DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE OCCULT

DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE OCCULT

"And many who believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed." (Acts 19:18-20)

We in American culture do not think a lot about the "magic arts." We still view palm readers and tarot card readers as a part of the fringe group. Oh, we may get upset when Satanists sponsor clubs in our local schools. But by and large, we don't pay much attention to the occult.

Not so in Ephesus. It was a big deal. People who came to faith in the Lord Jesus saw the danger and discrepancy between the Christian faith and the occult. So new believers got rid of the occult paraphernalia that had been a part of their past life without Christ.

I do wonder if we have been deluded by Satan into thinking that the occult or pagan worship is no big deal. After all, we have been considered a Christian nation and those things have not been central in most of our lives.

If we look closely, we can see some indications of this banal thinking. People can have an Ouija board in their closet or a Buddha statue in their front yard and think nothing about it. They rationalize that they really don't believe that stuff. They can read the horoscope every day and just consider it fun. But I wonder if they are playing with things of Satan's kingdom.

How big a fire would we have in the parking lot of our church if people who attend our local assembly would bring all of this stuff and make a bonfire? It would certainly attract some attention! But it would also be a statement about our faith that these things are incompatible with Christian belief.

I'm not suggesting that we do this. I'm just wondering if we would be willing to pay the cost of these things going up in smoke like the believers at Ephesus did. On the other hand, hopefully it would not be a very big blaze because we understand the seriousness of the issue.

Love, Dad