Month: October 2014

Today’s the day. Tonight’s the night, when all things ghostly and ghoulish come out in the form of a cultural obsession with death. Otherwise normal people will deliberately try to look like a skeleton or some fiend from the grave. But for some, Halloween is all year long. They search art houses and the internet to find actual artifacts of death–skulls, mummified human heads, bones, skeletons and the like. Human remains are not confined to cemeteries and morgues. There is a big market for those fascinated with shrunken heads and other oddities, found at antique fairs and exotic markets. You can get an actual human skull on eBay for a couple of hundred dollars; an infant’s skeletal remains for a little more than $1000. When buying, you may be best to use a code word such as “natural material” rather than human bones, which some are skittish to sell. I came across this macabre market in a newspaper article and filed it away to discuss on today’s day of the devil, Halloween.

It’s a sick fascination, of course, but worse yet it can be an invitation to demons. Satanist love to keep around the remains of human bones, mostly to freak-out people. The devil has other ideas. This allurement of human remains which attracts demonic forces can be extended to cremated remains. (See my book CURSE BREAKING for a detailed analysis of the dangers of cremation. To order CLICK HERE.) If you know someone who has this kind of morbid curiosity, warn them to back off. The skull on their mantle, or the facsimile on their T-shirt, may be an open door to demons.

The scandal has been front page, entertainment news. Stephen Collins, former star of the family-friendly show “7th Heaven,” in which he played a minister, has been accused in court of “a long pattern of sexually abusing minor children.” Collins apparently lived a double life, approachable nice guy on and off screen, but a pedophile in private. His wife of 27 years, Faye Frant, and his daughter Katherine, 25, have blown his cover. With his long, lucrative career over, Hollywood observers are left wondering what happens next. Could this horror story be true? One thing I noticed in checking out this tragedy. In all the family photos I saw that Collins’ daughter consistently appears unsmiling and sullen. Perhaps she was just caught by the camera at a bad moment. Perhaps she too has been a victim.

From my experience as a counselor and exorcist, often dealing with the sordid side of life, I’m not surprised. That someone held in such high regard, and who played such a moral role on-sceen, would end up this way serves Satan well. In fact, Collins was a lay minister in his church, increasing his chances that the devil would want to destroy him. This all likely happoened, based on my experience, because he was abused as a child and so were other male ancestors in his bloodline. That’s how these things happen. My prayers go out to him and all his victims, but my warning is that anyone, male or female, violated in their youth desperately needs deliverance, and serious counseling and therapy. If that person is you, please call to arrange for a personal Encounter with me as soon as possible. I’m not suggesting that you will necessarily become a child abuser; but the violation you’ve experienced could lead to severe personal problems without healing and spiritual freedom. It’s not a risk you want to take, assuming that the past will somehow fade way without spiritually therapeutic intervention.

Saturday, Brittany Maynard will die. Last week she checked off the last stop on her bucket list, Grand Canyon. She stood on the edge hugging and kissing her husband. Brittany has aggressive brain cancer and at age 29 has moved to Oregon, the state with the most permissive euthanasia laws. There she believes she can die with “dignity.” Her body is swelling. Her speech is at times gibberish. The headaches are unbearable. She has already picked out her posthumous Christmas gifts. After she’s gone she wants her mother and stepfather to visit the Incan site of Machu Picchu in Peru because she says “it’s a very sacred, spiritual domain.” She wants her family to go there and feel her there — after she’s dead.

There is so much to be said about this tragedy. But her Machu Picchu comment says it all. I’ve been there, high in the Andes of Peru. To the Incas it was a place of human sacrifice. Walking its steep, verdant paths one can feel the demonic presence that still pervades this mist-enshrouded mountain, its altars once flowing with human blood. Brittany’s wish reveals her New Age outlook on life, a viewpoint devoid of the Christian hope of heaven or the fear of an eternity without God. The secular press has been oozing with compassion concerning the potential suffering which she’ll avoid. But let’s get real for a moment. I’ve read many articles about her and there’s not a shred of a reference by her, or any of her family, of a Christian worldview. Consequently, there is no judgment to fear by deliberate, pre-mediated suicide and no possibility of God intervening by grace or healing.

I don’t judge her, I just feel sad. And angry. Angry at a nation that has forsaken God, preachers who fail to warn of hell, and a culture that never considers eternal consequences of actions. I pray that when Saturday comes she’ll reconsider that God may not be finished with her life and she may yet be an instrument of his love with a graceful death, not a premature exit. Someone needs to say it boldly, though in our permissive age it sounds harsh. The suffering she’ll avoid is nothing to be compared with what the Bible says she may endure for eternity, barring a last minute death bed reconsideration.

