As we finish this brief series in which we have looked into false religions and cults we want to look at Wicca.
Wicca is an attempt to revive the pre-Christian nature and fertility religions of western Europe. It is a neo-pagan religion that believes in supernatural magick, worships a male and female deity, and practices rituals that revolve around the cycles of nature.
This is more and more part of our main stream American culture.
Chaplains in our prisons are required to facilitate witches, warlocks, and druids, just as much as any other religion. Wicca is also a religion that has infiltrated schools all across the country.
Wicca is both anti-dogmatic and anti-authoritarian it has no central leadership or organization. There is also not uniformity of doctrine. There is a wide variety of beliefs and practices found within Wicca. Many of the beliefs of Wicca are also found in the New Age Movement.
Wicca accepts an occultic understanding of reality. Wicca in its purest sense worships a mother goddess and a male horned deity (her consort).
Biblical vs Wiccan View Of Reality
The beliefs of Wicca and other neo-pagan groups are contrary to the Christian Scriptures.
Genesis 1:1 (NASB)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Isaiah 43:10 (NASB)
10 You are My witnesses, declares the Lord, And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me.
Isaiah 44:6 (NASB)
6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.
The biblical doctrine of creation emphasizes the transcendence of God and His separateness from what He has created.
As the first verse in the Bible states, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen.1:1, NASB). The implication of this passage is that in the beginning God created that which was not God. Not only does the Bible proclaim the separateness of God from His creation, but it also teaches the distinctiveness of Gods creations from one another.
Genesis 1:24 (NASB)
24 Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind; and it was so.
Genesis 1:26 (NASB)
26 Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
Each of Gods creations are unique and different from His other creations. They were made after their kind.
Three major beliefs of Wicca are animism, pantheism, and polytheism.
Animism is the belief that everything, even inanimate objects, have a soul or spirit.
Wiccans believe that not only do plants have a soul or spirit, but also the wind, the rain, and even rocks.
Other Wiccans simply believe that inanimate objects possess a life force.
As used by many witches, animism means that the Life Force: rocks and trees, deserts and streams, mountains and valley, ponds and oceans, gardens and forests, fish and fowl; everything from amoebas to animals to humans. All is infused with and participates in the vital Life Force or energy, and therefore the entire earth is a living organism. (Witchcraft, p. 33.)
Romans 1:18-25 (NASB)
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
This blends or leads into a form of pantheism or what is called panentheism
Two very similar ideas that basically boil down to the idea that deity is in everything.
Pantheism means everything is deity.
Panentheism deity is within everything.
This in turn flows into a form of polytheism which is the belief that there is more than one god.
Wicca today includes not only a plurality of deities but also a plurality of meaning and reality.
In witchcraft literature you might find statements that reflect this open metaphysics in this way. There is no one way or right religion for all or there is no one truth.
John 14:6 (NASB)
6 Jesus said to him,I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Wiccan Practices
Wiccans practice what amounts to occultic magic in various rituals and spells, channeling, astral projections and so forth. They will often add the letter (k) to the word magic in order to differentiate between spell casting and slight of hand magic of illusionist.
They also often practice various forms of divination. Popular forms of this include astrology, numerology, palmistry, tarot cards.
Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (NASB)
9 When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,
11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.
13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.
14 For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.
Acts 19:19 (NASB)
19 And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Galatians 5:19-21 (NASB)
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Revelation 21:8 (NASB)
8 But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
