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by Linda Nathan  “Robots are performing Hindu rituals — some devotees fear they’ll replace worshippers.”[1] Religion Hub, ANS Religion News Service. By Holly Walters, March 13, 2023. Hindu ritual robots? AI Jesus? [1] Really? Is there an “AI spirituality”? The biotech industry is exploding with ways to improve aging and performance and transcend our humanness. Many scientists are willing to go to extreme lengths to accomplish these ends by using such converging technologies as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science. There’s no denying it. Robots are helpful in industry, and AI can write an essay, create a good book cover, and even win a war. An artificial leg, arm, or new heart can be a great blessing. We all want to overcome aging, but many transhumanists have a far greater goal. They hope to escape death and live eternally through the merger of humans and artificial intelligence. In other words, to become “post-human beings.” [2] Dr. Martin Erdmann in his book, The Spiritualization of Technology: The Quest for Human Perfection (Verax Vox Media, 2022) rightly refers to its practitioners as “technicians of transcendence.”[3] And these “technicians” have increasingly powerful platforms in this world today. AI is suddenly everywhere; robots are moving into new spheres of industry and daily living, and of course there’s the military—whose secrets we mostly can only imagine. But something else is happening too. AI is moving into religion as well. We might have expected that it’s already being used to rewrite the Bible, [4] and it’s bringing a new-old spirituality with it. One that’s been around a long, long time. One place we can see that spirituality at work is in Hindu devotees and their robots. AI Spirituality The quote at the beginning of this article comes from another article that focuses on the use of robots and AI in religious ceremonies. It points out that their use works best in the type of religion that focuses on perfecting practice and not on belief. In other words, it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’ve got the method down right and do your best. In the case of Hinduism, “a robotic arm performs ‘aarti,’ a ritual in which a devotee offers an oil lamp to the deity to symbolize the removal of darkness.” A variety of other religious robots perform similar types of tasks throughout East Asia and South Asia. Christians know this approach as salvation by works, or as the Apostle Paul warned, “another Gospel”: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:6-9 Accursed? Really? Isn’t that kind of extreme? Why would you be accursed just for trying to do your best? What’s wrong with that? What is Paul saying here? And why does it matter? Works vs. Grace Paul is making the life-shaping distinction between works and grace. Every religion in the world except Christianity practices a works-based religion: Do your best, be a “good” person, please your “god,” kill infidels, and you’re headed for Paradise. Ring those temple bells, hold that yoga posture longer, meditate more, connect your brain to the Cloud and transcend mere humanity. It’s all human-based. Only trouble is, have you ever tried to do your best—and failed? Tried over and over again? And failed? And failed again? Failed miserably? Given up? How many times have you turned that prayer wheel, burned that incense, and found no comfort? Have you ever done something against your conscience? What do you do with that guilt? Where do you turn? Do you suppress it? Harden your heart? Convince yourself through some form of “therapy” that it’s wrong to feel that way? Do more rituals of perfection? The Wheel of AI Spirituality You can be free from the wheel of AI spirituality, the treadmill of works to save yourself. No amount of effort can wash away real guilt or give you new life and freedom. Jesus Christ came to give real freedom. He alone can wash away your guilt, your bitterness, your pain, and your failures and wrongdoing. Only Christ can cleanse your conscience. Only Christ can really forgive and free you from that “AI spirituality”—that endless treadmill of trying to work off your guilt—with His peace, grace, and love. Only Christ can give new life. Works is an endless treadmill with no hope in sight. Grace is a free gift. All you have to do is accept it. Turn to Him now with all your burdens and ask Him to give you grace, peace, and new life. And He will. Salvation is the greatest miracle of all. If you have not yet experienced this miracle, why not now? The saving Gospel is simple to understand: We are all sinners, born in sin, rebels following the prince of the power of the air, the devil, and headed for hell. The wrath of God is on us until we repent and turn to Jesus Christ. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1–3. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Romans 1:18 God has provided the only solution to our terrible situation: We must repent of our sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, and be born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 How is one born again? But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Romans 10:8–11 But how do you get that kind of faith? Read the Bible and pray for the gift of saving faith in Jesus Christ. Pray for forgiveness for lacking it. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, John 1:12 We become new creations in Christ Jesus. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 All other avenues are doomed to fail and be buried with our human bodies for there is no other way to transcend our humanness and enter eternal life than the way God has ordained: to be born again through repentance of our sin and faith in Jesus Christ. (All Bible quotes are taken from the English Standard Version.) REFERENCES & SUGGESTED RESEARCH
