The subject upon which we will be speaking tonight is on that perhaps has captured the attention of many of us in our particular modern day because it exists, in a certain sense, as a kind of a paradox. This is a very intellectual day; this is a day when men pride themselves on being rational. This is the era that is after the rational era in the sense that we’ve all discovered what logic means and what rationality means.

And yet it is in the midst of just such an era of education and higher learning and rationality and logic and all of these things that there seems to be a tremendous boom in the occult, the mysterious, the mystique, the things which are supernatural and which are irrational, unreasonable, and beyond education. And it’s becoming such a practical thing that it seems as though it hits us in every place, in every way.

The newspapers are loaded with propaganda. There was a little thing in the paper this morning that somebody handed me, a little ad, “Gifted spiritualist. Please call for consultation.” And it gives a phone number. “Come and see this lady who has God-given powers” - and there’s a picture of Jesus Christ here – “she has never failed to help and will tell you what you want to know.” This is a very common thing today. We see a tremendous surge in the whole occult area.

Now, I do not propose myself to you as any expert. I am not an expert. I only know what I learn in the Bible. Outside of that, I have very little experience in the examination of these other matters.

And so, for that which was gleaned tonight, I am indebted not only to a limited amount of research on my own part, but to various books that have been a great help to me, and I’d like to stop a moment to give them credit: Demons in the World Today by Unger, Between Christ and Satan by Kirk Koch, Angels of Light by Hobart Freeman, The Fortune Seekers by Gary Wilburn, and What About Horoscopes by Joe Bayly. A dear brother in Christ, John Weldon, who’s recently done a lot of research, has been sharing some things with me.

So, in addition to all of that which I’ve been reading lately, and personal research, conversations, and my own Bible study, I’ve tried to put together for you tonight a message or a study that will help you to see and understand what it is that’s going on today, and how we can evaluate it in the light of the Word of God.

Kurt Koch - the outstanding German theologian, and indeed an expert in this area; he himself has handled over 20,000 personal case studies of demon activity in his counseling – gives the following examples of common demonic magic going on today. A man dabbled in black magic for years. He specialized in stealing milk from the neighboring farmers. He would tie a towel to a doorknob, then murmur his magic phrases, and squeeze milk out of the towel while the farmers in the neighboring farms found their cows going dry.

A young man, whom a doctor described as schizophrenic, confessed to the ability to kill animals at some distance away from him merely through using his powers of magic.

In Toggenburg, Switzerland, on several occasions, serious people confessed that they had the power to kill horses, cows, and pigs with the power of black magic. In reply to the question how they received their ability, they told the counselor they had subscribed themselves with their own blood to the devil.

A farmer who had had several bad crops in a row was given the following advice by a magician: place three grains of corn under his tongue, spit them in the field, say a magic charm, call out the names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he’d guarantee him a good crop. And it worked.

A German farmer who had never been troubled with psychic disturbances returned home from a Russian prison camp and suddenly found himself suffering from acute fear dreams. He had the feeling during sleep that a neighbor lady, the mother of a war comrade of his still missing in Russia was strangling him. The tormented man went to an occultist who told him he was under magic persecution. The neighbor woman was seeking revenge on him for his good fortune in the light of her son’s bad fortune. With the help of the occultist, the terror dreams ceased. Then the ex-soldier found himself under a new attack. The neighbor was causing his cattle to die, head after head. The sorcerer promised to remedy this new menace. Scraps of paper, inscribed with magical formula, were to be mixed with the food of the cattle. It was. The cattle ate it; the problem stopped. Black magic is for real. There are enough cases of it all around the world to verify that.

Now, we who know the Word of God and who understand the battleground that’s going on in the universe know that there is a serious struggle between God and the forces of hell. Ever since Lucifer was thrown out of heaven and not along but with at least a third of the angels, according to Revelation chapter 12, he and his demons have set themselves against God. Keep in mind that they are supernatural creatures. They have the ability to do things that are beyond our senses to perceive or understand. Nevertheless, they are done. I believe these things really happen.

In Toggenburg, Dr. Koch had this experience. A man came for help and related the tragic results of a charming situation by black magic. As a boy, his son had become paralyzed by polio. The doctors could do nothing, so the man went to the notorious European magician – his name is Hugentobler and he lives in Switzerland. This man healed the boy through black magic so that the paralysis completely disappeared. For several years, everything went well, but when the son was 16, his father found him in the stable with a cut artery in his neck. Tragedy had struck out of nowhere. On his dead son, the father found an amulet from Hugentobler. It read – quote – “This soul belongs to the devil.”

Now, such a sinister, diabolical remedy reminds us something of what we’ve been studying about in the last two Sunday mornings as we’ve been studying Simon the sorcerer. For this is, no doubt, what he did. Acts 8 says that he used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria. And in Acts 13, you have the same thing going on with a man named Bar-Jesus, who was the sorcerer of Paphos in Cypress. Such emissaries as this also are indicated back in Exodus, chapter 7, by the name of Jannes and Jambres, who appeared at the time of the Exodus from Egypt.

Now, Satan, for many, many years – and we shall see as we get into the Word of God that this is a part of the Old Testament - has been doing this. And so, when I come tonight to talk to you about demons and magic, I’m not talking about pulling rabbits out of a hat, and I’m not talking about card tricks, and I’m not talking about find the missing ball. I’m talking about the ability of Satan to work wonders in a supernatural realm through the power of his demons. That is known as magic in the true sense, the world of the occult, and it’s running rampant all over everywhere.

Quote – “She makes her way quickly to the corner where, covered with black silk, and adorned with a black cross, lies her baby. She raises the shroud, then covers her face and screams in horror, ‘Oh, God; oh, God, oh, God. Satan incarnate.’ A child born, Rosemary’s baby, born on Christmas day.”

Last week in the TV Guide, I read an article about a movie that was shown, and it was entitled The Devil’s Daughter. Some of you may have seen it. I hope not. In it, it describes a 21-year-old girl who discovers that, when she was a baby, her parents sold her soul to Satan. Now, this is going on in our world in a very open way.

It’s interesting that the literature put out by the occult and by demons is getting such a widespread reading. An article on January 5 – that’s a week ago – 1973, in The San Francisco Chronicle was dealing with the film The Exorcist, which was a novel - or sort of a novel - written by a man named Blatty, and they’re turning it into a movie. It’s based on the story of a 14-year-old boy who was treated at Georgetown Hospital in 1948 for a series of obscene fits, urinary disorders, and visible stigmata. A Jesuit psychiatrist performed a series of 29 exorcism rites on the boy and, after a 2-month period, he was cured. According to the author – Blatty – he is now happily married and living somewhere in the United States, and it’s being made into a movie. But in the article it said strange things are happening on the set. Actor Jason Miller says that they say those who explore the demonic often are surrounded by catastrophe.

Blatty says he will never again dabble with the Ouija board. Quote – “When I did, that’s when the incidents happened – or when the weirdest things happened. It’s a very dangerous instrument. Besides, dabbling in the occult,” he says, “seems to proceed the onset of real mental disturbances. Mental institutions are loaded with people who got hooked on the occult via the Ouija board.” End quote.

It’s amazing, but sometimes demons even inspire people to write books. In fact, some books today are written by demons. You may have read one. There’s a woman by the name of Taylor Caldwell who’s written some books, only she didn’t write them; demons wrote them. She’s written one called Dear and Glorious Physician and another called Dialogues with the Devil. Both of these books sound Christian but are demonic. She says the material came from another source; it flooded her. She doesn’t know where it came from. She said demons followed her all around.

