Over the past week, I have been most surprised to discover that the Harry Potter books and movies are quite popular with adults - even the ones who have no children. Anyone else encountered this?
I agree with the Priest. Witchcraft is prohibited by the Bible. I got King Saul in a lot of trouble.
Prophet Samuel tells Saul:
“Though you may be small in your own eyes, you are the head of the tribes of Israel; and God anointed you to be king over Israel...Why did you not obey the voice of God?...
I shall not return to you for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being King over Israel.”
And Samuel turned to go and he [Saul] seized the hem of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it your fellow who is better than you.’” (1 Samuel 15:17-28)
I believe there is a danger, for kids who are searching for, or get lost in these books. Remember the game ‘Dungeons and Dragons?’ A number of kids were taking on the persona of their character, commiting suicide etc.
I also agree that religion and spirituality has been replaced in this era with growing paganism.
**The leading exorcist of Mexico’s main archdiocese said the popular Harry Potter book and film series could allow the devil to enter children’s minds, and does ‘’a lot of damage.’’**
We need to be warned.
Mrs, Weasley annonces that George will survive an attack, and Harry responds - "Yeah", said Harry. THANK GOD."
I enjoy the Harry Potter series, and have no problem with my children reading the books. Without throwing out a spoiler, I can tell you that the struggle between good and evil is an important element in the book, and that redemption and forgiveness are also huge components in this last book. My children have not become satanists after reading Harry Potter, if anything events in the books have sparked some interesting conversations around the house that include God and Our Savior.
So I ask my eight year old if she thinks she can become a wizard. She is reading "The Order of the Phoenix" right now ten feet from me. She said, "no, you have to be born one." So I guess, Wizardry is something like Calvinism, one has to be predestined. Anyway, Fr. Mendoza might ought to read the books, before he starts spouting off stuff that he doesn't know anything about.
Once again a condemner condemns without actually knowing what the hell they’re talking about. There simply is not that kind of magic, or anything even remotely similar to that kind of magic, in the book.
Now here’s a little funny to contemplate, knowing full well that the plural of anecdote isn’t fact it’s still worth contemplating. Went to the midnight selling at the nearest Borders, huge crowd, probably beyond fire code. Browsing around the store was difficult, but being a bibliophile it’s always necessary, especially when I know I have about an hour to kill. Anyway as I was making the circle I was surprised to suddenly hit a section with no people, nobody browsing, nobody sitting on the floor, completely devoid if people, I look up to see what section I’m in: metaphysics. So at least in North West Tucson not only are Potter fans not lured to Satan, they are apparently repulsed.
Seperating fiction from reality takes a willful mind to accept the 'truth' and to accept the story for what it is....a story.
I’ve often heard this charge, but I think it’s naive. Yes, there’s black magic involved, but Harry Potter is fighting it. I think the books have a good sense of the nature of good and evil.
I would make this charge against the Golden Compass trilogy of childen’s fantasy novels, which are attacks on God. But Philip Pullman is another story entirely. His central purpose is to undermine and twist the religious faith of his young readers.
And besides being demonic, the Harry Potter novels contain murder, kidnapping, torture, slavery, child abuse, theft, animal cruelty, voyeurism, interspecies lust, underage drinking and inter-racial dating.
The Chronicles of Narnia, in both its book and cinemagraphic forms, are most welcomed.
I think it's exceedingly unwise and deplorably rebellious to The Lord and His Word, AT BEST. Additional Qx commentary is in purple below the following Scriptures
Witness:
DEUT 18:9-11 KJV
9When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
DEUT 18:9-11 THE MESSAGE:
9-12 When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you, don't take on the abominable ways of life of the nations there. Don't you dare sacrifice your son or daughter in the fire. Don't practice divination, sorcery, fortunetelling, witchery, casting spells, holding séances, or channeling with the dead. People who do these things are an abomination to God. It's because of just such abominable practices that God, your God, is driving these nations out before you.
DEUT 18:9-11 AMPLIFIED:
9When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of these nations.
10There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,
11Or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
DEUT 18:9-11 NIV
Detestable Practices 9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in [a] the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
SAME: NEW LIVING TRANSLATION: A Call to Holy Living 9 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. 10 For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering.[a] And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead.
I SAMUEL 15:22-24 NIV:
22 But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king."
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I violated the LORD's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.
THE MESSAGE--FIRST PART OF THE ABOVE:
22-23 Then Samuel said, Do you think all God wants are sacrifices— empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production. Not doing what God tells you is far worse than fooling around in the occult. Getting self-important around God is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors.
Because you said No to God's command, he says No to your kingship.
AMPLIFIED: 22Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
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23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (household good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.
NEW LIVING TRANSLATION: Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.
Micah 5:12 KJV
And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:
THE MESSAGE MICAH 5:12 IN CONTEXT
10-15"The day is coming" —God's Decree—
"When there will be no more war. None.
I'll slaughter your war horses and demolish your chariots.
I'll dismantle military posts and level your fortifications.
I'll abolish your religious black markets, your underworld traffic in black magic.
I will smash your carved and cast gods and chop down your phallic posts.
No more taking control of the world, worshiping what you do or make.
I'll root out your sacred sex-and-power centers and destroy the God-defiant.
In raging anger, I'll make a clean sweep of godless nations who haven't listened."
Micah 5:11-13 (Amplified Bible) Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
11And I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds.
12And I will cut off witchcrafts and sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more soothsayers.
13Your carved images also I will cut off and your statues or pillars out of your midst, and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.
Galatians 5:19-21 King James Version (KJV) Public Domain
19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, 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.
THE MESSAGE: 19-21It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
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This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.
AMPLIFIED:
19Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear (obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency, 20Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies), 21Envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
NEW LIVING TRANSLATION:
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
I haven't tracked down the verses in the Pentatuch . . . but IIRC, they are quite severe . . . essentially--Children of God are to have NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO with anything close to divination, witchcraft etc.
Of course, the spirit of our age is that mankind knows better than God. Mankind has a thousand and one rationalizations for doing precisely and only what each individual prefers to do--even within The Church.
We will inreasingly see in coming months and years that God will inreasingly have ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THAT ATTITUDE nor none of those behaviors for those who are Called by His Name.
Of course, individuals are "free" to pretend that they are bigger than God and that Harry Potter is a harmless distraction, entertainment.
Are you willing to bet your eternal life that God's perspective is the same given all His Scriptures to the contrary?
To me, that would be the height of arrogance, rebellion, stubbornness--rather severe Heaven blocking sins in their own right.
I would prefer to post sweetness and light to my fellow Believers . . . but the light on this issue is: HAVE NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH ANYTHING LIKE IT. The sweetness is--CHOOSE THIS DAY WHOM YOU (generic--impersonal you) WILL SERVE. GOD ALMIGHTY or the Deceiver.
And if you (generic) think The Deceiver has not wholesale taken over the USA--even the world's entertainment industry . . . then you haven't been paying attention, at all.
‘’If you put all these ideas in a child’s head, that he can become a wizard, the child believes that, and that is opening an avenue through which the devil can get in,’’ Mendoza said Friday - the eve of the release of the series’ final book.
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This is indeed the case. I’ve seen demonic problems with children from a LOT LESS overtly demonic stuff.
Have any of these idiots ever read the books
I believe it. satan is after this generation and Harry Potter is certainly a tool he’s using to interest them in the occult instead of in God. Look at the way the kids line up at the door at midnight to be first in line. I couldn’t watch that. It’s sad.