Editors Note: The Harry Potter series of books and movies continues to grow in popularity. The signs of the damage it has done to society are everywhere. Please read our follow up article, "The Harry Potter Series: The Truth", as well as the Special Article written by Missionary David Lloyd from Haiti, " The Harry Potter Series: The Practice of Witchcraft".

Also, don’t miss our special video "Harry Potter Clouds Of Darkness", available from our online bookstore.

If there is one thing the Harry Potter series has proven to America and the world, it is that superstitions and witchcraft have a much greater power to captivate than computers, Internet filth, and game rooms. In fact, a great majority of religion and religious activity would not survive the month if there was not the elements of sorcery that much of today’s religion has come to represent. The mystery of the Antichrist is using the many and varied forms of divination and witchcraft to prepare the world for the coming "mastermind." This mastermind will possess a level of divination powers never before manifest. He will become the "god" of this earth for a short season. The Harry Potter series is a giant step in this scary direction.

The above statement is a very bold proclamation. Without question I believe the Harry Potter series is a creation of hell helping prepare the younger generation to welcome the Biblical prophecies of demons and devils led by Lucifer himself. Infallible Scripture, the Holy Bible, has outlined the end time scenario and the Harry Potter script sounds exactly like the devil’s part. Satan will actually be cast out of the midair down to the earth and every fallen angel, now a demon, will be cast out with him. The activity of these demons will be dark and brutal.

Death, mysteries, strange paranormal powers and scary happenings will become the order of the day. Casting spells, death by voodoo activities, and fearful sights will be worldwide. The Harry Potter book reveals a very enlightening picture of the coming days for those "left behind" after the Rapture of the saints.

What is so amazing about this series by J. K. Rowling is the excitement that the world has for this kind of entertainment. The unconverted human heart is a dark place where anything of the same level of darkness is relished and loved. Adults, as well as children, find great obsession with scary ideas that speak of the forbidden realm. The devil and his demons, along with the witchcraft ideas out of his evil characters, are quickly becoming the highest ideal of intellectualism. It is Satan’s day to say the least. It had to happen to fulfill Biblical prophecy.

Let’s Trace the Harry Potter Series to the Present
It all began on a train ride in which the whole idea just dropped in Rowling’s head. The very manner in which the series came to her would suggest "spirit influence." She stated, "Harry, as a character, came fully formed as did the idea for his sidekicks, the character of Ron and Hermione, who is the brain of the threesome. She further said, "It started with Harry, then all these characters and situations came flooding into my head." Her description of herself certainly suggests a person open to "inspirations" from mystical influences. She said, "I have a very visual imagination. I see it, then I try to describe what is in my mind’s eye." Such language sounds familiar to the world of the occult. It is amazing how similar the genuine world of Biblical inspiration is to the masquerading world of Satan, the enemy of truth.

Berit Kjos, an excellent author, listed five points of Hogwart’s theology of the sorcery school, where young Henry is enrolled. These ideas best describe the basis of this series of books. Each book is based on the same general themes with new characters helping to enlarge the story plots. Look closely at these key thoughts and ask yourself what the overall purpose must be.

Here is Berit Kjos’ list of the main Hogwart theologies:

• "Professor Snape who taught Potions said: ‘I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with it shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses…’
   
• "A Centaur’s views on astrology – ‘we have sworn not to set ourselves against the heaven. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets? … Or have the planets not let you in on that secret?’
   
• "’He is with me wherever I go,’ said Quirrell quietly, referring to Voldemort. ‘I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it … Since then, I have served him faithfully.’
   
• "Headmaster Dumbledore: ‘To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.’
   
• "Hagrid, the grounds-keeper at Hogwart’s, telling Harry about the strange power that saved his life, ‘Happened when a powerful, evil curse touches you – didn’t work on you, and that’s why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he [Voldemort] decided ter kill ‘em, no one except you…’ [Harry seems almost Christ-like, doesn't he, with his wound or mark, his psychic powers, and his victory over death and Voldemort.]" ("Bewitched by Harry Potter," article written by Berit Kjos.)

Those five ideas right out of the Harry Potter series give us an excellent view of what the main themes are all about. Let’s discuss each of them.

Potions: Harry Potter Takes Drugs
The plot of the Harry Potter series is set in the "Hogwart School of Witchcraft." He is there to learn how to be a successful witch as his father and mother were before their death by the ultimate evil person, Lord Voldemort. To be a master at sorcery one must learn how to use drugs. Listen again to this language that glorifies drugs and their magical effect according to these books. Remember, these words come from the Potion Master at this so-called school of learning.

Here are his words, "I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses … I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren’t as big a bund of thunderheads as I usually have to teach. – The Potions Master." (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, p. 137.)

A doctor wrote anonymously about this aspect of these books. Here are his words; "This quotation is taken from the section of the discussion by the Potions Master as he berates the students for their lack of knowledge of making drugs when adding ‘powered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood.’ (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, pp. 286-287.) This plant wormwood contains thujone, a hypnotic drug, which is banned by the FDA, and wormwood is used to make Absinthe, a hallucinogenic liqueur. Another record near the end of the book, portrays seven bottles containing drug potions: 3 contain poison, 2 contain wine and 2 contain a magic drug, which the children are to correctly chose from and drink in order to reach their goal – the sorcer’s stone, which they are seeking, before the effects of the drug wears off." ("Harry Potter Takes Drugs," written by a anonymous physican and father. This article is from the Family Friendly Libraries website.)

Certainly no parent or school official in their right mind would want these ideas in the minds of their children. Drugs have always been a large part of witchcraft and sorcery. Often the drugs are used to induce altered states of consciousness and to enhance the person’s ability to communicate with the spirit world.

Astrology – Trusting in the Stars
The entire idea of astrology is that we get our direction from the heavenly bodies and their alignments with each other. Nothing connects to sorcery more directly than this idea. Our present world is flooded with television programs, books, websites, and other information on the signs of the zodiac. The idea of birthstone rings is rooted in astrology. My daughter, Tanya Turner, wrote a booklet available from this ministry in which she documented this fact. Listen as she describes the diabolical activity in this realm. "Birthstones were created during the Classical Period by the Romans, with each holding an astrological significance. In astrology there are 12 signs of the zodiac each showing specific signs of weaknesses and/or strengths. A specific gem, possessing the necessary properties was assigned to each zodiac timeframe in order to strengthen weaknesses and build on strengths supposedly possessed by persons born in that month or period of the zodiac. An article in The Gaston Gazette, March 22, 1990, made the following analysis: ‘The concept of birthstones assigns a specific crystal thought especially beneficial to each astrological sign chosen specifically to counteract or protect from weaknesses and to enhance strengths inherent in each house of the zodiac.’" ("New Age Emphasis On Gems and Stones," by Tanya Turner. Published by Paw Creek Ministries.) Parents must learn the evil awaiting their child when we fail to understand this area of evil influence. It is raw sorcery to teach someone to trust their future to astrological signs.

Lord Voldemort – The Ultimate Evil
The evil in the Harry Potter series is breathtaking. These books are not a "C.S. Lewis" ideal of good versus evil with a lasting message that there is ultimately an eternal power of righteousness. The only power in this series is power itself. Listen to that quote again from Kjos’ description of Hogwart’s theology. "There is no good and evil, there is only power…" The latest book in the Harry Potter series and the "Goblet of Fire" makes Lord Voldemort the main character of the first chapter. I read the first chapter as it appeared in the Newsweek magazine (July 17, 2000). This dark character kills the keeper at "The Riddle House" with nothing but a stare. He has a gigantic snake as a talking key associate. It is almost impossible not to see the glorification of the devil in this key character, Voldemort.

Reincarnation – Death is but the Next Great Adventure
The headmaster at Hogwart is the source of this intriguing false statement. To play with the idea of death in such a confused manner is more than entertainment. In the third book of this series, the following statement was made. "You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory no… anything. There’s no chance at all of recovery. You’ll just-exist. As an empty shell." (The Prisoner of Azkaban, p. 247.)

Hell will actually be populated with a multitude of eternal souls without the God-giving spirit of the Godlike life. The spirit of the wicked person returns to the God that gave it life. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:7). It is very evident that the above idea in the Harry Potter books is a distortion of truth. In the same series the following statement was made to Harry, the young star. "You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? … You know; Harry, in a way, you did see your father last night … You found him inside yourself." (The Prisoner of Azkaban, pp. 427-428.)

This is classical witchcraft. When your child reads where a professor told Harry, "After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure (The Sorcer’s Stone, p. 302.)," I warn you that it is more than reading entertainment. This is the doctrine of the Wicca witches. Reincarnation is a total lie. To intrigue kids with such a false sense of death and life after death is dark and dangerous. A noted witch, named Starhawk, stated in her book, Spiral Dance, "Death is not an end, it is a stage in the cycle that leads on to rebirth. After death, the human soul is said to rest in "Summerland" the Land of Eternal Youth, where it is refreshed, grows young and is made ready to be born again." (Reprinted from the book, entitled Spiral Dance.)

Harry – The New "Messiah"
Our world continues to look for a hero. Most of today’s citizens have rejected every great hero of the past. The name of Jesus is so hated that it is politically incorrect to ever pray publicly in His name. Our Supreme Court is determined alone with much of the liberal world to make the mention of His name unacceptable.

But, here comes one champion after the other in our day from the purple dinosaur to Harry Potter. Let’s read again the words of the Hogwart groundskeeper. "No one ever lived after He [Voldemort] decided ter kill ‘em, no one except you…" (Excerpted from "Bewitched by Harry Potter," article written by Berit Kjos.)

Harry has special marks from his battle with Lord Voldemort. Harry’s power has proven to be the only power that Lord Voldemort cannot handle. In the first chapter of Potter’s latest book when the gardener falls dead by Lord Voldemort’s powers, the author states, "Two hundred miles away, the boy called Harry Potter woke with a start." (Reprinted from the book, entitled Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.)

The World Culture Must be Reshaped
Books like the Harry Potter series are more, much more than reading material, entertainment, and making money. The cultures of the world must be merged to accomplish the "One World Order." Louise Derman-Sparks wrote in her book, Anti-Bias Curriculum, "Good stories capture the heart, mind, and imagination are an important way to transmit values." There is no such thing as a book, movie, etc. that does not transmit values, i.e. someone’s idea of what is acceptable or unacceptable. Anyone that tells you that it is okay to read sorcery or witchcraft material just for fun is playing with your mind. Do not be someone’s fool.

The world is headed for a worldwide invasion of demons and dark underworld creatures. It is all a part of the "One World Order." Remember, the Harry Potter series is already being printed in over thirty major languages. John Andrew Murray wrote an article about this subject that appears on the Internet under the title, "Harry Dilemma." He stated, "But it is the world of witchcraft found in Harry Potter that is the greatest threat of all. This world–which will soon be marketed to our nation’s children on a massive scale–is presenting occult practices in a way that is attractive and fun. And while few students are seeking to become witches or wizards, the desensitization to witchcraft that is occurring in America cannot help but have a detrimental effect–and lead to serious spiritual consequences in the future." ("Harry Dilemma" by John Andrew Murray. Teachers In Focus magazine website maintained by Focus On The Family.)

He further stated, "By disassociating magic and supernatural evil, it becomes possible to portray occult practices as ‘good’ and ‘healthy,’ contrary to the scriptural declaration that such practices are ‘detestable to the Lord.’ This, in turn, opens the door for kids to become fascinated with the supernatural while tragically failing to seek or recognize the one true source of supernatural good–namely God.

"This is precisely the problem with the Harry Potter series: Evil is presented in an attractive, ‘wholesome’ package." ("Harry Dilemma" by John Andrew Murray. Teachers In Focus magazine website maintained by Focus On The Family.)

Getting Darker: Heading for Hell
Mrs. Rowling, the author of this Harry Potter series knows exactly where she is headed. She was interviewed by "Stories from the Web" and asked if she had "any clues about the next book." Her answer was clear, "I don’t want to give anything away, but I can tell you that the books are getting darker … Harry’s going to have quite a bit to deal with as he gets older. Sorry if they get too scary!" (Reprinted from "Harry Potter ‘a Sorcerers tale’." This article appeared on the Let Us Reason Ministries’ website.)