Recently, Jess Stearn, a psychic investigator, took her into hypnosis to see if he could find out something of what was going on, for she claimed to be reincarnated, and he discovered that indeed she was a multiple reincarnation, the most interesting of which was that she was the mother of Mary Magdalene and thus had met Jesus. This is all being published their month in a book called The Search for a Soul. You can read an excerpt from it in Ladies' Home Journal, October 1972. All of it is demonic.

Stearns is a disciple of Edgar Cayce who was demonized from childhood, and whose writings are the work of demons. He founded the Association for Research and Enlightenment and now have nearly one million followers, many of whom have his little black book with their home cures, demonic magic. His writing is from the pit.

There are other demonic writers: Ruther Montgomery, Paul Twitchell, L. Ron Hubbard – and this week I’ve been reading about L. Ron Hubbard. Unbelievable. This guy says that at one time many of us were primeval clams. And he says that if you’ve got some fears and phobias, it probably is a holdover from when you were a clam. Of course he says, “I myself was not a clam. Many are.”

Interestingly enough, there’s some books that are purported to be written by demons. This is some copies of a page. This is called The Case of Patience Worth. This is material written by a demon who perhaps wrote over 30,000 pages of material – dictated it to a medium. The cover of the book says, “This book differs from every book hitherto issued on a psychic subject that consists primarily of literature. The problem is how this literature - displaying such knowledge, genius and versatility of literary expression, philosophic depth, piercing wit - could have originated beginning suddenly one day in the mind of a 31-year-old housewife with an eighth-grade education. Where did it come from?”

Here’s another title page, and I can’t even pronounce the title. It looks like Oahspe a New Bible in the Words of Jehovih and His Angel Embassadors. Written by demons, put out by Kosmon Press.

Here’s another one, The History of Man, written by God’s Holy Spirit through an earthly medium, published by the direction of the spirits. There it is. That’s not all; it goes from there on and on and on. You know what the bestselling book on the market today is? It’s this book. Have you seen it? Jonathan Livingstone Seagull? Jonathan Livingstone Seagull was written by a demon. It has sold more books than any hardback since Gone with the Wind. The author, as we know it, Richard Bach, is quoted in TIME magazine, November 13, 1972. There’s a whole study on him, and if you have that issue, read it. It’s absolutely shocking.

The book was launched with no publicity; it was rejected by a whole series of publishers, but when the devil wants to get his propaganda out, he keeps at it till he gets it out. It’s kind of interesting, too, that when the devil finally got it out, it made a fortune, which is kind of a retribution for the guys who wouldn’t publish it. One million of them sold in 1972, and until lately, the guy who wrote it – Bach – was a reader in the Church of Christ Scientist to Christian Science.

And you find much of Mary Baker Eddy’s philosophy in this thing. He talks about the fact that there’s no evil, there’s no death, there’s no birth, there’s no nothing – there’s no heaven, no hell, no God, no nothing. It teaches incarnation, reincarnation, and all these other things. It’s typical demonic propaganda, but it’s all in a very beautiful kind of framework.

TIME magazine says this, “Bach feels he did not write the book, but a mysterious voice gave it to him. Bach believes in the voice totally. Late one night he was strolling by a canal near Long Beach, and he heard a voice behind and to the right saying, ‘Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.’ The voice comes through to Bach like a three-dimensional movie, and as Bach writes it all down with green ballpoint pen, it shows and tells the story of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. Bach has since left his wife and six children. He says he cannot live with the impingements of marriage.”

TIME magazine goes on, “Bach is wedded to Jonathan and to its source of inspiration.” Do you know what it means? It means Bach is demon possessed. TIME magazine goes on, “Recently he discovered Jane Roberts, a poet and a writer, who since 1963 has been a conduit for the spoken words of another demon called Seth.” This demon has the name Seth. “‘It’s all done in daylight,’ says Bach. ‘There’s just this one small, middle-aged woman in a rocking chair: Jane Roberts. When Seth speaks, her voice deepens, and even the lines of her face seem to change. I’ve seen her face in a trance – some pictures of it – and indeed it is, if ever there was a demonic trance, just that. And as she goes into this trance, this demon dictates through her.’”

Seth now works also with Bach. Bach acknowledges that in the article in TIME magazine. He is a demon who writes. Bach claims that Seth frequently talks with him.

“Jane Roberts” - says TIME magazine – “and her husband have recorded 6,800 pages of Seth’s talk. It is now published in two books by Prentice Hall – one called Seth Speaks.” And here’s the other one, called Seth Material. This is a book entirely written by a demon. A woman simply wrote it down as it was dictated to her by the demon.

And, of course, it just destroys everything that is true in terms of God’s revelation. It’s interesting, in the first page, some most interesting statements. “Late in 1963, Jane Roberts and her husband were experimenting with a Ouija board when a personality calling himself Seth began to form messages. Soon Ms. Roberts began passing easily into trances, her gestures, her eyes, her voice borrowed by Seth himself. The Seth Material” – this book – “is a documented story of how a woman who balked at the idea of life after death was confronted with overwhelming proof. Seth has diagnosed illnesses, correctly described the contents of sealed envelopes and buildings thousands of miles away, and given life readings. He has materialized apparitions in a well-lit living room, continues to amaze students of the occult and professionals alike. And from the very beginning, the text of each semi-weekly session has been recorded in full, and this is part of it.”

Now, everything we know about Seth indicates that he’s a super egomaniac demon. It says in the first part, “This book is dedicated to Seth.” It’s the first book that I know of dedicated to a demon.

Now, this woman Jane Roberts writes it all down. It’s interesting, too, that her husband’s gotten into the thing – Rob – and he’s beginning to get dictation from Seth as well. This is material from hell, and people are reading this stuff and believing it. People are reading Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and thinking it’s something beautiful. It’s right out of the pit. Incidentally, Seth is going to be coming out with another new book very recently.

Now, that’s only one little brief sample of demonic literature; it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere. You could talk about the old things like the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses with all the weird incantations. But demons communicate, and they get their point across through godless people, sometimes in a trance, sometimes they just mess their minds up, but demons communicate.

People fool around with crystal balls, Ouija boards, tarot cards, horoscopes, and then they go to the store and buy games for their children like Voodoo, Kabala, Mystic Eye, Clairvoyant, and so forth and so forth.

Richard Cavendish, in his book entitled The Black Arts, speaks of sacred objects in use today such as candles made of human fat, the head of a black cat for example don human flesh, a bat drowned in blood, horns of a goat that has copulated with a girl, and the skull of a person who killed his parents. All these little trinkets are used to accomplish black magic. They are used as charms to cast spells and to work magic. It’s interesting that one article I read says that most colleges have a resident witch. Maybe you haven’t found the one on your campus. Thank you; that’s good, just be thankful.

Sybil Leek, the millionairess witch – she’s parlayed her witchcraft into a fortune – estimates there are more than 400 witch covens in the United States. Another article says that the population of witches in the world is estimated to be eight million – five thousand in New York, and you might know it, at least ten thousand in L.A.

Wall Street Journal, Monday, January 8, 1973, a course in devilology is now being offered at New York City’s Fordham University. It was filled within a half-an-hour of registration.

The teacher, the Reverend Robert E. McNally, said, “Heightened interest in demons, witchcraft, demonic possession and devil worship had prompted the course. The Jesuit priest said the students would study how much credence could be given to the devil.

Louis Martello, author of the book The Weird Way of Witchcraft, recently assisted New York sorceresses – they all got together, the witches – to draw up a manifesto demanding that civil rights legislation be extended to protect witchcraft as a formal religion. And he also urged descendants of witches executed in Salem, Massachusetts, nearly 300 years ago, to sue Massachusetts for a hundred million dollars in reparations. Now, all of that I’m only saying so that you understand that this whole thing of the demonic activity is not something to laugh off, and it’s not something to pooh-pah, it’s something very real, very active.

