality and depravity come to a halt, if at all? In Revelation 11, God’s two witnesses are supernaturally allowed to supernaturally judge humanity. Verse 7 states that then they will be killed, the next two verses explain that their bodies will lie in the street and rot, and V.10 is where it gets awkward. “And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.” Now this is my speculation, but think about how depraved the global culture has to be when people are literally buying presents on Amazon like it’s Christmas and sending each other gifts because two guys in Jerusalem are dead and rotting a block away from Machneyuda? (That’s a restaurant in the capital city of Israel that I just googled).
Now my point is, if the global culture gets to that point of depravity, is it really all that surprising then that a person or persons are doing murderous or barbaric practices behind closed doors? Pick just about any streaming service and one can easily find “dramas” involving witchcraft, seances, vampires, sexual perversion, dimensional portals, demonic possession, and the utter mockery of the Christian faith. In fact, the new Netflix show, Castlevania, had all of those. “But hey, that’s entertainment! It was a classic Nintendo franchise!” Someone besides me is rationalizing somewhere.
            But where do those ideas come from? How did the culture go from supposedly chaste programming of the 1950s to anything goes in today’s entertainment? What would you say if you found out that the dark arts and witchcraft were not just the norm in ancient pagan cultures, but that they’ve always been a part of the nations in some way, shape or form? The prophet Samuel said in 1 Samuel 15:23, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry...”
            Now the commentary done by none other than those at Snopes said that Saul Alinsky’s 1971 book, Rules for Radicals, has an introductory page that, as they put it, “characterizes Lucifer.” Alinsky wrote of Lucifer: Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins – or which is which) the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.” Now the implication is in actuality, a promotion of Lucifer. Before someone says I need to do a study of actual reading comprehension, ask yourself while of all people, this statement concerning Lucifer is mentioned on an introductory page at all. One can state that this is not a dedication, but the message is clearly implied that Lucifer set the stage for what is encouraged in the subsequent pages of the book.
            You may be asking, why exactly is this important? Great question! Well, the same Snopes article was attempting to state that Dr. Ben Carson, at the RNC in July of 2016, was inaccurate in pointing that this was a dedication page in Rules for Radicals. Keep in mind, that the ridiculous conclusion by Snopes what that this entire debacle is “Mostly False;” whatever that means at this point. Dr. Carson did apparently say that none other than Hillary Clinton admired Alinsky and that her senior thesis was about the man. Now before you think I’m going to let any feelings or assumptions about Mrs. Clinton come bubbling to the surface, I’d like to point out that we’ve covered the Bible, secular ideologies, entertainment, and witchcraft. Now, let’s see where this is going. 
            In Jonathan Cahn’s 2017 book, The Paradigm, the author makes the eerie connections between the Clintons and an infamous power couple from the Old Testament: King Ahab & Queen Jezebel. Rather than give you an exhaustive review of the book, I’ll boil it down later to some key factors. Most everyone has heard the saying that those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it. Biblically speaking, there is something of a spiritual connection, a paradigm if you will, where depravity has the same patterns. It always seems to be a trickle-down effect, and nothing can be truer about that phrase when it comes to those with the power to influence people through entertainment mediums. So once you become aware that the upper classes are enjoying the finer things, such as multi-language operas, classical music, and lavish parties with satanic connections, realizing the masses, or herds, as communists refer to the ignorant, are typically bogged down with trash music and entertainment in the vein of the 2006 film, Idiocracy. Now this has nothing to do with being rich. Let me make that clear: Scripture says the love of money, not money itself is the root of all evil. Why? Because Jesus said you can’t serve God & mammon. Who is the god of mammon? In the graphic novel, The Black Monday Murders, Vol. I (a story about royal bloodlines who’ve sold their souls - while drinking blood - to Satan/mammon to control global economies)the author states, “Even in a parasitic relationship, it is almost impossible not to symbiotically take on characteristics of the thing you are consuming…”



*Hey, Dad? Are you sure this is the book Mom had on her Christmas list?”
            

