"Take no part in and have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds
and enterprises of darkness, but instead let your lives be so in
contrast as to expose and reprove and convict them."
(Ephesians 5:11)
I recently watched the above presentation on YouTube from
intrepid Christian researcher/film maker L.A. Marzulli.
His featured guest described her experiences while using a Ouija board
when she was a young woman looking for answers in her life.
L.A. suggested that someone should contact the makers of these board
games to make them aware of how dangerous they are to people, however,
I do not believe this kind of effort would affect any positive change in
the modern game industry. It seems to me the makers of games like
the Ouija are primarily focused on the financial side of the situation,
while dismissing or ignoring any spiritual threat connected to their games.
I feel the same way about the booming video gaming industry,
and in particular, the RPG, or "role playing games" which
have become increasingly dark and disturbing in recent years.
Take for example a game called "Dead by Daylight". Players can choose to
be either a victim or a villain, and in this case, the villain is Michael Myers,
the demented killer from the "Halloween" series of horror films.
The player can take on the role of a victim, trying to escape from Myers
and his knife. But then, in a bizarre twist, the game allows the player
to assume the role of Michael Myers, the heartless maniac
in the William Shatner mask who refuses to die!
(At least he never did in the movie series.)
I have been criticized for my stance against this game. "It's just a game,"
someone told me. "A fantasy horror game." While these statements in
defense of this game might have a ring of truth to them, the fact remains
that people are willingly assuming the role of a cold-blooded killer whose
main objective is to stalk and murder innocent people. That bothers me.
The prophet Isaiah spoke of a future time when "Good will be called evil,
and evil will be called good." He was absolutely right
And in the case of "Dead by Daylight" evil wins!
But back to the Ouija board. I remember reading a story of a woman and her
sister who played with a Ouija board as teenagers. As they were brought up
dutiful Roman Catholics and went to Mass every Sunday, one day, to more less
appease their guilt over "testing the spirits" on the Ouija, they decided to
ask the board the question, "What is church?"
The board spelled out: " People". They later asked their father if this was
the truth and he, not knowing where this answer originated from, told
them, "Yes. Church is the people." So, now they were hooked on the
"reliable" Ouija board to answer their questions, until weird
and unexplainable things began to happen to them.
I believe Hollywood shares much of the blame for the promotion of
occult practices in America. I remember as a little girl in the late
1960's I would cover my ears every time I heard the eerie theme
music of the popular gothic soap opera, "Dark Shadows"
which aired every afternoon on ABC-TV beginning in 1966.
The show depicted the everyday tangled lives and loves of
the mysterious Collins family of Collinsport on the coast
of Maine. In addition to the gloomy atmosphere of the
family mansion interspersed with often edge-of-your-seat
suspenseful plot twists, the series featured a daily dose
of the occult, including witches, ghosts, time-travel, zombies,
and the unexpected return of a presumably long dead family
ancestor, 175 year old vampire Barnabas Collins, whose
portrayed as the show's antihero. Barnabas often lamented
over his "undead" status, and yet, was always on the lookout
for a fresh victim to satiate his appetite for human blood.
Needless to say, due to the threat of possible nightmares
and keeping my parents up all night I was never allowed
to watch the show. Although "Dark Shadows" was
cancelled in 1971, the show developed a cult following,
with two spin-off movies, and a remake of the show
in the early 1990's. The latest incarnation of
"Dark Shadows" was a big screen version in 2012,
described as"an epic mystery dark fantasy black comedy."
In the 1970's stories involving witches and witchcraft,
seances, ghosts, reincarnation, and other occult themes were
often the subject for a TV network's "Movie-of-the-Week" while
TV anthology series like "Night Gallery" and "Ghost Story"
as well as the more comical than actually scary weekly
adventures of"Kolchak: The Night Stalker" all delved
into the spooky world of the supernatural.
Meanwhile, on the big screen, "The Exorcist"
and "The Omen" series of horror films became overnight
sensations, with crowds of people standing in long lines outside
movie theaters across America waiting to be scared out of their wits.
I well remember television commercials advertising the Ouija board
game by Parker Brothers. I do not remember any supervising
parents in these commercials, just an adolescent boy and girl
acting totally engrossed while moving the wooden planchette
back and forth over the game board.
The use of a Ouija was even featured in an episode of one of the most
wholesome, family-oriented, 1970's television series, "The Waltons".
In the second season episode, "The Ghost Story" the Walton children
became fascinated with what they called a "spirit board". They continued
to play with it even after strange occurrences began to take place in their home.
I found this episode rather hypocritical when mother Olivia Walton
was portrayed as such a strict, God-fearing Baptist woman, who
often chided her husband, John, for not attending weekly church
services with her and the family, not to mention railed against
two elderly neighbors, the spinster Baldwin sisters, for
making their "Papa's Recipe" (homemade moonshine).
And yet, here she is letting her children play with a
Ouija board in her house!
King Solomon is credited for saying, "There is nothing new under the sun."
The origins of the Ouija are said to date back to 1100 AD China. In the
historical documents of the Song Dynasty, the use of "automatic writing" with the
use of a planchette was practiced by necromancers in their communications with
the spirit world. The practice was later forbidden during the Qing Dynasty.
The use of "spirit boards" in America became widely popular during
the mid-19th century Spiritualist Movement, as a means of trying
to communicate with dead loved ones.