Demons are active in what they’re communicating on paper; they’re active in what they’re doing through black magic, through white magic. They’re working in religion; they’re working everywhere. Why? Because in the universe there’s a basic conflict. God is supernatural, but so is Satan. Satan is not as powerful as God, but he is nevertheless supernatural. He is beyond our senses, and he is doing everything he can to capture men. And if he can work supernatural wonders to hold men captive, he’ll do it. That’s exactly what he did through Simon, and that’s how he held the Samaritans captive, isn’t it? When Simon did wonders, they really happened. The people believed; they even believed it was God doing it, and that’s exactly what Satan wants people to believe if they’re in that particular bag. If they’re anti-God, he provides Satan worship for them.

Now, I want us to look at two aspects of demons and their work and see it in a biblical light tonight, two simply, and then we’ll just leave all the vast uncovered area uncovered for the moment, but we’ll cover two. Fortune-telling and magic. How do demons work in these areas?

First of all, let’s look at fortune-telling. This is demon knowledge. Demon knowledge. Now, demons have a knowledge of supernatural things that we don’t have. They can see things we can’t see. We don’t understand that; it’s just so. It’s amazing that you find out that many of the people who prognosticate the future come up right some of the time. Demons have a prescience about certain things.

Now, there are many things that are used to tell the future. One is astrology. Let’s look at that first of all. Astrology is used, and the method usually attached to astrology is horoscopes. A horoscope simply means, in the Greek, hour watcher. This is the Age of Aquarius – right? – the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, so peace will guide the planet, and love will steer the stars. We’re just fading out of the Age of Pisces, waltzing into the Age of Aquarius. Blissful, isn’t it?

Kurt Koch calls astrology - quote – “The most widely spread superstition of our time.” Over 40 million Americans trust in the stars, 185,000 astrologers in the United States earning money at it. They’ve turned the zodiac into a $200 million a year business says Today’s Health magazine. When the Beatles formed their own record company called Apple, they hired a full-time astrologer to chart their course for the future. The rock musical Hair had a resident astrologer. IBM computer now puts out 30,000 personalized horoscopes per month for the United States department store shoppers. It only costs you from $20.00 to $50.00, depending on how much detail you want. There’s an outfit called Zodiatronics that gives you 24-hour dial-a-horoscope service. The 12 signs of the zodiac have been put on everything, and now the last, the limit of all, they’re even putting it on underwear. If you’ve got anything with that kind of stuff on it, throw it away.

Astrology, you see, is the prediction of human character and destiny by using the stars and the constellations. This is an old, old, science. It goes clear back to the Tower of Babel, and God got upset at it then, and He’s still upset with it.

In the ancient world, you see astronomy and astrology were a single unit. It wasn’t until the reformation that they got divided. Astronomy is the science; astrology is the superstition. And Babylonians invented zodiacs way back at the Tower of Babel.

I read something interesting this week. Somebody always used to say, you know, when I was a little kid, that they were trying to build a tower to heaven. And somebody said, “If they were trying to build a tower to heaven, they wouldn’t have built it on a flat spot, they’d at least have gotten a head start by going up the mountain.” That’s pretty good reasoning.

They were building a tower to the zodiac, and the said that wherever the position of the constellation was when you were born determined your destiny. See? Whatever happened to be the arrangement within the celestial house was the critical factor that determined your future. Now, astrology, first of all, is stupid. It’s just plain stupid. It is based on the theory that the stars, the sun, and the planets revolve around the earth. Now, we know that that isn’t even true anymore. We used to think that was the way it was. The earth was here, and everything was going around it. Now, we’re going around the sun. So, the whole system is based on the faulty view of the universe.

Secondly, it’s stupid because since 150 B.C., when the astrological system became crystallized, the zodiac has shifted by an entire house, which means everything’s off. The whole system’s off.

Thirdly, it’s stupid because the predictions are always – not always, but let’s say the predictions are most always wrong and infrequently right. And very often it’s like the clock that doesn’t run; it’s still right twice a day.

In 1969, you know, they predicted that California would fall into the ocean. Wrong. Jeane Dixon said peace in Vietnam in ‘65; Carroll Righter said ‘69. Wrong. The idea that stars have a decisive influence on human affairs has been rejected by every intelligent scientist. It is stupid.

Secondly, it’s sinful because it’s pagan, and it plays into the hands of demons, and it rejects the fact that God is the determiner of destiny.

And you say, “Well, how can you play into demons hands by getting into that little section in the paper and reading that horoscope?”

Very easy. Oh, it’s very easy. Watch this; whatever system you want to use, demons will move in and take over. The Old Testament simply says this, “All the gods of the nations are demons.” Whatever you want to worship, a demon will move in and capture you.

You know, you wonder, “How can these Africans and these people in wild places of the world, how can they keep bowing down to sticks and stones? How can they worship a rock year after year after year?”

You want to know why? Because sometimes when they ask that rock for things, they happen. Why? Because if the demon can hold that man captive to the rock, he’ll respond to the man’s worship of the rock, do enough supernatural things to hold him captive to the rock.

Now, if a guy wants to put his trust in the zodiac, demons will simply use that. They’ll make enough things come true so the man’s a believer in the zodiac. That captures him apart from the truth – right? – and holds him in bondage to an evil system. All the gods of the heathen are demons; that’s a comprehensive statement of the Old Testament. All of them. And things really happen; they really happen. They really capture people. Demons take over and they do supernatural things. So, you see, astrology is just another of the systems that if men move into them, demons will come in and control.

And I think there’s another just insidious thing in astrology, and that’s the power of demonic suggestion. You know, there are some people – there’s nothing in the horoscope; it’s just a bunch of baloney. There’s not one thing in it worth the powder to blow it all up. There’s nothing there. But do you know that there are people who become what that horoscope says they are, because they submit to it. And that’s exactly how Satan can take a man and turn him right into what he wants him to be. And it happens.

The basic presupposition underlying all methods and all areas of fortune-telling is that certain superhuman, spiritual beings exist. And they are approachable by man. And they possess knowledge which man does not have, and they are willing, under certain circumstances, to communicate this to man. That’s the assumption of astrology, that we can tap these spirit beings. And you know something? They are right on. But it’s deadly.

A woman appeared at a police station and stated to the police that she had just shot and killed her son. Then she said this: an astrologer had told her in a written horoscope that her son would never regain his full mental health. Wanting to save him from this terrible future, she killed him. The woman was sentenced; the astrologer went free; the demon accomplished his purpose.

Scientists and psychologists agree that there is a high degree of autosuggestion involved in astrology. If someone tells you something’s going to happen, the idea is planted in your mind and your subconscious. And do you know what happens? You can make it happen. And very often, supernatural things really do happen. They really do happen. Demons have supernatural power.

What does the Bible say about them? Deuteronomy chapter 17. Lest you think I pulled something out of the twentieth century, I want you to know that in Deuteronomy 17, God deals with astrologers who are casting horoscopes then. This is old stuff.

Deuteronomy 17, I want to just read some verses. Verse 2, “If there be found among you, within any of the gates which the Lord they God giveth thee, man or woman who hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God in transgressing His covenant, and hath gone and served other God’s and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven” – any constellation which I have not commanded, and it be told tee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and behold, it is true, and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel” – watch – “then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman who hath committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die.” “If anybody in your town fools with astrology,” God says, “stone them to death.” Now, if God gets that concerned about something like that, then there’s something to get concerned about. Right?

