Let's examine our beliefs about ghosts, goblins, witches, devils, magic, and wizards. My inspiration for going into this was a visit yesterday to Universal Studios Orlando and the Hogwarts Castle of Harry Potter. The world of this fictional character is very entertaining and exciting, but before 'the going gets tough' in our lives, we need to carefully sort out our beliefs and know how they fit into our lives.
I have no pretense to know much about "The Occult." Wikipedia defines it as "the study of occult practices, including magic, alchemy, extra-sensory perception, astrology, spiritualism, and divination. Interpretation of occultism and its concepts can be found in the belief structures of philosophies and religions such as Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Theosophy, Wicca, Thelema, Satanism and neo-paganism." I have only heard of three of these so-called religions.
What it boils down to, in my opinion, is WHO or WHAT do you worship? I find great comfort in Catholic Christianity, God, Jesus, the saints, prayers, practices, and worship of the Supreme Being, the Perfect Good, the all-powerful, all-knowing One who not only loves us all and me personally, but IS LOVE ITSELF. Just as Jesus came to save us from our sins by dying on the cross (his choice) and by rising from the dead (his power as Son of God), at the end of our lives he will judge whether or not we are worthy to live with him forever in heaven, and at the end of this universe which God has created, he will close Hell to contain Satan, the evil angel who defied God, and his followers, to eternal damnation in Hell. This is truly heady, important stuff, the ultimate end to our human lives after death, and how it affects our behavior as we live.
What about ghosts or spirits of people who have died? For me, this is very simple: When a person dies, he or she will be judged by God as worthy or heaven or hell for all eternity, forever. If one is not worthy of heaven, one will undergo a period of purification, or purgatory, and then proceed to heaven. No one knows what this entails but surely, the true understanding of our deliberate offenses against God will be torture enough to purify us for heaven. Therefore, in reality, there are no ghosts, but it makes interesting fiction, just as aliens do.
In the same category as ghosts are vampires. No human can live forever and perpetuate the 'line' of vampires by biting another. Pure fiction! I find it rather disgusting that these creatures are romanticized in our age.
What about Satan? It, (or they) is a fallen angel, a spirit God created, who had free choice and rejected God. Does Satan have power? Yes, Satan has the power to tempt us to do evil but not the power to make us do evil. That is our choice. There are folks who worship Satan. Why would anyone worship a being who is less powerful than Almighty God, hateful, and will ultimately lose the battle of good against evil?
Then there are those who do not believe there is a God in heaven, creator of our perfectly functioning and immensely huge universe, our creator. They believe that human beings are the ultimate 'end,' that when we die, we will just cease to exist, that there is no heaven or hell. In essence, this is SELFISM, or, SELF-WORSHIP! Today this religion is called "Humanism." It is the religion of most of our mass media, our politics, and our educational system. Humanism is directly opposed to ALL RELIGION except itself.
When proponents of Humanism state that every human being should decide for himself or herself what is right and what is wrong, believe that this is what they are working toward. Also, know what the consequences of each person making their own 'laws' would be: anarchy! Are we personally prepared for this?
Lord in Heaven, this is a time of great decisions in our society and the world. Our actions will decide the future of our families and our country. Help us choose wisely, help us choose what YOU want us to do. Therein could lie a future of LOVE for us all!
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