She was interviewed by Newsweek magazine (July 17, 2000), where she stated, "In fact, death and bereavement and what death means, I would say, is one of the central themes in all seven books." (Newsweek magazine, July 17, 2000, p. 56.) The author for Newsweek, Malcolm Jones, stated, "And in all of Rowling’s books there runs an undercurrent of sadness and loss. In the first book the orphaned Harry stares into the Mirror of Erised, which shows the viewer his or her utmost desires. Harry sees his dead parents." (Newsweek magazine, July 17, 2000, p. 56.)

Here is a list of quotes that express the reaction of different individuals who have written about this book.

A Time magazine article dated September 20, 1999, pointed out, after reading Harry Potter, "Who wouldn’t choose a wizard’s life?" (Reprinted from "Should ‘Harry Potter’ Go to Public School?" This article, written by Karen Jo Gounaud, appeared on the Family Friendly Libraries Book Report website.)

A USA Today news story by parent, Ken McCormick of Birchrunville, PA, discovered "a general nastiness, underneath the mantle of cuteness" in the Harry Potter books. The article further stated, "The kids lie, they steal, they take revenge," the father of 8- and 11-year-old children told the newspaper. "This is a disturbing moral world, and it conflicts with what I am trying to teach my children." (USA Today article by Ken McCormick. (Reprinted from "Review of the Harry Potter Children’s Book Series," written by Art Toalston, which appeared on the BaptistPress Archive, July 11, 2000, website.)

School Library Journal praised the Potter books and listed a quote from a senior librarian. Her article, called "Witchcraft 101," stated, "Witchcraft or Wicca is a small but growing religion." She goes on to say, "the teen who wants to know about spells is not going to be satisfied with [just] an entertaining novel." (Reprinted from an article entitled, "Harry Potter Controversy," written by Pamela Newby, which appeared on the CBN News website.)

Almost everybody certainly has an opinion about the Harry Potter books. It is almost impossible not to either love or hate the books. If you love magic, the occult, or witches, you will be jumping with glee. If you do not believe witchcraft is a name to be played with, then you cannot be anything but concerned. Remember, if you do not believe in playing the devil’s games, this series of books has a name for you and it isn’t meant to be complimentary. You are called a "muggle" and these books paint you as a loser or a know-nothing nobody. That’s talking about us, the Bible-believing Christians.

Harry Potter is Not the Antichrist
The "mystery of iniquity" is one of those great prophetic truths in Holy Scripture. This mystery is never a person or a character in a book or film. He is a mystery or a hidden spiritual idea that will continue to grow until the Rapture of the saints. The Holy Ghost will be removed in His central expression of authority in the church to the presence of the Heavenly throne. When that occurs, the work of the Holy Ghost as the "restrainer" will be removed from the earth.

Then, as stated in II Thessalonians, Chapter 2, the mystery of iniquity will be released to take on a physical form. The mystery of iniquity will become the revealed Antichrist in a personal form. "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

The Harry Potter books are just another means of blinding millions to the truth. When people love imagination, superstition, paranormal intrigue, witchcraft, and sorcery better than they love truth, the Creator will allow them to be filled with their own desires. When the cup of sin is full, the King will say, "It is enough." My heart tells me the cup is at the brim. The King will soon have the final word and righteousness will win the day.

Nothing is so unfair to a homosexual man or lesbian woman than to say to them, "You were made that way." To suggest such is to remove all hope of change. The average lifespan of a male homosexual, if he does not contract AIDS, is 43 years. If he does, that is reduced to 39. (Family Research Institute.) Does the Heavenly Father purposely create a class of individuals with that kind of reduced life expectancy? To teach such is to breed despair and gloom, and to suggest that homosexuals and lesbians are second-class citizens.

THE TRUTH IS THAT GAY INDIVIDUALS ARE CREATED WITH THE SAME INTRINSIC VALUES AS ALL OF GOD’S CREATION. They are neither better nor worse. Equality is one of our Father’s attributes. To have respect of persons is called sin. The Bible says that such a person is a transgressor of the Law. There is no sin that will reduce you to a midget personality more than prejudice.

Since God made us all and made us equal, we all possess the same capacity. We are capable of many creative and beautiful things. Our hands can make a lovely object or write a life-changing poem. We can create works of art or magnificent buildings. The human brain is a wonder of wonders and reigns over a body of many dreams, visions, and skills.

Nothing in this wealth of abilities quite compares with the possession of pro-creation. We can join the God of Eternity who made all things to enjoy by creating a life in our own image as He did the first man. Our sons and daughters actually bear the genes of our physical person. We create new life in partnership with Almighty God. To suggest that He made a class of people whose sexual design lacks this ultimate motive is to reduce those individuals to less than full expressions of God’s creative ingeniousness. God is not unfair to anyone.

Jesus Can Make All Men Whole
The message of the Holy Bible is one of Hope for all. Every man has sinned and come short of the glory of God. There are no men or women who can reflect the image of God unless their life is changed by the redeeming power of Jesus’ blood. Every human on this earth must meet at the same place beneath His cross. There are no celebrities in the real church of Jesus Christ. The person who thinks he’s better than the homosexual is only fooling himself.

We all need the wholeness in Jesus Christ and we can all have that wholeness or holiness. Jesus said to a very religious man named Nicodemus, "Ye must be born again." (St. John 3:7b). Many great scholars have tried to explain or grasp the greatness of this statement. All have failed. It’s unexplainable! You can only experience this great spiritual reality. It is to be made a brand new creature by a supernatural act of Divine grace. The effect is the same in every life. The person is transformed. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." (II Corinthians 5:17).

It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about a prostitute, liar, drunkard, adulterer, fornicator, homosexual, or simply a good moral person. The grace of God has the same effect on every individual. The experience of this mercy from God will occur in different fashion and a different time schedule, but the same God loves and grants mercy to all men equally.

Hope For The Homosexual
Every homosexual man or lesbian woman can be completely changed and made whole by Jesus Christ. There are three simple things you must do. Remember, these are the same things everyone else must also do. Again, you are no different. (I’m writing this in the singular as directed to you.)

First: You must confess to God the Father that you are a sinner. You cannot blame your sinful state on someone else regardless of how much they may have furthered your problem. Many of you were molested by an older person or betrayed by someone who befriended you. Don’t blame anyone any longer but come to God confessing your personal failures and sins. Leave everyone else to answer for themselves. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). This means all.

The best therapy an individual can receive is to come clean with themselves and God. Quit hiding behind excuses and finger pointing. To come clean with yourself and God is a lot like what your homosexual friends call, "Coming out of the closet." The difference here is that you want to be free, not bound, in that lifestyle any longer. God wants you out of the closet and out of bondage to a destructive immorality.

Second: Repent of every sinful act in which you have participated. To repent means to be sorry for that act and to turn from all future involvement in the same. Repentance is the result of a person who looks at their sins and becomes repulsed by them. It means you are sick of them and truly ready to go no more into the dens where they are practiced.

Jesus’ first message was very simple. "Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand." The Biblical church in the New Testament was made up of all kinds of people who had repented (turned around) and experienced His washing. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Third: Believe in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and accept that cleansing blood in your life. The old hymn still has the right message, "What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." Jesus didn’t come to condemn you. He came to save you. You alone can condemn yourself, and you do it by continuing in the same course of unclean living.

The Blood of Jesus is the most powerful spiritual power known to man. When you confess you are a sinner, turn from your sins, and cast yourself in His purifying blood, you will be made a new creature. It may be hard to believe such an incredible thing, but the Bible and church history are full of evidence. This writer was a foul, unclean creature until Jesus made me whole. I have known thousands of others who had a similar encounter with Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit said, "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:6-9).

If you cannot do the three things above because you have no heart for doing them, then please do one thing as you consider the other three. Read the book of St. John on your knees at least three times. Pray one prayer as you honestly and carefully read this book. Pray, "Let me see that Jesus that John wrote about." Don’t look for a vision or a picture, but look for a Biblical inspiration of the Jesus who lives in the Scripture. As you see Him you will then be able to do these three things absolutely necessary to being made whole. Jesus, as you see Him in the Scripture, will convince you to surrender yourself to Him.
There is Hope for you to be whole.

When you get to heaven we will be neither male nor female. Sex is an intimacy of the earthly family unknown in the Heavenlies. Spiritual intimacy in our future hope is on such a Godlike level as to forever remove all desire or design for the experience we call sex. We will exist on a plane of such glorious fulfillment that earthly things will pass away. It will be a shame if anyone places physical satisfaction so important that they miss the Heavenly Hope of our future reward.

Nothing makes the promises of God more beautiful than Satan’s drive to defile and debauch them. Everything in God’s world, and especially His plans for the Biblical future, has been attacked by the devil. That’s what the devil is, an imitator and substitute showman that belittles the breathtaking future of the Kingdom of God. Satan’s drive to portray himself as God has never produced one thing but proof that he is a "god," the idiot god, clearly headed for defeat. Same sex immorality, and especially same-sex marriage, is Satan’s darkest imitation. Lucifer has always reserved his grandest schemes to try to defile God’s greatest glory.

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is the pinnacle of the church’s future. The saints of God that have paid the ultimate price in sacrifice and abandonment to Christ’s kingdom are soon to shine like jewels in His eternal crown. Joseph A. Seiss, a Lutheran pastor of a century ago, said, "The harlot (must be) swept away" and then "the faithful woman comes to her rightful honors." (The Apocalypse, Joseph A. Seiss, p. 425.) He further stated, "The Betrothed, so long waiting amid privation, persecution, and contempt, now becomes a Bride." (Ibid.) Same-sex marriage represents the immorality and fallen character of the harlot woman, and she is soon to be swept away so that the true Bride can be ushered into her glory.

The marriage of a man and a woman is a type and figure of the Marriage of the Lamb and His Bride. We must understand that same-sex marriage is an attack on this earthly sacrament also. Those who claim the right of calling the immoral union of two men or two women a marriage blaspheme every husband and wife. Same-sex marriage is not just a sin; it is an abomination preserved for the ultimate judgment of God. By the Holy Ghost, Apostle Paul said, "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers (male prostitutes, especially homosexual prostitutes) and adulterers God will judge." (Hebrews 13:4). No experience of human flesh is more sacred than marriage. The first institution that God established to satisfy the deep longing of man was his union with woman. God intended that we fill His world with a multitude to love and serve Him.

Satan is on a rampage to defile the family of humankind and the future family of the redeemed. There is no fear that he will succeed, but he will turn this world into a wilderness one more time. The process of his debauchery has begun and this will be his final fling. Before we deal with the glory of the future Marriage of the Lamb, we must view the worldwide homosexual brothel that Satan is planning. I do not believe that there is any question but that the Antichrist will be a homosexual. The world is literally hell-bent on making the sodomite lifestyle the order of the day. Anyone that refuses to call this lifestyle okay is attacked with ferocity. Sodomites are thrilled to destroy any institution that stands in their way. Their motives and methods cannot be called anything but demonic. It will become a crime to open your mouth to disagree with them.

The Antichrist Will be a Sodomite
Making this statement has never been acceptable with most prophecy teachers. That is about to change. The worldwide drive to decriminalize this destructive conduct has passed the point of no return. The battle now is to legalize same-sex marriage and to raise the sodomite community to represent the dominant characteristics of mankind. This will be the Antichrist culture for the coming seven years. Those that oppose this development will be hated until the Rapture and those that miss the Rapture will be hunted and destroyed after the Rapture. I believe that the Antichrist will seek to cleanse the earth of heterosexual conduct after he gains worldwide control. The Biblical family will be outlawed for seven dark years.

Daniel prophesied of the Antichrist’s character. By the Holy Ghost he spoke, "And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain." (Daniel 11:36-39).

The wording of the passage leaves no doubt that this "god" promoted by the Antichrist will be totally unprecedented. All heathenism and heathen temples have exalted sodomy and sodomite prostitutes as part of their rituals. This evil Antichrist and his strange god (Lucifer) will speak marvelous (high, strange, and hidden) things. He will exalt sin and immorality to a new level and swiftly cause the entire earth to become a moral wilderness.