NOTES [1] https://ifapray.org/blog/artificial-intelligence-takes-aim-at-the-bible/ [2] Erdmann, The Spiritualization of Technology, Kindle version, Location 84 of 10464. [3] Ibid. [4] https://ifapray.org/blog/artificial-intelligence-takes-aim-at-the-bible/ by Linda Nathan  Supposedly if people restore their ancient connections with the earth, The earth lies defiled Care for the environment ~ Climate change ~ Earth religion
What do these words all have in common? Earth Day! And it’s almost here. On Saturday, April 22, the United States will observe the 53rd annual Earth Day along with an enormous Earth Day network in around 184 countries worldwide. And this year's theme? Can you guess it? "Celebrate Diversity Month!" Originally founded in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin to highlight and promote environmental issues, the event has since become worldwide. The day focuses on many educational and community service aspects, including tree planting, pollution cleanup, and education about wildlife and the earth. “To its credit, the day has brought some major change in policy such as the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.”[i] But there is another, darker side of Earth Day though, as many widely celebrate it as a religious event, with invocations to the earth and celebrations of "oneness." A key element underlying these darkly religious views is the widespread use of marijuana and psychedelics for Earth Day closely aligns with what has become an international counterculture celebration known as “420 Day.” April 20 Global“ Marijuana ‘420’ Day" Celebration "420 Day" is pot culture slang for celebrating marijuana and hashish around 4:20 pm on April 20. The title arose when five California high school students designated it as their time to meet and take marijuana. Now such “hash bashes” take place all over North America and as far afield as Mexico City, London, Australia, Slovenia, and Cypress with events focused on liberalization and legalization. But despite its popularity and all the hype, marijuana can wreak devastating damage. Numerous studies and organizations are exposing its harmfulness to both adults and children. Our booklets, The Cross & the Marijuana Leaf and Psychedelic Seduction, available at Lighthouse Trails Publishing for only $1.95 each, thoroughly lay out the issues. See also AALM.info and Everybrainmatters.org. Earth Mysticism The widespread pagan religious movement going on now is not unique to our times, but it is unique in the dynamic and rapid way many Eastern and Western philosophies are continually converging and mutating into strange new hybrids. Following are some of the most common. Cosmic Evolutionary Thought. One of these major hybrids is the marriage of science and occultism into mystical evolutionary thinking and the new physics (based on Eastern religion. This popular view sees humanity as on the verge of a new evolutionary step leading to planetary salvation through a global civilization based on a single consciousness integrating all earth systems. The earth is seen as a "living organism" (sometimes called Gaia) that is developing a "global brain. "Achieving this global unity is now the focus of many, whose efforts range from shaping education to encouraging worldwide mass meditation. Lately, transhumanism has become a major part of this thrust. The search for meaning in both science and religion, the emptiness of purpose in materialism, and a desire for spiritual power all contribute to the popularity of this view. A flood of ideas and techniques now focuses upon this longed-for evolutionary leap of consciousness to personal godhood and the fulfillment of all desires. And Earth Day is the perfect rallying point. Here are a few glimpses into other of these metamorphosing philosophies that coalesce around Earth Day. Creation Spirituality. After his expulsion from the Roman Catholic Dominican Order, Matthew Fox was ordained by the Episcopal Church in 1994. He “urges Christians to move beyond a theology based on sin and redemption toward a “creation spirituality” with nature as the primary revelation.”[iii],[iv] Fox founded the University of Creation Spirituality in California and is known for his “Techno Cosmic Masses.” Eco-feminism / Feminist spirituality. Feminists love the idea of Mother Earth and of being goddesses themselves. Women's spirituality movements are exploding in North America, including within mainline Protestantism. What began in the 1960s as a women’s reform movement within established religions today is frequently linked with the rapidly emerging modern goddess or Gaia cult (more below). This approach to femininity generally resists Christian forms of earth stewardship and promotes the belief that non-Christian mystical experiences bring environmental awareness. The spiritual heart of the movement is a belief in women's divinity and spiritual and psychic powers.[v] Gaia, the Earth Mother. One popular form of pagan earth worship came from well-known atmospheric scientist James Lovelock more than 20 years ago—the concept of Gaia. “The premise of Gaian theory is that the Earth itself is a superorganism both living and divine.”[vi] Now some influential scholars see it as a new scientific model for the biological and environmental sciences.[vii],[viii] Native American spirituality. The rise of Native American spirituality and its spread, including throughout the Christian Church, is yet another example of the popularity of earth mysticism.[ix] The book Muddy Waters: An Insider’s View of North American Native Spirituality clearly contrasts the biblical view with the Native American view. The author, a Christian, is the daughter and granddaughter of medicine men. It’s available at Lighthouse Trails Publishing. The Bible’s View. The Bible though takes another, far less popular view about the problems with the earth. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Isaiah 24:5 (ESV) Robert Sirico of the Action Institute summed it up well in 1994: "There is no Commandment against littering, but there is a very straightforward one about worshiping false Gods"[x] *** Our novel, The Glittering Web, is a Christian thriller based on the true story of our own rescue from earth spirituality. We wrote it "so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." Ephesians 3:10–12 (ESV) ________________________________ ENDNOTES [i]https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/04/08/earth-day-wiki-history-why-important/ [ii]Kjos, Berit, Under the Spell of Mother Earth. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1992, 146. [iii]https://acton.org/public-policy/environmental-stewardship/eco-spirit/false-gods-earth-day [iv]https://www.jubileecommunity.org/who-we-are/what-is-creation-spirituality/ [v]Points 1 to 3 and this summary taken from article by Alison Lentini, Spiritual Counterfeits Project Journal on Gaia: A Religion of the Earth, Vol. 16:1, 1992, 21–22. [vi]Sirico, R. “The False Gods of Earth Day.” https://acton.org/public-policy/environmental-stewardship/eco-spirit/false-gods-earth-day [vii]Spiritual Counterfeits Project, P.O. Box 4308, Berkeley, CA 94704. See SCP Journal on Gaia: A Religion of the Earth, Vol. 16:1, 1991. [viii]http://nautil.us/blog/its-time-to-take-the-gaia-hypothesis-seriously [ix]See Muddy Waters: An Insider’s View of North American Native Spirituality, Lighthouse Trails Publishing. [x]https://acton.org/public-policy/environmental-stewardship/eco-spirit/false-gods-earth-day Photo by Casey Horner, Unsplash 
Is it Revival or deception? Are we quenching the Holy Spirit or being deceived? The Church has struggled with these questions for two thousand years, and as saints over the centuries have learned, there are often no easy answers. It can take time for the true nature of events to be revealed, for the true character of its participants to emerge, and for the true fruit of the Holy Spirit to become evident. Since the events of Asbury have unfolded, and The Chosen and Jesus Revolution launched, we've been hearing voices from all over the spectrum: "A great revival is breaking out!" "No! It's deception!" "Yes, it's real!" "No, the people are sinners!" And etc., etc. What's a Christian to believe? How do we discern? Carefully. The Lord saved us in 1976 amid a powerful revival in the Pacific Northwest in what many would consider a most unlikely place—a liberal Episcopal church in Oregon with very liberal pastors and an active gay community who proudly referred to themselves as the "once-born" and the "frozen chosen." Yet God chose it to save Linda from a scheduled hysterectomy by miraculously healing her of uterine cancer and then bringing us to new life in Christ. Ignorant of everything Christian, we plunged into the life of that church. Yet, despite much false teaching and open acceptance of sin, The Book of Common Prayer and the church's daily liturgy still promoted the Bible and the historical teachings of the 16th-century Reformation. The Holy Spirit thus slowly sanctified us through those powerful influences and the help of some godly people who took us under their wing. After several years, He moved us to another state, and we lost touch. Ten years later, Richard graduated from seminary, and the Lord moved us back to Oregon for a time. There we met an Episcopal minister who turned out to have been an interim minister at that church where God saved us. We listened with awe as he shared how the fire of the Holy Spirit had fallen after we left. The liberal pastors were all gone, along with about two-thirds of the congregation, leaving the remaining one-third humbled and hungry for God's Word, which he had taught them. Over the years since then, we've been involved in several churches wrestling with the Holy Spirit working to bring revival, and sad to say, both closed down rather than yield to the Spirit's moving and corrections. We've learned to be very careful in deciding too soon what is real revival, who will respond, and who is “really” saved or beyond redemption--and just what the Holy Spirit might or might not do. Practically all of Paul’s Epistles focus on correction because even in the midst of that great awakening in the early church, there was much that needed correction. We are a sinful, stiff-necked people and can expect the same need of correction in our day. So let’s keep trying to test and discern spirits, teachings, and behaviors, but humbly and while manifesting Christ's love. PRAYING INTO REVIVAL. Whatever is happening needs a lot of prayer. We with many others long for real soul-changing, nation-changing revival, so we'd like to recommend an excellent prayer guide from Intercessors for America called "Praying Into Revival." You can download it free at https://ifapray.org/promo/praying-into-revival/) Here are the guide’s key points: KEY PRAYER POINTS:
by Linda NathanAre angels real?  I peered out of the antique store at the fat white flakes that had begun falling only an hour ago. Foolishly, I had decided to spend more time browsing the stores in the picturesque Dutch town of Lynden, Washington, instead of heading home before dark. Now this sudden snowfall surprised me. It was early this year. As I quickly gathered my packages, I thought about the treacherous road home out of the valley into the Mount Baker foothills where we lived near the town of Maple Falls. In the best of weather it would take half an hour. But this was already the worst weather I’d seen in quite a while.
