Sound of Trumpet
2007-09-08 14:13:34 UTC
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1891640/posts
Why the Bible Forbids Paganism
Beliefnet ^ | 9/05/'07 | David Klingjoffer
Posted on 09/05/2007 1:43:28 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
Wicca and similar groups are flourishing in America. They're also
violating the biblical commandment against idolatry.
My kids' favorite baby-sitter assures me that she's not a practicing
witch, "though," she says, "I do hang out with a lot of Wiccans."
There was the time, for instance, out on the Kitsap Peninsula, near
Seattle, when she joined a group of witches for a "sky-clad" (that is,
naked) romp in the woods, a May Day ritual. Having tossed off their
clothes, the pagans ran around a maypole chanting in Gaelic. "The pole
is a phallic symbol," thirty-two-year-old Jenny helpfully explains.
"They're white witches, not bad ones. I never really asked them about
it. I just know."
"I think she takes it all with a grain of salt," my wife later assures
me. Yet the next day Jenny, responding to my curiosity, brings over a
stack of books from her collection. The well-thumbed volumes smell
like incense and one is stained with a dark liquid. They have titles
like "Embracing the Moon: A Witches' Guide to Ritual Spellcraft and
Shadow Work," and "The Witch's Familiar: Spiritual Partnerships for
Successful Magic." A thick and serious-looking book is called "The
Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth."
Jenny is far from alone. One fine Sunday, I was an observer at a
Wiccan worship circle in a public park in Tacoma, Washington. The
setting was sylvan and beautiful, overlooking Puget Sound toward Gig
Harbor. The water sparkled and the incense wafted.
About 35 people showed up, from teenagers to the middle-aged, plus a
couple of senior citizens. They could have been any church group out
for a weekend picnic-well, maybe any liberal church group.
They stood around a rock in the center of their circle. Placed beside
the rock were corn-husk dolls, flowers, a glass of beer, and some
wheat stalks--for it was the sabbat or festival (from the Hebrew for
Sabbath) of Lammas, which celebrates the first harvest and the death
and rebirth of the god of grain. A man who wore a Scottish kilt led a
group recital of John Burns's "John Barleycorn: A Ballad," while
others in the group were fitted out in homemade robes of blue or red.
A teenage girl passed out wheat stalks and paper cups of apple juice.
Then they all turned to the north, east, south, and west to bless the
spirits of the four directions and four elements, fire, water, earth,
and air. They concluded by calling out, "May the gods preserve the
Craft, and may the Craft preserve the gods!" This was followed by
hoots of "Yeah!" "Yay!""Yoo hoo!" and then the pagans dispersed.
***
Modern witches, worshipers of a dualistic pantheon comprising a god
and a goddess, say that in just the past few years they have discerned
a genuine pagan revival, or what my neighbor Jeremy Allen, a self-
described "Druid archpriest," called "the Awakening of the Ancients."
Says Jeremy, who goes by the alternative name Gannandelff Boulder, "A
lot of likeminded people have been drawn to the religions and lately
we always seem to find each other. It's happening all over the
country--in Canada, even."
The New York Times, quoting the American Religious Identification
Survey, put the number of Wiccans nationally at 134,000 in 2001.
That's up from only eight thousand in 1990. J. Gordon Melton, who
directs the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa
Barbara, calls Wicca, and paganism generally, the country's fastest
growing religion.
***
The Bible would take a dim view of these developments. The Pentateuch
advises that witches be stoned to death: "You shall not permit a witch
to live" (Exodus 22:17)-though pagans nowadays claim, improbably, that
the Hebrew word m'chashefah doesn't really mean witch at all, but
"poisoner," as if Moses would have been perfectly okay with offering
incense and wheat stalks to John Barleycorn. In fact, two verses
later, this misconception is laid to rest: "One who brings offerings
to the gods shall be destroyed-only to the Lord alone!" In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, at witch trials and witch
burnings across Europe, and at Salem, Massachusetts, these biblical
verses were eagerly enforced.
The scriptural injunction against witchcraft is rooted in the second
commandment, which begins: "You shall not recognize the gods of others
in My presence." This much is familiar to everyone. But the second
commandment goes on to say, "You shall not make yourself a carved
image nor any likeness of that which is in the heavens above or on the
earth below or in the water beneath the earth. You shall not prostrate
yourself to them nor worship them for I am the Lord your God-a jealous
God, Who visits the sin of fathers upon children to the third and
fourth generations, for My enemies; but who shows kindness for
thousands [of generations] to those who love Me and observe My
commandments."
What this language makes clear is that idolatry, polytheism, and
witchcraft are really just three manifestations of the same error-to
which, interestingly, Hebrew gives no name. They share the mistaken
assumption that divinity can be broken down into discrete entities
(gods) and manipulated for our benefit. By contrast, the God of the
Bible, a purely spiritual being, must be the ultimate unity and
perfectly free to act as He sees fit, unaffected by our attempted
manipulations or any other circumstances.