The churches, temples, mosques, and synagogues of the world will all become sodomite institutions ruled by prostitutes of this new faith. We have already learned that at least half of the Catholic priests of this worldwide religion are homosexuals. Catholic bishops have basically made using children as sex toys acceptable within their ranks. Now, the Episcopalians have made the transition to electing an openly gay bishop. For a long time, they have allowed sodomites to serve as priests and become members of their churches. Other denominations are quickly following this same pattern. Bible-believing churches are daily becoming more impossible to find. It will get worse as we await our Lord’s return.

The harlot woman of Revelation Seventeen is the Biblical picture of the New World Religion. She is a "great whore" and rules the religious world of the Antichrist kingdom. She makes the world drunk, intoxicated on her filth. The Antichrist makes this new religion wealthy and demands that she and all her priests promote total abominations against all Biblical truth and standards. This new religion will be responsible for the Mark of the Beast and will offer that mark only to those that fit their culture. The rest will be swiftly eliminated. Tens of millions will die at their hand.

What Can We Expect While We Await the Rapture?
I’m concerned about what is going to happen after the Rapture, but I’m more concerned about what will happen before the Rapture. The spirit of deception is so overwhelming that most people have no idea what is happening. Many otherwise decent people cannot comprehend the onslaught of the evil landslide we are experiencing. Already people are saying, "I don’t mind sodomites being members of the church serving as elders, etc., but I cannot accept them as bishops or in high offices." That’s total foolishness. The church world is full of members that live together outside of marriage. If Jesus tarries, we are on the verge of being a worldwide Sodom and Gomorrah. The saints are going to soon be like Lot of whom it was said, "For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds." (II Peter 2:8). Daniel described this coming hour perfectly. "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand." (Daniel 12:10).

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
This glorious day of triumph is about to experience a revival of interest. As good men and women watch the world go to hell right here on earth, the beauty of our Biblical hope will become Heavenly beyond measure. The devil always overplays his hand. Human marriage, when compared to the dark deeds of two men or two women, is beautiful beyond description. Purity is most beautiful when you see it side by side with sodomy.

Raise your thoughts to the next level of marriage where the Lamb of God will take His eternal Bride and enter into the Eternal City of New Jerusalem. The union of the Lord Jesus Christ and His church is the ultimate hope of the redeemed. Satan hates this future event and seeks to imitate it with his harlot bride and her sodomite children. It can only make our hope more beautiful as the world witnesses the whoredom and the arrogance against all that is "holy."

The Psalmist David caught a peep into this triumph and wrote what his spirit had received. He saw the throne, where the Father sat, he saw the Lamb of God triumphant and descending out of the Ivory Palaces to get His Bride, and he saw the Bride dressed in the glamour of His righteousness. He wrote by the Holy Spirit, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad." "The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace." (Psalm 45:6-8; 45:13-15). This glorious message was almost too much for King David, but he said, "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." (Psalm 45:1). He had already said in an earlier psalm, "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalm 16:9-11).

This prophet of God had seen the Marriage Supper and said that his future death was nothing but "rest in hope." Surely, we that are living on the edge of the Marriage Supper should be elated with "joyous expectation," even more than David.

John’s Vision of the Marriage Supper
All that is ugly and dark is soon to be judged and burned with fire. The glorious church, redeemed and glorified, shall not miss the coming hour of His glory. Before we hear the text of John, let me share this song of old.

"There be prudent Prophets all,
The Apostles six and six,
The glorious Martyrs in a row,
And Confessors betwixt.
There doth the crew of righteous men
And nations all consist;
Young men and maids that here on earth
Their pleasures did resist.

"The sheep and lambs that hardly ’scaped
The snare of death and hell,
Triumph in joy eternally,
Whereof no tongue can tell;
And though the glory of each one
Doth differ in degree,
Yet is the joy of all alike
And common certainly.

"There David stands, with harp in hand,
As master of the choir;
A thousand times that men were blessed
That might his music hear.
There Mary sings ‘Magnificat,’
With tunes surpassing sweet;
And all the virgins bear their part,
Singing about her feet.

"’ Te Deum,’ doth St. Ambrose sing,
St. Austin doth the same;
Old Simeon and Zacharie
Anew their songs inflame.
There Magdalene hath left her moan,
And cheerfully doth sing,
With all blest saints whose harmony
Through every street doth ring.

"And in that holy company
May you and I find place,
Through worth of him who died for us,
And through his glorious grace;
With Cherubim and Seraphim,
And hosts of ransomed men,
To sing our praises to The Lamb,
And add our glad Amen."
(The Apocalypse, Joseph A. Seiss, p. 432.)

Nothing on this earth can compare with this future glory of Christ’s true church. A worldly church does not even preach about this truth, but a persecuted church certainly will. Jesus Christ, as He was ending His earthly journey gave His disciples a parting promise that He would prepare the wedding chamber and surely return to rescue them and all the ready saints. He said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:1-3).
That wedding chamber and city is ready because this same John that penned these words saw the city gleaming in Heavenly "Son" light. This city is ready, the living saints are ready, the angels are ready, the dead in Christ are ready, and we are waiting for the Father to give the word. I certainly know that Jesus Christ is ready and He will soon appear to begin the end.

In his final revelation, John gave us the exact picture of this moment of glory. "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God." (Revelation 19:7-9).

When I have read those words in the past they did not set fire in my heart as they should, but the more I see the false and the abominations of Satan the more I understand those words, "Let us be glad and rejoice…" When you view the location of this Marriage Supper, the exalted host Jesus Christ and the glorified saints of both past and present, it quickly becomes an event like no other in human history. Joseph Seiss spoke of it with these words, "It is Christ in the character of the Lamb, the mighty Goel, formally acknowledging and taking to himself as copartners of his throne, dominion, and glory, all those chosen ones who have been faithful to their betrothal, and appear at last in the spotless and shining apparel of the righteousness of the saints, thenceforward to be with him, reign with him, and share with him in all his grand inheritance, forever." (The Apocalypse, Joseph A. Seiss, p. 430.)

I believe this event of the Marriage of the Lamb is the first visit into the twelve-tiered city with the gates of pearl.

"Ten thousand times ten thousands in sparkling raiment’s bright, The armies of the ransomed saints throng up the steps of light.

"Tis finished, all is finished, their fight with death and sin. Fling open wide the pearly gates and let the victors in." (Unknown)

When we enter this magnificent city, where the Lamb is the Light and enter together with the saints of all ages into the banquet chamber prepared just for this event, words would fail if it were not for our glorified bodies. The praise and glory that fills the air will be so heavenly and so blessed that angels will cease their singing to listen with rapt attention. As saint after saint hears Him, the Eternal Christ and Bridegroom, pass out the eternal rewards and appoint His redeemed to the cities of the earth, honor will fill the Bridal Chamber. At the appointed time the only Begotten Son, now robed in the glory of His Father, which He laid aside to visit Calvary and make His offering for sin, will serve the cup of communion.

He promised to His disciples before they watched the cruel hand of death wreck His sacred body and before He left to take His place at the Father’s right hand that, "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom." (Matthew 26:29). It is fitting that this promise will be kept at the Marriage Celebration because this is when the Father’s Kingdom will be inaugurated and set in motion. Can you imagine taking communion at the hands of the Testator as the Testament is fulfilled to the letter?

Conclusion
This world system is in the throes of its final death. Immoral conduct has sunk to the bottom rung of human depravity. Satan is preparing for his last rampage, but the saints of God are trusting in the promises that cannot fail. Same-sex marriage is the last dregs in the cup of wrath. You cannot stoop lower than to blaspheme the sacrament of marriage and the Bridegroom of His Eternal Bride. Our God is watching and is about to act. Isaiah, the statesmen prophet, spoke of our day. "And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment." "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence. So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 59:14-15; 59:18-20). God the Father is watching. He knows all and at the precise moment, the End will begin.

Our world is full of unhappy people pursuing happiness. With such a distraught populace the church is looking for programs, schemes, and methods to meet these hurting individuals where they hurt. The hearts of most pastors and lay leaders are sincere. They want to help those who come to them.

The problem in not sincerity. Most churches, even of the liberal philosophy, have no deviate design to deceive. Pastors, as a whole, are not in league with the devil to lead our world to hell. Of the hundreds of Christian leaders I personally know they are normally hardworking, sincere, and devoted to the task they have accepted. Then, what is wrong in our church and society that causes our best efforts to be so utterly fruitless? The most we can claim for todayÂ’s church is a few mega buildings and programs where religion is celebrated with great fanfare and the counseling centers are full from dawn to dayÂ’s end. If this is the Book of Acts, then IÂ’m greatly disappointed.

Christianity and Psychology DonÂ’t Mix
The church world has been psychologized and in the process defeated. They Holy Ghost, speaking through Saint John, said, “And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son” (1 John 5:8-9). (In your King James Bible the word “Spirit” is not capitalized. The original Greek, according to the Texus Receptus, was capitalized and means the Holy Spirit, not the human spirit.) Every pure source of spiritual energy is confined to this trinity of power. The Holy Ghost, operating by the Word of God and by virtue of the vicarious blood, is the totality of the church’s need. Anything added to this life-changing, world-changing authority destroys its effect. God will not honor the arm of the flesh operating in His sanctuary. Consider how He judged David when he numbered Israel. Victory was turned to defeat when the king depended on His strength instead of God’s program.

The entire root of psychology is completely foreign to the “truth of God.” There are seven basic premises to secular psychology. Please notice that each of them destroys one or more of the powerful principles of the Holy Scripture and Biblical theology. Psychology is a sociological effort by man to find himself without surrendering himself to the Creator. Many human designs of this caliber have evolved over man’s history, and this is probably the most devious.

Secular psychology is premised on Darwin’s theory of evolution. Here are the words of the authors of Basic Psychology, as they describe the relationship between psychology and evolution. “Darwin’s theory of evolution, which states that any plant or animal species developed through modification of preexisting species, was highly controversial, but it had a tremendous effect on the study of human behavior and experience. It promoted all sorts of speculations about continuity from the animal to the human mind and about the nature of animal mental life. Furthermore, the idea of animal instincts, which was well accepted, led to speculation about human instincts and to the study of human motivation.” (Basic Psychology)

Any idea based on DarwinÂ’s theory of evolution is evil and false. The entire basic model of Psychology is premised on the development of manÂ’s personality rooted in evolution. Since we developed slowly from the tadpole to the human species, then the healing of manÂ’s problems must follow that pattern. The created marvel of man has only one problem and this is the root of every other problem. It is the root of every other problem. It is sin. When you bypass this problem, the cure is faulty.

Secular psychology says that man is basically good and does not possess a depraved or adamic nature. Robert Schuller had made this false idea acceptable with his spurious teaching of positive thinking. The constant drum of todayÂ’s preaching is about human potential, how to be successful, relationship techniques, and self-esteem. The Biblical idea of self-crucifixion, sanctification, and the total renouncement of fleshly living doesnÂ’t even earn second place. Such preaching cannot succeed. Every man has a spiritual button in his chest and the only person who can find it is the Holy Ghost.

Confession of complete human bankruptcy is the only first step to redemption. The Bible calls it “confession of sin.”

In the psychological man there is no need of a Savior because we are not lost. Of course, this also eliminates heaven or hell because there are no judgments or rewards where there are no transgressors or servants to sin. The new psychological savior is a positive attitude. The mind of the educated elitist is a picture in stupidity. While denouncing sin and replacing it with a negative attitude, they reduce man to an animal subjected to the control of his elitist peers. The truth is that all of this is preparation for Antichrist domination. B.F. Skinner was quoted in Time Magazine as saying the following, “But Skinner insists that autonomy is a myth, and that belief in an ‘inner manÂ’ is a superstition that originated — like belief in God — in manÂ’s inability to understand his world.” “Our task is not to encourage moral struggle or to build or demonstrate inner virtues. It is to make life less punishing.” (Time Magazine, September 20, 1971, p. 48.)