Quick. Before Halloween gets here, there’s still time to book a last minute fare to London and celebrate October 31 in real style in your very own Harry Potter Hotel room. The Georgian House Hotel, built in 1851, has designed special Harry Potter-themed rooms.  If a magical night of spirits is what you’re after, this is the place. The so-called “wizard chambers” can be had for a party of two at the cost of $401 or bring the whole family and sleep five for $585. The quarters are designed to resemble the abode of wizard Albus Dumbledore, from the Potter series. And that’s not all! (Why does that sound like “Let’s Make a Deal?”) For a little extra you can throw in a visit to the Warner Bros. studios where the Potter movies were filmed. Really adventurous? Add to that the Harry Potter Muggle Walking Tour of locations which inspired author J.K. Rowling.

Would it be possible to get a witchcraft demon by sleeping in one of these rooms? Would a night with Dumbledore’s accoutrements open one up spiritually to his wizardry spirits? Yes and no. A room is a room, whatever its design. Technically, just sleeping there wouldn’t get you a demon. Demons only operate in realms to which they are given permission to enter. But it’s likely that the person wanting a night at the Harry Potter Hotel would have already exhibited a fascination with the occult, and this might be the straw that . . .  you know the rest. Or if the occupant has a prior generational curse of witchcraft, this could be the contemporary connection to that long-ago evil. I wouldn’t sleep there and neither should you. Ephesians 4:27 warns Christians not to give place to the devil, and registering for a Dumbledore room is a dumb thing to do.

 

This week has seen a flurry of news articles and YouTube videos about the long-kept secret of Mormon undergarments. It seems that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is finally going on the offense and coming out of the clothes-closet. Speculation about what these underwear garments really signify became a PR problem that the Mormon Church could no longer ignore. So they finally decided it was best to take it all off and tell all. At least that is the impression they want to give, but as usual their spin campaign isn’t telling the whole truth. Mormon web sites will admit that after their temple endowment they are required to wear such garments as sign of their devotion, but they leave out some glaring omission.

Originally the garments were connected to Freemasonry and had Lodge symbols. (They still do on the navel and the nipples, facsimiles of the Freemason square and compass.) This clothing was originally to be a reminder of their secret oaths regarding polygamy. Over time, tall tales and legends surrounding the protective quality of these garments led to their having a magical quality. Devout Mormon still never let the garment leave the body. Even when changing to a clean one they most always have a part of the original one touching some part of their body. And, yes, the most devout won’t even have sex without some part of their body at least partially covered, such as an arm through a sleeve. When taking a bath they keep one arm or leg outside the tub, covered by the magic underwear.

Want to know more? Check out a web site where I’m interviewed by John Safran, the Australian TV personality on whom I did a much publicized exorcism. John caught me with cameras while I was chomping down breakfast one day some years ago.  It’s good for information, and especially good for a laugh: http://1857massacre.com/MMM/mormon_underwear.htm

 

It hasn’t happened yet, but some government officials in the Russian Federation want Halloween off the calendar. They charge that “horror-themed parties induce lowly feelings and turn into orgies.” The Culture Ministry has been approached with attempts to shut down any recreational establishment from featuring “youngsters dressed as corpses and monsters scaring children.” Last year a leading representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vsevolod Chaplin, called such practices dangerous, declaring, “At first, people play with the evil spirit as a joke, but then they begin to play seriously with these things. This leads to serious problems: sickness, sadness, and despair.”

While I’m not for the kind of censorship that currently chills some dissent in Russia, one has to wonder: What kind of upside-down world do we live in when America, the country with the largest Christian population in the world, fails to significantly protest what Putin’s Russia laments? In losing our spiritual bearing have we ceded the moral high ground to a country that was dominated by systematic atheism for more than a century? Whatever the fault in logic by Russian Halloween protestors, you’ve got to at least admire their rectitude. That’s more than I can say for our fear-filled leader above.

 

If you’re like me, there are a lot of questions in life that go unanswered because we never take the time to ask and investigate the answer. Like why car speedometers list speeds that you shouldn’t attain and couldn’t if you wanted to. Unlike Germany’s autobahn (Been there driven that. Crazy!) American highways never legally post a speed limit over 85. But your car likely has a speedometer tempting you to go way beyond that. If you drive a high-performance vehicle the top range, on your speedometer, may be well over 140 m.p.h. Even over 200! What gives? According to a former Nissan executive, 80% of cars won’t go over 110, and standard-issue tires aren’t made for over 130.

It’s all about salesmanship. Selling you on the idea that your car has a hot engine and can maximize velocity if you want to. Basically, you’re being sold a lie. Sin is like that. Don’t believe it if your spiritual speedometer says you can abuse sex and drugs without consequences; if you can harbor anger and bitterness without a toxic price to your soul and body; if you can spurn Christ in favor of living in the fast lane. First, the devil can’t take you where he promises. He uses a lying moral speedometer to get you into the danger zone. It’s there that the devil and demons take over and a crash is waiting.

