The Rise of Superstitions and the Demonic

East Meets West, and West Meets East

The Christian faith drives out demons.  It also drives out superstition.  During the public ministry of Jesus, demonic possession was commonplace.  Modern secularist scholars have asserted that what passes for demonic possession in the Gospels was actually mental illness.  Thus, they interpret the testimonies concerning the demonic in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts to be superstitious ignorance.

There is nothing new in this: it is precisely what one would expect secularists to claim.  Demons, according to the secularists and atheists, don't exist because we can't see, touch, taste, or empirically put them in a lab to experiment upon them.  The Bible, however, is emphatically clear on these matters: the Serpent in Genesis is the liar from the beginning.  Those who don't believe in the existence of the Satan are those most enthralled under his deceit.

Nothing New Under the Sun

The Primitivism of Moderns

Idolatry--the elevation of  some aspect of creation into the status of a demi-god--is as natural to the fallen heart as breathing.  Instinctively Unbelief will seek the One--an organising principle, or a precept, or an imagined being, or a ruler--and will devote their loyalty, devotion, and commitment to whatever  manufactured idol is at hand.   Sometimes the idol will be Me--with self being the centre of one's devotion and loyalty.  Sometimes it will be a nation--America the Exceptional, for example.  Sometimes it will be an ideology: socialism or libertarianism, for example. 

Whatever replaces the Living God as the centre and apex of human loyalty, devotion, and service is a manufactured idol.

Enslaved to Everything

Under the Ban

We posted yesterday about the PC madness that now swirls around breast feeding.  Nanny-state is rising up in an attempt to control every part of the human anatomy, except (for the moment) the rear end.  Oh, wait.  Given enough time it will even attempt to control human methane emissions--to prevent the earth from destruction, don't you know.

This madness illustrates a corollary of G. K. Chesterton's bon mot: "When people cease to believe in God they do not believe in nothing; they begin to believe in everything."  The corollary is this: when people cease to submit to God they do not remain at liberty; they become enslaved to everything.  Human rules replace God's rules; and human rules crush.

Here is an apt example: playdough.  "What," we hear you ask?  For generations mothers and early childhood educators have baked playdough out of flour to create a wonderfully malleable, colourful substance to entertain and develop young children.  No longer it seems.  Playdough is coming under the ban.