Posted on 08/14/2023 10:40:40 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
Netty has been practising magic for 16 years. She cast a spell to get her current job in banking. She credits other spells with securing subsequent salary raises. She once used a spell to make her boss like her more. Another bagged her the love of her life, seven years ago. She still has the honey jar she used for it – into which she put herbs, a petition and a Corona bottle cap he’d discarded. (She assures me he knows about it.) Raised a Catholic, Netty has not completely reneged on the faith, nor does she see any conflict in casting spells and praying to saints. You might call her a Christian witch. You might be surprised to know there are thousands of them.
Organised religion is in decline. In Western countries, growing numbers are turning their backs on the Church. Thousands of churches shutter each year, faced with dwindling congregations and funds. The 2021 census on religion in England and Wales alarmed many: for the first time since its advent in 1801, less than half the population described themselves as Christian, down from 72 per cent two decades ago. Those ticking “no religion”, the second-most common response, soared to 37.2 per cent. The UK is now, statistically speaking, one of the least religious countries in the world.
Across the Atlantic, the story is similar. In 2020 less than half of Americans belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, the first time congregants slid below the majority in Gallup’s eight-decade study. The holy current in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe is flowing in the same direction.
(Excerpt) Read more at newstatesman.com ...
You can’t raise a Christian. They have to decide for themselves. Just because you visited a garage once in a while does not make you a car.
God made the rules, only He can alter them.
The real sin of witchery is trying to replace God with oneself. "Thou shalt have no strange gods before Me" ... especially not yourself.
And, worse: Only one road leads to the top, while the rest are descents into hell itself.
I disagree most strongly, and your analogy is flawed.
If you are a Christian, you can and should train your children to be Christians. They may reject the Truth at some point but you, their father or mother, are absolutely required to teach it to them.
Visiting a garage, once, doesn't make you an auto mechanic. That comes with teaching and learning. Visiting a church once doesn't make you a Christian. That comes with teaching and learning.
Matthew 28:16-20 begins at home.
“Gen Z’s have a habit of believing very strange things.”
We believed the Bush family.
I was being a smart***.
I’m familiar with Tolkien and his buddy CS Lewis.
My top 3 novels, in no order, Dune, LotR, and 1984.
Train up a child. This does NOT guarantee they will become a Christian, unfortunately. There is still free will.
Are we supposed to train up a child? Of course. But EXCPECTING some thing to happen the bible does not say is wrong.
Note, in Revelation, we are waned to take nothing away from scripture OR add anything to it. This is why “systems” of belief like Calvinism are wrong. The bible does not need any “help” what it needs is people to take it as the living Word of God and stop adding or subtracting from it to suit our own ends.
Please observe that I already addressed that issue.
Are we supposed to train up a child? Of course.
Please observe that I already addressed that issue as well.
But EXCPECTING some thing to happen the bible does not say is wrong.
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
We have nothing He needs. We can give nothing that is not already His due. There is no way He can "owe us one". It makes for a very uncomfortable relationship in the natural.
So people come up with little "gods" that they can boss around.
And that is when it gets dangerous.
I suspect Rowling’s statement was an exercise in revising history to get her invited to the cocktail parties with the “big names.” She got some painful lessons later when she expressed an opinion that was against their dogma.
Exactly.
Many many years ago, while she was a minor, a niece asked me if I knew who Aleister Crowley was. My shocked answer was that she shouldn't know who he was and told her in no uncertain terms why. Since then she served time for possession of methamphetamine and lost custody of her baby. We haven't had anything to do with her whole extended family for years.
Things are out of sight, out of mind for most people.
Something the word of faith prosperity gospel people need to hear.
Isaiah 53:6 For each one of us, like sheep have gone our own way.....
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God...
Now, since ALL have sinned, then how can Proverbs 22:6 make a case for salvation of children by training? Has no one ever trained up their child?
That does not mean you should not school your children in the ways of the Lord, and be an example of Christian living.
If training children was sufficient to save the world, the Son of God would not have needed to ransom us with his blood.
However, there is a tension, because all things are possible with God...the intercession of parents in prayer is powerful. But children STILL have a sin nature, and free will. God did not make puppets, He made people.
Please re-read my Post #44. Please note my comment that children are able to reject the Truth.
I think you are finding disagreement where none exists.
The “Blab It and Grab it!” Crowd!?
I came out of that 25 yrs ago.
Agree.
is gen z the ones that grew up with Harry Potter craze?
“you can and should train your children to be Christians”
I disagree.
yes your following sentence trys to give correction, but this sentence above as you wrote it, is incorrect/unbiblical.
it needs the word “like” before “Christians”. without it, you are stating someone can make some one else a christian.
“Visiting a church once doesn’t make you a Christian. That comes with teaching and learning.”
teaching and training does not make one become a christian.
it’s an individual choice involving the person and however the Trinity of God chooses to present itself to that person in a way they can no longer resist. May take a lifetime or may take a few seconds. God gets to choose.
but yes, churches have become big business with all it’s teaching and training while millions still hang onto portions of their old self, as do many preachers.
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