textfiles/occult/WICCA/witch-or.txt

                           W I T C H C R A F T   O R

                         THE GREAT WITCHCRAFT DELUSION

   Many Christians have found it difficult, at best, to answer the claims and
accusations of the practitioners of the Wicca cult.
   This paper will educate the Christian and serve as a means to challenge,
and witness to occultists.
   First of all, let's look at the claims of the Wicca cult.

Witchcraft practitioners claim:

   1.   Early Christianity co-existed with Wicca until the inquisitions.
   2.   It's an ancient pre-Christian religious system which was driven
        underground during the middle ages.
   3.   Satan was a doctrine conceived of by the Christian church as a scare
        tactic.
   4.   The devil is only mentioned in the New Testament.

   Witchcraft is a positive nature-based religion, preaching brotherly love
and harmony with all life forms.  Its origins base in early mans development.

   The basis for this claim comes from a book published in 1921, _The Witch-
Cult in Western Europe_ by Dr. Margaret Murray who introduced the idea of a
coven of twelve witches headed by a devil or leader acting like a devil. #1
George Kitredge, a contemporary of Murrays said "this speculation will not
stand the test of the most elementary historical criticism.  There is not the
slightest bit of evidence that witches were ever organized."
   Perhaps the basic cause for Dr. Murray's as well as other scholar's
confusion, is the face value acceptance of confessions of alleged witches
under torture.
   The idea of a mystical nature-based religion caught on in the late 60's and
early 70's with the advent of the hippie movement.  However, its author was
one Aleister Crowley, an early 20th century occultist.
   In 1915 he wrote a letter to a disciple, a Canadian occultist named Charles
S. Jones #2 "The time is ripe for a natural religion.  People like rites and
ceremonies and they are tired of hypothetical gods.  Insist on the real
benefits of the Sun, the Mother force, the father force and so on."

   The translation of the word witch is supposed to mean "wise one" taken from
the Old English word wita or wicca.  If the modeern witchcult was as it
claimed, decendent from an old religion, why wasn't the word wicca ever
recorded in any documents over the 300 years of the Inquisition?
   Why then does the Welsh word pwcca, obviously taken from the same root word
or root language, mean satan?
   Why then does the word witch in any other culture, non-Christian as well as
pre-Christian, go hand in hand with evil?

   Did Christianity ever co-exist in harmony with any pagan religion as the
witchcult claims?
   Unlike other religious systems during the time of the first century church,
Christianity forbade intermingling of its thoughts, ideals and doctrine with
paganism for several reasons.
   1.   A hybrid religious system would lose ther real meaning of
        Christianity.
   2.   Christianity was the only religious system that had ties to ancient
        Judaic prophecies and laws.
   3.   With the abundance of mystery cults at that time Christianity was the
        only religious system which claimed with substantial proof that its
        founder had risen from the dead, thus proving He, Christ was the Son
        of God.

   In Ephesians 5, verses 11 & 12, written before the end of the first
century, Paul addresses the issue of the mystery cults who held meetings very
much the same way the modern witch cults hold their meetings.
   "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them.  For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done
of them in secret."
   Why does Paul refer to these mystery cults as unfruitful works of darkness?
   Due to the human and animal sacrifices, homosexual and bestial practices of
these ancient pagans.  The futility of pagan mystery religious is obvious to
anyone because all that remains of these cults is their ruined temples.  Paul
describes this in Romans 1, verses 21-24:
   v21.  Because that when they knew God they glorified Him not as God neither
were they thankful; but because vain in their imaginations, and their foolish
heart was darkened.
   v22.  But professing themselves to be wise they became fools
   v23.  And they changed the glory of the uncorruptable God into an image
made like to corruptable man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping
things.
   v24.  Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of
their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodis between themselves.