Fourth, the psychologist has stolen the human soul and replaced it with a subconscious mind. All of America and the civilized world has heard talk of a subconscious mind until it’s natural to believe it. It is an invention of psychology and is totally contrary to Biblical truth. Don Matzat in his book, Inner Healing; Deliverance or Deception, described Jung’s theory as the following: “The central theory of Jungian psychology, that which is often associated with the name Carl Jung, is the theory of the collective unconscious. On the basis of his experience with patience (evaluating the content that often erupted from the unconscious), Jung theorized that there was a deeper level of unconscious content beneath the Freudian personal unconscious. Within this ‘deep mind’ were the memories of the race: its cultural, religious, spiritual, mythological development. Religion for Jung was innate, inbred. He defined the collective unconscious as impersonal and transpersonal, transcending one’s own personal experience.” (Inner Healing: Deliverance or Deception? Don Matzat, p. 69.)

It’s easy to see the transition into the occult from the basis of a subconscious mind. Preaching on the fourth dimension is a product of this spurious thinking. Reincarnation is also becoming a dominate idea in the Western world and is a natural result of the “subconscious mind theory.”

Man was given a soul (personality) by the divine act of our Creator. The soul is eternal and possesses will, emotions, and conscious. This God’s imparted conscious is what psychologists have mistakenly called subconscious. It’s that deep sense of self (myself or yourself) and certainly possesses the spiritual capacity of both obedience and disobedience to God and toward man. While in obedience, it has great capacity for God; in disobedience, it carries itself into the depth of destruction and, finally, eternal hell. Remember the question, “Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:37). The psychologists have exchanged it for a subconscious and a bad one at that. Don’t forget, the whole industry of psychology exists to free men of his bad subconscious. Self-serving is an understatement.

The natural next step was to replace the spirit of man breathed by God with something psychological. The word psychic was their invention. Making these comparisons is not easy because of the different theories of the psychological world. They all do agree that man has what they call a psychic. This appears to represent to them the connection between our conscious existence and the unconscious data in our subconscious mind.

It’s easy to see this as their replacement of the God-breathed human spirit. Jesus made an incredible announcement in His ministry about our spirit as given by God. “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light” (Luke 11:34-36).

This recalls to memory the old song, “I saw the light. I saw the light. No more in darkness, no more in night. Now IÂ’m so happy, no sorrow in sight. Praise the Lord, I saw the light.” The redemption of man by the Holy Spirit is the regeneration of the human spirit. The light comes on in our heart. We suddenly know that God is our God, Jesus is our Saviour and forgiver of sins, and that we are sons of God by grace. The human spirit — put out by sin — is ignited. It then witnesses by the Holy Spirit that we are sons of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:16-17).

No wonder this new religion of psychology hates Biblical Christianity. They donÂ’t mind dead religion in dead churches. It is only when revival and redemption by the sovereign work of the Holy Ghost breaks forth that they lose their hold on the population.

The human dilemma to the secular psychologist is a repression of bad experiences in the subconscious. This is the entire structure of their theories of solution. All techniques, ideas, counseling styles, and methods are geared to discover and release this bad data and create healing in the subconscious. They theorize that this will result in the external healing of the individual. They have only one simple problem, it does not work.

ItÂ’s easy to see that every method of psychology is regressive, not liberating. They must — by their own thinking — go backward into the individualÂ’s life and dredge up everything (plus) that has ever happened. In the process they create a maximum amount of fantasy and fear based on nothing but wild speculation. The person being counseled becomes a slave to the fears discovered and to the new priest or priestess who is saving them from these fears. ItÂ’s a marvelous plan by old Lucifer to enslave mankind.

The healing ministry provided by Jesus Christ is the exact opposite. He cleanses from all past experiences, forgives us from every sin we have committed, and renews us body, soul, and spirit by His sanctifying grace. Paul said it clearly, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). All old things have passed away. We are new creatures, created in the image of the Second Adam named Jesus Christ. When Jesus sets you free, you are free indeed.

Churches with classes on alcohol addiction, drug addiction, twelve-step programs, phobias, eaters anonymous, etc., have simply replaced the old-fashioned gospel with the lie of psychology. One lady called our radio program angry because of this kind of content and blurted out the question, “Do you think the Bible, the blood, and the Holy Spirit is some kind of cure all?” I almost screamed, “Lady, you said it better than I could. Yes, yes, yes, I do!”

The last promise of Secular Psychology is that all human action is relative. There is no right or wrong. That’s why the Ten Commandments have been removed from public school classrooms and the Bible is the only book we dare censor from the unsuspecting students. It is the number one enemy of our modern social reformers. It is also the reason that the Bible is being translated into less threatening terminology and its infallibility is under great attack. Psychology has caused many of our ministers to take a new look at what we used to call sin. It’s no longer acceptable to preach, “Don’t.”

Subtly, our western mindset has developed a new way of thinking. Very few people have any sense of the danger. We know something is wrong, but we donÂ’t know what it is. This last idea of the psychological mind is the beginning of our total collapse. When the concept of distinction between light and darkness is lost, darkness becomes our master. The two cannot co-exist. One leaves when the other becomes king.

Will The Church Survive? Yes!
The invisible church will survive the deception that is now almost complete. Out of every dark period a remnant has emerged who refuse to be assimilated in the leaven. Any man, woman, or church congregation that returns to the Holy Bible, the Blood, and the Holy Spirit has the trinity of spiritual success. There are no powers that can resist the fresh visitation of the power of God. Right now, God is choosing this remnant to visit for revival.

Give yourself to the Word of God. Learn complete dependency on the Holy Ghost. Every day and every hour depend on the Blood of Jesus to deliver you from sin, both known and unknown. When we humble ourselves under His authority, quit kicking against the commandments to live holy and separated lives, and find the joy of His complete sovereign will in daily obedience; incredible results will follow. His chosen will experience an awakening of power and holiness as we watch for His sudden appearance. HeÂ’s coming any moment and the holy, sinless saints will ascend to meet Him in the air. We will follow Him to the FatherÂ’s throne and return to reign on this earth with Him.

Trust only in the power of God and make a consecrated effort to cast out every thought or idea that does not exalt the knowledge of God and the name of Jesus Christ. Here is Paul’s commandment given by the Holy Ghost to the first church, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Tattooing, body marking, body piercing, and now body mutilation, where will it end? Just like any trend or downward spiral, it goes deeper and deeper, lower and lower. When any society or culture leaves the absolutes of Biblical truths, there is no bottom. The "body" is the Lord’s. The human life and body is a sacred trust. There are holy things in our world and no Christian culture can survive when we forget to hold those things in reverence.

There are three persons that bear record in Heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. There are three that bear witness in earth: the Holy Spirit, the Word, and the Blood. (I John 5:7-8) There are three sacred trusts we hold in reverence in our lives: the body, the Scripture, and the Lord’s Day. When you depart from any of these three basic sets of principles or truths, there is no more foundation on which to build. Follow any religious institution or movement that has left these three foundational truths and they have nothing to build on that holds them in balance. Remember, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3). Please notice that the "Word of God," either in person or in revelation is at the center of all three basic principles of our spiritual world.

Visiting The Subculture of Body Mutilation
Let’s go on a visit to an acceptable and legitimate tattoo business in the average community of America. These businesses are often in small shopping malls, sometimes in a run down area of the city, but not always. The signs that I have viewed almost always use the idea of tattoos as the identification. As you enter the store, there will be multiple displays of designs that you may choose. The first thing you will notice is the oddity of these designs. They are normally not beautiful, peaceful, or natural looking.

In fact, the designs clearly come from a totally different cultural sense. If you have viewed publications with pictures from an eastern culture as Japan, China, or Arabia, you will immediately see the similarities. The eyes in either the person or the animal are foreboding and evil. The pictures will include Satan, witchcraft ideas, New Age, and strange angelic creatures. Many are clearly Hindu. Budda is popular and beastly creatures are evident to a large degree. Snakes are very popular and are designed to wrap around the body, the arms, or legs. Celtic, Nords, and Druids have a strong presence, and even the designs depicting Jesus or some Bible idea are more Catholic and Eastern in appearance.

One picture of Jesus that I viewed is too vulgar to show you. It was an African Jesus nude from the waist up, but with His genitals protruding. Blasphemy is the only word fitting to describe it. Although, the owner had been doing tattoos for forty-one years, he declared that he had never noticed this picture on his wall. When I say that the tattoo culture is out of hell, that’s a mild description. Yet, we have a multitude of modern religious souls that have chosen this lifestyle as acceptable.

One large, local church in our city has hired a minister for the "young adults" that is clearly a part of this culture. The Charlotte Observer quoted him saying, "I want to reach the person in the tattoo parlor, who pierced my ears . . .That’s the kind of person I want to go after. I want to span the spectrum." The writer stated of this minister, "And he pierced his second ear after coming to ______ to show that the church is open to all." (The Charlotte Observer, Ken Garfield.) I wonder if this minister has any understanding of what it means to be "born again" or remade into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Roots of the Tattoo World
When I do programs on our talk radio broadcast, my staff and I do ample research. We have 2 two-hour broadcasts on this subject available. We want to know the background and foundational idea behind every movement or cultural change affecting our world. America used to be a "culture of life," a "culture of the beautiful," but that is changing at a rapid rate. The Eastern cultures are quickly becoming deeply rooted in our world. We are moving quickly from Western and basic Christian thought to Eastern and the many heathen ways of thinking and living. The Eastern world had it origination out of Babylon, while the Western nations were born out of Jerusalem. By that statement I mean the spiritual evolution from those two world centers. This change from Western to Eastern had to happen to fulfill "End Time" prophecy. I believe Babylon will be the capitol of the seven-year Antichrist kingdom and her ideas must come to rule in that kingdom.

Hinduism is one of the strongest influences toward body mutilation of any description. A Hindu website made the following boast, "While tattoos among sailors and motorcycle clubs might seem the most obvious to someone living in the West, many cultures, including that of the Hindus, have long regarded tattoos as essential aids in life and even as passports into the world beyond death. So why tattoos? What does a symbol embedded under the skin have to do with the spirit? In part, it is related to self-mortification, which has a long history in religion. Whether it’s a Buddhist lama drawing a blade across his tongue, a Lakota warrior hanging for hours by hooks puncturing his chest or a sadhu piercing his cheeks and tongues with small spears, nearly every culture has a sect that regards physical suffering, or an apparent indifference to it, as just another step in spiritual development. Tattoos are believed to have begun as cuts in the skin to form scars, a decidedly painful process. The color, from soot or plants, came later. Anthropologists believe tattoos are part of the evolution of a tradition that views the voluntary endurance of pain as a way to tap into a primal urge for meaning and belonging. And sacred symbols, from cave painting to mandalas, are as old as the struggle to understand our world." (Hinduism Today, July/August, 2001.)

This issue from the Hindu world provided us with a picture of three basic reasons that undergird the tattoo culture. It is clearly a spiritualistic movement that finds its entire history in the search for God outside the revelations of Biblical truth. The air is charged today with this search for self and meaning rooted outside the tried and true experience of the Blood of Jesus. What is most disturbing, as the minister in Charlotte stated, is the integrating of the sacred and the sacrilegious.

The Hindu website gave three significant aspects of the tattoo experiences. One is "Devotional," the second is "Tattoos and the Afterlife," and "Tattoos for Protection." They stated the following about the first idea of tattoo’s "Devotional" aspect, "Religious tattoos can be viewed with two levels of devotion: there’s the ordeal of receiving the tattoo, the tedious and painful process of injecting pigment into the flesh, and then there’s the symbolism and color of the design itself. Among the most devoutly tattooed groups anywhere is the community of Ramnaamis. Scattered across the Indian states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, this sect of untouchables found refuge from harm in their distinctive tattoos the name "Ram" repeated in Sanskrit on practically every inch of skin, even on the tongue and inside the lips. Ramnaamis began their extraordinary custom during the Hindu reformist movement of the 19th century when they angered the upper-caste brahmins by adopting brahminical customs. To protect themselves against the brahmins’ wrath, the Ramnaamis tattooed the name of Lord Ram on their bodies." (Ibid.)

