Harry Potter happened. The tipping point–an incident that opens the door to drastic change–took place in 1997 with J.K. Rowling’s first book. Seemingly overnight “witchcraft” became a household word. Her seven books in ten years has made her a billionaire and the occult respectable. Over 400,000,000 Harry Potter books have been sold in 67 languages. The occult-based series has produced eight movies and a theme park. The Harry Potter franchise is estimated to be worth $15 billion. Witchcraft has gone mainstream.

Initially a number of people familiar with the occult raised their voices in protest, only to be drowned out by those who saw nothing wrong with the popularization of something that God condemns. And the darker the books’ themes–which happened as Harry grew older–the more the public loved them. Demons, werewolves, vampires, magic, spell casting, levitation, animal sacrifice, astral projection, crystal gazing, necromancy (communication with the dead)–mankind cannot get enough. I read of one unnamed church that used the series in teaching young people. After all, if it’s spiritual, it must be of God. Question: Is this the same God Who commanded that all witches–the only name used for those involved in the occult in Bible times–be run out of Israel or killed. In Exodus 22:18-20 God places witches in the same league as sodomites and idolators. In Deuteronomy 18:9-12 He warns His people that: “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer …. Whoever does these things is AN ABOMINATION TO THE LORD.” In 1 Samuel 15:20 He calls witchcraft “the sin of rebellion.” In Galatians 5:20 He calls it a “work of the flesh” and places it in the same category as idolatry, adultery, fornication, hatred, sedition, heresy and murder. For those in the Institutional Church who dismiss the Old Testament, God said that the New Covenant Church was founded on the teachings of the PROPHETS  and the apostles (Eph. 2:20). He also said that what was recorded about Israel was written for OUR INSTRUCTION (1 Cor. 10:11). Witchcraft in all its forms was sin then and is sin now.

The effect of the glut of occultic forms of entertainment has been to desensitize two generations of people. Today millions of highly impressionable people are dabbling in the occult. Irony comes into play when we find that, for millions of Americans, religion is a source of embarrassment due to its spiritual context. However, those same people see nothing wrong with the spirituality that dominates the entire occultic universe. In reality, the occult is totally “supernatural”–something that cannot be explained through science. Ironically, faith can be described using the same words. However, the same people who ridicule faith openly embrace witchcraft in all of its forms.

As an example of man’s flippant attitude toward witchcraft, Salem, Mass., the city where 19 innocent people were hanged in the 17th century after being accused of practicing witchcraft, has done its best to hang on to its well-earned reputation. According to a recent newspaper article, the berg is proud of its title–“Witch City.” So much so that city fathers have adorned its police cars with a witch logo and named a local elementary school “Witchcraft Heights.” A high school has named its athletic teams the “Witches.” Practicing witches operate downtown stores. Each year, Halloween attracts thousands of visitors. In the American capital of occultism, witchcraft is not only popular, it’s big business.

What occult apologists do not realize is that demons often use the supernatural as a passageway into the mind/heart of the unsuspecting reader or viewer. God had much to say about witchcraft because He knew how easily people are inhabited and seduced when the door into their minds is opened to Satan and his demons. Am I the only one who has noticed that as witchcraft has increased in popularity world-wide there has been an exponential increase in violence, murder, rioting, national upheaval, international conflicts, etc? Could there be a singular causative factor involved? I believe so. The occult might not be the single causative factor Satan is using to stoke the world-wide upheaval we are witnessing, but I do believe that it is one of the instruments he is using to destroy mankind. Do not be deceived into believing that we have seen the worst of human-on-human acts of savagery, wars and mind-numbing incidents. “These are but the beginning of sorrows.” L.J.