Alarmed, I began the long drive home in my old 1989 Volvo sedan amidst sleeting winds and gathering darkness. The stretch of open highway across the valley was bad enough—the winds rocked even my tank-like car. But I knew it was going to get far worse up ahead when I began climbing into the foothills on Reese Hill Road with its dangerous hairpin curve. It’s a beautiful drive in good weather, but in bad weather, its hairpin curve is very dangerous for it’s situated right where the highway turns steep. I pondered this for a while and prayed whether to attempt it or to go around another way. But any other way would take hours, and I needed to get home. My health was precarious, and my food and water were running low. At the time, I was recovering from a devastating breakdown of my immune system that had caused me to lose fifty pounds and nearly die. The ordeal had lasted over a year and a half, but by the grace of God I’d survived and was slowly improving. I was still quite sensitive to many foods and environmental conditions though. Today’s trip had been a special treat. I’d actually been able to endure the musty air in the antique shop without getting sick and bought some beautiful candleholders. But now my fling worried me. Maybe I’d been too hasty going so far from home in November. Then—there it was—just ahead, nearly lost in the blizzard. The road up into the foothills. As I began my ascent, the scene confronting me confirmed my worst fears. Peering through the snowstorm, I could see the hairpin turn up ahead and just beyond that, over a dozen cars that had failed to make the turn piled helter-skelter along its snowy banks. And I was already halfway up the first hill out of the valley. There was nowhere to turn around, and it was too late to turn back. I had to make a rapid decision. And I did. Grimly, I gunned the motor with a panicky burst of energy, hoping to make it past the stranded vehicles. But as I skidded into the icy curve, my Volvo spun out of control and lurched nose first to the right into a ditch under a large tree right on the cusp of the curve, its rear end pointing directly into the middle of the hairpin turn. Approaching cars could crash right into me, and every driver coming up the hill behind me seemed to have the same idea—to pour on the gas to make it around that curve. I was sure one would smash into me at any moment. Lord Jesus Christ, I gasped, my heart pounding in my throat. You said not to be anxious about anything . . . to lift our requests to you with praise and thanksgiving . . . Please rescue me, Lord! Within minutes, several men appeared who pushed the back end of my car out of the highway and into the ditch. My pounding heart slowed down, and I began to breathe more easily. The whole car now rested in the ditch, leaning sideways against the tree, but it was still protruding somewhat dangerously on the cusp of the curve. It was getting dark, visibility was low, and though the snowstorm was abating slightly, snow was piling up. Behind me traffic was still hurtling up the hill and skidding around that hairpin turn and into the snowbanks. But for the moment I was safe. And I had heat and lights. With a borrowed cell phone, I reached Triple A and also left a frantic call for prayer on a friend’s answering machine. There was nothing else I could do, so I settled in to read my Bible, pray, and wait. But as time passed and evening turned into a dark and ominous night, I grew antsy. My gas was running out and soon my heat and light would be gone. It would be cold—very cold. I needed food—and not just any food but my limited special diet. And Triple A had said it would be a long wait. I prayed. And praised the Lord. And prayed. And finally, receiving no sense of direction after hours, I decided I had to act. I thrust the Bible aside and made a desperate decision on my own. I would try to go back down the hill I had come up, then turn south across the valley floor. Probably by now that highway was snowed in, but if it weren’t, maybe I could cross the valley and reach the Mount Baker Highway. That would take me up to Maple Falls another much longer way—but, even assuming I made it safely back down the hill, it would be a roundabout and possibly dangerous trip that could take hours. If I made it at all… Okay. Enough of this, I thought. I can’t wait any longer. I have to act. I weighed my steps. First, I had to edge the car in reverse backward into the highway’s hairpin curve, then cautiously turn and aim down the hill—hoping no one suddenly roared up the icy hill out of the snowy night and crashed into me as I was turning on the curve. And then I had to maneuver down that icy hill. That had its own problems because there was a steep wooded ravine on one side of the road and a deep ditch on the other. Even a gentle skid on that icy road could slide me right into one gulch or the other. Risky. Or I could hit another car head on that was barreling blindly up the hill. Foolhardy. Stupid. Or I could plunge off the side of the road down to the valley floor… What was I thinking? But, I argued with myself, I was hungry and tired of waiting, and my heater was going to quit soon. I