I’m going to read you something else, Isaiah chapter 47, verse 12, “Stand now with thine enchantments” – this is the stuff that’s used by astrologers and magicians – “and with the multitude of they sorceries in which thou hast labored from thy youth, if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.” He says, “Just try to stand up.”

“Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, those star gazers, the monthly prognosticators” – do you know what that is? Horoscopes, friends, monthly horoscopes – “let them stand up and save thee from these things which shall come upon thee.

“Behold, they shall be like stubble. The fire shall burn them. They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; there shall not be a coal to warm at nor fire to sit before!” God says, “I’m going to destroy any man who touches that.” God gets very, very upset about that.

We’ve been studying in Acts, and in Acts 7, we were introduced to this thought in the sermon that Stephen preached. Listen, Acts 7:41, “And they made a calf in those days” – remember at the foot of Sinai? – “and they offered sacrifice unto the idol and rejoiced in the works of their hands. And God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven.” The children of Israel worshiped the stars, the horoscope, the whole bit of astrology. They picked it up from the Egyptians.

As it is written in the book of the prophets, “O ye house of Israel, have you offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?” The answer’s obviously no; they were fooling around with something else. “No,” he says, “you took up – yea, you took up the tabernacle of Molech, and the star of your god Remphan” – which is another name for Saturn. It said even Israel did this and worshiped.

And in verse 51, for this kind of thing Stephen condemns them, “You stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart, you do always resist the Holy Spirit.”

My friends, God has made it very clear what He thinks about astrology, and a Christian has no business touching it at all. It merely puts you in a position for autosuggestion by demons. It enables demons, perhaps through it, to bring those things to come to pass to capture your mind. I believe demons can do those kind of tricks that they claim to do. How do you think Satan holds onto people? But it’s a blasphemous idolatry, because when you start worshiping the movement of the stars, my friend, you are doing exactly what God damns in Romans 1; you are worshiping the creation more than – what? – than the Creator.

Boy, they had a slew of these guys in Daniel’s time, because Daniel was – where was Daniel? In Babylonian. Those guys were all over everywhere. They infested the place. Daniel 1:20, “And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.”

And you can read right on through Daniel clear through chapter 5, and you get more of these magicians and astrologers all over the place. But let me just kind of drop a heavy thought right in verse 27 and 28 of chapter 2, “Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, ‘The secret which the king hath commanded, cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers’” – that’s from the Hebrew gazerin; it means fate determiners – “‘can’t they reveal unto the king? Ah, but there is a God in heaven who revealeth secrets’” – don’t you see? What’s the matter, king; can’t your magicians give you the stuff you need to know? There’s a God who can. Why do you want to dabble around in a mixture of truth and lies when you can go right to God and know the truth?

You know something? The Bible even promises, in the book of Revelation – and I’m happy about it – that God’s going to destroy the whole universe and recreate a new heaven and a new earth. Then what are the astrologers going to do? It’s going to be a little tough.

I like it in Revelation when I read, “The stars shall fall, heaven shall roll up like a scroll. The sun, the moon, and the stars shall go out, and everybody’s horoscope is going to go kaput. And you know what? I think that it’s going to be a judgment on that whole system. I think when you read in the book of Revelation God judges everything – the grass, the water, all these things – I think God’s going to judge men’s worship of the universe by just wiping it out.

Now, not only astrology is used for fortune-telling, but also what is called cartomancy, which is the use of cards. And it can be done with a regular deck – you know, the seven of hearts is love – I think this is how it goes – the ten of hearts is a wish fulfilled, the ten of spades is lucky, etcetera, etcetera. And with 52 cards, you’ve got endless combinations. You can just keep somebody going all the time.

And you’ve heard of tarot cards. Tarot cards are kind of different; there’s 78 of them in a deck; they have pictures on them, strange pictures, pictures of a fool, pictures of two people – an emperor and an empress – falling off this tower against some rocks. There’s a guy being hanged upside down. There’s a devil with a naked man and a woman. There’s really weird things. And they take all of these mysterious cards and move them around to determine a man’s future.

Now, mark this; there’s nothing in those cards. But what happens is, people believe those cards, and so Satan moves in and brings about the bondage of fulfillment according to the cards. Demons use a man’s faith in cards to make satanic suggestions that fulfill the will of Satan in his life. And thus, demons hold him in bondage. Mediums lay the cards, demons control the information.

Then you could talk about palmistry. You ever had your handwriting analysis? Shouldn’t have. You should never let anybody make a suggestion to you on the basis of your hand. What do they know about my hand? What kind of garbage is that? I don’t care whether it’s lines – “This is the love line; this is the thing” – you know? – or some of them are by the shape of your hand, others by the handwriting. All that does is influence you with demonic propaganda. And it opens your mind to the suggestion of a power outside yourself.

Paul said, “All things are lawful; I will not be brought under the power of” – what? – “any.” Don’t ever subject yourself to anybody’s suggestion from those kind of sources as to what you are, who you are, or what you’re going to be in the future.

Then there are those who use the divining rod. This is called radiethesis. You’ve heard of dowsing – D-O-W-S-I-N-G – for water? They take a forked stick, and they go around like this, or they get a pendulum thing, and it moves and it points out things. There’re estimated that water witching, as it’s called – there are 25,000 such water witches in America. They use forked sticks, coat hangers, wires, keys hanging from a Bible. See? It’s all tying it in; they’re trying to tie it into God. It’s frequently used to diagnose illness, disease, to determine the sex of an unborn baby, to prescribe medicine, and to aid crime detection. Interesting illustration.

These are all documented illustrations I’m giving you. A man 28 years old committed suicide. Since he just disappeared, a police search was begun to find him. They didn’t know, of course, that this time he committed suicide. So, they wanted to find the guy; they couldn’t find him. His brother-in-law consulted a pendulum practitioner. The practitioner asked for an object belonging to the missing man, and he was given a pair of socks. Putting these on the floor, he walked around then in a rectangle, holding his metal rod. Having done this, he was able to identify the missing man, state his name, date of birth, the place where he could be found. The police went there; they found him.

And this, again, opens up the opportunity, you see, for demons – now, don’t you know that that brother-in-law who hired that guy was a believer in that system, and Satan had captured another mind.

God doesn’t like pendulum pokers. God doesn’t like water witches. And in case you wanted some more concrete information than the word of John MacArthur, I give you the Word of God Himself. God says this, “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination” - that’s what it is: divining – “or an observer of times” – an astrologer – “or an enchanter or a witch” – and he goes on and on and on.

Then there’s just a really interesting passage in Hosea 4 and verse 12, I think it is – yes. Israel had gotten so messed up, so far afield, look what they were doing. “My people ask counsel of their idols” – Israel praying to false gods – “and their” – watch this – “their staff declareth unto them.” The word “staff” in the Hebrew means divining rod - maqlō – divining rod. They were actually determining God’s will, their future, decisions on the basis of a divining rod. “Their staff declareth unto them, for the spirit of harlotry hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring” – they have played the harlot – “departing from under their God.” They’ve gone after false gods, and the system of false gods was this kind of system. And so, we know a little of God’s attitude about divining the future.

And there’s another thing that future-tellers and fortune-tellers use, and that’s a crystal ball; this is very commonly used. Mirrors, rock crystal, still water sometimes are used by the so-called gazer.

Some interesting things about this. In the months before he killed Robert Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan, steeped himself in the lore of occultism, primarily that of mirror mantic, and that is simply crystal gazing, stargazing, mirrors. In an article titled “Sirhan Through the Looking Glass,” TIME magazine reported – quote – “A mirror, two flickering candles, and Sirhan Sirhan. Alone in his cramped room, day after day, hour after hour, Sirhan studied Sirhan. Focusing his mind power on the looking glass, Sirhan soon convinced himself that he could order an inanimate object to move. He rigged a pendulum from a fisherman’s weight, and on command it began to sway. Once, instead of his own image in the mirror, Sirhan saw Robert Kennedy, the man he was soon to kill.” End quote.

