Spirits

I was just thinking about - - -

We are living in a day when many religions are surfacing and many conflicting teachings are becoming common place. The most obvious religion contrast today is that of Islamic teaching with Historic Christianity. Interestingly, in this day, there is a great deal of ignorance regarding both. As the New Testament was being written during the First Century, the Apostle Paul made frequent reference to the spirit world versus the factualness associated with Jesus Christ. Just two illustrations will suffice.

First is Colossians 2:6-9, "... as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily..."

Second is Ephesians 6:11-12 where he stresses the importance of one putting on the whole armor of God, namely: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

How real are "the elemental spirits of the world" and "the cosmic powers over this present darkness" and "the spiritual forces of evil"? An editorial by Joel Belz in World Magazine gives us a little insight in this regard (http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13713).

Secular humanism boasts that it is void of explicit spiritual content—and in a way...it has lived up to that promise. But in featuring such emptiness, it has left a globe full of people with vacant hearts and minds craving even a little spiritual substance. And that hunger, in turn, has turned its victims into prime candidates for... "neo-pagan spirituality.Taking secularism's place instead is a fascination with religions old and new—and usually altogether false. A typical example is the wild allure of Dan Brown's best-selling The Da Vinci Code...Affecting far more people than Brown's 2003 work of fiction and the movie that followed the book are historic but pagan religions in places like China, India, Africa, and many parts of the new world as well...China observer Sam Ling stressed that while the growth of Christianity in China is a fact—and that this huge nation once given up to Marxist atheism is now home to tens of millions of Christians—the fastest-growing religions in China right now are Buddhism and Taoism, whose adherents are numbered in the hundreds of millions...From Africa comes word of reversion to witchcraft and darkly pagan practices. If these packages come wrapped with superstition and even violence, so be it...

We need to be alert to the trends of our times and the prevailing interests of young and old alike. In many places among teens, there is the exploration of astrology, natural science, witchcraft, and alternative involvement in the spirit world. Some things that are deemed innocuous, such as the Harry Potter series, contribute to a fascination with spirits and extra-terrestrial possibility and capability.

In the meantime, the Church maintains its traditions and rituals, without realizing how out of touch it is becoming and is noted as: "Christians have too often busied themselves providing good answers to all the wrong questions..." The Church is good at trying to fix things that aren't broken! How about that trend being reversed and seek to bring remedy where there is brokenness and bonafide issues in the lives of young people (and older ones as well).

You think about it with me...