The Occult

Today occult philosophy embrace every area of our society.

- Police departments request psychics to solve crimes.

- College students are addicted to fantasy games (Dungeons and Dragons) which introduce them to the world of the occult through role-playing.

- Well-known science fiction writers mask occult doctrines in their works through pseudoscientific language.

Colleges and universities offer graduate degrees in esoteric thought.

- Occult themes provide popular material for TV shows and movies.

- A leader of the women's movement urges her followers to return to the ancient religions in which female deities were worshiped (witchcraft).

- Even the American Medical Society endorses the search for the "new" powers to aid the healing process.

- One occultist in California quipped: "The second coming has already come--only J. C. didn't show up, Satan did." This current interest and growth of occultic teaching certainly gives evidence that the bright light of the fire of Christian civilization is burning low. Once again, as in the Dark Ages, the evil eye of the demonic is moving in on us, offering Satanically inspired substitutes.

This movement from light to darkness gives solemn testimony to what happens when the church

- The Wiccan Sabbats, or Holy Days

Samhain, Oct 31

- Pronounced “sow-an” or “sow-in,”

Samhain means "summer's end"

- Marks the beginning of winter.

- For most Wiccans, this is the new year

- Celts would sacrifice babies and eat them.

- Associated with it are the colors black and orange

- Known as Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Blood feast, Celtic New Year, Day of the Dead, Last Harvest, Winters Eve, etc.

❶. Definition

▪ From the Latin “Occultus” Hidden

▪ Beyond the bounds of ordinary human knowledge, mysterious, concealed, or hidden from view

2 Cor. 4:2 - Eph 5:11

❷. Characteristics

▪ The Occult deals with things hidden or secret

▪ The occult deals with operations or events which seem to depend on human powers that go beyond the 5 senses.

▪ The occult deals with the supernatural, the presence of demonic forces

❸. Who Gets Involved

▪ Many are escapists

- Find it difficult to face up to their moral responsibilities

- Thinking it a game to bring more excitement int their lives

▪ The Superstitious

- Jumping to conclusions that demons are at work in a variety of circumstances

Ex. sickness, depression, anger

▪ The Victimized

- The curious, who experiment and play with demonic forces only to find out they are with him

▪ The Conformists

- Everyone is doing it so why not

▪ The Dissatisfied-

- Those whose religious experience has left him unfulfilled and skeptical

▪ The Sad

- A death has led him to seek knowledge of the dead

▪ The Rebellious

- Leaving the status quo and the church to find other alternatives

▪ The psychically inclined

- Who want to develop powers

- The children of occultists- conditioned from childhood

❹. Why Such an Interest

▪ The secularization of the Gospel

- Those in leadership denying cardinal doctrines of Scripture

- Leaves a spiritual vacuum which invites people to go elsewhere to have spiritual needs met.

Ex.: Episcopal Bishop James Pike Rejected the deity of Christ, Virgin Birth

- Sought the spirit of his dead son

▪ Curiosity

- There is a certain mystery about the occult which appeals to our curiosity

- Leads us deeper and deeper into it.

A fascination with evil

- Offers Promises

Answers to Life’s Questions

Future known

The unknown is unknown

- Sign of the End Times

I Tim. 4:1 Mk. 13:22

❺. What Does the Bible Say

Dent. 18:9-12 Lev. 20:27 Is. 47:l2-14 Lev. 20:6

Lev. 19:31 Jer. 27:9-10 I Cor. 10:20-21 Is. 8:19