For Christendom: Overcoming the Spells of Dark Magic in Our Society

joshjenkins116, Taking Every Thought Captive, August 2020

There was a time in my life where I bought the line of thinking that said it was better for American Christianity to die so that Christianity could really thrive in persecution or total secularism. That was dumb. In Russell Moore’s book Onward he talked about how the cultural Christianity in the Bible belt of America is falling, so we should let it fall and burn, and clap our hands about it. As it turns out, Russell Moore said that not because He wanted to replace cultural Christianity with Biblical Christianity, but because he wanted to replace cultural Christianity with democratic policies. Unfortunately, there was a time where I actually taught through this book at my church in Sunday school many years ago. For that, I am sorry. 

Obviously we want all the things that are not Christian about American Christianity to die, but we don’t burn down the actual Christianity in the process. Or America. Christians are reformers, not revolutionaries. Christians are to reform and build upon what was handed to them, not burn it all to the ground because someone somewhere who had a part in building it was a big bad meanie. That’s what the little Marxists do.

The fact is, for all you young Christians who think it’s cool to criticize the cultural Christianity of what’s left of the Bible belt (of whom I once was), cultural Christianity filled with false converts is better than total secularism. That is not to say that cultural Christianity filled with false converts is the end goal, it is to say that it’s better than total secularism where nobody professes to be a Christian. Yes, we can say that some things are better than other things. This is one of those things. Now let me substantiate.

Cultural Christianity filled with false converts is better than total secularism because total secularism is demonic. There is actually no such thing as secularism. It is a myth. Religious people cannot be secular, and we are all religious people, like it or not. It’s not a matter of religion versus non-religious. It’s a matter of which god you will serve. So when a society goes “secular,” it often goes demonic. It is interesting to note that Hollywood elites claim to be so modern, scientific, rational, etc. They mock orthodox religion and the supernatural, yet they participate in Satanic cult rituals. Now, when some of that gets out from time to time, they will deny the supernatural and call it expressions of art; but calling it art doesn’t change what it is: barbaric paganism.

Secularism rejects the True and Living God, but not religion. So it must embrace other gods. Often it is the demonic. This is a growing phenomenon in the West. Secularism has produced a society that rejects the True and Living God, but not demons (although they will not always call them demons).

As our society goes more and more secular, and thus demonic, the Church must be prepared. We must embrace the supernatural worldview that the Bible presents without embarrassment or apology. There are more demons and angels at play in the events of the world than we could ever realize. Unlike the secularists, we don’t just believe demons are real. We also believe in angels. And those angels are commissioned by the thrice holy God of Heaven and Earth to be some of His agents in this world. Of course, its not just about angels vs. demons. It’s about the God-Man, the enfleshed Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth. At His command demons must go. We must remember that one of the signs of the Kingdom of God is the casting out of demons. I’m not talking about exorcisms, I’m talking about the earth. One of the reasons the West hasn’t seen as much visibly supernatural demonic activity as other parts of the globe, is because there have been lots of Christians and churches here professing the name of Jesus Christ. If that lessens, we cannot be surprised if the demonic returns.

Despite the dark days we may be entering into, we must remember that the light has come into the world, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. His name we confess.

As Western Christians we must embrace the supernatural worldview of the Bible because that supernatural worldview prepares us to overcome demonic times; but we must recognize it for what it is. I recommend you read On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius to hear him describe how the gospel of the Kingdom overcome the demonic in his time.

We are not dealing with scientific people who are committed to the facts and will be persuaded by the laws of logic. We are dealing with people who have religious commitments. One example is the abortion clinics. There is plenty of footage online of Christians ministering outside abortion clinics where a “doctor” (or better yet, a witch doctor) comes out and literally acts like a demon toward the Christians. I’ve seen doctors do things like hiss, scream, and shout a single word repeatedly, along with strange physical movements like they are being tossed around like a rag doll. Watch a video like that and you will quickly see that saying “hey, don’t you know you will kill your baby if you have an abortion” will only make the demons lash out and say “yes and I love it!” Evil laugh, torturous screams, and all.

So if they have their religious commitments, we must have ours. We should’ve stuck to ours in the first place, but there is still time for repentance. Christians must reject the humanistic, materialistic, Darwinian worldview, under which the demonic hides. As the society throws off the last vestiges of Christian culture and worldview, it will embrace its own demonic worldview hiding under these innocent sounding terms.