Clearly, the name of their gods was a primary focus. Since their gods were unknowable and idol, they were forced to identify with them by strange mythical methods. Instead of God in their heart, the gods were painted in their flesh. The website continued by writing, "With a rich tradition and thousands of Deities, Hinduism itself is today the source of countless tattoo designs. Tattoos depicting popular Gods such as Siva, Ganesha and Kali or sacred symbols like "Om" adorn the flesh of Hindus and non-Hindus alike. Some of the most elaborate tattoo patterns anywhere are on the women of the Ribari tribe of Kutch, the very region in Northwest India just devastated by an earthquake. It is one of the places to which the Pandavas were exiled during the Mahabharata. The members of the nomadic Ribari tribe live as their ancestors did; their tattoos being tangible symbols of the people’s strong spirit and concern with faith and survival." (Ibid.) What an empty search for God!

The aspect of "Tattoos & the Afterlife" shows the marked difference between faith in a resurrected Christ and the heathen ideas of our hope for the future. This fact helps us understand why Moses was given the clear direction against marking the flesh. God said, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD." (Leviticus 19:28). Tattooing has always represented this heathen idea of the afterlife and the Holy Spirit warned the believer to stay clear of all such superstition.

Listen to what the writer in this Hindu article documented. "The Maoris believed that a spirit would recognize their elaborate facial tattoos after their death and give them the vision to find their way to the next world. The Dayak tribes of Borneo thought their hand tattoos would illuminate the darkness of the afterlife as the soul searched for the River of the Dead. Maligang, the spirit guarding the river, would check for the tattoo, which earned the soul the right to cross the river. This is similar to the Lakota tradition, which teaches that the soul of the dead starts it journey to the other world on the starry spirit road (Milky Way). Along the path, it will pass Owl Woman, who inspects it for the tattoo. If she can’t find it, she prevents the soul’s passage. The Inuits of Alaska also tattooed themselves in preparation for death rituals. Small dots were applied to the pallbearer at various joints along the body to protect against evil spirits. Some believe that the soul resembles the body that houses it and retains this appearance even after death, including the person’s tattoos. In other cultures it is believed that death changes the person’s appearance so drastically that your tattoos were the only form of identification that will be left to you. Without tattoos you are doomed to wander forever in the afterworld." (Hinduism Today, July/August, 2001.) Nothing is scarier in the world of idol worship than the constant search for passage into the afterlife. Death becomes the dark and hopeless adventure into the regions of demons and lurking spirits of destruction.

The last of the three basic aspects of the tattoo world is "Protection from Evil Spirits." The gods of heathenism are a warring crowd of competing spirits. The idol worshippers were constantly caught up in these spirit wars and seeking some means of protection. This author describes the tattoos as amulets. "Many cultures regard tattoos as protective amulets, and such magical applications are closely linked to religious beliefs. Ainu women in Japan, for instance, tattoo themselves with images of their Goddess, which is able to repel evil spirits and thus protect from disease. Iraqis commonly tattoo a dot at the end of a child’s nose to guard against illness. A tattoo of Hanuman is used to relieve pain among Hindus. Aborigines in Australia believe tattoos on their arms allow them to dodge boomerangs. Soldiers in Burma tattoo their thighs to be invulnerable in war, and Cambodian men cover themselves in tattoos to make themselves impervious to harm, even from bullets. The use of tattoos in Cambodia may have come centuries ago from Indian settlers who practiced Vedic rituals. Sacred Buddhist texts are a favorite tattoo in Thailand, where they are believed to have magical power. In an initiation rite known as the "Krob Kru," the devotee lights incense and prays in preparation. The tattoo artist uses a special rod to inscribe the sacred text on the chest, back or arms. A shaman then tests the tattoo’s potency by giving each tattoo three or four strong swipes of a sword. Tattoo recipients often enter a state of ecstasy or bust into violent trances." (Ibid.)

This author tells about the Hawalians, who have specific tattoo gods. They are called Aumakua and either protect or destroy, depending on the attention given to the god. One of the heartbreaking truths about heathenism is the unholy bondage the shaman priest holds over the people. They are forced to serve these false gods by threats and spells. It’s important to understand that you cannot disconnect the tattoo of a particular idol god and the demon spirit behind that idol. When you play their game, you reap their bondage.

Evolution & Darwinism
We cannot escape the effect that evolution has had on our present generation of young people. Man was created by the supernatural action of Jehovah God. We are in His likeness and image, and our temple or body is His dwelling place. Our body cannot be a vacuum but for a short period of time. If God does not guard the gate, then a different spirit will seek control. Demon control is not the same as demon possession. While there is certainly a tremendous amount of possession, much of our world is under Lucifer’s control.

Any kind of body piercing, marking, or tattooing is connected to spirit control. The evil spirit many not control the life at the beginning of the involvement with this world, but will certainly seek to do so eventually. Visit a few tattoo shops and witness about the Lord Jesus. You will quickly find that a large number of them are into heathen religions of Native Indians, Hindus, etc. You absolutely cannot separate this sub-culture from evil spirits and heathen religions. When you adopt their culture, you accept the spirit that birthed that culture.

Conclusion
God created man in His own image and forbids any believer to mark, mutilate, or pierce their body. Satan hates the human body because of its likeness to the Creator. The body is sacred and to treat it like an idol god would suggest starting a process of descent into the vulgar and absurd. It does not matter at all to Satan how he brings you under bondage to his destructive powers. His goal is to make you a wreck and to bring you to the place that there is no way out. Already a great portion of this generation is hopelessly locked into a subculture of darkness and emotional insanity.

If there is a phrase or expression that best describes abortion and the Planned Parenthood federation, it is "genocidal madness." Any organization that pits itself against the family, dividing parents from children, is an enemy to that society.

When you add to that a complete departure from the absolutes of the Judeo-Christian values system, you have the seed to total moral anarchy. America is reaping the brokenness of this decay right now. Even sadder is their future agenda to solve the problems they help create. Their solution is worse than the problem.

This organization has led the way in making a mother’s womb the most hazardous place for a human being in America. The dangers of neighborhood crime or natural disasters doesn’t even compare with the threat from expectant mothers.

If any person on earth was created with the instinct to protect her responsibilities, it is a mother. She has a built-in mechanism that will react instantly when danger threatens her unborn. That instinct is so strong that the fear of death to the mother is not even considered.

The horrible monster of abortion has created a climate where these beautiful attributes of motherhood have been exchanged for the selfish option of pro-choice. The word "pro-choice" may sound more civilized than abortion but the killing is the same.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson was one of the leading abortionists in the western world. After his conversion to an anti-abortion view, he called Planned Parenthood "The Empire." He apparently did so because they preside over this "gas chamber" type treatment of unborn children.

The very founder of this organization, Margaret Higgins Sanger, was everything but a saint. It is reported that she became involved both sexually and intellectually (??) with a collection of social extremists. Her most intimate contacts were reported to be H.G. Wells, called "apostle of the new science", and Havelock Ellis, a promoter of a pseudo-science called eugenics. Eugenics advocated the stock breeding or "selective breeding" of the human race.

She became a racist. Upon returning to America, she championed the idea of sterilizing the so-called "unfit." Her "unfit" were Jews, Poles, Blacks and the poor and uneducated. She lumped them together as human weeds.

Her organization, Planned Parenthood, may appear more civilized than she but that’s only the "P.R." and I mean "Public Relations" not "Parental Rights." They championed a Supreme Court case, "Planned Parenthood versus Danforth" (July 1, 1976) in which husbands and parents of minor girls lost any right of mutual consent to abortion.

In "Planned Parenthood" versus Bellotti (1980) parents were robbed of their right to be informed of their minor daughter’s abortion, in some instances, at the discretion of the judge.

It’s hard to believe that this organization could tout itself as "pro-family" when in fact they are one of America’s most anti-family crowd. When they use the term "family", it is not likely to mean a man, his wife, and their children.

A prominent sociologist, Phillips Cutright, laid out the blueprint for Planned Parenthood’s program for the 70’s. This was his three-pronged approach:

1. Universal sex education in the schools.
2. A nationwide network of birth control clinics to distribute contraceptives to teenagers, and,
3. Legalized abortion as a backup.

He admitted that it would not solve the problem of teenage pregnancy and that in areas where contraceptives were available the problem would get worse. He even suggested that the real purpose was to overcome the "pseudomoral barriers."

If you will put those three words in a layman’s language, it will spell immorality, homosexuality and free love. Their agenda is to have a society where the moral teaching of the Judeo-Christian faith is eliminated. If the world goes to the dogs in the meantime, at least they won’t have any sex hang-ups. If America doesn’t close this outfit down, we are fools.

As a people of language, Americans have a name for everything. The names we give situations, people, places, and things express our feelings about the item named. When our mindset about an item changes, we change the name. You can follow a change of names as a society progresses or declines, and "know" that society’s heart and mind.

In the past forty years, here in the south, the word harlot or slut has been changed to sexually active. The former horror of being one of these types of girls has been eroded until it is a choice instead of a deviant lifestyle. The same thing happened in the home. The housewife, who viewed the husband as her priority, now sees the children as her main goal, hence a "stay-at-home-mom".

What happened? America is in the throes of an intense feminization of its people. Our language changes show it. Men no longer need courage; it is okay to have some phobias. Our children should not be abused (as in whipping); but need their self-esteem elevated. Discipline is now abuse?!

The church is partially responsible. Socialistic change tactics have entered into the church. The Bible-based role of male-influenced church activities has been given over to feminine-based roles. Instead of producing young men to become "church fathers," we produce wimpy pastors who handle church problems by giving in and liberalizing the standards and expectations. Praise & worship, church decisions, and functions are based on emotions and not sound Biblical principles from a rational mind. Why? Just as mothers give into a child’s "please" more often than a masculine dad, the new feminine church has followed suit.

The main reason for change is that we have forgotten the priority of the church; which is to preach and teach the gospel of the kingdom. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33). Instead, we concern ourselves with people’s feelings and desires as priority. In that manner, we end up "mothering" the church instead of being "spiritual fathers." As the housewife has a priority as the bride of the husband, we must fulfill the desires of our Father and let Him reach out through us to the children. If we concentrate on the children, we fail to concentrate on the Father. Ever wonder why Catholicism uses the term "mother church," while Protestantism has spawned "church fathers?"

We now have wonderful programs that focus on the family. Yet, the Book of Acts’ church focused on Jesus. Jesus said that we must forsake father, mother, and etc. to be His disciple. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26). There will not be any marriage in heaven besides the believer to Christ. Earthly family cannot be our priority if we please God. Modern churches have numerous plans and programs for each family member, but the programs for evangelizing their city get smaller and smaller. The masculine attitude of conqueror and builder of greater things by force and power is replaced by a motherly care of everyone’s feelings; i.e. being sure everyone is feeling okay. Because people like to go see "mama," a large church can be built around people’s needs. But, there are no miracles, no Holy Ghost power, and no great soul winning outreaches in most. These churches usually grow when babies leave an at least partly masculine church to get coddled at the breast of a mother church.

We should teach our ladies that, as a married spouse, their first priority is to their husband. Their children are a secondary priority. "Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all." (Galatians 4:1). As a church, our first priority is sound doctrine and the presence of the Father (through the Spirit). Our second priority is to care for people. Confuse the two and feminization will result. (In the Book of Acts, see the men chosen to serve tables, so apostles could have "word & prayer" priority.)

There is almost a cult-like push in the church for family values or Judeo-Christian values. While both are grand goals, they can truly come only as a result of a heart change from our Father God. We must not emphasize our family over our Father in Heaven. A church that pleases the Father in doctrine and lifestyle will see that "all these things will be added" unto them. Our family is only as safe as our relationship to God the Father.

Men, let us spread the life changing, family-changing gospel! Let us not veer from the sound, holy Bible teachings. Let our spiritual strength lead us to God-given compassion for the lost and hurting. Let us expect a powerful miracle instead of a temporary band-aid. Let us glorify God, the Father, instead of mother earth! "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Clinton says, "for the children," so that he can make political and social changes. Let us work for the Father who cares for His own children. Does your church resemble the housewife (bride) concentrating on the groom or is it a stay-at-home-mom?