Fascinating that even in pop culture, when someone consumes blood, which the Bible explicitly condemns (Leviticus 17:14), I’ve read or watched scenes where the character(s) mention something of a psychic connection or seeing memories of the person whose blood they drank. Where in the world did those ideas originate? Let’s probe. Why the sudden fascination with the paranormal in our once Judeo-Christian society? Why is it never trendy to seek the things of the Holy Spirit? Why is relationship with Jesus Christ taboo? Why did I once see a tea commercial on television where the narrator talked about a Zen-like feeling? Imagine the people at the ACLU losing their minds if someone said a Holy Spirit-like feeling. Now let’s start getting back to the Clintons…
            A paradigm is like a blueprint. There are prophetic occurrences throughout the Old Testament that relate not just to Jesus and who he was/is and will be as the returning Messiah, but also in relation to our personal and spiritual lives individually and as a nation. As Jonathan Cahn states, “Events took place in ancient times to be recorded for the sake of future generations, as revelations and warnings.” Cahn points out that Paul is illustrating Israel’s apostasy in 1 Corinthians 10:11 for future generations. When depravity starts to cross every moral boundary, sanctity of life is no longer sacred as mentioned before; man has devalued himself by leaving the stand where God has placed him. Remember that God told Adam & Eve to be fruitful and multiply and take dominion over the whole earth. Post-flood and post-ark, Noah’s great-grandson, Nimrod, reigned over the kingdom of Babel… in the land of Shinar (Genesis 10-11). Yet by Gen. 11:4, they specifically were rebelling and doing the exact opposite of what God had commanded in the first place. Now the theme of my entire piece has been rebellion. Were they just huddling in a big city and creating a high tower or was there more to this puzzle? How does this connect to the Clintons?
            Feminist author, Ginette Paris wrote in The Sacrament of Abortion, “It is not immoral to choose abortion; it is simply another kind of morality, a pagan one.” However, as I began focusing on earlier, secular ideologies are not just a matter of disbelief in God. Inevitably, with a reductionist worldview grounded in scientific materialism, the so-called disbelieving person or persons in fact has/have set up false idols while reducing mankind’s worth. This is how the murder of the innocent gets redefined as abortion and any questioning of the slaughter is met not with civil discourse, but even the prefixes put a person who abhors abortion on the defensive. One is labeled anti-abortion when you’re pro-life, pro-choice when you don’t want to push any buttons, or if you’re a man, you don’t get to have an opinion because pagan and secular virtually mean outside the temple. And when the temple of God, man & woman, are devalued, so too are their offspring, offered up on the reductionist altar of rights, choice, supposedly a better future while not knowing how bright the future might have been with additional children. And now, we get back to… the Clintons.
            How many of us have studied the ancient pagan gods outside of a cursory reading of Scripture or history textbooks. Cahn explains that Baal, Molech, and the Greek goddess Artemis all have their links to child sacrifice. The same author, Ginette Paris, also wrote in The Psychology of Abortion, “Abortion is the sacrifice to Artemis. Abortion is a sacrament for the gift of life to remain pure.”



*”Oh, yes. We do things a little differently at our services. Tomorrow we’re expecting heavy rain though.”