In reviewing this particular case, psychoanalyst Dr. Bernard Diamond said – I quote him – “One key to the killing must be found in Sirhan’s experiments with the mirror. It was during these self-induced trances that he scribbled over and over, ‘Kennedy must die, Kennedy must die, Kennedy must die.’” End quote.

Now, this form of fortune-telling sets in motion forces that are mainly subconscious. And since these subconscious are far removed from conscious control, they easily can be moved by demons. And, you know, when the apostle Paul stood up to the Ephesians, and he said, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers, and the rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places,” he wasn’t kidding.

There’s another way fortune-telling or future-telling is brought, and that is by prophetic visions, drams, and trances. You know, watch out for anybody who has visions. Run from them. When anybody says, “I have a vision,” I just – I say, “Ho-ho, that’s all for me.” Edgar Cayce, Ruth Montgomery, Jeane Dixon, Jane Roberts, Paul Twitchell, L. Ron Hubbard, Richard Bach – anybody – there are mediums, and spirits are controlling them who are demons.

Now, remember that all demons aren’t vile, unclean, openly bad. The Bible designates unclean demons, but not all of them are like that. Some of them just claim to believe in Jesus. Whatever demons control Jeane Dixon do. I’ll never forget how – well, there’s been many Christian people who have been completely duped by Jeane Dixon. It was interesting to me, on one occasion, that Campus Life magazine, which is normally a very good magazine – enjoyed reading it myself many times – that Campus Life magazine, which is put out by Youth for Christ, a couple of years ago came out with a feature article stating that Jeane Dixon was no doubt a Christian. And after this interview, she had given all the evidence that she really knew Jesus Christ Savior, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

And I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I became – I sort of fell apart on the spot, and immediately I contacted some people and said, “Where did you ever get this information?”

“Well, she answered all the questions right.”

Of course. Of course, that’s the subtlety. Jeane Dixon claims to be a prophet, and she knows some things about the future. Either she’s a prophet of God or a prophet of the pit. The standard for a prophet of God is 100 percent accuracy. She doesn’t qualify. She has only one other alternative. And that’s why Jesus gave the disciples the discerning ability. That’s why John says, “Don’t believe everything you hear but try the spirits” – 1 John chapter 4 – “and see whether they be of God.” They’re subtle and they’re clever. I say this, avoid fortune-telling, people; avoid it. The only fortune I want to hear is when I read in my Bible that someday I’m going to go to be with Jesus and be like Him. That’s all I care about. If God wanted me to know the future, He’d have told me, but He knows I couldn’t handle it. If it was too good, I’d be unhappy in the present, waiting to get at the goodies. If it was too bad, I’d die of apoplexy now, before I ever got there. I want to live now. I want to live in this moment for the Lord. I want to do what He wants me to do now. I don’t care about tomorrow; neither does He. I’ll never live there.

You say, “God doesn’t care about the future?”

No, I’ve been living my whole live in the nasty now and now. I think about the sweet by and by, but I never get there. I just want to live now. You know, I’ve lived my whole life in the present; I can’t get to the future, can’t get to the past; I’m stuck. I don’t want to live the things I can’t do; I just want to live the ones I can do. God doesn’t expect me to know the future; he expects me to get in the moment. Don’t dabble in the future. If God intended you to know, He would have told you.

It’s like a guy once said, “If God intended you to smoke, He’d have given you a chimney.” Well, God knows things. God wants you to know what he wants you to know. And I’m content. He’s shown me so many marvelous things. I mean what else could I want to know but a vision of heaven and a promise that I’ll be there forever – what else? Don’t fool with fortune-telling; it’s satanic knowledge, and it allows Satan to gain a suggestive control over people and conform them to His bondage.

Dear ones, Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. Right? Demons are mediators between hell and man. They make captives out of men. Stay away from it; watch it carefully.

Oh, it’s so sad that so much of it masquerades as Christianity, and people buy it. Oh. You know, some people think they’re doing the things under the power of the Holy Spirit when all the time it’s demons. I’ll never forget – I’ll never forget the only time really when we had the opportunity to cast out demons, that was it. This individual said, “I thought this was the Holy Spirit.”

Acts chapter 16, verse 16, “And it came to pass as we went to prayer” – Paul and Silas – “a certain maid possessed with the spirit of divination” – she had a demon who communicated through her – “who brought her masters much gain by soothsaying” – I mean she could foretell the future, and it was lucrative. She could do it, people; she could do it. It wasn’t just chicanery; she did it. Sometimes she was right – enough right to hold these people in bondage.

“And the same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who show unto us the way of salvation.’” Hey, terrific. She’s right. She’s doing some PR work for Paul and Silas. Paul didn’t need those kind of PR agents.

Verse 18, “This she did many days.” That would get old. “Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her!’ And the spirit” – the demon – “came out of her.

“And, of course, her masters saw this; the hope of their gain was gone. They caught Paul and Silas, drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, and they said, ‘These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city.’” Which being interpreted means, “They cut off our income.”

Listen, friends, if you want to know anything, let me give you the key. You ready? “If any man lack wisdom, let him” – what? – “ask of God.” You really want to know anything from any other source? Lies, lies, lies. All this stuff is deadly, and the Scripture condemns it all. There are other forms: tea leaves and so forth. There’s a kind of an ancient form, crude and gross, known as hepatoscopy, and that was looking into the liver.

You say, “Well, how old is that?”

Ezekiel 21:21 talks about it. Did you know that the children of Israel were looking into a liver to determine their future? Do you know what they’d do? They’d cut up an animal in this weird ceremonial sacrifice. They’d take the liver, and each part of the liver meant something. And however the liver was arranged would determine the future. Looking into the liver. Do you know that’s still going on in Borneo, Burma, and Uganda in 1973? There was such a thing called teraphim, which means consulting the dead. There was a Bible character who did that. Do you know who went to see a dead man, tried to raise him up out of wherever he was? Saul. Do you know what happened because of it? He died. God doesn’t appreciate that. That’s also another term for necromancy.

There’s an extreme mode of obtaining an oracle by sacrificing children in the fire. Deuteronomy 18:10 talks about the worship of Moloch, where they would sacrifice children in a fire to determine the future. Sad. And God condemns it all.

Listen as I read some scripture. Leviticus 20, verse 6, “And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits” – demon possessed – “and after wizards, to play the harlot after them” – listen to this – “I will set my face against that soul and will cut him off.”

Leviticus 20:27, “A man or a woman which hat a familiar spirit” – a demon – “or who is a wizard shall surely be put to death: they shall stone him with stones.” Back in Deuteronomy 18:10 says, “And there shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, uses divination, observer of times, enchanter, witch, charmer, consulter of mediums, wizard, necromancer, for all that do these are an abomination unto the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee.”

First Chronicles 10:13, “So Saul died for his transgression.” Why, Saul? “Even for asking counsel of a medium.” Jeremiah 29:8 and 9, “‘Let not your prophets and your diviners deceive you. For they prophesy falsely unto you in My name’” – watch this one - “‘in My name,’ God said. ‘I have not sent them,’ saith the Lord.” If you want to seek some information, you ask the Lord.

Isaiah chapter 8, verse 19 says this, “And when they shall say unto you, ‘Seek unto those who are mediums, and unto wizards that peep and mutter’” – and the word “peep” is engastrimuthos in the Septuagint, which means ventriloquist – “should not a people seek unto their God?” That’s right, isn’t it? And he says, “Should they seek on behalf of the living to the dead?” Then the next statement, “To the Law and the testimony!” If you want any information, go to the Word.