Polytheism and witchcraft, in other words, are associated with
physical representations of divinity, since both have to do with
putting the god to work for you, and we are accustomed to using
objects for our own purposes (penicillin, an umbrella, and an air
conditioner would he non-magical examples). Where you find polytheism
and magic, you are likely to find idols. That's how Moses, returning
from his forty days on Mount Sinai, where he received the Ten
Commandments, knew at the very moment he caught sight of the Golden
Calf that the Jews who had made it in his absence had plummeted to the
spiritual depths. God had given him the two tablets for the same
purpose that a groom gives his bride a ring at their wedding, as a
token of their union, Moses quickly perceived that the Jews had
severed the union, so the tablets lost their sanctity, which is why he
smashed them to pieces on the ground.
The word jealous, which the Bible uses in speaking of God only when
the context is idolatry, sums it all up. Where there is no
possessiveness, there is no love. What wife would be pleased if her
husband could never he moved to jealousy, no matter how forwardly she
might flirt with other men? God doesn't actually feel jealous anger-
being perfect and unchanging, He is above being moved by human
actions, but He does act in response to polytheistic provocations in a
way that reminds us of the spouse consumed with passionate
possessiveness. This is the one sin for which God has no tolerance
whatsoever. Fortunately for our babysitter Jenny, who still works for
us, I'm not God. In fact, when we had twin boys recently, the rabbi
who performed the circumcision gave my wife a kabbalistic printed
amulet, a laminated card with Hebrew verses and formulas, to hang over
their crib for protection from evil. It included the above-cited verse
from Exodus, "you shall not permit a witch to live." Sometimes I'll be
sitting with my wife and Jenny in the babies' room, the amulet
dangling above as Jenny helps feed a twin, and I'll think, "hmm..."
Feel free to question the consistency of my parenting. But the truth
about "idolatry" is that it's far more widespread than many of us
recognize. The phrase referring to other "gods," or in Hebrew
"elohim," whom we're commanded not to recognize alongside God, is
really a mistranslation. The classical medieval commentator Rashi
explains that "elohim" really refers much more broadly to any other
sources of moral authority apart from God.
In this sense, in a secularized culture like ours, disregard for the
second commandment is hardly limited to "neo-pagans." It's represented
prominently in all the most influential cultural venues, led by the
university and the media. In such an environment, to find a sitter --
not to mention a spouse, a friend, an employer, a co-worker -- who
abides by the decalogue's prohibition of idolatry is a challenge, to
say the least.
Why the Bible Forbids Paganism
Beliefnet ^ | 9/05/'07 | David Klingjoffer
Posted on 09/05/2007 1:43:28 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
Wicca and similar groups are flourishing in America. They're also
violating the biblical commandment against idolatry.
My kids' favorite baby-sitter assures me that she's not a practicing
witch, "though," she says, "I do hang out with a lot of Wiccans."
There was the time, for instance, out on the Kitsap Peninsula, near
Seattle, when she joined a group of witches for a "sky-clad" (that is,
naked) romp in the woods, a May Day ritual. Having tossed off their
clothes, the pagans ran around a maypole chanting in Gaelic. "The pole
is a phallic symbol," thirty-two-year-old Jenny helpfully explains.
"They're white witches, not bad ones. I never really asked them about
it. I just know."
"I think she takes it all with a grain of salt," my wife later assures
me. Yet the next day Jenny, responding to my curiosity, brings over a
stack of books from her collection. The well-thumbed volumes smell
like incense and one is stained with a dark liquid. They have titles
like "Embracing the Moon: A Witches' Guide to Ritual Spellcraft and
Shadow Work," and "The Witch's Familiar: Spiritual Partnerships for
Successful Magic." A thick and serious-looking book is called "The
Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth."
Jenny is far from alone. One fine Sunday, I was an observer at a
Wiccan worship circle in a public park in Tacoma, Washington. The
setting was sylvan and beautiful, overlooking Puget Sound toward Gig
Harbor. The water sparkled and the incense wafted.
About 35 people showed up, from teenagers to the middle-aged, plus a
couple of senior citizens. They could have been any church group out
for a weekend picnic-well, maybe any liberal church group.
They stood around a rock in the center of their circle. Placed beside
the rock were corn-husk dolls, flowers, a glass of beer, and some
wheat stalks--for it was the sabbat or festival (from the Hebrew for
Sabbath) of Lammas, which celebrates the first harvest and the death
and rebirth of the god of grain. A man who wore a Scottish kilt led a
group recital of John Burns's "John Barleycorn: A Ballad," while
others in the group were fitted out in homemade robes of blue or red.
A teenage girl passed out wheat stalks and paper cups of apple juice.
Then they all turned to the north, east, south, and west to bless the
spirits of the four directions and four elements, fire, water, earth,
and air. They concluded by calling out, "May the gods preserve the
Craft, and may the Craft preserve the gods!" This was followed by
hoots of "Yeah!" "Yay!""Yoo hoo!" and then the pagans dispersed.
