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Biblical View on the Paranormal - FF Ep 14
9 Plays1 day ago
On Fatherhood Friday we discuss if the spiritual realm is real, why is it important, and what is the Biblical approach to these issues. How should we think about this part of the world and how can we help our families approach this important topic. Listen and enjoy! Send us your questions! What do you think?
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Transcript
Introduction and Computer Woes
00:00:00
Speaker
Well hello everybody, welcome to the Preacher Dad Podcast. My name is Jared and after a considerable amount of computer problems, I am coming to you today on Fatherhood Friday and we're going to talk about the paranormal.
00:00:14
Speaker
Oh my goodness! On Halloween we're going to talk about ghosts and spirits. Yes, we sure are. And not because I am a celebrator of Halloween, but this because it's an important thing for us to talk about.
00:00:27
Speaker
We need to have a biblical point of view. on this issue. So I hope you'll stick around. ah Please remember that this this podcast is brought to you by Cornerstone Fellowship.
00:00:39
Speaker
Cornerstone Fellowship is a small little country church where we would love to love you. And most of all, we love Jesus. So I hope you come and check
Promotion of Cornerstone Fellowship
00:00:46
Speaker
us out. You can find us on Facebook or you can also listen at, well, I don't know that you can really listen, but you can find us at cornerstonefellowship-ga.org and find out more about what we believe.
00:01:00
Speaker
All right. Now, let's start Fatherhood Friday. Well, hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us on the Preacher Dad podcast. And this is Fatherhood Friday. We're glad you're here.
Fatherhood Friday with Matt and Nate
00:01:18
Speaker
I'm here again with Matt Stewart and Nate Eisner. And we are looking forward to sharing a little bit with you about the paranormal. I almost want to say happy Halloween, except I don't really, I don't really celebrate Halloween, but I love to dress up. And I also do love to discuss the paranormal of the world and the spiritual realm.
00:01:43
Speaker
And, uh, to get us started on that tonight, uh, Mr. Nate Eisner is going to share with us a little bit, uh, Nate, uh, help us to understand this paranormal world and the spiritual realm.
Biblical Perspective on the Spiritual Realm
00:01:55
Speaker
Yeah. So to begin, um Obviously, we're talking about things unseen, and that's always fun. Now, I will say, as believers in Christ, it's probably a little bit easier for us to gravitate towards accepting something like this than someone who has not quite crossed that line into being a believer.
00:02:18
Speaker
um But I think as be believers, it's not something that we need to be embarrassed about or um or I guess, what's the word I'm looking for? You're probably just embarrassed you know to believe. um There's a lot of internet atheists out there that accuse us of believing in fairy tales.
00:02:35
Speaker
And i guess what I come back to is if I believe in a God that's big enough to create the world and then come to earth and die and then rise again from the dead, um i can believe everything that's in his word. And his word has a lot to say about the unseen realm, a lot more than even meets the eye if you're not looking for it.
00:02:57
Speaker
I'll also start by saying that I am in no way a biblical scholar. um I do not know Hebrew. I do not know Greek. I speak English and gibberish. So, you know, you're you're not talking to a smart guy. Let's just put it that way. So never claimed to be.
00:03:13
Speaker
oh But I do take an interest in some of this stuff. And I will also say that I am not super prepared tonight. So this is going to be pretty off the cuff. um But, you know, all that to say, I prepared some Bible verses here.
00:03:27
Speaker
um And I'll go ahead and read a couple and then i'll I'll get into why I think it's important ah enough of a topic that we should at least give some thought to it um as believers.
Old Testament Prohibitions and Protection
00:03:39
Speaker
I think it's more important than just fringe fun facts.
00:03:42
Speaker
So first off, we're going to start in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 18, 10 through 12. It says, there shall be not found among you. And I got this off the Internet, so I have no idea what translation this is. So forgive me, cage me be only, guys.
00:03:55
Speaker
There shall be not found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or necromancer or one who inquires of the dead.
00:04:11
Speaker
Whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. That is Old Testament. And now moving forward to the New Testament so that you know it's covered there too. Galatians 5, 19 through 20. Paul says, now the works of the flesh are evident.