What is the demonic worldview? It is a worldview based upon superstition and dark magic. Their doctrines and values are not based upon objective truth or laws of logic, but upon superstition. Now, because the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, they will not call it superstition for that would be too embarrassing. Instead, they will steal from the Christians and call it “science.” And they will call their dark priests who administer this supersti- I mean science – the “professionals.” The “professionals” and “experts” are the priests because they have the special knowledge between the source of their superstitious science and the people. They are the mediators between this special knowledge and the people. No one else can know what they know unless you go through their special religious ceremonies to be ordained (licensed) and approved by the board of elders. So listen to the professionals you peasants!

One of the tools of the demonic worldview is dark magic. They will use dark magic to cast spells. One of the ways they cast spells is by repeating a phrase to create a “reality.” In other words, if they chant something enough times, they believe they can speak it into existence. For example we have men who tell us over and over again that they are women and that their pronouns are she/her. They are very serious and they keep telling us this over and over. When a man keeps trying to tell you that he is a woman, be warned that he is attempting to cast a spell on you. No matter how many times he says it, don’t believe it. It’s dark magic.

For serious Christians, this just looks like silliness. But a simple observation of the society will make it clear that many people are being cast under the “transgender spell.” That is because this dark magic is enticing to all the wrong people. After all, if you can just say something enough times, people will believe you. Planned Parenthood tries to cast spells via their Twitter page all the time. The power of this dark magic is attractive to people who have been trained through humanistic Darwinian materialism to believe that there is not a creator God who sits above the heavens and governs all things. Sine they reject that God, they have found a power that they think can make them god.

While the power of dark magic is real, it is a lesser and a defeated power. And a society that tries to cover their dabblings (or more than that) into the dark supernatural with Darwinian evolution will collapse on itself. 

The power of Jesus of Nazareth who speaks the world into being and is Himself the speech of God has already overcome the demonic. Jesus is the Logos. He is the Word made flesh. Words are powerful. The words wielded to cast dark magic spells are stolen and twisted. They are cheap and twisted imitations of the God of words. Indeed, the Triune God spoke this world into existence with His Words. It is His Word speaking that keeps everything together that you can see, and everything that you can’t. The difference is that dark magic lies. It is a twisted copy of the speaking God. It speaks only falsehoods and things that actually cannot be. The True and Living God cannot lie. He speaks only truth, because He is the truth. He speaks everything in to existence that actually is. When God makes a person and calls her a woman, she actually is. The thing is, we do live in a supernatural world of speech, God’s speech.

Satan and his minions wish to be god, and so make their fake copies. Some are easier to spot than others. Of course the man with a deep voice and bulging muscles in a dress and makeup is an easy fake to spot. When a professor says “2+2, abracadabra, = 5” that is also pretty easy to spot. But in a total secularized world, the simple becomes difficult for those who have not sought refuge in the Word, Jesus Christ. For those who don’t know His Words, the True Words, the fakes are harder to spot, and the spells easier to fall under. Such explains where all the sanity has gone. 

But we must not concede the power of words to the enemy. The power of words does not belong to dark magic. It belongs to the Word whose word of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Words have power to save. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of Christ, the apostle Paul tells us in Romans. The apostle Peter knew it as well when he confessed to Christ, “Lord…you have the words of eternal life.” We have the true powerful words. The Words of the gospel are stronger than dark magic spells. The words of the gospel can wake spell bound sleepers, because the words of the gospel raises dead people back to life.

The True Speech is the rightful owner of all things. And since the earth itself is also His – His very speech – it will not comply with the lies of dark magic. They can run to the forests and the caves to partake in their rituals and do what they do, but the forests and caves will give them up. The forests and caves are spying on them, they see what they do. They will not get away with it. The world will not comply with the dark magic, for just as there are real demons (fallen angels), there are real angels (servants and messengers of God – agents in this world).

So we can be sure, that however long this secular/demonic power grab is, it will be short. The true words will overcome the false words. The gospel word will defeat the dark magic words. The real will outlast the twisted imitation.

This is God’s world because, in the first century, after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the loud voices in heaven were saying that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. This Christ rides forth throughout the kingdoms of the earth with a sword coming out of His mouth conquering the nations. This sword coming out of His mouth that strikes down the nations is His gospel word. As such, it strikes down, and raises up again, as He did Himself. And what He raises up is glorious.