   As a religion the modern witchcraft cult owes its conception to Margaret
Murray and its continuance to Aleister Crowley and Gerald Gardner.  Crowley,
who wrote it's rituals better known as _"The Book of Shadows"_, Gardner, who
commissioned Crowley's writings plus writing his own work _"Witchcraft
Today"_, giving this cult the necessary publicity to bring it out of
obscurity.
#2  According to Richard Cavendish; Murray, Crowley and Gardner did nothing
more than resurrect the works of several 19th century occultists.
#3  Murray's great work _"The Witchcult in Western Europe"_, 1921 contains a
great deal of material from the 19th century Rosicrusian writer Hargrave
Jennings _"The Rosicrusians, Their Rites and Mysteries"_ she seemed to have
forgotten to acknowledge the use of this material.
#3  Gardner's _Witchcraft Today_ is no more than a book review of Murray's
earlier work.
   The main themes of the witchcraft cult are Hedonism, pleasure being the
chief end of life and Narcissism, a morbid delight in the physical self.  This
is seen in the invocation to the Mood goddess which speaks of "no peace and
ever be in cruel suffering till she [the moon goddess] grant the fulfillment
of my innermost desire"....love freely, caring for neither age nore kin."
   Romans 1:28
   "and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind to do these things which are not convenient."

   In order to create a religious system with few or no apparent parallels to
Christianity it was necessary for the founders of the New "Old Religion" to
dispose of anything which resembled the Christian doctrines of original sin,
judgement, death, heaven and hell.
   Thus Crowley introduced reincarnation to the witchcraft which he'd been
exposed to as a young man from Hindu Tantric Yoga and Eastern Mystics.

   Satan is not an idea but a Hebrew word meaning the accuser and slanderer a
descriptive noun for a spiritual being existing in a fallen state, also known
as Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, the serpent, and the dragon.
   In Isaiah 14:12-14 KJV we find it was Lucifer who first rebelled against
God.
   v12.  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!
   v13.  For thou has 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:
   v14.  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I wil be like the most
high.

   We see from this passage that the idea of Satan's worship or Luciferianism
was conceived eons ago not from Christian doctrine but through the mind of the
evil one himself.
   Man's concept of Satan's worship has existed much longer than Christianity.
It would be logical to some people that worship of evil in a good vs evil
belief structure would create balance at the very least.  Many of the pagan
mystery cults were based on this.  The idea of modern Satanism and the Black
Mass was first introduced into modern literature by DeSade in his book
_Justin_.

   One needn't believe in evil to be a slave to it.

   Had the church in the early Middle Ages grown very Strict, or corrupt?

   It was not a question of the Roman Church being strict but rather corrupt.
With this came weakness and insecurity.  Apostasies and Heresies began to
appear in most of civilized Europe.  Some of these would later usher in the
Reformation and Protestantism.
   The witchcraft of the Inquisition was an invitation of the inquisitors and
torture the method of proving it.  As time passed, more and more crimes were
added to the witchcraft delusion.  Perhaps the best example of this is the
word coven.  Modern witch cults claim this word as a part of the evidence for
the survival of a pre-Christian pagan religious system in the Middle Ages.
Oddly enough there is no mention of this word until 1662, two hundred years
after the beginning of the Inquisition.
   The witchcraft of today, byt its practitioners' own admission, in no way
resembles the witchcraft delusion of the Inquisition.  Therefore it makes no
sense to use the Inquisition as a means to illustrate supposed persecutions of
the New "Old Religion."

_CONCLUSION_

   Despite the continuous claims of witchcraft practitioners, there is no real
historical evidence to support their claims.  As with the rest of the occult
world, theirs is a history of deception, a sordid past, plagarism, and poor
scholarship, although this cult would like to add respectability to the New
"Old Religion," it's really not possible.  Despite the fact that; "the Federal
Government recognizes the religion and even provides appropriate instructions
in a handbook for chaplains..."  This doesn't make it respectable, just tax
exempt.
   There's really no such thing as white or black magic regardless of whether
its spelled Magic or Magick.  The difference between witchcraft and satanism
is in the eye of the beholder.  Both satanism and witchcraft believe and
practice things which are clearly defined in the Bible as abominations to God.
These references are found in both Old and New Testaments.  Modern Witchcraft
& Satanism are one and the same.  It was Crowley who frequently identified
himself as the Beast as mentioned in Revelation chapter 17.