pondered, struggled, gripped the wheel, and prayed a final prayer. Then just as I turned on the ignition, two young men appeared at my window. The closest one had on a ski cap and a blue parka “We’ll lift your car out,” he said. “Once you’re on the road, just put it in low, accelerate, and keep going up the hill. You’ll be fine.” As I stared at them incredulously, a truck appeared, depositing a layer of gravel over the icy road. Then the Triple A tow truck arrived behind it. The man at my window repeated his instructions. What can I lose? I thought. Maybe it’ll work. It sounded a lot easier than my plan. I smiled. “Okay, thanks.” They each went to an opposite end of my car, and with one heave, it was out of the ditch and on the road, pointed uphill. I let out a deep breath, accelerated, and, sure enough, I was free! As I mounted the hill, I looked for the two men among all the cars in the snowbanks on the edge of the road to wave a thank you, but they had disappeared. Funny—I’d thought they’d be helping others. It seemed a little odd—after all, there was nowhere for them to go—but I just kept going and didn’t give it any further thought. That night I told my husband about my adventure. Richard eyed me, frowning slightly. “Did you say two young men lifted your car out of that ditch with one heave?” “Yes, that’s what happened.” “And you said they were slender? Slight build?” “Right, yeah. Pleasant looking guys. Kind of nondescript.” Richard stared at me. “Do you know that your Volvo weighs around three thousand pounds? Two of the world’s biggest weightlifters couldn’t lift it, let alone on an icy hill where it’s tilted sideways against a tree in a ditch.” It began to dawn on me what he was saying. God had answered my prayer for rescue. I hadn’t had to try to do it myself… We stared at each other, goose bumps rising. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Psalm 91:11 ESV Gandalf Lives! Jesus Lives! Authorby Richard Nathan  Full of curiosity and excitement, the young man wandered into one of the head shops springing up like weeds along San Francisco’s Haight Street. It was the early Sixties, and the shop was only one among many devoted to drug paraphernalia for LSD and marijuana. Its gaudy assortment of lights, crystal figurines, colored and flavored rolling papers, and flamboyant posters drew him on. Struck by the electric message of one poster, he halted. Scrolling in psychedelic style beneath the picture of a wizard the words, “Gandalf Lives!” leaped out. He studied it for a moment, vaguely reminded of a similar term describing Jesus Christ: “Jesus Lives!” But in his new philosophy born of the emerging LSD/Eastern religious culture, it seemed a proper twist. Yes, a wizard instead of Christ! Excitement and magic—not that “old rugged cross” stuff! That day, an interest was kindled to read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which, just like magic, the citizens of hippie town were already devouring. The world of elves, sorcerers, nature spirits, and witches soon filled his impressionable mind and blended seamlessly into the early LSD-New Age culture springing up like mushrooms after a rain of enchantment. And although he thought in the monistic terms of Hinduism, he wasn’t bothered by the apparent dichotomy of good and evil The Rings presented. After all, the books made “white” magic charming and the idea of a cosmic battle exciting. Theosophy, too, had its White and Black Brotherhoods—with “white” magic fighting “black” magic on the earthly plane. What else could the Brotherhood of the Ring be except the White Brotherhood?—proven (ever so romantically) by the figure of Gandolf, the wise magician who used his magic for “good” (white witchcraft). And then there were the elves, beautiful, graceful beings who moved effortlessly in supernatural, clairvoyant ways without a word about Jesus Christ or holiness or God’s abhorrence of strange fire. The world of witchcraft beckoned sweetly throughout the pages, its poison obscured by the exciting battle between what seemed “good” and what was obviously evil. As my wife Linda and I moved smoothly from LSD into occult fantasy and spiritualism, these same images peopled our world. There again we encountered the great adventure of the White Brotherhood with its Ascended Masters guiding us as we sallied forth to defeat the Black Brotherhood (i.e., black witchcraft or Satanism). * * * Many years have passed since Christ rescued us from that glittering web of deadly deception and brought us into the His Kingdom through His pre-eminent grace. The culture has changed immensely from that early, naïve time. I thought I was safe. Then I saw Evangelical Christians everywhere lauding The Lord of the Rings. What was going on? When I was enmeshed in darkness, did the Ring Chronicles bring me the Light of Christ? In all honesty, I must say they only increased my spiritual darkness by lending a cozy loveableness to witchcraft and nature spirits. Did a vague hint of the saving Gospel shine through to lead me out of darkness? No! There was no hint; rather, there was another gospel entirely—the gospel that it’s “heroism” that stands against evil! A