Not a week goes by without my ministering to an individual who is living with someone outside of marriage. What used to be called “living in sin” or “shacking up” no longer even has a pejorative description. Sinners are simply “partners.” But now a new book, Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage, sheds light on just how seismic this fault-line is. The Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, has predicted that one in four young Americans will NEVER marry. This sentiment is expressed with the tongue-in-cheek credo, “You will get to have sex with a different attractive person every night for the rest of your life.” Or so they think. It seems the only place that marriage still matters is with the upwardly mobile. Ninety percent of University-educated mothers get married before their first baby. Among non-graduates, 58% of births are out of wedlock.

The book describes the new family landscape as a “family-go-round” with absent fathers, new (and sometimes sexually abusive) stepfathers, an unstable array of step-siblings (who are also often incestuous), and constant uncertainty. Those of us who minister deliverance encounter this family dynamic frequently, because such circumstances are a breeding-ground for demons. Abandonment, rejection, domestic violence, substance abuse, molestation, anger, unforgiveness; these are all part of this spiritual landscape where demons roam freely. Being born illegitimately into a home of “partners” doesn’t ensure demonization, but the odds are higher. (Read my chapter on the curse of illegitimacy in my book CURSE BREAKING. The book contains a special prayer to break this curse. To order CLICK HERE.) If you’re in a merry-go-round relationship, get married or get out. If you were born into a “generation unbound” environment, get deliverance before the carousel stops at the entrance to torment.

Comedian Jon Stewart isn’t exactly a household name among Christians. Due to his frequent use of profanities, his acclaimed “Daily Show” (seen on TV’s Comedy Central channel) is probably not high on the viewing list of conservative evangelicals. Jon, a two-time host of the Academy Awards, has won Grammys and Emmys. A self-described “socialist” he has never been seen as friendly to either conservatives or Christians. But there I was this past Monday night, our Skype exorcisms the subject of a lengthy report. (To view CLICK HERE.) Last summer Jon flew a crew of four from New York to interview and profile me. It took this long to put the story together and air it. Jessica Williams, a regular reporter on the show, hosted the segment and asked me to demonstrate how I would exorcism her demons over the Internet. The morning after, Salon, the liberal web site, ran a story entitled: “Must-see morning clip: The Daily Show’s Jessica Williams gets an exorcism via Skype.” Of me, Salon said, “He chases the demons out of her with technology.” For clarification, it wasn’t an actual exorcism but a dress-rehearsal for what might have happened had she actually manifested and not been physically present.

I know of no other evangelical Christian minister who has ever been on the show, certainly not an exorcist branding a cross and commanding demons back to Hell in the name of Christ. Such is the amazing opportunity given to us, an open door not available to others of biblical persuasion. Why? I’ll leave that to you to contemplate. In the meantime, we will seek every available opportunity to tell the world that spiritual freedom is available through the power of God.

Jon Stewart has a sharp, often caustic wit. Thank the Lord I escaped without being skewered by one of his editorialized, comedic barbs. Thank you, Jon! I am much relieved.

I saw the movie “Left Behind” last weekend. You must see this movie. Tim LaHaye, the Christian leader and author behind the book on which the movie was based, is a long-time personal friend. For years we skied together every winter. I remember many years ago he told me about an idea he had. He wanted to write a series of novels about The Rapture. At the time, Tim was already a best-selling author, but he’d never written fiction. My novel DEAD AIR (to order CLICK HERE) was a best-seller. He wanted my thoughts about his trying out fiction. I encouraged him, and all these years later I am sitting a theater deeply moved by this movie. As I watched on-screen the panic ensuing The Rapture my eyes grew moist with gratefulness that our whole family knows the Lord. When that hour comes, we’ll all be together with Jesus. I pray your family will too.

Boy are the atheists mad. Last night I came across a blog of an unbeliever, who was raised in a Christian home and once professed Christ, trashing the film in language I wouldn’t use to condemn a porn flick. Vicious. In an article called, “Christian right’s vile PR sham” he vilified the movie as the effort of “fundamentalists” to “corral” American into an “ever-shrinking intellectual ghetto.” He continued: “Christianity expressed in culture and in religious movies has nothing to do with faith, decency, and alleviating suffering. It’s a bizarre American offshoot best expressed by a second-amendment Jesus and cutting food stamps for hungry children.” It gets worse. Regarding “Left Behind” the writer declares of anyone who believes in the Rapture, “This emphasis on mass-punishment of non-Christians makes [the movie] nothing more than a planetary-sized snuff film.”

No doubt here about who is going to be left behind.