#4  "...this reference to white and black magic was meant to refer to the
intentions of the Magician in it's invocation, not the character of magic
itself."
_WHAT THEN, IS THE WICCA, OR THE WHITE WITCHCRAFT MOVEMENT?_

   1.   It is devil worship and Satanism.
   2.   It is anti-Christian, a religious parody; conceived in the twentieth
        century.
_WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT WITCHCRAFT?_
   The Old and New Testaments repeatedly make reference to all forms of
occultism, including witchcraft, magic and sorcery, clearly condemning these
practices.  In the Old Testament, 1 Samuel 15:23 describes the character of
witchcraft.
   v23.  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubborness is an
iniquity and idolatry.
   In the New Testament Paul describes witchcraft as a work of the flesh in
Galatians 5:19-21.
   v19.  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery,
fornication, uncleaness, lasciviousness.
   v20.  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,
seditions, heresies,
   v21.  Envyings, murders, drunkeness, revellings and such like: of which I
tell you before, as I have told you in times past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

   Let's look at a clearer meaning for each of these 17 words:

              Adultery       - Maritally unfaithful
              Fornication    - premarital sex
              Uncleaness     - impure
              Lasciviousness - Lustful lewdness
              Idolatry       - Worship of idols or images
              Witchcraft     - Practice of sorcery or magic
              Hatred         - Intense Dislike
              Variance       - Dispute
              Emulations     - Selfish Ambitions
              Wrath          - Rage, great anger
              Strife         - Conflict, discord
              Seditions      - Rebellion
              Heresies       - False doctrine
              Envyings       - Covetousness
              Murders        - Taking of lives
              Drunkeness     - Intoxication
              Revellings     - Riotous merrymaking

   Each of these works of the flesh can be found in the witchcraft cult and
its rituals today.  The ultimate end for those who practice such things is
seen in Romans 1:32:
   Who knowing the judgement 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
...
   When Paul speaks of death he's referring to spiritual death, eternal
separation from God.
   Rev 21:8
   But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murders, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters and all liars shall have their part
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

   If you are or have been practicing witchcraft or occultism, change.

   Real happiness doesn't come from any mystical religious system, living from
ritual to ritual or orgy to orgy, or belief in a mother goddess, but rather
through a relationship with God.
   Christianity isn't just another religious system; but rather a relationship
with God through His son, Jesus Christ.
   God wasn't and isn't a god of wrath but rather the only God of Love.
   Jesus Christ doesn't demand due sacrifice, He is the only sacrifice.

   Jesus Christ is waiting to welcome you into His kingdom.

                                SEEK HIM TODAY

Four steps to Christ:

1. It's because of God's love for you that He sent His only Son to die for
your sins:
   John 3:16
   For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting live.
2. Christ died for each one of us because:
   Romans 3:23
   All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
3. Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior:
   John 1:12
   But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on His name.
4. Confess Him before others:
   Romans 10:9
   That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved.

References:

#1     _Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology_
       Russel Hope Robbins
       Crown Publishers
       Pages 116 & 117

#2, 3  As quoted in
       _Encyclopedia of the Unexplained_
       Magic, Occultism and Parapsychology
       Richard Cavendish
       McGraw Hill
       Pages 275 & 276

#4     As quoted in
       _Understanding the Occult_

       Here's Life Publishers, Inc.
       Josh McDowell & Don Stewart
       Page 93 Reference Truzzi Religious Movements

If you have any further comments or questions feel free to direct them to:

        Paul Lund
        P.O. Box 9991
        Fountain Valley, CA 92728

(c) Copyright, Paul Lund