Historically, Baal worship was synonymous with child sacrifice. King Ahab normalized pagan worship and the culture war was brought to Israel as apostasy became normalized, morality became subjective, as absolute truth was now an abstract thought left with God as man stepped away from his stand, and Cahn points out that the term, culture war, was actually introduced just two months apart from Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. Now without getting too deep into pagan gods and boring people who couldn’t care less about history, Cahn makes note of the fact that Baal was not only the ultimate god in the Phoenician pantheon of gods, but his wife was the goddess Astarte, in the Hebrew, Ashtoreth, in Arabic, Athtar and Ishtar in Babylon and Assyria. Astarte was a fertility goddess of sexuality and the female side of Baal worship. Jezebel, the foreigner, the Phoenician, not only practiced sorcery, witchcraft, and child sacrifice; this was done in the royal courts. The point, in The Paradigm, is that this exact same witchcraft was done by Hillary Clinton, as she brought in “new age ministers,” such as Jean Houston and this was sourced by both the New York Times and Newsweek back in 1996. Séances reaching the public’s ear were then referred to as brainstorming. I highly recommend you read The Paradigm because the eerie connections go much deeper than can be written about here.  Another “new age guru,” Marianne Williamson was also brought to Camp David to give spiritual counsel as sourced by the Washington Post in 2014. The promotion of Egyptian gods/goddesses by the aforementioned Houston moves off topic, but suffice it to say, when mentioning Isis or Osiris to an unsuspecting public, “new age” really doesn’t begin to describe what these people have tapped into on a spiritual level. The reason Houston is brought up at all here is because of the medallion of an ancient pagan goddess she wore around her neck when invited to the White House to perform her rituals.
But for those that just want a quick rundown of some more eerie facts:
·      All of Bill Clinton’s total years in political office span 22 years.
·      Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria 22 years (1 Kings 16:29)
·      Both Ben-Hadad (Ahab’s nemesis) and Osama bin Laden originated in lands east of Israel speaking Semitic tongues and their very names have similar root connections 
·      King Ahab let Ben-Hadad go as did President Clinton let bin Laden go after a 9/11 panel proved he passed on an earlier opportunity, even stating on 9/10/01 that he could’ve killed bin Laden 
·      Ahab & Jezebel murdered Naboth whose name means, fruits, and he is synonymous with the vineyard Ahab stole from him after he died. Vince Foster mysteriously died working for the Clintons and he was connected to a forested region. As Cahn explains, in medieval times, the foster was the official of the forest and a vineyard was both a place of fruits and trees.
·      As Ahab tried to take the Levite city of Ramoth Gilead, Bill Clinton took a woman not his wife by the last name Lewinsky. Lewinsky, a Jewish name, is derived from Lewin, derived from Levin, which is a name derived from Levi.
The book goes on to show more connections between witchcraft, 9/11, times, dates, and even exact specifications in Scripture. I highly recommend this book. 
The purpose of all of this was to basically point out that what is known on the surface, whether watching the nightly news, or doing a cursory reading of basic textbooks or popular hardcovers at Barnes & Noble, is simply not going to cover it. You will find, and I recommend asking the Lord for discernment when reading extra-biblical material, that the truth really is stranger than fiction. When one reads Ezekiel 8, God shows the priest Ezekiel, what others are doing in secret ceremonies behind closed doors where they think no one can find them. He is exposing literal witchcraft, which God openly shows him in one of the most (in my opinion) explosive books in the Old Testament. 
Over the last several years, I’ve come across even more books on these horrific topics that confirm, either directly, or indirectly, the cover-up of international connections that a federal credit union in Omaha, Nebraska was only a minor part of. When the sex trafficking cabal is so large and Satanism is at the heart of it all, the question isn’t so much as to whether the horror is real. The question is why doesn’t anyone seem to know anything about it? A conspiracy literally means to keep something a secret. I remember hearing once that the term, conspiracy theorist, was coined to dissuade anyone from questioning the JFK assassination. Whether that is true, I’ve not looked it up. But my point is, read Ezekiel 8, and notice that God sees all. No conspiracy or sin will be left concealed. One difficult aspect to Christianity today, is the systematic elimination by many mainstream denominations of the apostolic and the prophetic of the five-fold ministry in Ephesians 4:11. 
The reason I state this is because the powers that be behind pushing global communism, are not just Satan’s pawns in a strictly literal sense. By tapping into the spiritual realm and attempting to achieve godhood and immortality outside of the God of the Bible, the end goal is literally assuming that Lucifer holds the hidden knowledge that God is supposedly holding back from mankind. This is why any serious study of secret societies and occult worship will have you finding a reversal or perversion of what God intended for humanity. Satan uses the same old bag of tricks, but that is partially because he cannot do anything new outside of God. On the other hand, the same old bag of tricks tends to work pretty well considering mankind’s fallen nature and rebellion has a way of enticing us with its forbidden fruit until we realize late in the game that the problem isn’t always with pain, but with wanton pleasure. I’ve jokingly said in the past to a few friends, that back when I used to drink, I loved Heineken and double stuffed mint Oreos. But I remember one night after the family had gone to bed, I put down the beer, finished the cookie, and I turned off the lamps in the living room. I sat thinking in the dark. I remember saying softly, but aloud, “I have plenty of money in the bank, food on the table, clothes on our backs, a roof over our heads… but is this all there is?”