At least two First Ladies of the United States are said to have
held seances in the White House. Jane Pierce, the wife of President
Franklin Pierce, lost all three of her children, all sons, whom were
very young when they died. Her first child died not long after his
birth, while her second died during a typhus epidemic. A third
son, Benjamin Pierce, was twelve years old when he was
involved in a fatal train accident. His grief-stricken mother
later employed the services of the infamous Fox sisters to
hold a seance in the White House in the hope of
contacting her dead son's spirit.
Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln, was actively
involved in spiritualism and often held seances inside the White House.
Prior to Lincoln being elected President, their second son, Edward,
succumbed to tuberculosis. Then, after President Lincoln took office,
their son, William, died of typhoid fever at age 11.
Mary Lincoln began contacting and hosting the leading spiritualists of the
day to conduct seances inside the White House. Noted medium Cranston Laurie
was among the First Lady's favorites. Many of these "spirit-raising sessions"
were held in the famous Red Room of the White House. It is widely believed
that President Lincoln himself attended at least one of them.
Mary Lincoln later claimed that her dead sons visited her in the night and
stood at the foot of her bed. After her husband was assassinated, Mrs. Lincoln
continued to dabble in spiritualism. She even had her picture taken by a "spirit
photographer" named William Mumler, in which the ghost of President Lincoln
appears to be standing behind his wife. The photograph was later declared fake.
Towards the end of her life, Mary Todd Lincoln was committed to
an insane asylum by her only surviving son, Robert.
There were many other prominent believers in the spiritualism movement,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes,
was a big fan, as well as master illusionist/ magician Harry Houdini.
A great believer in spiritualism, Houdini became so incensed by
the number of phony mediums taking advantage of desperate,
grief-stricken people, especially the fathers and mothers who
had lost their sons on the battlefields of World War I, that he
launched a personal and public crusade to expose the charlatans.
Meanwhile, Doyle's wife, Jean, claimed to be a medium who
specialized in automatic writing, or the process of her hand
being "guided" by a spirit being in order to convey messages
from "the other side". Her unusual talent would later
be responsible for the ending of the friendship between
her husband and Houdini, after a fateful seance that
took place in Atlantic City in 1922.
Harry Houdini had previously sought contact with his deceased mother
through seances, and at this particular one, "automatic writing" was
provided by Jean Doyle. But, after her messages appeared written in English,
when Houdini's mother had spoken only Yiddish, he declared Doyle a fraud.
Sir Arthur, who once considered Harry Houdini a powerful
spiritual medium himself, now viewed this former friend
as a potentially dangerous enemy.
We can only imagine what the keen-minded, "consulting detective"
Sherlock Holmes would have had to say about his creator being
mixed up in the phony seance business.
"Absolute poppycock for the most part, my dear Watson.
However, one must be extremely careful, less one be deceived."
Only four years after that fateful seance, Houdini died. His widow, Bess,
held special seances on Halloween (the day he died) for ten years after
her husband's passing in attempts to contact him. After the last
unsuccessful seance, held on the roof top of the Knickerbocker Hotel in
Hollywood, she finally put out the candle she had kept burning beside
a photograph of her husband since his death. She later stated:
"Ten long years is long enough to wait for any man."
As you can clearly see from the accounts above, the powers
of darkness are very real and very dangerous. Both the
famous and not so famous have been tragically misled by them.
America today is in major political and social upheaval and the main
reason for this is that we have forsaken our Judeo-Christian heritage.
Our land is languishing in the midst of a cruel spiritual famine.
Like ancient Israel in the Bible, America has turned away from
the protection and providence of Almighty God to follow after
the corruptive influences of money and power, lust, and the occult.
Another problem is the derailing of mainstream Christianity.
For years, prominent evangelicals have led their massive followings
of gullible and greedy sheep off the proverbial cliff by eschewing
the Gospel, while allowing too much of the world into the church.
People want their "ears tickled" with a feel good message, not a
serious, thought-provoking admonishment concerning sin,
and how it destroys people. As a result of this "ear tickling" the
doctrines that demons teach are flourishing from the pulpit
or the stage in many churches in America today.
Many prominent leaders in the church have maintained a deafening silence
when they should have banded together and spoke out against the evils
which have now permeated our society. They were too worried about
losing their church's tax exempt status with the government.
Jesus never said believers should not pay their taxes.
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's," He said.
(Mark 12:17)
I wonder how long they will remain silent if and when our increasingly
hostile, anti-Christian government takes their churches away from them.
The Lord also told us in no uncertain terms that if we are part of the world
(system) the world will love us and claim us as one of their own.
However, because we, as believers, have been called out from the world,
( are no longer one with it) the world will hate us like it hates Him.
Unfortunately, many "celebrity preachers" today
remain in love with the world.
Personally, I feel nothing this world has to offer can even
come close to my future life in glory with my Lord Jesus!
I pray that everyone reading this post will invest in a Bible
( I love my Amplified Bible) and will commit time each
day for reading and studying the Word of God. If you cannot find
a good Bible study near you, I would like to recommend
watching, "Through The Bible With Les Feldick".
Les has been a Bible teacher for many years. He is now retired,
but his programs can still be found airing daily on television
and on the Internet. I began watching him several years ago.
Les's teachings confirmed for me a lot of what I already
knew concerning God's Word, while refuting many
of the false and heretical teachings which are
being taught in some Christian churches today.
His easy to understand, down-to-earth teaching style will
hopefully encourage your own study of the Bible, but more
importantly, will provide you with a fresh and unique
perspective of the Word of God.
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