***
Modern witches, worshipers of a dualistic pantheon comprising a god
and a goddess, say that in just the past few years they have discerned
a genuine pagan revival, or what my neighbor Jeremy Allen, a self-
described "Druid archpriest," called "the Awakening of the Ancients."
Says Jeremy, who goes by the alternative name Gannandelff Boulder, "A
lot of likeminded people have been drawn to the religions and lately
we always seem to find each other. It's happening all over the
country--in Canada, even."
The New York Times, quoting the American Religious Identification
Survey, put the number of Wiccans nationally at 134,000 in 2001.
That's up from only eight thousand in 1990. J. Gordon Melton, who
directs the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa
Barbara, calls Wicca, and paganism generally, the country's fastest
growing religion.
***
The Bible would take a dim view of these developments. The Pentateuch
advises that witches be stoned to death: "You shall not permit a witch
to live" (Exodus 22:17)-though pagans nowadays claim, improbably, that
the Hebrew word m'chashefah doesn't really mean witch at all, but
"poisoner," as if Moses would have been perfectly okay with offering
incense and wheat stalks to John Barleycorn. In fact, two verses
later, this misconception is laid to rest: "One who brings offerings
to the gods shall be destroyed-only to the Lord alone!" In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, at witch trials and witch
burnings across Europe, and at Salem, Massachusetts, these biblical
verses were eagerly enforced.
The scriptural injunction against witchcraft is rooted in the second
commandment, which begins: "You shall not recognize the gods of others
in My presence." This much is familiar to everyone. But the second
commandment goes on to say, "You shall not make yourself a carved
image nor any likeness of that which is in the heavens above or on the
earth below or in the water beneath the earth. You shall not prostrate
yourself to them nor worship them for I am the Lord your God-a jealous
God, Who visits the sin of fathers upon children to the third and
fourth generations, for My enemies; but who shows kindness for
thousands [of generations] to those who love Me and observe My
commandments."
What this language makes clear is that idolatry, polytheism, and
witchcraft are really just three manifestations of the same error-to
which, interestingly, Hebrew gives no name. They share the mistaken
assumption that divinity can be broken down into discrete entities
(gods) and manipulated for our benefit. By contrast, the God of the
Bible, a purely spiritual being, must be the ultimate unity and
perfectly free to act as He sees fit, unaffected by our attempted
manipulations or any other circumstances.
Polytheism and witchcraft, in other words, are associated with
physical representations of divinity, since both have to do with
putting the god to work for you, and we are accustomed to using
objects for our own purposes (penicillin, an umbrella, and an air
conditioner would he non-magical examples). Where you find polytheism
and magic, you are likely to find idols. That's how Moses, returning
from his forty days on Mount Sinai, where he received the Ten
Commandments, knew at the very moment he caught sight of the Golden
Calf that the Jews who had made it in his absence had plummeted to the
spiritual depths. God had given him the two tablets for the same
purpose that a groom gives his bride a ring at their wedding, as a
token of their union, Moses quickly perceived that the Jews had
severed the union, so the tablets lost their sanctity, which is why he
smashed them to pieces on the ground.
The word jealous, which the Bible uses in speaking of God only when
the context is idolatry, sums it all up. Where there is no
possessiveness, there is no love. What wife would be pleased if her
husband could never he moved to jealousy, no matter how forwardly she
might flirt with other men? God doesn't actually feel jealous anger-
being perfect and unchanging, He is above being moved by human
actions, but He does act in response to polytheistic provocations in a
way that reminds us of the spouse consumed with passionate
possessiveness. This is the one sin for which God has no tolerance
whatsoever. Fortunately for our babysitter Jenny, who still works for
us, I'm not God. In fact, when we had twin boys recently, the rabbi
who performed the circumcision gave my wife a kabbalistic printed
amulet, a laminated card with Hebrew verses and formulas, to hang over
their crib for protection from evil. It included the above-cited verse
from Exodus, "you shall not permit a witch to live." Sometimes I'll be
sitting with my wife and Jenny in the babies' room, the amulet
dangling above as Jenny helps feed a twin, and I'll think, "hmm..."
Feel free to question the consistency of my parenting. But the truth
about "idolatry" is that it's far more widespread than many of us
recognize. The phrase referring to other "gods," or in Hebrew
"elohim," whom we're commanded not to recognize alongside God, is
really a mistranslation. The classical medieval commentator Rashi
explains that "elohim" really refers much more broadly to any other
sources of moral authority apart from God.
In this sense, in a secularized culture like ours, disregard for the
second commandment is hardly limited to "neo-pagans." It's represented
prominently in all the most influential cultural venues, led by the
university and the media. In such an environment, to find a sitter --
not to mention a spouse, a friend, an employer, a co-worker -- who
abides by the decalogue's prohibition of idolatry is a challenge, to
say the least.
