Witchcraft......real or harmless?

Witchcraft is simply a ritualized religion of power that is enabled by demonic means. The rituals don’t mean anything of themselves (only to those who are practicing the rituals) but they are empowered by the demonic as part of an effort to deceive and enslave the practitioner.

Witchcraft (or any other power-based religion) is very real because of demonic empowerment.

I’ve known people who were involved in self-style occultism including simple “wicca” and others in self-styled Satanism. Both groups of people experienced a measure of success and power (enough to keep them playing with it), but they could not match the 'power' of one person yielded to the will of God.

 

A hill of frostbitten baloney.

 

A hill of frostbitten baloney. </font>[/QUOTE]

Since I know you are dying to hear what I think . . .

Wicca is a neopagan nature-based religion. Witchcraft as understood in the common vernacular is nothing but fantasy. There is no witch power, spells, etc. that do anything.
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[ July 03, 2003, 01:38 AM: Message edited by: Dr. Bob Griffin ]

 

If God be true, and His spiritual domain is, then does it not make sense that the evil domain also exists? The problem comes in sorting out the fantasy from the real.

I believe very much in demonic powers. I also believe there are religious groups around, including Wicca, which is playing games, and using Wicca as a back to nature religion,,animism and such.

The demonic world is nothing to play around with, in my opinion........and I am generally quite liberal in my thinking.

Cheers,

Jim

 

There's a good side and a bad side to supernatural power. Witchcraft is the bad side and we have no reason to be on any side but the good one.
Witchcraft relies on human knowledge and self to produce occurences and results, the opposite relies on God.
Gina

 

Jim,

I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at here. Why does a evil domain have to exist because God does? What am I missing?

 

Glory Bound, It is a quite simple statement. Since God is true and He said there is evil in the world, then there is. No doubt about it. If evil does not exist, then neither does God.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Jim,

I understand about the existence of evil. I guess it was the "evil domain" that was mentioned opposite God and His "spiritual domain". It kind of came across as a dualistic concept, and that was what I was wondering about. Maybe that was not what you intended.

 

Satan and his angels would be the "evil domain". God and his angels would be the "good domain".
Gina

 

I think ColoradoFB "said" it best. )

I also agree with Alcott's assertion about it being frostbitten baloney

Yes, there evil spirits in the world, but we should be wary of them where they are, not where they're not. When we attribute something artificial to Satan, we simply give Satan more credit than he deserves.

Frankly, I get tired of well-meaning Christians looking for evil spirits under every rock, yet when the Holy Spirit pops out right in front of them, they say "oh, it's only you". Shouldn't it be the other way around?

 

I agree 100%. Too many Christians do not understand that demonic forces are in the spiritual relm. They have power there. They attack the spiritual side of mankind. Demons cannot bite you, move objects, speak to us is audible voices. They lie and try to deceive us by speaking to our "spiritual man". It is a battle for the mind that is at stake here.

 

greek geek asked:

What do you understand witchcraft (and/or wicca) to be?

Wicca is a syncretistic new religious movement, a relatively recent blend including but not limited to nature worship, mythology, folklore, feminism, and environmentalism.

It has nothing to do with the wand-waving fantasy "magic" practiced in Harry Potter books and other genre fiction.

Furthermore, while I don't discount the possibility of genuine spiritual manifestations, I believe that all so-called "magic" practices are the product of either illusion or delusion.

 

Witches are just poor deluded souls who have fallen for one of the devil's many traps.

They don't scare me though, I just look them in the eye and say, "My Father can beat up your father!"

 

Am I getting a feeling that some of you guys don't believe that witches and warlocks are real?? Is that what I'm reading?

You know, over in 1 Samuel 28:7 and following--it was King Saul who put the witch "to the test"--when God refused to answer his prayer request, he turned to one of Hell's agents who promtly obliged!

The Prince of the Power of the Air will get you to believe what you want to believe so that you won't have a desire to believe what you need to believe from the word!

Brother David

 

blackbird said:

Am I getting a feeling that some of you guys don't believe that witches and warlocks are real??

No, witches and warlocks are real enough. It's their alleged magical powers that are illusory.

You know, over in 1 Samuel 28:7 and following--it was King Saul who put the witch "to the test"--when God refused to answer his prayer request, he turned to one of Hell's agents who promtly obliged!

Samuel came up and delivered a divine judgment against Saul. That wasn't the witch's doing. She seemed as surprised as anyone. That was God.

 

how about the magicians in egypt?

 

timothy 1969 asked:

how about the magicians in egypt?

Didn't God tell Moses that he was going to harden Pharaoh's heart when he saw miraculous signs (Exod. 4:21)? Exod. 7:22 even says that Pharaoh's heart was hardened as a result of seeing his own magicians imitate Moses. The imitators' power was God's doing as a means of hardening Pharaoh.

Besides, when you are dealing with the miraculous in the Scripture, remember that you are dealing with a special case. You can't make a normative case from the special - that just because some magicians could temporarily recreate miracles at a time when God was visibly manifesting his power to his own glory, therefore there is always an occult power out there that just anybody can tap into if they go through the right motions.

 

How about them? Magicians are workers of illusion, without regard to spiritual state. Works of magic are not supernatural, they're illusional.