And then in Isaiah 44 – I mean to read that while I was in Isaiah – verse 24 of Isaiah 44 says this, “Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and He who formed thee from the womb, ‘I am the Lord who maketh all things, who stretcheth forth the heavens alone, who spreadeth abroad the earth by myself, who frustrateth the tokens of the liars and maketh diviners mad, who turneth wise men backwards and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirmeth the word of His servant and performeth the counsel of His messengers. Who saith to Jerusalem, “Thou shalt be inhabited!” And of the cities of Judah, “You shall be built.” And I will raise up the decayed places thereof. Who saith to the deep, “Be dry!” And I will dry up the rivers,’” etcetera. He says, “Those people don’t know anything. I confuse them and make them mad because I run the show.” That’s what God says. Seek God if you want truth. It isn’t to be found anywhere else. Jesus said, in John 8, “The devil is a liar and the father of lies.” In Revelation 21:8, listen to the population of hell, “The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.” God damns that whole system.

Kurt Koch says this – listen to this – “People infected and burdened by fortune-telling and the occult very often suffer in the following ways: the characters reveal abnormal passions; instability; violent tempers; addiction to alcohol, nicotine, and sexual vices; selfishness; gossiping; egotism; cursing, etcetera. Their lives reveal, on the one hand, an antagonism toward religion, callousness, skepticism, a vicious critical attitude, an inability to pray and read the Bible if they are atheistic types. While on the other hand, the pious types reveal a self-righteousness, a spiritual pride, pharisaism, hypocrisy, and an insensitivity to the true workings of the Holy Spirit.

“Medically speaking, the families of those involved in fortune-telling reveal in a remarkable way such things as nervous disturbances, psychopathic hysteric symptoms, cases of St Vitus’s dance, symptoms of paralysis, epileptics, freaks, deaf mutes, cases of mediumistic psychosis, and a general tendency toward emotional and mental illness.” End quote.

If you’re already in it, people, there’s only one way out, and that’s through faith in Jesus Christ. And I love this – do you like it? – if you come to know Jesus Christ, He’ll take you right out of it. And listen, if the Son shall make you free – what? – you shall be free for real. Only Jesus Christ can deliver you.

Secondly, and just briefly, magic. What about magic? Magic, like fortune-telling, is the divinely forbidden art of bringing about results beyond human power by recourse to demons. Now what’s the difference? Fortune-telling calls forth demon knowledge. Magic calls forth demon power.

You say, “Can a guy really tie a towel around a doorknob and wring out milk?” You say, “That doesn’t fit into our senses.”

That’s exactly true, but it happens because it’s done by supernatural beings. The word “magic,” as I told you this morning, comes from mageuōn; magikē is the adjective. It came originally from Medo-Persia, Zoroastrian priests, magi as they were called. And it developed, and now magic means any of this kind of stuff. And in magic, here’s what happens - living, intelligent spirits become the real agents behind the scenes. Men, by incantations and ceremonies, actually call forth the power of these demons. They illustrate it in extrasensory perception and all kinds of other extrasensory phenomena.

Did you know that many healings go on performed by demons? The two Seiler brothers in Ottenheim, in Europe, put themselves in a trance, and they diagnose all diseases. And the patients in the waiting room are diagnosed before they get into the inside. And studies have proven they give correct diagnosis.

In Alsace, a Catholic priest is named pater slipper, and he can diagnose disease when the sick sends him one of their slippers on which to concentrate. These are verified.

In Germany, Switzerland, and France, and other European countries, urine is used. It is tasted for clairvoyant diagnosis.

Now, I could go on, and I could give you hundreds of illustrations, but I’m not going to do that. If you want them, pick up the book Between Christ and Satan and read it yourself. It’s all there. Magical powers can be really acquired by heredity. I always ask myself the question, “Well, where do they get the ability to do this?” It can be hereditary. As an offshoot of idolatry, magic like spiritistic mediumship is an infraction of the Law of God.

Listen to the Word of God. This is Exodus 20, verse 5, “I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children” – watch it – “unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me.” God says, “Of those that hate Me, I’ll visit iniquity on the third and fourth generation.” Thus demonic worship invites the punishment of God to the third and fourth generation.

Dr. Unger, Dallas Seminary, says – and I quote – “The general history of occultism shows that mediumistic powers can often be traced through generations. Children can be born with these powers, because a whole line – a whole family has been subjected to demons.”

There are other ways they can gain these powers. Sometimes magical powers are transferred by ceremonial laying on of hands. Black magicians place hands on persons, and they do charms and other ceremonies and transfer this magical power. They’re really transferring demon rights, demon power. And they don’t actually do it, it’s just that if the person’s that believing, if he’s that much a victim that he wants it that bad, a demon will move in and hold him captive.

Magical powers may be acquired by signing an agreement with Satan, often in one’s own blood. You know, there are people all over this world today doing that? Signing themselves off to Satan in their own blood. Now demons know that if you’re that far gone, they’ve got you.

You know, in Isaiah 28, I think it’s verse 15, Isaiah mentions making a covenant with hell. Such blood-bound occultists frequently become endowed with astonishing magical capabilities. It’s interesting, too, that, I think, some of these things can be picked up just through dabbling in the occult.

Now, there are numerous forms of magic, and I’m not going to go into all of them; let me just give you a couple of thoughts. One is black magic. And black magic is Satanism. It’s just selling your soul to the devil. It’s just getting involved in total orientation to Satan himself.

Now, some of Satanism is a fad. Okay? We understand that. Young people, you know, go to their local witch store and they buy sequined skulls, and plastic crucifixes, and Jewish stars, and homemade sex potions and all that. There’s a dozen shops in L.A. that carry Satan crosses, tannis root, graveyard dirt – and you’ve got a little graveyard dirt for your thing – black cat hair.

If you ever go down to Ports O’ Call sometime, there’s a witch shop upstairs. I just – when I walked into that place, I had this really oppressive feeling; it was very real. But they sell all of this stuff. And the fad is not to be written off; it is opposed to God. But beyond the fad is the real Satan cult, people who have sold their souls to the Devil.

Newsweek magazine tells the following story regarding Patrick Michael Newell of Vineland, New Jersey. “Many of Mike’s high school classmates had known him to be a bit strange because of all of his magical studies, satanic ritual, and occasional animal sacrifices.”

Newsweek goes on, “Mike’s involvement became clear one day when he convinced two of his close friends, Richard Williams and Wayne Sweikert, to go with him to a deserted pond in the hills. After conducting a brief service to the Devil, Mike instructed the two boys to bind his hands and feet with adhesive tape and push him into the pond. They did, and his body was found three days later.”

“What drove this 20-year-old to such a diabolical and unnecessary death? It seems,” says Newsweek, “that in his studies in black magic, he had concluded that any loyal Satan worshiper who is murdered by his friends will be reborn as a captain over 40 legions of demons.” Nineteen years old.

What of the California school teacher whose heart, lungs, and liver were found missing from her grave and were later found to have been used by her murderers as part of a sacrifice to the Devil.

Newsweek says, “In July 1971, 22-year-old Kim Brown, a long-haired Satanist, was con- - assaulted” – I should say – no – “was convicted of stabbing and assaulting a 62-year-old man to death. This is what she said, ‘I really enjoyed killing him.’ Between her private worship service to Satan, in a Miami jail, she stopped long enough to make that statement.”