professor at my seminary once talked about the difference between the Gospel approach to life and the Quest approach popularized by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth. This made startling sense to me of the strange dichotomies woven through the Middle Ages, where the medieval syncretism of Roman Catholicism, classical culture, and German paganism gave birth to chivalry—a peculiar amalgamation that justified being a “killer for Christ.” The Lord of the Rings springs from this same worldview, which has pushed today’s science fiction market into the fantasy realm and transformed the world of fiction. It has launched an avalanche of books and movies in the same genre, until we not only have sword and sorcery and speculative fiction, but Christian Fantasy, Christian Science Fiction, and Christian Futuristic Fiction (often apocalyptic). Furthermore, some popular and even Christian authors are now emphasizing disturbing elements common to pagan, occult, and secular novels.[i] It was to combat this avalanche that we wrote The Glittering Web and our Omega Point Series.[ii] “Mere Neo-paganism” It must be said: The promotion of a worldview that reduces the struggle of humanity to a battle between white and black magic is nothing more than neo-paganism. And this worldview is a flood that undiscerning Christians are consuming in great draughts today. Media ministries are promoting it, and discernment ministries, which should be pointing it out, are lauding it instead. Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission and publisher and editor-in-chief of MOVIEGUIDE(r): A Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment, stated many years ago: The movie also includes a brief occult element not in the book. Happily, however, the filmmakers have left in plenty of Christian author J. R. R. Tolkien's biblical, metaphorical Christian references. In doing this, they have fashioned a masterful blend of fantasy and adventure that has positive Christological implications.[iii] Recent opinion polls have ranked The Lord of the Rings as one of the most popular literary works of this century.[iv] * * * Where is the clear voice speaking to the crucial issues of the day with distinctly biblical, Christian answers? With tears we must say it is not there and that a large segment of the evangelical world has become seduced by the world spirit of this present age. –Francis Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1984, p. 14. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8) * * * [i] For more on this topic, see the following articles by Richard and Linda Nathan:
[ii] Read “Glorifying the Savior / Exposing Deception: Why We Wrote The Omega Point Series. Richard and Linda Nathan (3/8/21 on this blog). [iii] Baehr’s organization states that “MOVIEGUIDE(r) and the Christian Film & Television Commission are non-profit organizations dedicated to redeeming the values of the entertainment media according to biblical principles by influencing industry executives and by equipping the public to be active, media-wise consumers.” [iv] From “Influences on The Lord of the Rings: The Impact of the Lord of the Rings.” Online at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/influences.html Actually, there’s nothing “brief” about the book's occult elements. The entire worldview illustrates it. Photo by Tim Rebkavets on Unsplash  By Linda Nathan
When I grew up during the nineteen forties and fifties, Halloween was just a day at the end of October where we dressed up, ate popcorn and caramel apples, and collected candy from neighbors. Once I tried knocking on doors a day early and received green tomatoes. But that was it--we had no fears of being poisoned or of finding glass in our candy. I made one of my favorite costumes from my mother's metallic-looking silver diet suit that was supposed to melt the pounds off while she exercised. I don't think it worked because she gave it to me, and it made a fantastic space suit. A plastic space helmet with bags for air tanks completed the effect, along with green cotton gloves with green thread sewn between the fingers for webs. It didn't scare anybody, but it sure was fun. The horrific and demonic were almost unknown in my West Seattle neighborhood. And as television was still relatively new—we young kids used to gather at a neighbor's house in the afternoons to watch The Lone Ranger—there were no ghastly cartoons or demonic rock groups to trouble our fun—or our sleep. If there were a few monsters, you could sometimes see the zippers down their backs. It wasn't long, though, before Hollywood started getting professional about horror. I still remember the terrible nightmares I experienced for weeks after watching the original War of the Worlds movie in 1953 when I was twelve. It wasn't until many years later that Jesus Christ freed me from the demons that harassed me from that movie. Things began to change in major ways during and after the Sixties. And they changed for me too. My dad's sister was a spiritualist, and some years earlier, she'd introduced me to a few of her occult practices and given me a subscription to an occult magazine. She also convinced