00:04:23
Speaker
Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, which is a lot more than a wooden carving. We'll get to that later. Sorcery, that's the other one. So magic, talking with the dead.
00:04:37
Speaker
Enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, etc. So we've got it both Old and New Testament. um Let's talk briefly about even just in the Ten Commandments. Let's talk about that idolatry.
00:04:49
Speaker
So the very first commandment that God gives the Israelites, you shall have no other gods before me. um The second is like it. You shall not make for yourself a graven image. You shall not bow down to it or worship them.
00:05:01
Speaker
And my question for anyone that ah thinks about this to be a little almost too materialistic. All right. Why would God command you not to do something that you can't do?
00:05:15
Speaker
So if God says don't go talking to spirits, don't go worshiping other gods, don't worship idols, why not? If there's no power in any of those things, if if you can't talk to spirits, if spirits aren't real, if, oh you know, ill I'll put it this way. i Well, I'll get to that in a minute.
00:05:36
Speaker
But why would God command you to do something or not to do something that you're incapable of doing? So obviously that's, that's a good place to start because it shows that there is very real power behind these things that God, not that he doesn't want us to mess with because he's mean or wants to ruin our fun, but because he wants to one, keep us safe. And he, number two, and this is the big one.
Saul and the Witch of Endor
00:05:58
Speaker
He wants to have a covenant relationship with us and he does not want anything to get in the way of that relationship with us. And so for the believer, that's number one. And,
00:06:10
Speaker
I'll throw in this this up a little tidbit, kind of get a little bit more where I'm going. So 1 Samuel 28, this is Saul going to meet the witch at Endor. So he's trying to seek out the spirit of Samuel who has passed.
00:06:21
Speaker
And um he says, Saul says to his servants, And he said,
00:06:29
Speaker
and her servant said to him behold there is a medium at indoor so saul disguised himself and went the two men with him and the women by night and he said divine for me a spirit and bring up me, whoever I shall name to you. The woman said, surely, you know, what's all has done.
00:06:43
Speaker
And now he's cut off the mediums and necromancers from the land. And I definitely did not copy and paste enough of that passage. But basically to summarize what happened there is Paul talks to this medium who, and he wants to bring up the spirit of Samuel because he's cut off from the Lord. And so he wants to hear the word. He he wants to hear words. he's trying to talk to Samuel.
00:07:04
Speaker
And so this medium, calls up her spirit, which is trying to call up Samuel. And then later on, the the the big ticket here is it says that she was surprised to see the spirit of Samuel coming up out of the earth.
00:07:19
Speaker
Now, why do you think that somebody who makes a living off of talking to the dead is surprised to see the spirit, ah Samuel's actual spirit coming up out of the earth? Well, one, it's because she makes her living not talking to dead people. She makes her living talking to demons.
00:07:35
Speaker
And so you can you can use that to say, okay, maybe she's not talking to anyone and it's all sleight of hand and trickery. It's my understanding that she is communicating with demonic forces and those demonic forces, either she knows that it's not real, that that kind of implies it because he said she was surprised.
00:07:57
Speaker
um But I think in some cases, and we can get into this a little bit. People that are in the new age, um people that do like tarot card readings, palm readings, psychic readings. we see you know We see those throughout even the Richmond area.
00:08:11
Speaker
um you know I think a lot of those people believe that they are doing good things, but they themselves are deceived um in by by demonic forces. um and Again, like I said, I'm the biblical scholar. I don't claim to be a smart person, but this is stuff that I kind of have an interest in. And I think it's important.
Cultural Shift from Atheism to Spirituality
00:08:29
Speaker
I'm kind of rabbit trailing here, but all that, to I use the the example in Samuel to say that it's a very real thing, the unseen realm, and God has put his restrictions on it for our good and our safety, so as the believer, that is our takeaway.
00:08:48
Speaker
Now, I think it's also important as believers that we um that we study this to a degree. Obviously, it's not as important as the gospel, but I think in our mission of sharing the gospel with the world.
00:09:03
Speaker
And part of the way that you do that is through apologetics. And so giving a defense for your faith. um I see, it's my observation is I speak to individuals in the world, at my job, in public, at the grocery store, is that I think the world is shifting away from atheism, shifting away from materialism.