“In San Jose, two young girls were found stabbed more than 300 times. And where they found their bodies, there was virtually no trace of blood,” said Chief of Detectives Collins. They would take the blood for their ceremonies.

Commander Bob Vernon - who’s a very personal friend of mine and who attends our church from time to time - of the Los Angeles Police Department, was asked by Hal Lindsey if he ever found evidence in his police work of Satan worship and human sacrifice. This was his answer, “A highway patrolman apprehended a man who was said to have killed another man and eaten his heart. When the officers searched the man, he found knuckles of a human in his pocket. He was part of a Satan cult.”

Now, you see, all of these things are gathered in this diabolical, unbelievable thing to be used as supernatural charms to bring about the things that they want to bring about.

You say, “What do they do?”

Oh, diabolical feats. You’ve read about voodoo, the little dolls you stick the pins in and the guy hurts miles and miles away? It happens. The blood, or whatever it is, is made into a fetish, and it is believed in, and it is concentrated on, and they believe it can do things, and demons move in and it releases demon powers. It can be blood; it can be the inward organs of a human body; it can be a bat; it can be urine or excrement; it can be pubic hair, fingernails, wood from a coffin, graveyard dirt, all kinds of weird and bizarre fetishes are used to pull off these magic charms. They can inflict harm; they can kill animals; they can kill people who are under their spell. They can bring bad luck, good luck, love, hate, insanity, blindness, deafness, pain, paralysis; it can do it. Or they can bring healing. So, black magic. Let me hasten to add this; try as they will, they can’t do anything to those who belong to Jesus Christ.

Not only black magic but secondly, white magic. You know what white magic is? That’s black magic masquerading under the terms of Christianity. And the same – it’s the same thing only it’s not to Satan, it’s to God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit with Bible verses.

I always remember what Charles Manson said, who if ever there was a demon-possessed man, he was it. Charles Manson would one day claim to be God, the he would claim to be Jesus, then he would claim to be Satan. Remember that? He was somehow trapped between the white magic and the black magic.

But you know Satan’s most subtle form is white magic. That’s what it says in 2 Corinthians 11; it says Satan always comes as an angel of – what? – light. And his ministers as angels of light. But it’s all traffic with Satan. And usually violence, suicide, and insanity runs through a whole family where magical arts have been practiced. The bondage is horrifying of this thing.

For many years, a woman practiced black magic. She had some very dangerous books: the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, The Spring book, The Spiritual Shield book, et cetera. She experimented in the area of magic persecution and death magic, killing people and hurting people through charms and incantations. She even boasted of causing the death of her husband and her daughter. She could create eczema and paralysis and all kinds of things in people way far away from her. She would inflict her enemies with diseases and cause many things to harm them and make them sick.

In this interview with the counselor, “Her mind is completely closed to God,” he said. “She calls Jesus an illegitimate, good-for-nothing. At Christmas and Easter, and to her such times, she suffers from terrible attacks during which she will rage and blaspheme. She has said, quote, ‘I don’t want to do these things, but I am forced to. The Devil makes me do them.’” End quote. That is her testimony. What a horrible bondage. There’s nothing new. The Bible says that Satan entered into Judas, and he went out into the night. Satan’s been doing it for a long time.

Whether you’re talking about mental suggestion, telepathy, ESP, hypnosis, or magical mesmerism, or any of this kind of stuff, we are to run from it and avoid it.

Do you remember that back in the exodus, when Moses did the things that he did, that the magicians of Egypt matched him? Satan can do wonders. Believe it. The whole diabolical system captures people’s minds. And Simon the sorcerer had done it. And the Scripture damns it all. God really gets angry with this. The divine displeasure against the fearful eruption of occultism in the Old Testament appears in some scripture.

Let me read you 2 Kings 21, “I will bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth it, both his ears shall tingle.” Listen to this, “I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.” Now, God was upset with their dabbling in the occult, and He said, “People’s ears are going to tingle when they hear what I’m going to do to you.” Magic is over and over condemned in the Scripture, and we are to avoid it.

In 2 Timothy 3, verse 8, it brings up, “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” “You know, the tricks that Jannes and Jambres can do,” he says, “are going to be done again.” When? Verse 1, “This know also, that in the last days” – do you believe we’re living in the last days? Then you’re going to see the same kind of wonders and signs done by the demons that they saw then. In case you’re not convinced with that scripture, listen to this one, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now hinders will continue to hinder till he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming: even Him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders” – 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

It’s going to happen. Simon did it. They did it in the Old Testament; they’ll do it again. Satan is still active. In Acts 13, verse 8 – listen to this very important key passage, because you have a definition of the occult here – Acts 13:8, “But Elymas the sorcerer” – another one of these guys, mediums, demons operating magic through – “withstood them” – tried to stop them from preaching the Word – “seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith” – Sergius Paulus, you know, is coming to the faith of Christ. And so, this sorcerer tries to turn him off.

“Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Spirit” – not there you got conflict, brother, and that demons hasn’t got any chance at all – “set his eyes on him.” I can just see Paul, that little, old, short, bald-headed guy, just looking at him with those eyes that didn’t work too well. “And he says, ‘O full of all deceit and all mischief, thou child of the Devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

“‘And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.’ And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he went way seeking some to lead him by the hand.’” Boy, when the Devil comes into conflict with the Holy Spirit, it’s no contest.

But you want a definition of the occult? Look at verse 10. Number one, full of all deceit and all mischief. A medium, a fortune-teller, an astrologer – be he such a mild-mannered character as Carroll Righter, or such a favored person as Jeane Dixon, or anybody else – is full of all deceit and all mischief.

Number two, he is a child of the Devil. Number three, he is an enemy of righteousness. Number four, he perverts the ways of the Lord. Stay away. Stay away. Human history is going to end in a flood of demonic activity. Oh, during the tribulation time, Revelation 9 says that hell is going to be opened up, and all the demons who have been bound down there for a long time, are going to come out. Revelation 9:2, “He opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit like the smoke of a furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” And these are demons. And demons come surging out of hell. If the world thinks it’s seen demonic activity yet, it just has to wait until the tribulation. Revelation 13 says the demons are going to do wonders. This is going to be something happening right on our sophisticated earth, when demons are unleashed in all their total fury as God lets the whole system of evil give its last gasp.

In Revelation 13:16, we have a little – 13 – well, the whole chapter; we’re not going to take time to read it, but it says in verse 13, “He doeth great wonders; he makes fire come down from heaven.” Verse 14, “Deceives them that are on the earth,” etcetera and etcetera. So there are going to be these wonders in the end of the age.

You know that Armageddon will be a demon-energized revolt against God? Armageddon will be a demonic attempt to take over the earth from Christ who is the rightful heir. But Armageddon’s not going to be a success. In 16:13 of Revelation, “I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon” – slimy, unclean spirits – “out of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet. These are the spirits of demons working miracles” - this is nothing new for them; they can do it - “and they came to gather the whole world of the battle of the great day of God Almighty.” And verse 16 says it’s Armageddon. Armageddon is a demon-inspired encounter against God.

Now, I hope you see tonight, in just this time that we’ve spent together, that this whole area is very real and something that we are to seriously avoid.

I want to conclude – and I don’t want you to fold your brain yet, or you’re going to miss the point – I want to conclude with this. What do we do? What do we do about a world that is being pervaded by demons who are doing weird things like writing books, who are performing magical tricks and magical stunts, and who are capturing men’s minds? What do we do?

Number one, Christian, fear not. Are you with me on that one? Fear not. Why? Greater is he that is in you than – what? – he that is in the world. We are indwelt by the Spirit of God. First John 3:8 says this, “For this purpose the Son of Man was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” And if He’s been manifest in your life, Satan has no place.