my mother and me to join her in a séance before I left for college. I started to become involved with evil, and it wasn't just "pretend" evil. It led to 14 years of deep involvement in psychedelics, spiritualism, and the New Age Movement. (For the full story, read Glorifying the Savior / Exposing Deception: Why We Wrote The Omega Point Series). At the same time, horror and evil were becoming both popular and profitable in our culture. One important way it spreads is through the imagination, such as cartoons that we kids ate up and that kids still do. If it was "imaginative," it had to be okay. Sadly, Disney hasn't turned out to be the harmless fun it seemed at first. Fantasia, created to promote Mickey Mouse, not only blended animated imagery with classical music it also included vivid scenes of evil dominating good. One section that haunted Richard for years (a young boy when he saw it) was its depiction of Mussorgsky's "The Night on Bald Mountain," in which a gigantic rampaging Satan overpowered a tiny church. Even though Richard was raised as an atheist, the sheer overpowering visual evil was terrifying. Many years later, after he became a Christian, Jesus Christ sent those demons to flight. (When Richard went to seminary in the 1980s, one of his studies was on the theology of children's cartoons. The results weren't pretty, for by that time evil was coming in like a flood.) Three Major Stages in the Downfall of a Nation Dr. Mark Bubeck, in his book, The Satanic Revival[1], lists three major stages in the downfall of a nation, which he determined from studying God's actions in the Old Testament: The coming psychedelic renaissance has its roots in both the laboratory and jungle. It is both scientific and shamanic.  (Short portions of the following article are excerpted from the new booklet, Psychedelic Seduction: Drugging the Church, by Richard and Linda Nathan, coming fall 2021 through Lighthouse Trails Publishing.)
A “psychedelic renaissance” is exploding across America. Why is it happening? What does that mean? Is it helpful or harmful? The psychedelic movement began in 1938 when Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered LSD. Within a short time, therapists were using it on their patients and the CIA was using it in mind control experiments in the Cold War. When Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary popularized his LSD experiments in the early ‘60s, it launched the American counterculture revolution. By 1970, its dangers were apparent, and the Federal Drug Administration labeled LSD a dangerous Schedule I drug, along with heroin, marijuana, Ecstasy, methaqualone, and peyote. (This means these drugs have "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”) That didn’t stop efforts to legalize these drugs though, which went underground for decades. But now with the War on Drugs fading and marijuana legalization breaking old barriers, those efforts are bearing fruit. Powerful interests in our society are releasing them on a massive scale at breakneck speed, and they likely will be reclassified soon. Meantime, huge paradigm shifts are occurring in major areas like medicine, psychiatry, business, and politics. What does psychedelic mean? The term refers to drugs “capable of producing abnormal psychic effects (such as hallucinations) and sometimes psychotic states.” (Merriam-Webster, online) It includes LSD, Mescaline, Peyote, and high-THC concentrate marijuana and its dangerous imitations, Spice, K2, and Kratom, as well as the “magic mushroom” (psilocybin), Ayahuasca/DMT, and designer drugs like MDMA (Ecstasy) and RAVE. Psychedelics manipulate ordinary consciousness by affecting the senses, altering thinking, time sense, and emotions, and changing perception, mood, and cognition. They can (and often do) produce hallucinations, deceptive mystical states, and psychosis. The goal of this “renaissance” "The ultimate goal is the legalization of psychedelic drugs. … social transformation and spirituality and liberation."[2] Once we become Christians, God begins transforming us from a pagan (rebellious, anti-God) mind to a Bible-based, Holy Spirit-led mind (Ephesians 2; Romans 1–14, 12:2). Psychedelics can create terrible turmoil by unleashing powerful imagery that can blur or erase the lines between fantasy and reality, and imagination and truth. The underlying spiritual nature and foundation of the psychedelic experience is paganism, which rejects the Divine creator God and deifies creation (Romans 1:21–23), eventually seducing users with the idea that we are all gods. Therefore, this so-called renaissance is not liberation at all but basically a return to paganism for these drugs unlock the portals of sorcery (witchcraft). The New Testament word for sorcery is the Greek term pharmakeia, which is the root of our word pharmacy—a dispensary of drugs. Deuteronomy 18:9–12 shows that God hates sorcery. ”Aliens and god-like entities.” Another dangerous aspect of psychedelics involves the encounters users frequently have with what psychedelic therapist Daniel McQueen calls ”aliens and god-like entities.” The Bible calls these entities demons and warns about this warfare