Posted on 12/17/2004 3:50:57 AM PST by Salman
... Why did you become a pagan? ‘Oh,’ Steve leant back and stretched. ‘When I was young, I was a Christian, but I couldn’t take the idea that good people like Buddhists, for instance, are going to Hell. Then I met someone who was involved in the Fellowship of Isis, and the idea of the goddess just started making sense to me. But everybody finds their own way,’ he said. ‘I mean, 9,000 teenagers became Wiccan witches in England because of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ What!? ‘It’s true,’ said Steve. ‘When Buffy’s friend Willow became a lesbian witch, the WiccaUk website went mad, and 4,500 of the new young witches have stayed pagan ever since. It’s the future!’
Steve went to the loo and I flicked cautiously through his copy of The Witchtower. An article on Animal Spirit Guides by Janet Robson ended with something called an ‘Affirmation’:
I recognise my true beauty within; I value and cherish all that I am. I have the power to transform my life. To experience true joy.
It sounded dismally familiar. Like every self-help book, and most after-dinner conversations in Camden. On Monday David Hope, the Archbishop of York, said that he would find it difficult to describe England as a Christian country, and he’s right — we’re all really pagans already. Nearly everybody I know is a keen believer in ‘some sort of energy’ and that basking in it will lead to ‘healing’. They take it for granted that you’re more likely to hit on the truth by making up your own spiritual rules than through orthodoxy, that abstinence is unhealthy, monotheism narrow-minded and a belief in original sin a sign of mental illness. That your personality is determined by your star sign is, however, regarded as common sense....
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.co.uk ...
... The nearest thing Wicca witches have to a creed is a prose poem called ‘The Charge of the Goddess’ written for Gerald Gardner by a woman called Doreen: ‘If that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee.’ You’d have a tough time finding anyone in the country who disagreed.
So it it in the UK these days, but also in parts of the USA.
"The kingdom of heaven is within you"
As an atheist, I have to agree. I have much more respect for the orthodox than the liberal Christians who are just going through the motions.
All forms of paganism boil down to one thing: the worship of nature. It comes in the form of exalting trees, plants, animals, weather, astronomical objects, etc. The wiccan movement, druidism, astrology and the most radical tenets of the environmnental movement are forms of paganism.
St Paul the Apostle once wrote of pagans: "Behold they have exchanged the Truth for a lie and worshipped the creation rather than the Creator."
(Rom 1:18 KJV) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
(Rom 1:19 KJV) Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.
(Rom 1:20 KJV) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
(Rom 1:21 KJV) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
(Rom 1:22 KJV) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
(Rom 1:23 KJV) And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
(Rom 1:24 KJV) Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
(Rom 1:25 KJV) Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
(Rom 1:26 KJV) For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
(Rom 1:27 KJV) And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
(Rom 1:28 KJV) And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
(Rom 1:29 KJV) Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
(Rom 1:30 KJV) Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
(Rom 1:31 KJV) Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
(Rom 1:32 KJV) Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Our Episcopal Church had a guest speaker in last week to deliver a sermon on the Religion of Environmentalism. I was really not looking forward to it, figuring it would be more of the "praying to the god in the rock" animist BS you see so much of in modern theology. But I was pleasantly surprised. Basically his two points were that natural beauty helps people perceive the presense of God and that love of your fellow man required the remediation of acute environmental hazards such as toxic waste sites in impoverished residential neighborhoods.
All in all, it was a remarkably well thought-out and cogent sermon. I told the fellow afterward that I was really dreading his visit, but that it was not what I expected.
I am NOT of the ancient Roman religion, therefore I refuse to call next month January, named after Janus. In fact, Christians should demand that they change all names of all the months. To what? hmmm First month, Second month,....
And I don't worship the sun or the moon either. We must change the names of the days of the week from SUNday, MOONday and those other guys like Thor's day, Saturn Day,... Until we come up with something acceptable, it will be Firstday, Seconday, .....
Anything about sin and the need of the Saviour in your life?
"I am very spiritual, just not religious."
"I believe in a higher power, but not in God per se."
"I believe that there is an afterlife; but it is different for everybody, depending on what their own personal beliefs are."
That last one galls me the most. Liberals like to believe that reality itself changes to fit the special needs of each individual. This makes sense coming from those who still blindly believe that a socialist utopia is the path to world peace and enlightenment, despite all evidence to the contrary. Practically every liberal I know spouts the same nonsensical tripe when asked about their belief in an afterlife.
Liberals, most of whom truly despise religion, still feel the need to bend over backwards to prove their open-mindedness by claiming to be "spiritual". When pressed, that spirituality always seems to boil down to a belief in nothing. Nothing at all.
Bears repeating, and memorizing, in this day and age.
Well, we get that every week, as part of the liturgy. That wasn't really the focus of this particular sermon.
Reality can be jolting when our misconceptions bump up against it.
I wonder if they think they can stick screwdrivers into electric outlets, too.
The Kingdom of Heaven within you is conditional on a few things, and they are the Lord's conditions, not ours.
There is a diffence, and there's the difference.
These kinds of debates can be rather fruitless. The proof is in the pudding so-to-speak. A true, Biblical Christian, a follower; a disciple of Jesus, will indeed be Christ-like and will be self-controlled, full of peace and grace, and joy, despite any circumstances that life may bring. And since none of us here really can see into each others hearts - what we all really know in the deepest parts of ourselves, then all we can do is either pretend to look happy to everyone else, or truly be happy. Personally, in all my years, I have not yet seen anyone who is not faithful in Christ be truly at peace. That is just my observation.
that was part of my point.
His be fiendy through the environment sermon has nothing to do with the Gospel. :)
We often have lunch to discuss the events of the day and argue religion. He says that popular culture of hell is not a creation of the bible but of later writers. The hell of the bible is Separation from God. That is non existance. Therefore a buddist when he dies is like a dog or a cat....he just ceases to exist and is not close to God and not immortal. Same would go for the garden variety non believer. The lake of fire is reserved for your Saddams.
I find that many of the idiot liberals I talk to have a primary premise which is false. Unfortunately they will not listen to a discussion about that....or really any argument that disagrees with their "religion"
I recognise my true beauty within;
I value and cherish all that I am.
I have the power to transform my life. To experience true joy.
Lucifer thought he was beautiful, loved and cherished himself and thought he had the power to transform his own life, indeed to become his own god. Did not do him much good.
Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the most High.
‘If that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee.’
That is false.
Salvation is a gift from God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son. God and Jesus are "external", and completely independent of us or anything we do, not something you find within yourself. If you find Jesus THEN the Kingdom of God can dwell within you.
John 15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
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