Paul says at the end of Romans, “Satan is under our feet, defeated foe.” Colossians 1:13 – I love it, Jesus Christ – God, I should say – “hath delivered us from the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of” – what? – “His dear Son.” Hey, we’ve been taken out of the kingdom of darkness.

John 10, Jesus says, “I know My sheep; they hear My voice. I follow them and no man plucks them out of My hand.” Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you” – how long – “always.” Do you like that? I like that. Jesus gave us that promise. Paul put it this way, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. God is faithful, who will never suffer you to be tempted above you’re able; but will always make a way” – what – “of escape.”

We have to be vigilant, though, don’t we? Peter says, “Be vigilant, for your adversary” – the Devil – “goes around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” We can’t be careless. Be vigilant.

Ephesians 6:10 says, “Get your armor on, friends; you’re in a battle.” Now, if you want to run around naked, you’re going to have problems. Philippians 4:8 gives you a great principle. Whatever’s true and honest and lovely and pure” – do what? – “think on those things.” And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:4, “For the weapons of our warfare are not material but” – what? – “spiritual,” to the tearing down of strongholds. Not only can we be victorious over Satan, we can rip his kingdom apart in the power of the Spirit of God.

Christian, I say to you, when you love Jesus Christ, and when you walk in the Spirit, Satan cannot touch you. Fear not. In fact, count yourself victorious.

To the rest of you I say this, you better fear. If you don’t know Jesus Christ, you have no way of escape. You cannot defense yourself against black magic, white magic – you can’t defense yourself against demons. Jesus said to the religious leaders of Israel, “You are of your father the Devil.”

Paul said to the Ephesians, “Your life is run by the prince of the power of the air” – Satan himself.

And I say to you, you better be afraid. You better be scared to death, because you have no defense. And if you confess your sin and turn to Jesus Christ and receive Him as Savior, Satan is defeated. See?

Let me read you something; a beautiful, wonderful account; listen to it. This was in Focus on Youth magazine put out by Young Life. Listen. “Perhaps the reality of Satan can best be expressed by one who has been there. Following is a personal experience of Koney, a 24-year-old ex-Satanist from Berkeley, California.

“‘My involvement in a witch thing came partly as a result of trying to get off drugs. I started reading Domains of the Devil. I already believed in supernatural forces, and Satan seemed like a powerful being to me. The book made sense. I thought what it had to offer would take the place of drugs and maybe even straighten out my head.

“‘The dude I was living with knew a witch who had been into it for a long time. She was enthusiastic about my background; felt I could become a familiar – quote – under her. Since she was responsible to Elge, a demon of destruction, she was going to teach me to destroy.

“‘At first it was all memory work. We weren’t allowed to get any books on our own; the whole spiritual thing seemed real and exciting. I got insights into why man does things that he does. I began to develop what seemed like a close relationship to Satan. I had a feeling of power to do what he wanted me to do. I wasn’t afraid at all; I dug it. And besides that, I was off drugs. There were still temptations, but concentration on the new things I was learning kept me from turning on.

“‘Then came the day of my first black mass. It was a mockery of the Roman Catholic mass. The priest called “The Goat” led the assembly in chants and meditations. People performed perverted sexual acts. A girl named Jan sacrificed her baby, burning it alive. And me, I was one of six up for approval by Satan. For a week we had a special herb diet designed to dry us out. Before the mass there was a big dinner of selected foods which made my whole body tingle. The whole thing was a big deal: would we make it or not?

“‘How I wanted to work for Satan. I was told that when I died I would be a demon to possess people. The giving of this gift really excited me, and I wanted to die so I could be a demon right away. While I lived, my job was to literally blow people’s minds. My witch taught me that the best tool is to get people stoned on drugs and then play games with their heads. She also taught me to hurt people deliberately. I succeeded with one guy named Steve. He’s still in a mental hospital.

“‘It was also my job to get more people into Satan worship. My witch had me as a favorite and got me far into her craft. She laid on me lots of subtle ways to get into people’s heads. It was smooth to feel Satan’s power.

“‘Then, suddenly, one morning everything in my head flashed back to the beautiful people I had known in high school and college. Why was I now trying to destroy people? Suddenly Satan’s power was something I hated. This wasn’t it. I took to heroin, a new drug for me, and began riding with the Gypsy Jokers. What I dug about them was their beating up people, raping girls. Their lingered a sense of being under Satan’s power. I was sort of a back-slidden demon.

“‘There was an old high school friend and her husband who caught me off guard. They told me I didn’t have to look all my life for new ways to get power; they said God had a much better life for me if I would just take it. The thought of Christianity turned me off, but they shared with me their personal experience with a person. Jesus Christ wasn’t distant and inaccessible like I thought. They talked as if they knew Him.

“‘From then on, strange things began happening to me, and eventually I asked Jesus to come into my life. I lost my appetite for drugs. Two months later, reality began to replace fantasy. I felt a knew inner strength which enabled me to face life in a way I had never faced it before. God was healing my mind. The hardest thing is to keep from trying to use God’s power to meet my own needs, and I still have a long way to go.’”

That’s the only hope any man has is in Jesus Christ. That is the only hope. Listen to what He said, “I am the light of the world” – listen to it – “he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

Father, we thank You tonight that there is truth. We thank of the words of Isaiah. He said, “And when they say to you, ‘Consult the mediums and the wizards who peep and mutter,’ should not a people consult their God?”

Oh, we know that Satan, and witches, and hell, and demons, and ignorance, and bondage, and magic, and fear, and horoscopes, and Ouija boards, and everything else are creatures of the night. But we who love Jesus Christ are children of the day in whom there is no darkness.

O God, we thank You that we need not fear. We thank You that we stand victorious over all the forces of hell. And O God, we pray tonight that nobody will leave this place who hasn’t come to know and love Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.

God, we pray that You’ll tear people out of the shackles of the chains of Satan. Don’t give Satan one victory tonight. God, for that person here tonight wrestling with coming to Jesus Christ, may they realize that you don’t choose to be on a side or not; you only choose which one you’re on; you’re either on Satan’s or God’s.

While your heads are bowed and you’re just thinking about what has been said tonight, I want to kind of zero it down in a very practical way. I’m so appreciative of your patience in this subject, but let me just close by just helping you to think through some of these things in your own life.

What I’ve said to you tonight I’ve said out of a heart of real concern, because there’s some of you who’ve never come to Jesus Christ, and you don’t have any defense. Satan’s tearing you up. It may not be as blatant as it appears here in these cases we’ve talked about tonight, but just give him time. And he only wants to destroy you.

And maybe tonight, deep down in your heart, you sense something saying to you, “I don’t want that. I want to be on God’s side.” Earnest me tell you what to do. Right now, in the silence of your heart, just quietly whisper a prayer silently to God, and He’ll hear every word. Just say this, “God, I want to be on Your side. I want to come to You through Jesus Christ. Forgive my sin; accept me for Jesus’ sake.” Can you say that? Go ahead, silently just pray that. “Accept me for Jesus’ sake.”

Did you pray that prayer? Did you say, “Lord Jesus, I want to be on Your side? I want to have the victory. I don’t want to be under Satan’s bondage.

Father, we thank You that it’s our opportunity now to leave this place, not because it’s over, but because it’s only begun. Lord, You know there’s a world out there of people who are captives to Satan. God, burden our hearts with setting the captives free with the gospel of Jesus Christ, as we have been free indeed.

And those who might be leaving tonight, Father, who don’t know Jesus Christ, give them unrest. Disturb their hearts until they find their peace in Christ. Thank You for our fellowship today. Bless even the fellowship that awaits us as we are dismissed in Christ’s name, Amen.