Anyone who has suffered in relationships from egocentric and psychopathic persons should welcome the safety found in the Bible as a guidebook to personal relationships, physical and emotional health, and eternal security.
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal [your innocence and liveliness], and to kill [at the least your hopes and dreams], and to destroy [your quality if not your quantity of life]: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
“Thou shalt make no covenant with…their gods…for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.” (Exodus 23:32-33)
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)
Jesus Christ was absolutely referring to religious leaders. Christianity is full of them, as we should expect. How many different denominations under how many different teachers are claiming they are The Way, The Truth, and The Life?
How about Name It And Claim? Sure sounds to me exactly like “As above, so below.”
Name it and claim it is a “theology” taught by some televangelists, faith healers, megachurches, and Pentecostal preachers. Some such teachers…prefer to call their doctrine “Word of Faith” or the “prosperity gospel“. Less kind detractors also call Word of Faith theology “blab it and grab it”.
The movement itself became popularized through the operations of Kenneth Hagin (1917–2003), a Pentecostal preacher from Texas and later based in Tulsa, Oklahoma…Hagin authored scores of booklets teaching how the Holy Spirit could make you rich, healthy, and “anointed” with spiritual gifts if you would just have enough faith to “name it and claim it”…
This basically means that all you need to do is to engage in magical thinking (in a Christian version of The Secret) and/or sympathetic magic (see the “seed” example below) to have the Good Lord shower you with worldly goods and success.
A variant of the “prosperity gospel” preached by figures like Mike Murdock, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar (no, seriously, that’s his real name), Todd Coontz[5] (currently in prison over tax fraud[6][7]) and James Payne[8] involves gulling their more desperate audience members into bribing God sending “seed money” directly to the televangelist with the promise of divine rewards in the form of wealth gains proportional to the size of their “seed”…
This line of magical thinking may have helped to fuel the expansion of sub-prime mortgages which fed into an economic mess. Preachers encouraged people with bad credit-ratings to take out mortgages on homes that they could not afford because, since they were faithful Christians, God would take care of the rest. In fact, many of the areas worst affected by the housing bubble also happened to be home to churches advocating “name it and claim it.”[13]
Witch, as defined by anthropologists, identifies someone who practices socially prohibited forms of magic, but not necessarily for malevolent reasons.
We can see that a midwife who used skills unknown, i.e. occult, to the rest of a medically ignorant social group in support of pregnancy and birth would be considered a witch, especially since she would also have the skills to abort a pregnancy – a socially prohibited act, even if the abortion is not a malevolent but problem-solving act. Ending a life without social sanction is in itself a problem.
We can see the same Luciferian identification of Self-As-Authority-Usurping-Power as the foundational feature of witchcraft. This is the only possible end to rejecting a Supreme Authority within a religious system with rules, or even within society’s or family’s expectations for appropriate behavior and relationships.
How witchcraft has become a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community
Long seen as a symbol of otherness, witchcraft has become a way for queer folk to transform their difference into a superpower…an increasing number of LGBTQ+ people are identifying as witches, while more witches are understanding witchcraft as an inherently queer practice…
“What really drew me into witchcraft was how it didn’t focus so much on making everyone live under the same rules,” says Antonina, who is 19-years-old, queer, and a self-labelled witch. She moved to the UK from Bulgaria, where she was raised around Christianity, and finds witchcraft to be a more welcoming form of spirituality… “Sexuality isn’t treated as a taboo, there’s no shame around it as there is in other religions,” she says…
Sorcerer defines a magical practitioner with harmful intent.
In Western society until the 14th century, “witchcraft” had more in common with sorcery in other cultures—such as those of India or Africa—than it did with the witchcraft of the witch hunts…the similarities derived from the age-old human desire to achieve one’s purposes…early Western sorcerers and witches worked secretly for private ends, as contrasted with the public practice of religion. Sorcery was sometimes believed to rely on the power of gods or other spirits, leading to the belief that witches used demons in their work.
It has been widely noted by ethnographers in cultures across the world that the potential to perform witchcraft is often believed to have its source in an ethereal essence housed within the body of the witch.
Humans don’t need to intentionally interact in a ritual with hyper dimensional beings to be controlled by them any more than we need to intentionally interact with four dimensional beings like the COVID virus, international commercial executives or government officials to experience adverse effects. One does not have to actively invite and subordinate oneself to evil spirits. We can unwittingly bind our souls and bodies to them.