World events make no sense unless you understand the "Book of Revelation." This entire universe is on a pre-determined course set by the foreknowledge of its Creator. Whether it is the poetry of the poet, the business adventure of the money mad tycoon, the grand plans of the One World designers, the cinema creation of the movie makers, or the imagination of a J.R.R. Tolkien, it is all under the auspices of the "Beginning and the Ending." The God of the Book of Revelation proclaimed, "I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:8).

No book in the Bible makes more sense in today’s world than the grand closing of God’s Revelation. The Book of Revelation was designed to bring the church of Jesus Christ from the hour of its early beginning to the glory of its eminent future. The seven letters to seven churches in Revelation chapters two and three embodies the entire time from the beautiful beginning of the church to the apostasy of its waning hours. The saints will not be raptured in the glory of the church’s organizations and wealth, but in the grace of His holiness and imparted purity. Beginning in chapter four of Revelation, we have the future of His kingdom after the church age as it unfolds both on earth and in the Heavens. Our world is speedily racing in preparation for this incredible climax.

There must be two movements simultaneously preparing for the end. Darkness and light are opposites. Goodness and evil are expressions of the exact same difference as darkness and light. Every story that someone tells or writes will in some way embody these two opposites. Righteousness is on course for her grand hour of victory, while darkness must become darker to meet its fate of extinction. J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginary epic in his three grand books, Lord of the Rings, is a clever look at what awaits the religious world. The final hour of religion will be the darkest time of her entire history. The sun-clothed woman will finally end in a blob of religious superstition and pagan deception.

No writer has ever portrayed the blending of pagan myths with distorted Christianity more cleverly than Tolkien. These books can be and are being heralded by the liberal Christian world and the pagan world at the same time. The Christian bookstores and many ministries speak to Tolkein’s great message of espousing values and even some hidden form of the Messianic hope. The pagan world promotes it right in the middle of witchcraft and occultic ideas. It is a perfect pattern for the "global spirituality" of the coming One World Government and One World Church.

The Premise For His Myths Was Flawed
Tolkien believed that the pagan myths of pre-Christian history were somehow earlier expressions of the future revelations. Both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were victims of religious teaching that failed to keep truth and error clearly separated. Many pagan ideas had invaded the church world. Instead of the church rooting out superstition and paranormal experiences, they have found it easier to accommodate the two opposing themes. There is no doubt but that the political mix of church and state of that period lay at the heart of this problem. The world in which Tolkien found himself certainly affected his thinking and writing. Tolkien was a devout Catholic and made the statement that his literary works was an extension of his faith. Tolkien said, "The Lord of the Rings was ‘a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.’" (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter, editor (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981), p. 172,243.) Professor Ralph C. Wood, a foremost expert on Tolkien and his writings stated, "The unrestrained quality of mercy is what, ‘I suggest, makes the Lord of the Rings’ an enduring Christian classic despite its pagan setting." (www.leaderu.com/humanities/wood-classic.html.)

Tolkien was much moved by the pagan myths that his highly intellectual world of friends saw as intriguing and of great value. He was fascinated by Norse and Celtic mythologies and taught a pantheon of gods in his earlier work, The Simarrilion. His "All Father," as he called the one God he considered to correspond to the God of the Bible, had fifteen sub-gods. They were put in charge of "Middle Earth," his mythical idea for the world as he would present in his myth telling.

Let’s allow Professor Ralph Wood to describe this idea, "At the top stands Iluvatar, the All-Father, corresponding roughly to the One whom Christians call God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. From him all things proceed, and to him all things return. He is the beginning and the end, the One who shapes all events to his own purposes. He dwells in the Timeless Halls and only rarely intervenes in his Creation, preferring instead to work through the agency of his Valar or Ainur. These are the fifteen subordinate beings Iluvatar created with the Flame Imperishable of his Spirit. They are themselves entirely spiritual creations who work Iluvatar’s will in the world." (www.leaderu.com/humanities/wood-cosmogony.html.)

Each of these God-like creations has a pagan description of their place and office in this pantheon of gods. Manwë was the good and pure and reigned over the air, wind, clouds, and the birds. His spouse was Varda, the Exalted, who made the stars and set the course for the sun and the moon. Melkor was given by Iluvatar greater power and knowledge than all other gods and was gifted in substances and craft. Melkor fulfilled the idea of Satan by rebelling and seeking power equal to Iluvatar himself. Tolkien even names the fifteen sub gods Valar, taken from his primary god’s name, Ilu-vatar.

Melkor’s shadow god or equal was named Aule. He was given the same power as Melkor, but had no desire to dispossess and rule instead of Iluvatar. There was Ulmo, the lord of waters, Irmo, the author of visions and dreams, and his wife, Este. Then, we have Nienna (compassions), whose tears bring healing, Mandos, who keeps the Houses of the Dead. There are six more of these valars with different god-like responsibilities. All this Tolkien saw as a "splintering fragment of the true light." He said, "In making a myth, in practicing ‘mythopoeia,’ and peopling the world with elves and dragons and goblins, a story-teller . . . is actually fulfilling God’s purpose, and reflecting a splintered fragment of the true light." (Quoted by Colin Gunton, Professor of Christian Doctrine in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College, London. His article first appeared in the King’s Theological Review (Vol. 12, No. 1), in 1989. Included as a chapter in Tolkien: A Celebration, edited by Joseph Pearce (London: Fount, 1999), p. 130.)

It’s easy to see that Tolkien’s basis for his claim of Biblical harmony in his myths was dead wrong. Paganism is exactly what it is called, "paganism." I agree that the pagan writers and the spirits behind their writing do indeed imitate truth in a kind of vague fashion. Satan is the master imitator, but his evil inspiration can never be seen or used as a kind of foundation for truth. A mixture of truth and error is completely forbidden in Scripture. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" (II Corinthians 6:14-16a).

His Characters Were Similar to Those in the Book of Revelation
The occultic powers, as clearly revealed in the Book of Revelation, are strangely similar to those same powers in Lord of the Rings. This may have been unintentional on Tolkien’s part, but unlikely on Satan’s part. The world must be prepared for the coming seven years of "Great Tribulation." The world would not receive a sudden infusion of strange mythical creatures empowered by paranormal ability unless there had been years of preparation and acquaintance with those ideas. The Lord of the Rings series is only one of many fictional themes that our world has fallen in love with today. It is very apparent that millions have come to love beastly creatures, strange mystical powers, occultic themes and almost any idea that is otherworldly.

One of the scary things about Lord of the Rings is that some authorities see the powers, which are manifested, as being supernatural, instead of magical. This in itself suggests that they are very much presented in a Bible-like fashion. Listen to an interview/question with Author Joseph Pearce (Books: Tolkien: Man and Myth and Tolkien: A Celebration):

"Question: In recent years, magic in diverse forms such as games, TV shows, etc., has been very popular among young people. Given the way magical powers are presented in the Lord of the Rings, do you think that there could be any dangers for youngsters?

"Pearce: There is very little of what could be termed magic in The Lord of the Rings. There is much that is supernatural, but only in the sense that God is supernatural, or that Satan is supernatural, or that good and evil are supernatural. It would be more accurate to describe the so-called magic in The Lord of the Rings as miraculous, when it serves the good, and demonic, when it serves the evil." (www.leaderu.com/humanities/zenit-tolkien.html).

Mr. Pierce further stated, "Far from being a ‘fantasy,’ The Lord of the Rings is a theological thriller." (Ibid.) The entire atmosphere created in this epic is a borderline story between a world of occultic mythology and Biblical creatures out of the Book of Revelation.

Berit Kjos documents the tremendous presence of demons, wizards, spells, and other creatures or activities that are clearly Satanic in nature. Here are a few of her quotes:

"Both stories (Harry Potter series and Lord of the Rings series) involve wizards, spells, mythical creatures and magic charms. Both demonstrate the battle between a mythical good and evil. Both pit heroic white magic against dark menacing occultism."

"In his personal letters (many are included in a book titled The Letters of J. R. R Tolkien), he expressed caution toward occult practices. But he equipped his team of mythical heroes — the fellowship of the Ring — with the pagan powers that God forbids. For example, ‘Gandalf [a helpful wizard] is able to wield potent magic… To do battle with the forces of darkness, Gandalf the Grey can call upon not only his spellcraft, but also his staff of power and the Elven sword Glamdring.’"

"The movie version of The Lord of the Rings idealizes occultism and cheers the pagan practices used by good characters. Like Star Wars, Harry Potter and the world’s pagan cultures, it seduces its fans into an imaginary world that pits ‘white’ or benevolent magic against dark, evil magic. Both sides of this imagined ‘battle between good and evil’ use occult practices that God forbids."

"This incarnate ‘angel’ wouldn’t fit into the host of Biblical angels. But he could well fit in the hierarchy of ‘devas’ or ‘angels’ and ascended masters in the elaborate spiritual system called Theosophy or ‘Ancient Wisdom.’ Founded by Madame Helena Blavatsky, this esoteric blend of Hinduism and Western occultism received its doctrines from ‘ascended masters’ or spirit guides such as Djhwal Khul who channeled his messages to the medium Alice Bailey." (www.crossroad.to/articles2/rings.htm).

Tolkien himself clearly saw his creature creations as strange and mystical. He probably would have been a bit offended if someone had called them Satanic. Here are some of his descriptions:

"Gandalf is not, of course, a human being (Man or Hobbit). There are naturally no precise modern terms to say what he was. I would venture to say that he was an incarnate ‘angel’…. with the other Istari, wizards, ‘those who know’, an emissary from the Lords of the West, sent to Middle-earth as the great crisis of Sauron loomed on the horizon. By ‘incarnate’ I meant they were embodied in physical bodies capable of pain and weariness…."

"Why they should take such a form is bound up with the ‘mythology’ of the ‘angelic’ Powers of the world of this fable. At this point in the fabulous history the purpose was precisely to limit and hinder their exhibition of ‘power’ on the physical plane, so that they would do what they were primarily sent for: train, advise, instruct, arouse the hearts and minds of those threatened by Sauron to a resistance with their own strength…. The wizards were not exempt, indeed being incarnate were more likely to stray, or err. Gandalf alone fully passes the test, on a moral plane anyway. For in his condition it was for him a sacrifice to perish on the Bridge in defense of his companions…. Gandalf sacrificed himself, was accepted and enhanced and returned."

"Gandalf really ‘died’ and was changed…. ‘I am Gandalf the White, who has returned from death’." (The Letters of J. R. R Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter, editor (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981), pp. 201-202.)

The picture clearly evident in these descriptions is that of fallen angels subject to Satan himself. In several locations in the Book of Revelation, there are hordes of unclean spirits seeking to work havoc on the population. "And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." "And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle." (Revelation 9:2-3, 7-9).

Tolkien Rejected the Classical Ideas for the Romantic Ideas
Professor Woods, a Tolkien historian, gave a revealing description of what were the greater influences in Tolkien’s life. "It is not surprising to learn that Tolkien was deeply influenced by the 19th century Romantics, chiefly S. T. Coleridge and George Macdonald, since his friend and literary companion C. S. Lewis was also decisively shaped by them. Nor is it startling to find Tolkienian connections with J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Mary Rose, with the Four Quartets of T. S. Eliot, even with Henry James’ unfinished story The Sense of the Past. What comes as a genuine shock is the news that Tolkien’s mind and work were marked by the fictional dream-journeys of George Du Maurier, by the psychic experiences of Charlotte Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, by the time-travel fantasies of H. G. Wells, and especially by the notion of J. W. Dunne that all temporal events are simultaneous. Dunne held that time is no less constant than space, and that by certain habits of mind we can move backward and forward over time as we traverse space, even experiencing events that have not yet happened." (www.leaderu.com/humanities/wood-review.html).