00:09:24
Speaker
um I think our culture in America is. I think other countries, it's already happened. In fact, most countries, I would argue, probably never went down the atheism rabbit hole. I think that's predominantly a Western thing.
00:09:36
Speaker
oh I see our Western culture shifting back towards spirituality. Now, I think most of that is Christless. I don't think they are necessarily shifting back.
00:09:47
Speaker
um think the culture as a whole is shifting back to Christianity. I think it is shifting back to the spiritual because people know that the world is too two grand to not have a creator. They know it's too grand to not be a higher power.
00:10:00
Speaker
the The question is now back to not, is there a God, but who is God? And in that, um I think that's where having some of this stuff comes into play because, and Jared, I'll talk in a second, just finish this thought.
00:10:13
Speaker
um When it talks about idols, I don't think old ancient people were idiots. So, you know, it's easy for us to say, okay,
00:10:24
Speaker
They created this golden calf. Yeah, that seems stupid because they just made the thing. Well, they knew that. They knew that they just created this idol, and they knew that it's not actually a god.
00:10:35
Speaker
And so and i reference a lot of this from Michael Heiser. um you know Again, I know not all this stuff is probably not – he's a human, so not everybody's going to be 100% on.
00:10:46
Speaker
But Michael Heiser, Dr. Michael Heiser has a lot of good good stuff on this, but something that he talks about in the his study of history. is they believed that they would create this statue as essentially a home for whatever deity they were trying to create or commune with, and they would perform a ritual.
00:11:07
Speaker
And after that ritual was performed, they believed that that deity would inhabit it. So was it actually a god? Well, no, there's there is only one true god, but there are a lot of spiritual beings that God has created that are now in rebellion to him that are are master deceivers.
00:11:24
Speaker
ah That's in Corinthians. I wrote that verse down as well. Satan parades is ah as an angel of light. And so Satan himself is a master deceiver. That is 2 Corinthians 11, 14. eleven fourteen And also New Testament, Ephesians 6, 12. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities.
00:11:41
Speaker
And so alter to to put a nice bow on top of this, and then Jared, I know you got a thought. um ah I think it's important for us to at least dive into this topic with some with some reverence and with you know taking it seriously.
00:11:58
Speaker
Because one, as our children grow older, they're going to run into people, even if you don't public school, even if you homeschool, um they're gonna run into people as they grow grow up and get a job. And they they run into coworkers that might not believe the same that we do.
00:12:13
Speaker
um I've worked with Muslims, I've worked with Buddhists, I've worked with Hindus and I've worked with people that are in the new age. There was a girl at one of our jobs that we worked at, Matt, that was into crystal healing.
00:12:25
Speaker
um That's a big thing in the new age movement. And there's some deep demonic ties to that stuff. And that is huge right now. And I think it gives us a lot of credibility oh to our witness when we actually know what we're talking about and not just, you know, pointing to a devil behind every bush, but actually being able to be somewhat educated on what we're talking about.
00:12:49
Speaker
And I think that's important with our, so to to have those conversations with our children as they grow older, my kid's four, my oldest is four. So obviously I've not had this conversation with her that is way too deep and not something I want to introduce to her right now.
Risks of Non-Christian Spiritual Practices
00:13:03
Speaker
um And I think later on, could probably get into the discussion about, you know, what happens when your kid is afraid of ghosts or they saw a witch on TV or their friends told them about, you know, whatever goblins and You know, we can, we can point to a biblical framework for these things without just saying, well, ghosts aren't real.
00:13:19
Speaker
Okay. as Well, we can point to a handful of other biblical reasons to why, you know, demons are real, but we have authority over them in the name of Jesus. We are covered by the blood of Jesus. And so those things have no, no claim on us.
00:13:33
Speaker
You don't need to be afraid of them. Um, but that can absolutely be our, our explanation to maybe some spooky things that we see go on. And, um, Yeah, ah probably derailing this train, but – Oh, Joey, go ahead. go ahead Yeah, I was going to say you know just to just some cultural proof as to why you know I think this is more prevalent in our culture and why the pendulum is swinging back to ch Christless spirituality. i was telling on Matt before we started this recording, um I was in BJ's a while back, and they've got this big old book section in the middle of the store.
00:14:11
Speaker
They've got all sorts of stuff. And just looking through that book section, this is BJ's, a grocery store. I saw three books on witchcraft just sitting there. And it's just out in the open. And, you know, you go to Barnes & Noble and they have an entire witchcraft section. And, you know, they've got stuff about sorcery. And, oh you know, that's that's a big thing right now. It's it's it's popular.
00:14:33
Speaker
And there's a guy, his name is Rion Suihalar. And he's South African. And he was the former head of the Satanic Church in South Africa.
00:14:44
Speaker
And he had a radical encounter with Jesus and gave his life to Christ and is no longer part of the Satanist movement. He now has a ministry where he helps people get out of the Satanist movement and get out of the new age.
00:14:56
Speaker
um And I would recommend his stuff with caution because he is a newer believer. And he's been on some podcasts recently that were good. He had some good interviews, but there's one called the Jesus People podcast that he was on.
00:15:10
Speaker
um he's He's done a couple episodes with them and those, i think he has matured a lot in the last couple of years in his relationship with Christ. And ah there's some good conversations. And the reason I say that is because there are some podcasts that he did when he first came to the Lord, where he was still holding onto some of those previous beliefs and practices and There was some stuff in there those podcasts that he was talking about that were not so theologically accurate.
00:15:37
Speaker
So I just i throw out his name with caution, you know, use discernment when looking up his stuff. But that's a guy that, you know, is facing this stuff head on and I think has a very unique um perspective on, you know, the way because this is a guy that literally was talking to demons.
00:15:57
Speaker
And, you know, I can say with certainty now that he is, you know, he ah In the last you know couple of years, I think he is genuinely a believer, and you know his stuff seems to be very theologically accurate now, which is cool.
00:16:11
Speaker
One last resource outside of Dr. Michael Heiser, I think he's got some great work on this stuff. He has a book called The Unseen Realm. It's pretty pretty scholarly. I think he has another one called Supernatural, which is probably a little bit more for the layperson.
00:16:26
Speaker
And there are some really good documentaries on YouTube that he's done as well. So if you want to kind of deep dive into that, he's easy to hear. he's easy to listen to talk. His book's a little head heady. um And then so Heiser and then The Haunted Cosmos.
00:16:41
Speaker
I've recommended that podcast before. But those guys, couple of reformed Presbyterian fellas that are have excellent comedic timing. and ah talk about some pretty wild stuff. It's very entertaining, but they reference a lot of that. So, yeah. it Sounds fun.
00:17:00
Speaker
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00:17:47
Speaker
So again, that was kind of a ah train wreck there, but hopefully that'll make you... No, man, no, not at all. I mean, i was just my only comment was gonna be that this subject is very important.
00:17:58
Speaker
It's much too important to just ignore it but because if you do, excuse me, if you do ignore it, your children end up being deceived yeah because you're not teaching them to look at it from a biblical point of view.
00:18:13
Speaker
And your children can be led astray by, you know, you know by the the people that they were interacting with and working with that say, oh, they they have an answer. They have an answer.
00:18:25
Speaker
for why the world is the way it is. And if we ignore the unseen realm, if we ignore the spiritual side of the life, then we we are doing this a disservice to our families and to our churches because we need to have an answer for this part of the world, this part of the cosmos in which we live.
00:18:44
Speaker
We need to have a biblical answer for it. um And we have one, you know, there is one. The Bible talks about these things a lot and we need to be able to address it in a biblical way Because otherwise, that's how people are led astray, because they see things that are happening or they hear of things. And these are very real, tangible things. And other you know the New Age has their explanation.
00:19:07
Speaker
The Buddhists and the Satanists and all kinds of other countries have these explanations for what's going on. It is a very important topic. And I think that we need to be able to approach it from a biblical point of view. And I think you're you're right on track.
00:19:20
Speaker
Well, that's the thing. I don't think other false religions would be as powerful as they were if people weren't having very real encounters. I mean, we we we can talk. i wish Tony was here ah to talk about this, but we had mentioned it ah at one point, you know, DMT, which is a hallucinogenic drug.
00:19:38
Speaker
And um when people take it, they see they basically have like if you like if the three of us were to take this drug together, we would have a group hallucination and all see the same thing.
00:19:49
Speaker
And they're these machine elves. And literally, we could interact with each other while we were seeing what's going on around us. And I have no other explanation for that other than you just removed some veil that God strictly put in place that we are not supposed to be seeing.
00:20:05
Speaker
oh and so And so you know i so I think you can have very real experiences. um Ayahuasca is the same thing. That's a mushroom. that That's an interesting one.
00:20:16
Speaker
um because that is being used right now for a lot of soldiers that have PTSD, and it is actually curing their PTSD. Exercise extreme caution with that, because when you read about these encounters that people have on this hallucinogenic mushroom, basically they're guided through the guided through the universe by this entity that is showing them all the truths of life.
00:20:39
Speaker
And when they come off this trip, They are no longer afraid of death because they believe that when they die, this is the euphoria that they have to experience. And that's a euphoria that is divorced from Christ. And um again, Satan parades as an angel of light.
00:20:56
Speaker
So it's, you know, I think, you know, you you get into things like Buddhism where you're meditating and, um you know, Hinduism, Buddhism. I'm not quite as versed on that stuff, but I know a lot of those Eastern cultures, I'm sorry, religions, you know, they deal a lot with the meditation and you're, you're trying to find that spirituality.
00:21:16
Speaker
And when you're looking for spirituality, apart from Christ, there are very real entities that are happy to meet with you and to see you.
Nate's Journey Through Church Traditions
00:21:23
Speaker
And so i think that's the reason that, that, that they are so powerful and that they grow is because people have very real encounters.
00:21:30
Speaker
um I grew up charismatic in a charismatic church. We were not snake handlers. We were not super crazy. um You know, And then I went from a charismatic church to a Baptist church and got the, you know, they were a hardcore cessationists.
00:21:45
Speaker
And I will say, you know, having experienced church culture on both sides of the coin, um I fall somewhere in the middle. You know, I i probably lean more than it's, you know, I think miracles absolutely happen.
00:22:02
Speaker
I, you know, there's, i heard, I don't remember who said it, but Somebody said the devil don't get to have all the power. you You know, we're we're filled with the Holy Spirit. The devil can't have all the fun. and um And so I think we can look at the world around us and see evil. We can see evil and the devil, you know, manifesting itself in very real ways. I think God absolutely can and still does.
00:22:21
Speaker
um But that's that's probably a conversation for another day. But, oh you know, that's – yeah, anyways, I don't know if we want to get to any other topics. Yeah.
00:22:33
Speaker
Well, this is good stuff. This is good stuff. ah Matt, do you believe in the, ah the supernatural?
Supernatural Encounters and Cultural Beliefs
00:22:41
Speaker
um Obviously. yeah And I was raised where,
00:22:48
Speaker
um
00:22:50
Speaker
see, they would tell me ghost stories and stories of like these, you know, demons being in a house or something and people praying in the name of Jesus and they're leaving. But then I'm like, are ghosts real? And they're like, well, no they're not real. And that kind So I was actually always confused.
00:23:05
Speaker
um So I'm already telling my kids um there is stuff out there. There there are demons and they they um manifest themselves in different ways and in situations. but So could they could they appear as a ghost? Well, yeah, maybe.
00:23:23
Speaker
Could they appear? Whatever, you know, Bigfoot. I don't know you know. But then obviously, but we don't need to worry about that. We've got the Holy Spirit. we're safe um so on a cosmos which some good Bigfoot stories yeah yeah I've read a book once and I I wish I could remember the title but basically the author said that almost all legitimate alien encounters are probably demonic yeah theyre that's one so Michael Heiser has a whole documentary on aliens because that was you know he's obviously the biblical scholar but aliens was his fringe hobby and the interesting thing that you bring up aliens
00:24:02
Speaker
is almost always ah they they basically when they have these ab abduction narratives, they're always twisting the imagery of Christ to some degree.
00:24:19
Speaker
When it's the man, they are saying that basically Jesus was a more evolved species of human. And now we want to add you to that list. And so they deceive you in that way.
00:24:29
Speaker
If it's a female, they get the female to basically believe, or the female comes away from this abduction encounter, believing that they are impregnated with this savior, Messiah figure.
00:24:41
Speaker
And so they're, they're, they're twisting and inverting this, this imagery of Christ. And it's just interesting that it's always Jesus that these figures go after, you know, it's, it's never Allah. It's why is Jesus, yeah why is Jesus so important to aliens?
00:24:57
Speaker
Right. Exactly. So why, and why is that so consistent? You know? Yeah. It was a fascinating book. Go ahead, Matt.
Debating Halloween: Fun vs. Occultism
00:25:04
Speaker
No, I was going to say since we're, um you know, we're nearing the end of this podcast and I think it's going to be released on Halloween, right?
00:25:12
Speaker
um I did want to get y'all's thoughts on um on that because I know that we do celebrate Halloween. we We let the kids participate. we um We have fun with it, but we also talk to them about, you know,
00:25:30
Speaker
um how we how we should approach it as Christians. you know Like obviously we know that that you know worth we're we're doing it just for fun. We're not gonna participate in any kind of witchcraft. We're not gonna do stuff like that. It's just gonna be a fun dressing up like cowgirls and ninja turtles and just gonna be a way to engage the culture.
00:25:52
Speaker
um Churches do trunk or treats. you know we try to So we think about it as ah as Christians and trying to redeem the holiday and putting the focus back on Christ and hopefully making an impact on the on the community.
00:26:06
Speaker
um But Jared, I know that you think a little bit differently. So like to hear your thoughts on that. Yeah, I think that me my family, ah we don't celebrate or recognize Halloween. And the reason we don't is because there is such a glorification of death and of the occult in so much of it.
00:26:29
Speaker
Now I love to dress up in costumes. In fact, I probably at my office, and my not my office, but my, uh, my other job, they're going to have, you know, costumes on Halloween and stuff. I'll probably dress up just because i enjoy dressing up so much and I want to, you know, have fun with that.
00:26:50
Speaker
But at the same time, in general, um We don't do a lot of things for trick or for trick or treating or Halloween or anything with our kids because I'm just uncomfortable with the glorification of witches and, and sorcery and occultism that is really pervasive throughout and the glorification of death, zombies and skeletons and, you know, spooky, creepy things.
00:27:17
Speaker
I mean, I I'm okay with the fun parts and Matt, I think you probably kind of focus more on the fun aspects of things and, try to keep the devil out of it. And I appreciate that approach. And I appreciate churches that are doing trunk retreats and trying to reach out with a wholesome level of Halloween fun.
00:27:35
Speaker
um And there's a lot of people that consider Halloween their favorite holiday. They give more attention and celebration to Halloween than they do to Christmas oh yeah or anything else.
00:27:48
Speaker
And so there is an opportunity there to some degree, but at the same time, you know, how much am i going to be of the world if I participate in this worldly holiday? And I know lots of my Catholic friends would say, oh, this started as a Christian holiday. Yeah, okay, it did, but it's definitely been perverted by the devil.
00:28:09
Speaker
um And i you know, I can appreciate, Matt, your attempt to kind of redeem the holiday back to more of a ah honoring God, honoring our godly dead that have gone before us kind of remembering them remembering the saints that kind of uh redemption i can appreciate but i'm just not not really there with my family to part participate participate in that because of so much there's just so many things throughout the halloween holiday that make me uncomfortable and you know glorify evil evil and wicked things and so i just kind of
00:28:51
Speaker
i so I stay out of it for the most part. Yeah, i will sit I will say that like when we, there's this big neighborhood across the street that we go to um and you're right, like every street like is full of decorations and stuff.
00:29:06
Speaker
And these people spend so much money and time, it's it's it's ridiculous, it really is. buty But you will go down some streets where it it gets really spooky. and like and And so we just avoid those sections. don't know, no reason.
00:29:19
Speaker
to have my three year old, six year old sons where there's skeletons and just awful stuff like that. Yeah. You so sometimes you can't, you can't avoid it, but you can tell when there's certain cul-de-sacs that are like, let's stay away from that one.
00:29:35
Speaker
You know, you do have to be careful. We used to live in a neighborhood like that where we have to go down one street to go to the grocery store. and The kids are doing this because it was, there was a couple of yards that were just over the top.
00:29:49
Speaker
Disgusting. I saw some today just driving around that were pretty gruesome, but I have some thoughts. So i When I was in high school, Tegan and i used to go to King's Dominion.
00:30:02
Speaker
For their Halloween thing every year, so that's something that we did. That's a theme park. ah the way Yeah, yeah, it the yeah. Just theme park Halloween and you know we did that. I would say we've the two of us have definitely grown to have a conviction of of that in the last couple of years.
00:30:19
Speaker
um I will say I've not probably studied it out enough biblically to make an argument one way or the other. i will just say that we exercise extreme caution with the idea of Halloween.
00:30:35
Speaker
um I think it doesn't really matter how something starts. It's how it's being perceived now and what is it, you know, is it bringing glory to God now? So I understand the the the the desire to want to
Alternatives to Celebrating Halloween
00:30:46
Speaker
redeem it. I understand the idea for churches to do a trunk or treat on October 31st.
00:30:50
Speaker
um to play devil's advocate, no pun intended. um You know, if, you know, if October 31st is the biggest day of the year for your church to do evangelism or to do an outreach, well what are you doing with the other 364 days of the year?
00:31:06
Speaker
It would be my question for number one. Number two, is something I learned from that Rion guy who was, again, he was the head of a church of Satan in South Africa.
00:31:18
Speaker
And so the church of Satan has a calendar. that they operate on and they do their rituals and they cast spells and they do their stuff, their sacrifices. And they do a monthly and they have, they have actual calendar, calendar days at the church worldwide. The church of Satan worldwide will get together.
00:31:34
Speaker
And October 31st is the highest day on the satanic calendar. And there are some pretty gnarly quotes from, you know, some of those guys that talk about, um, you know,
00:31:46
Speaker
and I'm just so happy that parents let their children worship the devil one day a year and all that stuff. And it's just things that, you know, that could be, you know, obviously we have the blood of Christ. And so none of that is going to, you know, you can do the church of Satan can do whatever they want, as long as the church is praying and, you know, you're covered under the blood of Christ, you know, the blood of Christ trumps everything, but that's just something to be, you know, to that. I i just don't take it lightly.
00:32:12
Speaker
You know, it's something I want to exercise great caution with. Um, So something, oh, ah that's the other thing is he was talking about, that's it's the highest day of the year or the number one day of the year if you look at police reports, October 31st. It's the number one day of the year for missing people.
00:32:28
Speaker
A lot of it's homeless because Satanist groups will abduct and perform human sacrifice. Same with pets, pet cats go missing. That's a big thing. I've got one here. Let talk.
00:32:42
Speaker
ah let meter act let me finish okay but Let me finish this. You and you close this out. It's something that my wife threw up grew up doing with her family, and it's a tradition that we have continued.
00:32:55
Speaker
um We set up our Christmas tree on October 31st. And i would like to up the ante this year in actually doing a just at-home family service, um you know just a time of intentional worship on Halloween this year.
00:33:13
Speaker
um And specifically, I'm going to read from Revelation when it talks about the child being born in a war breaking out in heaven, because the birth of Christ was the biggest day of spiritual warfare to ever occur.
00:33:27
Speaker
yeah Well, one of the biggest days, obviously, the death and resurrection of Christ was was pretty big as well. But, um you know, that I want to give specific attention to the ah the incarnation of Christ.
00:33:43
Speaker
this year on Halloween. um Because as a Christian, when I know that the world, whether intentional or unintentional, is participating in the Satanists' favorite day of the year, I want my family to stand and protest to the devil. And I want to pledge our allegiance to Christ. And that's how going to lead my family this year.
00:34:03
Speaker
So, Matt, take us. You said you got something when I talked about human sacrifice and cats. So go ahead. Oh, i've said, yeah, there's one out here. ah there's a cat out here? Yeah, that not that that could give to somebody if they wanted. You'd like to donate a cat to the sacrifices.
00:34:20
Speaker
No, I'm just joking. I missed your point. Okay, i see what you're saying. no No, my final point, though, my final thing is i do, I will encourage you to read Harry Potter with your children. That's just final thing.
00:34:37
Speaker
With your children. I encourage you not to. ah
00:34:42
Speaker
Oh, that's that's that's a good debate. It's a good debate. Hey, I want to leave you with one quick story, though, um that my my old teacher used to tell me, which really ah displays the power of Christ.