in Ephesians chapter 6:10-18. Psychiatrist Rick Strassman studied DMT research subjects extensively and found at least half had encountered an entity after taking DMT. He reports, "I was neither intellectually nor emotionally prepared for the frequency with which contact with beings occurred in our studies, nor the often utterly bizarre nature of these experiences…. Their business appeared to be testing, examining, probing, and even modifying the volunteer’s mind and body. One patient described it this way: 'It’s more like being possessed. During the experience there is a sense of someone or something else there taking control. It’s like you have to defend yourself against them, whoever they are, but they certainly are there. I’m aware of them, and they’re aware of me. It’s like they have an agenda.'''[3] Author Carl Teichrib perfectly sums up their deceptive agenda: We can become as gods. It's the same messaging all the way through, isn't it? Doesn't matter if you read the writings of channeled UFO entities, if you take a look at what the New Age teaches, what Eastern spirituality gives us, or what the messages that come through the psychedelic experience show us. It always points back to Genesis 3: ‘We will be as gods.’ This is a gateway… a form of forbidden fruit."[3] While psychedelics may at times seem to provide captivating mystical experiences and insights or some mental or physical improvement, at the bottom, they are a portal to great instability and spiritual deception and danger. Expecting a hallucinogen ultimately to heal is like expecting a poisonous snake not to bite. Only Jesus Christ can save, set free, and truly transform. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12 Read a fictionalized version of our escape in our novel The Glittering Web, Book 1 of the Omega Point Series here. Listen to the prequel free. Also read “Why We Wrote the Omega Point Series” here. Take our one-minute survey: View of Psychedelics here. More: - The Cross & the Marijuana Leaf by Linda Nathan (2017). 20-page booklet. $1.95. Lighthouse Trails Publishing here. - Linda answers questions about marijuana on the Parker J Cole Show here. - Richard & Linda discuss drugs, deception, and the spiritual realm on the Parker J Cole Show here. [1] Opening quotes from Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy by Don Lattin, Synergetic Press, 2017. [2] Ibid. [3] https://bit.ly/2W2FLs8  It was 1962, and there was a sense of awakening in the air, a call to a different kind of life.
Young people hearing the siren song were pouring into San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury District from across the nation. A once-declining neighborhood, the Haight was blossoming overnight into a counterculture Mecca, spreading the new consciousness in a chaotic profusion of hippie pads, light shows, and drugs. One sunny spring day, we met at an anarchist meeting. Richard’s father, Julius, was a tough Marxist revolutionary who had known Chinese premier Mao Tse Tung prior to the 1949 communist takeover in China and had organized cannery workers from Monterey to San Francisco. Now he supported a hotbed of radical leftists who ran Ye Olde Anarchiste Bookstore in the Nathan storefront apartment on Ocean Avenue. When Fantasy Becomes the Voice of Faith: How Edgy “Christian” Fiction Is Transforming Today’s Church9/19/2019
By Richard and Linda Nathan Fantasy became the voice of faith. And it made for a cracking good story."
Stories teach. Whether we read a novel just to kick back and relax or to jump into an exciting adventure, we enter another view of reality—of one or possibly more worldviews.
Since our central purpose as Christians should be to glorify God and to grow in our knowledge of Him, we should be alert to a story’s influences—even when we read for pleasure. In recent years, fiction aimed at Christians has exploded in the marketplace with such new categories as Christian Fantasy, Christian Science Fiction, Supernatural, and Christian Futuristic Fiction (often apocalyptic). Christian novels used to be relatively wholesome and instructive, but nowadays many popular and even Christian authors are emphasizing disturbing elements common to pagan, occult, and secular novels. Some publishers are fueling the flood by trying to repeat the phenomenal sales of Frank Peretti’s spiritual warfare novels, the Left Behind series, and the fantasy novels of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis with countless imitations and wannabes. (Estimates of the worldwide sales figures of The Lord of the Rings run from 150 to 200 million, according to Zaleski, 2015.) This is all part of an enormous rise in the love and promotion of fantasy and mythology. As the Zaleskis ' article about the Inklings says, “Fantasy became the voice of faith. And it made for a cracking good story.” Nevertheless, we’ve found hardly any Evangelical Christians nowadays questioning the popularity of such mythological/fantasy thinking. Fifty or sixty years ago, this type of thinking would have been anathema to many biblical churches. Why? Is fantasy really the voice of faith? |
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