The satisfaction of having all I needed or wanted at the time wasn’t enough. The enticement of accessible lusts, of good feelings due to numbing emotional pain, enjoying my favorite movies, games, and sports, and watching my kids grow up wasn’t enough. Praying and reading the Bible, hoping I was doing the right thing wasn’t enough. As I studied these people who dabbled in the dark arts who even admitted to it publicly in the first place, I had and have no interest, but I see the attraction. By acknowledging that there is something deeper to be found in existence, the understanding of absolute truth or the desire to find it can become a reductionist idol in and of itself. However, that isn’t what Scripture is about. Jesus said the only pure religion is visiting widows & orphans and to keep oneself unspotted from the world (James 1:27). 
But the only way to do that is to commune with the Lord on a daily basis. King David said in Psalm 27:4 that he wanted to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire inside His temple. But what was he really saying? The temple wasn’t built yet. There are aspects to the Christian faith that are not that deep, yet deeply spiritually profound, though the common believer misses this fact, but it’s not meant to be as difficult as we often make it out to be. As Pastor Jentezen Franklin states in his book, Fasting, “The three duties of every Christian are giving, praying, and fasting.” 
To the Western ear, this statement sounds about as boring as boring can get. But when you literally have everything you need, are you relying on God or on self? In the Western culture that we live in, self-reliance is almost as much a part of our culture as that rebellious nature to be free to do our own will is. We pat our backs and celebrate the Fourth of July, but how many of us teach our children that our forefathers sacrificed money and livelihood to truly be free and the God of the Bible was at the heart of the issue? How many of us could understand what it was like back then, when your rights were subservient to the British Crown? Or even worse, what about today in places like China? Imagine passing notes in prison and the comfort and solace you experience is trying to encourage another believer in Jesus by stating, the guards were going to beat me half to death, not to death, like they normally do. Finding real hope and joy in Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians is a level of faith I’ve not experienced the way other believers like Zhang Rongliang has in his autobiography, I Stand with Christ: The Courageous Life of a Chinese Christian. 
As the days roll on toward the literal last days, I believe there will be a falling away of denominational lines because when you’re having to trust the Lord to carry you through whatever future circumstances begin affecting the globe, no one cares what church building you go to. Imagine being a Russian guard pulling your gun on everyone threatening Christians to death. When some of the Christians renounce their faith and leave the room, but others do not, imagine being the guard who puts his gun away and breaks down crying. Imagine knowing that some of those who sold out Jesus would’ve sold you out too and you just had to be sure you were among brethren so you could ask for prayer because being a believing Russian soldier in a communist nation would get you executed. Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand is another must-read. 


*Sunburn? Oh no, those are scars from a literal three years shackled and beaten in solitary confinement. So what have you been up to?

My plan is to further probe, and more quickly than in this post, what some of the theories are that people are espousing today and whether they hold weight biblically speaking. While the alien (extraterrestrial or inter-dimensional?), A.I. (Image of the Beast?), Islamic antichrist (yay or nay), and technological implants theories (Mark of the Beast, possible DNA altering?), as well as who may be behind Q, are all very fascinating in their own right. But ultimately, Jesus Christ should always be the motivating factor. All information should be based upon absolute truth and the Word of God is that source. Next, I plan to look at Nimrod and the giants a bit further and whether that is the same mind game that the last days may be playing when it comes to polluting the human race on a genetic level as Satan gears up to destroy virtually everything before Jesus shortens the days. A strong relationship with Jesus Christ will ultimately help a person be guided through the maze and webs of deceit that the Information Age has given us. Nothing says deception more than technology at your fingertips without the proper spiritual guidance. 



*”Yeah, but check out my new bionic eyeball. It’s sicccckkkkkk.”

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
- Ephesians 6:11

            “Listen carefully, Feyd,” the Baron said. “Observe the plans within plans within plans.” 

– Dune by Frank Herbert

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