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THERE is no doubt that Satan wants to be worshiped. When tempting Jesus, he offered to give him a huge reward on just one condition: “If you fall down and do an act of worship to me.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post.
Log in or register now.) Jesus, of course, refused, but not everyone has followed his example. Satan worship is widespread in our modern world.
For example, in Canada The Calgary Herald ran a series of articles under the title “Devil’s Disciples.” The paper quoted a police investigator’s report, saying: “Through interviews I have learned that Satanism is not exclusive to any particular group in society. Intelligence gathered by the Calgary Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reveals that in Calgary alone there are supposedly 5,000 practising Satanists.”
Other press reports show that the Satan cult, in different forms, is surfacing across the United States and Europe. Even the police show an interest in Satanism. Why? Because in many cases they are finding links between crimes and satanic cults. Just recently, a police detective was quoted as saying: “What we are dealing with is a religion and people who believe in it as others believe in Christianity, Judaism or Islam. What you are seeing are not crimes for crime’s sake, but crimes for the sake of a religion.”
One outstanding example was the murders by the Manson clan in California back in 1969. According to history professor Jeffrey Russell, “Manson claimed to be both Christ and Satan. . . . Manson’s follower Tex Watson announced, when he came to murder Sharon Tate, ‘I am the devil; I’m here to do the devil’s work.’” But Satanism is not always as overt as this.
Witchcraft, Spiritism, and Sorcery
Indeed, Satan worship is not limited to direct worship of Satan by name. The apostle Paul warned: “The things which the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) And demon worship is really the same as Satan worship, since Satan is called “the ruler of the demons.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) What practices of “the nations” can be identified as demon worship, or worship of Satan? God’s words to Israel give us some examples: “There should not be found in you . . . anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead. For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah.”—You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Thus, we are warned against the blood sacrifice and spirit communion practiced by the voodoo priests in Brazil or by the houngans and the mambos of Haiti. And we are warned against the very similar practices of Santeria, observed by some exiled Cubans in the United States. We are warned, too, against sorcerers who claim to communicate with dead souls to inspire fear in the living.—Compare You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Witchcraft is prevalent in different parts of Africa. In South Africa, for example, witch doctors exert great power, and people take them very seriously. Recent cases reported in the press were of mobs burning alive people who were accused of causing lightning to strike fellow villagers! The local witch doctors accused innocent victims of these “unnatural” acts and then tied them to a tree to be burned. Such belief in sorcery or magic is likewise a worship of demons.
However, witchcraft is not confined to Africa. In 1985, Herbert D. Dettmer, serving a prison sentence at a correctional center in ******ia, U.S.A., was granted the right by the District Court for the Eastern District of ******ia to have access to clothing and articles so that he could practice his religion in prison. And what was his religion? According to the court record, he was a member of “the Church of Wicca (more commonly known as witchcraft).” Consequently, Dettmer had the legal right to use in his worship sulfur, sea salt, or uniodized salt; candles; incense; a clock with an alarm; and a white robe.
Yes, according to the indications, witchcraft is widespread in the West. The British newspaper Manchester Guardian Weekly reported: “Five years ago, there were thought to be some 60,000 witches in Britain: today [1985] the number is estimated by some witches to have grown to 80,000. Prediction, the monthly magazine for astrology and the occult, has a circulation of 32,000.”
Satanism and Music
Professor Russell, in his book Mephistopheles—The Devil in the Modern World, draws our attention to another way in which the purposes of Satan are being furthered. He writes: “Overt Satanism faded rapidly after the 1970s, but elements of cultural Satanism continued into the 1980s in ‘heavy metal’ rock music with its occasional invocation of the Devil’s name and considerable respect for the Satanic values of cruelty, drugs, ugliness, depression, self-indulgence, violence, noise and confusion, and joylessness.”—Italics ours.
Perhaps the musicians who incorporated elements of Satanism into their music were not being serious. They may just have been trying to shock or to be outlandish. Nevertheless, some impressionable individuals were strongly affected. Professor Russell notes that the “constant semiserious propaganda for evil has had decomposing effects on silly and weak minds. One result has been a rash of appallingly degenerate crimes, including the violation of children and the *******ion of animals.”
A recent case startled New Yorkers. According to a newspaper report, a 14-year-old boy, “obsessed by Satanism,” stabbed his mother to death and then committed suicide. A Canadian family counselor stated, as reported in Maclean’s magazine, that a growing number of troubled teenagers confessed to practicing “satanism, often in combination with drugs and the more oppressive varieties of heavy-metal rock music.”