Power of Christ Over Spiritual Forces
00:34:56
Speaker
My teacher was Dr. Jim Logan, and he would counsel people through spiritual warfare issues, and he counseled demon-possessed people and ah demonized. He would teach on it throughout the world.
00:35:10
Speaker
And he told us a story once about ah an actual legal case. I think it was in the country of Nigeria. ah In this country, there was a witch doctor who claimed that at a certain hour of the day, every day, it was like 30 minutes before sunset or something like that.
00:35:30
Speaker
He was invulnerable. He was impervious to any physical harm. And he would actually have people come up and stab him with a knife And the knife would bend and and break.
00:35:43
Speaker
And he claimed to be bulletproof. I can't remember if he actually displayed being bulletproof, but he did have some type of supernatural power at this time of day given to him by the demons he worshipped.
00:35:55
Speaker
So there is a missionary in that in the town, in the village, and the missionary had been teaching about the power of Christ and the authority of Jesus over the demonic realm, over the spiritual realm of of any kind.
00:36:09
Speaker
The name of Jesus is powerful. And so some of the children had been, you know, converted, had started believing these things. And at this certain time of the night, this witch doctor would come out and sort of terrorize everyone.
00:36:21
Speaker
And even the Christian missionaries, they were in their house and they were hiding because they were afraid to confront this witch doctor. But there was one little boy who would say to the witch doctor, no, you're not greater than Jesus.
00:36:39
Speaker
the The missionary says that Jesus is greater than you. Oh, that's awesome. And and the witch doctor said, no, he's not. He can't stop me. I am impervious. And the the the boy was just simply faithfully saying, yeah no, the missionary says Jesus is the greatest power. You're not greater than Jesus is.
00:36:57
Speaker
And so he said, I am greater than him. Here, here's a gun. And he handed a gun to the boy. He said, shoot me. Go ahead. You can shoot me. i won't be i won't be hurt at all I will show you and prove that I'm greater than this Jesus.
00:37:11
Speaker
And so the little boy, i mean, he's like eight years old, something like that, eight or 10. He takes this gun and the witch doctor's egging him on. He takes the gun and he points at the witch doctor and he says, in the name of Jesus, I shoot you.
00:37:29
Speaker
Bang! And it killed the witch doctor. He died. Wow. And so they they took the boy to court. They took the board of court because he killed this man.
00:37:41
Speaker
And, you know, in court testimony. and And then the whole village had seen the whole thing. So there's tons of eyewitnesses. And the court ruled, the court ruled that he was innocent because it was a spiritual confrontation.
00:37:55
Speaker
And especially because the witch doctor was encouraging it to happen. They basically, the country of the Supreme Court of Nigeria ruled that Jesus Christ is the greatest spiritual authority in the world.
00:38:07
Speaker
And he won this spiritual battle and the boys free to go innocent because it was a spiritual ah fight, essentially. And so i just I love that story. I think it's I think it's so, so awesome.
00:38:20
Speaker
I mean, I sort of feel bad for the witch doctor who found out very fast that he was not the great and mighty man. He thought he was at least not greater than Jesus. The name of Christ, yeah the name, the greatest name that is named.
00:38:35
Speaker
is Jesus. And I think that's very important for Christians to remember and preach and talk about when we discuss the paranormal. So praise the Lord, give him all the glory.
00:38:45
Speaker
And certainly on Halloween, whether you celebrate or not, that you lift up Christ. And we want to encourage everybody out there to do that. Thank you so much, everybody for listening. Thank you guys for your thoughts and and wisdom and insight on this topic tonight. And I hope that everyone will ah Just take these thoughts to heart and consider them carefully.
00:39:09
Speaker
And we hope that you will also subscribe to this podcast, like it, give us a you know favorable review. And if you have some good ideas or some questions or comments to make, you can send them to dads at preacherdad.com.
00:39:25
Speaker
D-A-D-S at preacherdad.com. We would love to hear from you. So God bless you guys. Thank you for being here tonight. And we'll see you next time. ah Fatherhood Friday the Preacher Dad Podcast. Thanks so much.
00:39:39
Speaker
God bless. Bye.