I HOPE AND PRAY THAT ALL OF YOU HAD A BLESSED, JOYOUS, AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!
IF YOU HAVE NOT AS OF YET SENT IN YOUR 2017 STEWARDSHIP PLEASE DO THAT TODAY!
I HAVE BEEN ASKED BY HIS EMINENCE ARCHBISHOP DEMETRIOS TO REACH OUT TO OUR PARISHIONERS IN HOPES OF RAISING AN OFFERING FOR THE REBUILDING OF ST. NICHOLAS. PLEASE BE AS GENEROUS AS YOU CAN IN YOUR OFFERING FOR THIS VERY IMPORTANT REBUILDING EFFORT OF OUR GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE AND OUR FAITH.
WE HAVE SENT OUT THE 2017 CALENDARS, AND HOPE THAT YOU CAN BE AS GENEROUS AS ALWAYS DURING THIS CHRISTMAS AN DNEW YEAR'S SEASON IN ORDER TO HELP OUR EFFORTS TO KEEP ST. JOHN'S A THRIVING COMMUNITY. I THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART.
SPIRITUAL TRAPS
There have been many people who claim they have special spiritual powers and abilities that go beyond the average person. Some can speak to the dead, others can read people’s minds, and others can see into the future. Their prognostications, clairvoyance, and psychic abilities appear on the surface to be divine gifts. Could they really be? Or are these “gifts” some kind of demonic enticements?
If you have ever been to Las Vegas, many of the shows that headline here have to do with the so-called mind readers. Some have made a fortune using their powers to convince people of their miraculous abilities. People like the “Amazing Kreshin, Loir Suchard, and Robert Channing,” have amused and astonished on lookers for years. So what do the Fathers of the Church, and the Bible say about these abilities?
A multitude of Biblical evidence shows that the majority of mentalist, prognosticators, clairvoyance, and other psychic abilities are demonic. For instance, John Climacus in a bold statement says that the devil has the ability to instill in someone’s mind thoughts and to make those thoughts known to another giving that person the false impression that they can read someone’s mind. This on the surface may seem like foolish talk, but let us see what the Bible says about it.
In the Book of Leviticus 19:31 we read, “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” In Isaiah 8:19 the Lord says that, “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the Dead?”
Furthermore in 2 Chronicles 33:6, “And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him in anger.” These are just a few of the passages that God instruct and warn His people about going to fortunetellers, familiar spirits, astrologists, numerologists, and others who practice the black arts.
On the other hand, people today think that all the references in the Bible are from those who lived so many years ago and harbored superstitious tenderizes toward those who are “gifted” in ways quoted above. Moreover, they deny and reject the existence of a physical identity Christians call Lucifer (i.e. the Devil or Satan), who is the epitome of evil and the antithesis of good and to God. Today when the Church speaks about these so-called “gifted people” it is always with a sense of skepticism. Why? Because what the world calls “gifts,” the Church believes are people who are being manipulated by Satan in order to destroy them and others spiritually. As you know Western Christianity went on a witch-hunt to destroy many people who were so “gifted.” This is a subject for another message at another time.
More importantly, these people should be seen as very scary and dangerous to all those who look to participate with people who claim to be “gifted” with these powers. Many of the facts that are revealed to these “gifted people” find there genesis through Satan’s knowledge of the events of this world. Unsuspecting participants are being told and deceived by Satan through these “gifted persons,” and become depended upon them for information about what the future holds, their life, and about those who have fallen asleep in the past. All of this is pure delusion and satanic!
There is a true story I learned while at St. Catherine’s Monastery, Egypt, about a monk who was repeatedly told how good and righteous he was by an angelic voice he heard in his head. As time went on, the angelic voice convinced him that in order to be like the righteous people of old he had to reject Christ, and start to believe as a Hebrew. After all, the angelic voice said, even God called the hierarchs of the Hebrew’s righteous men! So in order to be like them, the angelic voice (Satan) said, leave Christ and join the Judaic righteous men of old.
As time went on in the monastery, many were very concerned about the change they saw in the monk, and how he was acting. The Abbot, and his spiritual father tried to bring about a change in his thinking but could not. One day the angelic voice told him in order to show everyone how righteous he was, he had to jump into the well. This action would prove to his detractors of his righteousness, since the angles would appear and catch him before he hit the bottom of the well. This would be proof positive of his blessed decision to leave Christ and join the Patriarchs of the Old Testament. As you can imagine the monks were all upset by his actions and ran to stop him, but they were able.
As a result, the monk fell 30 meters down, and landed hard at the bottom of the dry well. He received many broken bones along with a fractured skull. The well was very deep and the monks tried for three days to get him up and out in order to give him medical attention. During the entire ordeal the monk never confessed his wrong thinking and kept silent even until his death on the third day. After that the abbot directed all the monks to remove his name from the ledgers and papers, and never to commemorate his name at the table of Oblation, Divine Liturgies, or Memorial Services.
Finally, deception and delusion is the calling card that Satan uses to fool us into believing the voice/s we hear is/are God, one of the angels, or His saints. This is the modus operandi that Satan uses to trick and fool us, and it is what Christians must understanding about the spiritual warfare he sets against us. Satan will use every method he has at his disposal to turn us away from God, even by creating the illusion of one of the saints or Christ Himself. That is why we need great discernment in order to understand that we see, hear, smell, or even think is truly from God and not from the great deceiver. Moreover, a truly spiritual person will deny any interaction with the black arts. He/she will denounce and ignore many apparitions that are revealed to him/her as not being worthy of any of them. With this as our weapon we can rely on God to show us the way through His love, and the salvation He made possible for us through His Son Jesus Christ! Amen.
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