Not Just a Fad
A fad sweeping the United States right now is called channeling. People often pay several hundred dollars to participate in sessions in which a “channel,” that is a medium, claims to put herself (channels are usually women) in communication with the spirit of a long-dead person. In the case of one channel, the press reported, sessions “are periodically relayed by a television satellite hookup to thousands of people at once in half a dozen cities.” This trend is in manifest disobedience to the Bible’s counsel to avoid spirit mediums and professional foretellers of events. Thus, it is the kind of worship that can be identified as demon worship. And like all spiritism, it is based on the satanic lie that the human soul is immortal.—You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
The Devil’s Influence in a World Full of Hate
The appalling situation of mankind in this 20th century makes us wonder whether Satan’s influence does not reach even further. Professor Russell touches on this when he states: “At present, with arsenals of nuclear weapons estimated at seventy times the quantity needed to kill every living vertebrate on earth, we are stubbornly making preparations for a war that will profit no individual, nation, or ideology but will condemn thousands of millions to a horrible death. What force urges us down a path that is daily more dangerous? To whose advantage is the nuclear destruction of the planet? Only that force which from the beginning has with infinite cruelty and malice willed the destruction of the cosmos.”
Who or what is that force? The professor gives his own answer in these words: “The Devil has been defined as the spirit that seeks to negate and destroy God’s cosmos to the extent of his power. May not the force urging us to deploy nuclear weapons be the same force that has always striven to negate being itself? In this uttermost crisis of our planet, we cannot dismiss the possibility.” Christians certainly do not dismiss the possibility! Jesus himself showed Satan’s great influence on this world when He called him “the ruler of this world.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) Describing Satan’s mental attitude today, the book of Revelation says that he has “great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) Referring to what Satan is trying to accomplish in our time, that same book says that he is using demonic propaganda to gather the rulers of this world “together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) No, we cannot rule out the influence of Satan the Devil when we try to understand the reason for mankind’s insanely self-destructive course.
The apostle Paul called Satan “the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now operates in the sons of disobedience,” and “the god of this system of things.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) Little wonder that many ask if all the atrocities of this “enlightened” scientific age—two world wars, genocides in Europe and Kampuchea, politically motivated famine in Africa, deep worldwide religious and racial divisions, hatred, murder, systematic torture, the criminal subversion of mankind by drugs, to name just a few—could not be following the master plan of some powerful, evil force that is bent on driving mankind away from God and perhaps even to global suicide.
For example, in Canada The Calgary Herald ran a series of articles under the title “Devil’s Disciples.” The paper quoted a police investigator’s report, saying: “Through interviews I have learned that Satanism is not exclusive to any particular group in society. Intelligence gathered by the Calgary Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reveals that in Calgary alone there are supposedly 5,000 practising Satanists.”
Other press reports show that the Satan cult, in different forms, is surfacing across the United States and Europe. Even the police show an interest in Satanism. Why? Because in many cases they are finding links between crimes and satanic cults. Just recently, a police detective was quoted as saying: “What we are dealing with is a religion and people who believe in it as others believe in Christianity, Judaism or Islam. What you are seeing are not crimes for crime’s sake, but crimes for the sake of a religion.”
One outstanding example was the murders by the Manson clan in California back in 1969. According to history professor Jeffrey Russell, “Manson claimed to be both Christ and Satan. . . . Manson’s follower Tex Watson announced, when he came to murder Sharon Tate, ‘I am the devil; I’m here to do the devil’s work.’” But Satanism is not always as overt as this.
Witchcraft, Spiritism, and Sorcery
Indeed, Satan worship is not limited to direct worship of Satan by name. The apostle Paul warned: “The things which the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) And demon worship is really the same as Satan worship, since Satan is called “the ruler of the demons.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) What practices of “the nations” can be identified as demon worship, or worship of Satan? God’s words to Israel give us some examples: “There should not be found in you . . . anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead. For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah.”—You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Thus, we are warned against the blood sacrifice and spirit communion practiced by the voodoo priests in Brazil or by the houngans and the mambos of Haiti. And we are warned against the very similar practices of Santeria, observed by some exiled Cubans in the United States. We are warned, too, against sorcerers who claim to communicate with dead souls to inspire fear in the living.—Compare You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Witchcraft is prevalent in different parts of Africa. In South Africa, for example, witch doctors exert great power, and people take them very seriously. Recent cases reported in the press were of mobs burning alive people who were accused of causing lightning to strike fellow villagers! The local witch doctors accused innocent victims of these “unnatural” acts and then tied them to a tree to be burned. Such belief in sorcery or magic is likewise a worship of demons.
