THE PASTOR’S POINTS
sermon ministry of
CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH
Thomasville, NC
A fellowship of faith, family and friendships.
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And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God?
for the living to the dead? Isaiah 8.19
We have been exposing the "New Age" agenda of Hollywood in this series of messages. Last week we saw the reasons for this agenda in "Gump’s Gospel" -- a movie about a mildly retarded young man with a naive, pure outlook on life. Hollywood’s message was that humanistic purity of purpose is enough to conquer any circumstance.
Why, in light of revealed propositional truth (God’s Word), does Hollywood ask us to swallow such trash? Three answers:
* Deception -- There are those who deceive knowingly.
* Delusion -- There are those who are themselves deluded.
* Dollars -- With nearly 100 million at stake at the box office every weekend, the lure of money is too strong for some people to stick with truth. Some people will do anything for money.
A magician found out that there was an agent in the audience, so he decided to perform all of his best tricks. He began pulling 200 scarves out of a hat, then he produced 150 playing cards from the air, one at a time. Finally, he threw a blanket over himself and disappeared.
The next morning, he called the agent and asked, "What do you think?"
"I’d only make one change," said the agent, "That trick where you vanish. You should do that first."
This morning we turn to the "ghost story." Part of the New Age resurgence involves spiritualism, or contacting the dead. The Bible calls it "wizardry." From a New Age study: "In a recent 11 year period, the proportion of adults who say they have been in touch with the dead has risen from 27 percent to 42 percent."
"The End Times" magazine reported that there are "...over 200,000 registered witches in the U.S. and many more are not registered. In fact, the famous witch, Sybil Leek, who now resides in Melbourne Beach, FL said in the New York Times that there are over 8 million witches in the world today." Some time ago the Salvation Army was sued, claiming they violated a woman’s Constitutional rights when they fired her for being a witch. The employee had used the agency’s copy machine to reproduce satanic rituals. She sued for, and was awarded by a federal judge, $1.25 million compensation for embarrassment, humiliation, pain and suffering.
The movie "Ghost" is no less offensive in its’ gross misrepresentation of spiritual matters. Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore are billed as the leading cast. However, it is Whoopi Goldberg that Hollywood seems to want to highlight. Goldberg plays a medium (wizard) who brings former live-in lovers Swayze and Moore back together after Swayze’s death at the hands of a murder plot.
Exploding the myths of the "ghost story"
After some comedy relief events (e.g., Swayze’s confusion and frustration over finding himself in the spirit --dead, stuck between two worlds), he wanders into a rip-off parlor run by Whoopi Goldberg. She is a fake who discovers in her encounter with real ghost, Swayze, that she has the "real gift" of contacting dead spirits.
Myth # 1 -- It is O.K. to contact the dead
Some would say, "Contact the dead? Excuse me?" Time for a reality check -- It is possible! Not everything spoofed in the movies is false. There is a very real spirit world, and contact between the world of the living and the deceased is entirely possible. The problem is not one of ability, but rather permissibility.
God forbids contact with the dead.
Under the direction of God, there was a revival among His people during the time of King Josiah. One of his first actions, after reading the Word of God, was to forbid spiritualism.
Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. -- 2 Kings 23:24
The name "Jezebel" has a special place in history. No parent would ever dream of naming a daughter by this infamous title. She was the enemy of God...and a witch.
And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? -- 2 Kings 9:22
The New Testament pulls no punches either. Paul calls the practice of contacting the dead a work of the flesh (Galatians 5.20). This is completely opposite of Christian principles.
Consequences for witchcraft
* Witchcraft is doomed
And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. -- Isaiah 19:3
* Witchcraft has caused whole nations to be punished
And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech
shall whisper out of the dust. -- Isaiah 29:4
Our own White House has been under attack by the New Age. President Reagan’s wife practiced Astrological forecasting. She influenced the President’s schedule after consulting with "spiritual advisors."
Currently, Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that "...imaginary conversations with her role model, Eleanor Roosevelt, helped her get through the traumatic campaign year....She went from asking Eleanor, ’Why me?’ to ’How do you put up with this?’ Then Clinton had a wonderful revelation. Even before FDR was inaugurated, newspapers editorialized against Mrs. Roosevelt. She should keep her opinions to herself -- no one in America wanted to hear a thing she had to say. What was happening to me wasn’t anything new at all. So I began much better conversations -- about how she could help me."
Personally, I would much rather the First Lady knock off the conversations with Eleanor, and consult with Jesus.
* Those who practice witchcraft become the enemy of Christ.
And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers: -- Micah 5:12
* Shortened life span
So Saul died for his transgression which he committed
against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD,
which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it;
-- 1 Chronicles 10:13
* No chance of heaven
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable,
and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. -- Revelation 21:8
Admonition concerning contacting the dead -- DON’T!
Rather, contact the living Jesus.
Myth #2 -- Nice people go to heaven.
In the final scenes of "Ghost" Patrick Swayze’s character -- a nice guy who got killed, and his evil friend Carl, go to their respective rewards. Carl (and his henchman Willy) are both wicked, so they get dragged off by dark demons to some Netherworld of suffering. Sam (Patrick Swayze) goes with the beams of light to a crowning glory of beautiful light, and into a waiting, welcoming host. This concept is a synchrotism of truth and error.
The Truth Shown
* There is a time when the soul separates from the body. Hebrews tells us that it is appointed for a man once to die.
There is an afterlife. People do get carried to another place, dimension, reward.
The Truth Missed
Nice people don’t go to heaven, saved people go to heaven. If it were a matter of nice, most dogs would go, and no people could make it. The Bible says that our salvation is by grace, not works (Ephesians 2.8,9). Being nice, good, unselfish, kind, etc., are wonderful qualities. Those are things Christians ought to have present in their lives. However, you don’t do those things to go to heaven.
Salvation is ONLY in Jesus Christ.
Notice the exclusive nature of God when it comes to who goes to heaven...
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. -- John 3:16
I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. -- John 8:24
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. -- Acts 4:12
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. -- 1 Corinthians 3:11
The movie "Ghost" presented some pretty accurate things. Evil dwells in shadowy places, and going to hell is ugly and frightening. Going to heaven is beautiful and serene. The problem is, are we going to believe the New Age way to get to heaven, which is presented by the likes of Shirley MacLaine, Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey?... or -- will you take the word of one who has come back from the other side, Jesus of Nazareth. One’s a ghost story; the other a good story, a Gospel.