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God…Whereby are given unto us…the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
“the lust of the flesh [physical cravings], and the lust of the eyes [psychological desires], and the pride of life [self-exaltation], is not of the Father, but is of the world…Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (I John 2:16, Galatians 5:19-21)
This establishes that “the god of this world is essentially, inevitably, unescapably corrupting / incorporated into the body and soul of any human who gives themselves over to lust.
“But the fruit / produce / result of growth and life of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance…(Galatians 5:22-23, I John 2:17)
Peter’s sermon on how to avoid corruption is as basic to life as it comes.
“they think it strange that ye [sons of God] run not with them to the same excess of riot…sin…the lusts of men…
-
- eating and drinking in lasciviousness
- lusts,
- excess of wine,
- revellings,
- banquetings,
- and abominable idolatries.“
1.
Lasciviousness definition includes “exciting disgust, unbridled lust, excess”. This word is usually associated with sexuality, but in terms of drawing attention to the body can also be applied to obesity.
Eating habits literally extends or shortens life itself. Think diabetes, cardiac disease, cancer. While lost to contemporary purely materialistic culture, life = spirit. Obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States, second only to smoking. The annual number of deaths attributed to obesity is estimated to be as high as 400,000. Nearly 70% of the adult U.S. population is overweight or obese.
And yet, Body Positivity is a movement perversely celebrating obesity.
Love yourself the way you are. Body positive messages like these seem to be everywhere from social media to TV ads…
Body positivity has its roots in radical fat activism that began in the late 1960s. Alongside activism among ethnic minority women, these groups protested against structural biases and discrimination, especially from the fashion and beauty industries that profited from making people and communities feel inadequate.
Over time, this evolved into the body positivity movement as we know it today…Some even feel the current movement pushes a form of “toxic positivity”, the expectation that we should always be positive no matter what, and that we should silence negative emotions in ourselves and others.
2. Changing dietary and substance use habits is the primary treatment for improving health. However, the vast majority of patients don’t undertake this course of action because dieting does entail suffering in the flesh. This alone proves that addiction to foods is as corrupting as addiction to illicit substance use, and given the prevalence of obesity, even more harmful to society. In archaic English this is “lusting”, and on a spiritual level this is bondage, sacrificing life energy in daily disability and a shortened lifespan.
Take just one common food substance for example.
Given that global incidence rates of overweight and obesity are on the rise, particularly among children and adolescents, it is imperative that current public health strategies include education about beverage intake. Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda and fruit drinks should be discouraged, and efforts to promote the consumption of other beverages such as water, low-fat milk, and small quantities of fruit juice should be made a priority.
We should be able to make the comparison between
- incorporating wholesome food connecting us to a God of abundant healthy energy and infinite life versus
- incorporating abominable food connecting us to Beelzebub / Lord of the flies / death
“Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank:” (Daniel 1:8)
The health profession’s changing attitude about obesity is not helpful.
Obesity is a condition that affects about 42% of the U.S. population…“The most common misconception about obesity is that it is simply a ‘lifestyle’ disorder — that people have obesity simply because of their diet or physical activity…The American Medical Association (AMA) officially recognized obesity as a chronic disease back in 2013.
3. Excess of wine / alcohol.
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 88,000 people die from alcohol-related deaths each year in the United States. And alcohol continues to be one of the nation’s most preventable causes of death, second only to tobacco and a poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle.
Alcoholism has a profound effect on the entire body, especially the brain, heart, pancreas, mouth, liver, and immune system. In spite of its negative impact, more Americans than ever consume alcohol on a regular basis.
4. Revellings = partying which in our technological culture has risen to new highs.
Millennial party culture innovations range from Caribbean cruise ship festivals to airborne…dance party…30,000 feet above Las Vegas, and was hosted aboard a zero-gravity airplane which featured an illuminated and club-like interior…
T-Mobile’s recent campaign illustrates the endless potential of 5G technology, and its ability to make virtual rock concerts more immersive than ever before…
the diversity of Millennial party culture
5. banqueting = lavish spending on celebrations only affordable by elites milking wealth from the masses of society.
Ranking right up there with engagement rings and bridal gowns, browsing through venues is one of the most lust-worthy parts of the wedding planning process...Even for the most visionary bride, inspiration and guidance are necessary. From European chateaux to tropical beaches and unique stateside spots, here are our top picks for the most gorgeous wedding venues around the globe.
Kingdom Come 