However, witchcraft is not confined to Africa. In 1985, Herbert D. Dettmer, serving a prison sentence at a correctional center in ******ia, U.S.A., was granted the right by the District Court for the Eastern District of ******ia to have access to clothing and articles so that he could practice his religion in prison. And what was his religion? According to the court record, he was a member of “the Church of Wicca (more commonly known as witchcraft).” Consequently, Dettmer had the legal right to use in his worship sulfur, sea salt, or uniodized salt; candles; incense; a clock with an alarm; and a white robe.
Yes, according to the indications, witchcraft is widespread in the West. The British newspaper Manchester Guardian Weekly reported: “Five years ago, there were thought to be some 60,000 witches in Britain: today [1985] the number is estimated by some witches to have grown to 80,000. Prediction, the monthly magazine for astrology and the occult, has a circulation of 32,000.”
Satanism and Music
Professor Russell, in his book Mephistopheles—The Devil in the Modern World, draws our attention to another way in which the purposes of Satan are being furthered. He writes: “Overt Satanism faded rapidly after the 1970s, but elements of cultural Satanism continued into the 1980s in ‘heavy metal’ rock music with its occasional invocation of the Devil’s name and considerable respect for the Satanic values of cruelty, drugs, ugliness, depression, self-indulgence, violence, noise and confusion, and joylessness.”—Italics ours.
Perhaps the musicians who incorporated elements of Satanism into their music were not being serious. They may just have been trying to shock or to be outlandish. Nevertheless, some impressionable individuals were strongly affected. Professor Russell notes that the “constant semiserious propaganda for evil has had decomposing effects on silly and weak minds. One result has been a rash of appallingly degenerate crimes, including the violation of children and the *******ion of animals.”
A recent case startled New Yorkers. According to a newspaper report, a 14-year-old boy, “obsessed by Satanism,” stabbed his mother to death and then committed suicide. A Canadian family counselor stated, as reported in Maclean’s magazine, that a growing number of troubled teenagers confessed to practicing “satanism, often in combination with drugs and the more oppressive varieties of heavy-metal rock music.”
Not Just a Fad
A fad sweeping the United States right now is called channeling. People often pay several hundred dollars to participate in sessions in which a “channel,” that is a medium, claims to put herself (channels are usually women) in communication with the spirit of a long-dead person. In the case of one channel, the press reported, sessions “are periodically relayed by a television satellite hookup to thousands of people at once in half a dozen cities.” This trend is in manifest disobedience to the Bible’s counsel to avoid spirit mediums and professional foretellers of events. Thus, it is the kind of worship that can be identified as demon worship. And like all spiritism, it is based on the satanic lie that the human soul is immortal.—You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
The Devil’s Influence in a World Full of Hate
The appalling situation of mankind in this 20th century makes us wonder whether Satan’s influence does not reach even further. Professor Russell touches on this when he states: “At present, with arsenals of nuclear weapons estimated at seventy times the quantity needed to kill every living vertebrate on earth, we are stubbornly making preparations for a war that will profit no individual, nation, or ideology but will condemn thousands of millions to a horrible death. What force urges us down a path that is daily more dangerous? To whose advantage is the nuclear destruction of the planet? Only that force which from the beginning has with infinite cruelty and malice willed the destruction of the cosmos.”
Who or what is that force? The professor gives his own answer in these words: “The Devil has been defined as the spirit that seeks to negate and destroy God’s cosmos to the extent of his power. May not the force urging us to deploy nuclear weapons be the same force that has always striven to negate being itself? In this uttermost crisis of our planet, we cannot dismiss the possibility.” Christians certainly do not dismiss the possibility! Jesus himself showed Satan’s great influence on this world when He called him “the ruler of this world.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) Describing Satan’s mental attitude today, the book of Revelation says that he has “great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) Referring to what Satan is trying to accomplish in our time, that same book says that he is using demonic propaganda to gather the rulers of this world “together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) No, we cannot rule out the influence of Satan the Devil when we try to understand the reason for mankind’s insanely self-destructive course.
The apostle Paul called Satan “the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now operates in the sons of disobedience,” and “the god of this system of things.” (You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.) Little wonder that many ask if all the atrocities of this “enlightened” scientific age—two world wars, genocides in Europe and Kampuchea, politically motivated famine in Africa, deep worldwide religious and racial divisions, hatred, murder, systematic torture, the criminal subversion of mankind by drugs, to name just a few—could not be following the master plan of some powerful, evil force that is bent on driving mankind away from God and perhaps even to global suicide.