This kind of influence and thinking produced in Tolkien a mind-set with little room for the genuine truths of Holy Scripture. He was guided by occultic thinking and the many strange ideas of those emerged in that world. Another writer, Verlyn Flieger, spells out even more clearly a description of his background and mindset. Professor Wood quotes her as follows, "There she revealed, as she does again here, that the massive moral and religious questions that exercised and animated Tolkien’s imagination–the nature of good and evil, of heroism and self-sacrifice, of desire and dispossession, of death and immortality–are but subsets of his central lifelong concern with the nature of time and timelessness. In both books Flieger has shown us a darker, less cheering Tolkien than many of his Christian apologists have acknowledged. Here again she is right: Tolkien was a man whose faith was shadowed and doubt-filled, and whose fiction thus counsels a sad joyfulness as the most that we can hope for this side of eternity." (www.leaderu.com/humanities/wood-review.html).

Understanding the difference between the classical thinking where the emphasis is on principle and character, plus good taste, restraint, and clarity to the opposing idea is important. The romantic style was similar to the change agents of our day. A present romantic style would represent those that want to rewrite our history, change our value system, and impose a system of their own. An English dictionary, first published in 1901, described the romantic mindset as following, "inclining towards, or savouring of, romance, fictitious, extravagant, wild: fantastic." (Chambers English Dictionary, 7ed, 1990, p 1270.) This kind of view into Tolkien’s life should give his cult followers a jolt into reality.

Reincarnation & Doom
Tolkien’s view of life, death, and the absence of a happier nature certainly played a big part in his sad myths. A bookstore manager asked him if he had dealt too strongly on the metaphysical aspect. His answer reveals something of his theology. "’Reincarnation’ may be bad theology (that surely, rather than metaphysics) as applied to Humanity… But I do not see how even in the Primary world any theologian or philosopher, unless very much better informed about the relation of spirit and body than I believe anyone to be, could deny the possibility of re-incarnation as a mode of existence, prescribed for certain kinds of rational incarnate creatures." (The Letters of J. R. R Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter, editor (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981), page 189.)

Reincarnation is the very opposite of eternal life and cannot be reconciled in the least. This kind of thinking is natural for a man that loved and enjoyed the myths of paganism. C.S. Lewis, deeply involved in the same mythological world, saw into the sad nature and writings of Tolkien and said that the Ring epic is embedded with "a profound melancholy." Professor Wood joined in suggesting the same general consensus.

"The word ‘doom’ — in its Anglo-Saxon meaning of damning judgment as well as final fate in ruin and death — pulses like a funereal drumbeat throughout the entire work. Toward the end of Volume I, the elf Legolas offers a doom-centered vision of the world. It sounds very much like an elvish and Heraclitean version of entropy. ‘To find and lose,’ says Legolas, is the destiny ‘of those whose boat is on the running stream…. The passing seasons are but ripples in the long long stream. Yet beneath the Sun all things must wear to an end at last.’ Though elves are so long-lived that they seem immortal to humans and hobbits, the tides of time will sweep even them away. A deeply pagan pessimism thus pervades all three of the Ring books." (www.leaderu.com/humanities/wood-classic.html).

The Tolkien epic of the Ring falls terribly lacking of any semblance of the Christian hope, salvation, or eternal life. It is rather filled with the hopelessness of paganism and its dark future of judgment.

Conclusion
Tolkien’s ideas were sadly lacking in contrast to the glorious truth of the infallible Word of God. He argued that "mythic tales grope toward the Hope which, in the story of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Jesus Christ, finally enters space and time to become historical reality, God’s own myth-made-fact." (www.leaderu.com/humanities/wood-classic.html).

It is marvelous indeed that no man has to read and follow the myths of paganism to find his way to the cross. Only a few Tolkien’s or Lewis’ would find such an idea satisfying.

The Book of Revelation is filled with these similar beasts, spirits, spells, and, in every case, they are shown to be the enemies of God and faith-filled mankind. Tolkien gave us nothing but a distorted view of Christianity all mixed up with the world of Satan, which is soon to be presented to this world as Satan’s imitator of true religion. Reading the Book of Revelation would fill you with such hope and assurance that you will not need the lies of pagan myths to inspire your soul.

The body in death becomes a seed sown in this earth. In every saint’s body, there is the DNA signature of that individual person by which they will be raised in perfect form, yet without the adamic nature, at the resurrection. Apostle Paul made this bold declaration in his first letter to the people of Corinth. His words proclaim the mystery of death and the hope of our new body. "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." (I Corinthians 15:35-38).

Our resurrection is not a copycat event in which all of us have similar appearing bodies. Each resurrected body will be unique, exactly like we are all unique in this life. The seed or grain of the present body contains the nucleus for the new body. Our great God in the resurrection does not create new bodies, but recreates us from the seed sown in death and burial. Paul continues the thought above, saying, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (I Corinthians 15:42-44, 49).

In death we sow the seed of our earthly life in complete assurance of the coming resurrection. No wonder the writer of Ecclesiastes stated unequivocally the following words, "If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he." (Ecclesiastes 6:3). This is God’s ideal. It is clearly His plan and method.

The late Wim Malgo of Midnight Call wrote a small booklet on The Fatal Path of Cremation. He quoted Doctor Karl Ludwig Scheich as saying the following, "It is the nucleolus of the cell, that concentration of the cell’s protoplasmic yolk, which, like a sort of central organ, like a brain, a soul of the cell, and also like the yolk of the egg, must be regarded as the essential element of these microscopically-small life units. These life units of the cell – the nucleoli – remain alive under all conditions, and in them there is no death, only a spore-like preserving, a waiting, until they, in the miraculous cycle of life, restore their minute, immortal energies to life through rhythmic transfer. Digestion, fermentation, caustic acids or lyes cannot destroy their almost crystallized life.

Only fire dissolves them! But this is not part of nature’s plan. Cell-death by burning is the most unnatural thing there is, and we must come to a decision to prohibit cremation as one of the greatest errors of civilization! Every nucleolus, which is freely dissolved in the soil, carries within it something of the spiritual and physical ‘I-nature’ of that decayed body from which it came. There exists, therefore, a cycle of life, an immortality of bodily organization, and herein lie the reasons for why we declare that cremation is an act of human boldness. It unwisely meddles with the above-described cycle of life, and, with clumsy, unknowing hands, frustrates the methodical construction and promotion of living creatures to ever-increasing higher achievements." (Miracles of the Soul, Dr. Karl Ludwig Scheich.)

Fantastic is the only word I can imagine for such a scientific miracle. Our God had it all planned in the beginning and the resurrection DNA or seed/cell/germ was implanted in the very creation of each living soul. It can be no wonder that cremation was unnamed in all of Scripture as the method for the death of His own saints.

Abraham was Commanded for Burial
Abraham is the "Father of Faith," so named by Holy Scripture. He was called out of pagan Ur to become the Father of a new nation that would leave heathenism and follow the path of obedience to God. He stands at the head (humanly speaking) of the Bible-believing world. God spoke to him and clearly commanded, "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age." (Genesis 15:15).

"Thou shalt be buried" was a direct command. This was very clear to Abraham, although he was born in heathenism among the very worse of his day. The city of Ur in Sumer is at the center of where heathenism had its origin. North of Ur is Babylon and west of Ur is Erech, so named in Genesis. "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." (Genesis 10:10). For this saint to be commanded to forsake the ways of the pagans and to follow God’s ways is incredible information. Any Bible believer would dare not forsake or take lightly such a command.

Abraham buried his wife, who died before his own death, to show his readiness to be obedient. "And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan." (Genesis 23:19).

God Himself buried Moses on the top of Mt Nebo. "So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." (Deuteronomy 34:5-6).

The Scriptures give details of numerous burials of those who were God’s servants. Just a few names may be helpful to show that this is the only method ever followed in Holy Scripture. No one that was numbered with the chosen was ever cremated in the Word of God. Note these names: Rachel, Leah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Miriam, Aaron, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Samuel, David, Solomon, and Elisha.

Moses gave a clear description for the burial of the dead in the Jewish Torah, our first five books of the Holy Bible. "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." (Deuteronomy 21:23).

The New Testament Supports Burial as God’s Clear Command
The Word of God always teaches by example as the first method for declaring truth. God rested on the seventh day of creation and forever set an example for the seven-day week, with one day devoted to Him and rest. Burial is seen throughout the New Testament with the death and burial of Jesus Christ at the center. Lazarus was buried and Jesus raised him from the dead. If Martha and Mary had cremated him, Jesus would not have resurrected him. His resurrection was the natural body, which was to die again in his proper season. "Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" "And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." (John 11:39-40,43).

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the center of all truth. The Old Testament exists to purposefully and methodically bring us to the fullness of time, when the Son of God would be incarnated in a sinless human body. His body or His coming to live among men was the Second Adam. All that the First Adam sold, the Second Adam purchased and pardoned. His death, burial, and resurrection are the redemptive acts in which all redemption is complete.

His bodily resurrection from the death is the firstfruits of our resurrection. There will be no departing from this truth when that glorious moment arrives for each of the saints to be resurrected. Our body will be raised exactly as was His body. We will be like Him for we will see Him as He is. We shall also be known as we were represented in our bodies in this life. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (I Corinthians 13:12). Death, burial, and resurrection are the Lord’s clear pattern; and to depart from the same is barbaric and heathen.

Water Baptism is Lost in Cremation
Water baptism is a beautiful and commanded experience. The entire base of this action typifies the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." (Colossians 2:12). "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." (Romans 6:3-5).

The act of baptism has no meaning if there is no burial. You cannot show a resurrection from a cremation because there is nothing left to resurrect. Maybe, if you only believe in sprinkling, then you could call it just a type, but Scripture cannot be so ignored and still retain meaning.

The Body is for the Lord
"Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." (I Corinthians 6:13). Our body is clearly the temple of the Holy Ghost and all that the Lord does in His earthly kingdom He does by using His saints. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (I Corinthians 6:19). Our bodies are also members of Christ. "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid." (I Corinthians 6:15).

The entire majestic acts of redemption, water baptism, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and the promised resurrection of this very body make cremation unthinkable. How the church world treats those spiritual truths so cheaply is hard to grasp.

Heathenism & Secular Humanism
There is no question but that cremation has never been acceptable in a Bible-believing church. Only after the effects of pagan ideas and secular humanism could the church world be headed in this direction. A booklet written, entitled Burial or Cremation, gave this following information. "Between 1876 and 1884 there were only 28 recorded cremations in the U.S. During the 1960’s and 70’s many changes in our culture began to occur in a time of social instability fueled by the doctrines of secular humanism, the basic tenant of which is man is not accountable to any higher power or God. From this doctrine of human autonomy have come both the acceptance of abortion and the practice of cremation. The right to do both of these barbaric rituals is claimed on the basis of the false concept that one’s body belongs to himself and he can do with it whatsoever he pleases. Consequently, by 1977, 7% of all human corpses were reduced to bone fragments and ashes by cremation in this country. By 1993 that percentage had increased to nearly 20%. That percentage will continue to increase as Americans reject Biblical Christianity and adopt the so-called New Age thinking which is nothing more than ancient and pagan Hinduism and Buddhism in new garb." (Burial or Cremation, by Royce Smith, M.A., Th.M., Th.D. Published by Bethel Baptist Church-Watchman Press, Lawton, OK.)

According to present information, in 25% of all deaths and funerals, the families are now opting for cremation. Churches all across America are actually promoting cremation by erecting columbariums on the church property. These columbariums serve as a memorial on the church grounds, usually near the sanctuary. Ministers are encouraging their congregations to consider cremation. Pagan religious ideas are exploding in the American churches. If a church welcomes Buddha-type meditation, New Age ten-step programs, martial arts, etc. then the natural direction is to welcome new forms of thinking in other matters. As many voices are now declaring, "We are living in post-Christian America."

The Bible Condemns Cremation
The Scripture does not speak volumes about cremation because it does not need to do so. When you have the truth presented in great abundance, the need to condemn the opposite is not required. Yet, the Scripture shows God’s disfavor.

God utterly condemned Moab in the days of the prophet Amos. One of the clear reasons was an act of cremation against another king. "Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime: But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet: And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD." (Amos 2:1-3). This judgment was severe and plain.

Often in Scripture, the wicked were judged by fire and complete obliteration. It was always reserved for great acts of blasphemy and sin. It appeared that a symbolism for a curse was the cremation of the body. We are dealing in those cases with people who had no hope of a saintly resurrection. "And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel." (Joshua 7:15).

