Month: September 2020

For most of our history, Americans have lived in a Judeo-Christian culture. But China, Africa, India, Asia – roughly two-thirds of humanity – practice paganism. We honor those passed on with graves, tombstones, and yearly remembrances. Most of the world worships the dead, appeases the dead, seeks to communicate with the dead, and even fears the dead. Ancestor worship is the norm from Tokyo to Beijing, Nairobi to Mumbai.

In Africa, witchdoctors deliver messages from beyond the grave. Hindus in India and Buddhists in Bangkok have altars in their homes with shrines containing pictures of the dead, lit candles, and food offerings. Some bow daily in veneration to the dead. There are strict rules determining how these ceremonies are conducted. If ancestor worship breaks protocol, the dead may unleash all kinds of evil for their perceived mistreatment.

In my blog of September 14, 2020, entitled “Witchcraft and Black Lives Matter.” I reported on attempts of BLM leaders to incorporate ancestor worship into their movement. They advocate pouring our libation liquids in rituals of necromancy to empower their protests. A recent “Wall Street Journal” article explained that during the COVID pandemic, Buddhist and Hindu priests were upset that ancestor worship rituals were being done virtually by Zoom. Detractors of high-tech necromancy warned that the spirits of ancestors need to physically reside in the body of pagan priests to properly carry out a successful ritual. One Nepalese Hindu priest warned that a Zoom ritual might make the ancestors “angry, sad, and curse the performers of such rites.”

As an exorcist, I frequently encounter cases of demonic possession resulting from ancestor worship. It’s okay to respect the dead, recall pleasant memories of them, and pay respect at gravesites. But hallowing dead spirits is an invitation for evil spirits impersonating the dead to enter the living. Beware ancestral curses that placate or invoke the deceased. If the dead are in heaven, rejoice. If in Hell, worshipping them is a superstitious hoax that will get you demons!

This year, Halloween has unleashed its demons early! The pictures accompanying this blog were taken in a big-box home supply store – on Labor Day weekend! Why these ghoulish decorations where there is beyond me? It’s more puzzling why anyone would want a 15-foot skeleton in their front yard. Or a life-sized demon of death arising from a crypt. Good thing I was wearing my politically correct, mandated mask to ward off the demons of Halloween-virus. (Just kidding, we know that only the blood of Jesus can keep evil spirits away.)

I’ve written many blogs about Halloween and thoroughly analyzed the demonic history of this unholy holiday. But the question still remains: Why should Christians be concerned about Halloween’s intrusion into our culture? Answer: By creating easy familiarity with things that are diabolic, the profane is demystified and made to seem benign. The preoccupation that Halloween has with death and darkness, ghosts and goblins, trivializes the macabre. Ironically, haunted houses won’t be shuttered this year because of Christians waging spiritual warfare. Rather, such denizens of fear are incubators for the COVID virus. Imagine that, Christian witness being outdone by a microscopic killer.

The reason retailers want an early jump on Halloween is because it’s a $9 billion holiday. But it is more than that. Even leaving out Halloween’s shady past in the distant realms of witchcraft and human sacrifice to Lord Samhain (Lucifer), it’s the devil’s day of institutionalized fear and the celebration of all things evil. God is omnipotent. His power is the same every instant, every day. But the devil’s power is limited so he must ration it for expression at certain times and places. The day since antiquity that Satan has labeled as his day is October 31. Instead of joining the crowd to raise a toast to vampires and zombies, Christians need to remember the mission of every believer. As expressed by the Apostle Paul in Acts 26:18, our calling is to turn lost souls “from the power of Satan unto God.” And cast out their demons.

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has taken a dangerous turn. Whatever the motives at the beginning, witchcraft now compels some BLM leaders. Recent reports, including Christiannews.net, claim that the BLM Co-Founder of the Los Angeles chapter, Patrisse Cullors, promotes invoking the spirits of dead African Americans by making spirit offerings. Regarding using voodoo to further racial justice, Cullors argues, “It’s important to be in direct relationship to our people who’ve passed but also for them to know we’ve remembered them. I believe so many of them work through us.” The Bible calls this witchcraft and necromancy and has stern warnings concerning the curses that come with attempting to commune with the dead. In the Old Testament, it was a capital offense!

The other Co-Founder of L. A. BLM, Melina Abdullah, says that when an African American loses their life in relation to law enforcement incidents, she offers a libation. Libation, pouring out a liquid to a god or spirit, is a millennia old form of witchcraft. Abdullah admits to summoning spirits of dead ancestors during a gathering at Hollywood United Methodist Church! Abdullah’s ritual comes from the Yoruba tribe of West Africa and is a summons to the Orisha spirits. I’ve done hundreds of exorcisms on West Africans who summoned Orisha demons by libations. These demons are powerful, nasty, and dangerous.

Such combination of black protest and witchcraft doesn’t necessarily define the movement in total; and we’re not suggesting that all well-meaning people of color necessarily buy into the occult beliefs of their leaders. But this matter does indicate the spiritual bankruptcy of America where witchcraft and New Age ideas are so commonplace that the fusion of race and protest can be easily sucked into an occult vortex. Americans must strive for equality among all races, but not at the expense of choosing witchcraft to achieve that ends. Black lives do matter, but so does the Word of God which says that those who seek to summon spirits are an abomination unto the Lord (Deuteronomy 18:11-12).

Burning sage is a popular form of witchcraft to banish evil spirits or purge “negative energies.” During the recent riots in Portland, Oregon, a group of witches marched in the protests, bundles of smoldering sage in hand, to ward off the supposed evil of federal forces sent to quell the anarchy. Many people who’ve consulted me for exorcisms, tell of burning sage to drive out their demons. Most of them got more demons. When pressed as to where they got the idea, they usually cite the advice of a psychic or some folk belief. But they didn’t realize that the very demons they sought to thwart were, in fact, drawn by the practice of what’s called “smudging.”

Sage is a plant, a shrub, sometimes used as an herb. Sage burners compare it to the burning of incense in the Bible (Exodus 30:1). Not so. In fact, Scripture warns against burning “strange incense,” (Exodus 30:9-KJV) as opposed to biblically mandated “fragrant” incense (Exodus 30:7). Burning sage is mentioned nowhere in the Bible, but it has been used historically by shamans, occult healers, and witchdoctors all over the world for driving out evil spirits. When used thusly, the smoldering bundle of sage may be held while doing incantations or accompanied with certain rituals of turning or sage-walking. It is often recommended by New Agers as a method of cleansing haunted houses. Such evil intent obviously disqualifies sage burning as a form of clearing dwellings and exorcising demons.

The Bible is clear that spiritual decontamination is by purifying our hearts and humbling ourselves before God (James 4:8-10). Sweet smelling smoke won’t clear a person’s soul or cast out their demons. Burning any plant isn’t evil in itself, but if the objective is even mildly spiritual, beware. Smudging to clear one’s auras or to open chakras is off limits. Burning sage can’t drive out evil spirits, but it will invite them in if the burning is part of a witchcraft belief system based on superstition.