The Catholic Church burned great numbers of saints at the stake because they believed they were cursed for withstanding this harlot institution. These very acts show the utter disregard for truth that has characterized this false religion.

What will happen to those who are burned to death accidentally? How about the martyred saints who were burned at the stake or any other believer who has been destroyed by fire? There is no direct Biblical answer, but we know that our Sovereign God is not hindered by those kinds of circumstances. On one occasion He stated, "And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." (Matthew 3:9).

You can have perfect peace that no situation or event that has ever occurred will hinder our Father in the resurrection of the dead saints or the resurrection unto damnation of the ungodly. While God has ordained our resurrection from the body sown in the grave, He is clearly able to recreate the resurrection body for those destroyed by accident or in malice.

The Death of the Wicked
The resurrection of the godless and wicked persons is a resurrection unto damnation. So, cremation fits the death of the unjust perfectly. Their bodies will be raised up in the wickedness of their life and death. The resurrection of the righteous is glorious, but the resurrection of the unjust is fitted to their lifestyle of rebellion and stubbornness. This is clearly why God Himself has often judged the wicked in fire or brimstone. "And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense." (Numbers 16:35). "And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD." (Leviticus 10:2). "The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked." (Psalm 106:17-18).

God also commanded that certain blasphemous or extremely wicked person be burnt with fire. "And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you." "And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire." (Leviticus 20:14; 21:9).

Cremation must be reserved exclusively for the wicked and God rejecters in our midst. It should be expected that individuals that have rejected the Creator and His Holy Bible would desire to show their rebellion against the sacredness of life by choosing cremation. It becomes the last act of defiance and determination to escape responsibility to Him.

Offering Fiery Sacrifices to Idol Gods
Cremation has always been deeply connected to idolatry. The worship of false gods is almost always connected to fire. Israel was constantly warned not to be involved in such worship. "And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD" (Leviticus 18:21).

Human sacrifice is only a few steps away from cremation. Idol gods are intimately connected to spirits and demons, and destruction is their character. There is a special hatred in spirits of evil for the human life and body. Moses wrote, "Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods." (Deuteronomy 12:31).

Reincarnation is an important part of many false religions. Since they have no hope of eternal life or a physical resurrection, they have concocted a different idea. As men pass from one life experience to another, they must be released from each incarnation. Cremation is the chosen from of release. The Encyclopedia Britannica reported, "The pagan Scandinavians favoured cremation, believing that it helped free the spirit from the flesh and also that it kept the dead from harming the living. These pagan practices paralleled the Greek and Roman epic cremations." (Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, p. 726.) It’s impossible to disconnect cremation from paganism and heathenism.

Hell and the Eternal Lake of Fire
Cremation is too close to hell for a saint to ever choose such a treatment of the divinely created body. God Himself created Hell and the Lake of Fire for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). It was never intended for man or woman. It is their choice, not His choice. The unregenerate person that refuses Christ and chooses self, will be cast into the "lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." (Revelation 21:8).

Conclusion
Wim Malgo eloquently stated, "Cremation belongs to Satan’s refined system of destruction." (The Fatal Path of Cremation by Wim Malgo. Published by Midnight Call, West Columbia, SC.) There is no kinship between a human act of the destruction of the body and the beauty of God’s great creation and plan. The Bible does not teach, "dust to dust and ashes to ashes." The latter part was somehow added, maybe by someone who believed in cremation. Dust to dust is what our God has decreed. "… For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Genesis 3:19). That is not just an idle statement, but a clear declaration. It is not "cinders to cinders," but "dust to dust."

Sex sins are the darkest sins in the human family. Sex sins are against your own body and will literally destroy your mental, physical, and emotional health. Sex sins will make a wreck out of your life. Every sex sin is a work of evil spirits and cannot be taken into your life except in fellowship with devils. Sex sins in the Bible are always judged with the strongest of judgments. Not one person guilty of sex sins will enter the kingdom of God unless they repent and are cleansed by the Blood of Jesus. For an individual to claim the Blood or to testify that they are Christians or believers while they are living in sex sins is an abomination before God.

"Strong language," you say and you are right. Our Creator and God has always reserved very clear and strong language to deal with sins of immorality. For a man to invade the body of a woman who is not his wife is a violation of every law of decency. For a man to even look on another woman with evil in his heart is to violate that lady and to undress her in the dark recesses of his mind. Jesus said that it is fornication to even look on a woman to lust after her. Why did He say that? Because, you violate that person to whom you are not husband or wife when you look upon them and desire to undress them in your mind. "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28). This truth applies equally to men and women.

Apostle Paul by the Holy Ghost said that fornication (sex between any two persons who are not rightfully married to each other) is a sin against the individual’s own body. "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." (I Corinthians 6:18).

Sin is a hateful thing. This generation has played with the idea of sin until it means very little to them. Most people now believe that it is okay to sin a little and they get angry when anything different is suggested. Listen carefully, "God still hates sin with a holy hatred." Regardless of the new standard, "No sin will enter Heaven or the presence of our God." If or when you sin against your body, deep inner things occur that will destroy your total person. It begins immediately, the moment you violate your body, and intensifies every time you commit another sex sin.

It only takes a few acts of fornication to reduce you to an empty shell of a person, going deeper and deeper into a pit of mire. Listen to the Word of God, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." (Galatians 6:7-8).

Corruption of Your Body Starts Immediately
Have you ever realized that God our Creator invested Himself, specifically, in the design of our bodies? (Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, page 11.) We are made in the image of God. He breathed His spirit of life into our marvelously made physical person. We are a mystery that the greatest doctor cannot fathom. Every design of our being is beyond description of the greatest mind of this educated generation. We are made in His likeness and after His design and for His glory. To unite this body with evil spirits and commit a sexual sin is to start an immediate process of corruption. No wonder Paul the Apostle said, "Flee fornication."

"Flee fornication" is a strong, incredibly strong, warning that suggests the seriousness of this sin. It is not just a sin to reject or to avoid, but one of which we must flee from. The apostle knew it was more than a sin but it was also a trap from which few souls can escape. Job gave one of the most powerful descriptions of a man that gives himself to fornication/adultery. Here are the words spoken by the Holy Ghost to Job, "The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death." (Job 24:15-17).

Solomon described equally the women who follow this lifestyle. "For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit." (Proverbs 23:27). "To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman." (Proverbs 6:24).

The Holy Ghost said something overwhelming through Solomon’s pen. It sounds almost hopeless for a fornicating man to ever escape the pit of a harlot’s house. "For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life." (Proverbs 2:18).

The words used in these passages are plain scary. Look carefully at them so that each of us might flee this pit of death.

• They are in the terror of the shadow of death.
• Her house inclineth unto death.
• Neither take they hold of the paths of life.
• But, her end is bitter as wormwood.
• By means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread.
• The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit.
• For a whore is a deep ditch.

What warnings God gives to the wise man and woman! "Flee fornication" with all of your soul. Teach your families that fornication and adultery is a deep ditch, a pathway into death and a dark mire that few can escape.

Your Body Comes Apart in Sex Sins
Your body was created by the infinite hands of the Creator God. He formed it in a mysterious likeness to Himself and breathed His own life into that body. This created masterpiece was so created to live forever and to enjoy the same purity that God the Creator enjoys. But, sin entered by the disobedience of Adam and Eve and death began its horrendous destruction. Bypassing all that occurred in the garden, let’s deal with what is happening to this body, spirit, and soul masterpiece with the sins of sex.

One of the mysteries of our bodies is the male and female design. God made man and woman to be joined together and prescribed that union to be pure and set apart from all other human beings. God’s order set each man and each woman to be a partner with one other man or woman of the opposite gender. Anything else but this standard He proclaimed to be contrary and forbidden. For men and women to lay with others in intimacy wreaks havoc because it violates the inward stability and creativity of our very soul.

Something happens in fornication that the Bible describes in no other sin. Apostle Paul addressed it in writing to the Corinthians. Here are his words, "What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh." (1Corinthians 6:16). Then, notice the next verse where he likened this false and dark union to the same level on the evil side as our holy union to the Lord on the spiritual side. "But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." (1Corinthians 6:17). An act of fornication actually makes you a soul mate of the fornicator and to the demon of the sin of fornication.

No wonder that a person who becomes involved in sexual sins is bound by cords of darkness and deception almost impossible to break. It is a sin that unites the fornicator to demons and fallen spirits that then becomes their master. The fornicators do what those masters say. They fill the heart with lust and godless passions that control and fill them with an endless and unsatisfying list of emotions. It is a downward spiral that has no bottom, but hell itself.

No wonder that men and women who become fornicators in the sins of heterosexual acts soon degenerate to the sins of lesbianism and homosexuality. The spirits of sexual sins have one ultimate goal and that goal is to submerge their victims in an endless list of vile blasphemies to God the Creator. Sex sins cannot be separated from the demons that direct and promote these acts.

A Corrupted Body
It is sad to look at what happens to the physical body of a fornicator. Every sex sin they commit is actually driving nails in their own coffin. Because they do not die the next day most people tend to ignore the slow death of sex sins. The emotions of a fornicator always become frayed and sharp. Some people can hide their emotions better than others, but the power of sin is still at work. Slowly, this person will become defensive, possibly angry, and certainly critical of anyone that dares to question his/her sinful life. Many fornicators actually develop such emotional problems as to be either slightly or grossly insane and lose all sense of self-discipline. Responsibility for family or loved ones is eventually forsaken. Mothers or fathers will actually forsake their own children and the mental well-being of these children to be joined to this new mate as two possessed people joined to one another.

The body will slowly begin to react to this corruption in the soul and spirit. Resistance against infection is clearly tied to our emotional well-being. With frayed and troubled emotions, the physical person will begin to deteriorate. The body always follows the well-being or the sick condition of our inner person. You cannot be well of body if you are not well of soul and spirit. "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." (III John 1:2).

Before we go deep into the physical body, diseases, and sickness, let’s deal with the spirit of man. The spirit is without question that part of man that relates directly to God. It is god-breathed and god-related. We can communicate to God by our spirit and this is the only way we can communicate to Him. Apostle Paul said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:14-17). What a passage of truth! Every believer must learn to appreciate their spirit and the necessity of living in and by the spirit. It is our "well-being" in every sense of the word.

Since our spirit is life within us (It is the God-life of man.) we must guard against anything that deadens that life or puts out the light of God in our person or soul. That’s exactly what sin was from the beginning and is now. It is the work of Satan and his fallen host to lead or influence us to sin so the light of God will go out in us and then these spirits can have freedom to operate. Listen to the Spirit speak to the church at Corinth. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." (II Corinthians 6:14-17).

Your spirit will die within you if sin is allowed freedom in your life. Remember, that when you were saved, the Holy Spirit was said to "regenerate and renew" you unto salvation. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Titus 3:5). You were not saved by your good works, but by His grace and the glorious renewing of your dead spirit. Sin will put out the light of that spirit that dwells within and which gives you the joy of fellowship with God.

Sex sins are sins against your own person and when allowed in your life start their horrible destruction by death to your spirit. With your spirit out of the way, the evil spirits will go to work without hindrance. It will not take long before your body begins to express the brokenness of your life.

King David cried, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10). The sin of fornication had put out the light and his body was bearing the result. While all sickness is sin-related by the fall in the garden, some sins like fornication are directly affecting our bodies today. Fornication is a "sin against your body." (I Corinthians 6:18).

Look at what David said was wrong in his life. "There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart." (Psalm 39:3-8). But God answered.

The beauty of God’s mercy can restore your soul. Sex sins are grievous, but you can repent. Most sex sins, when repented of early and quickly can be healed without lasting sorrow. Every day you continue in them makes repentance less likely and more difficult. The point can easily be passed where there is no returning and millions have passed that point. David was renewed and forgiven, but never saw his family whole again. He suffered every day the rest of his life for his sex sins. Many are in this same shape today. You can be forgiven and then do all within your power to see those affected: your children, wife, husband, or friends, healed and forgiven. The Blood of Jesus Christ is speaking forgiveness and healing to every soul that will repent and turn totally to trust in the cross and the victory of His shed blood.

"What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.

O, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus."