Time Off With Good Voodoo

Gary: We hope you can tune in next week as Dave and Tom continue their discussion of the Occult Invasion. This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, answers to your questions in “Contending for the Faith”, and in Understanding the Scriptures Dave and Tom resume their discussion of God’s salvation.

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Now, “Religion in the News”, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This item is from The Miami Herald: Voodoo in front of Miami’s county courthouse has become such a messy business that a voodoo squad has been assigned to clean up dead chickens, goats, and other remnants of occult rituals every morning. Many of the criminal defendants on trial in Dade County are Cuban and Haitian natives who turn to gods for a little help with their legal troubles. Animal sacrifices are common in some neighborhoods in Miami where new Caribbean immigrants ask the gods for help in all sorts of everyday problems and skirmishes, The Miami Herald said. Relatives of defendants sometimes sneak into an empty courtroom and sprinkle voodoo powder on the judge’s chair or lawyers’ chairs. Other items commonly found on the courthouse grounds include corn kernels which are supposed to speed up a trial date, eggs which make a case collapse, cakes which sweeten the judge’s attitude toward a defendant, and black pepper to keep someone jailed.

Tom: This may seem shocking to some of our listeners, but this is more prevalent around the country than one would think. For example, Santeria which is just one form of this practice, has 5 million worshippers in the U. S. And many are not those that come from families of Latin American descent or from Haiti, or from the Caribbean. Dave, how does this work?

Dave: Well, it’s actually very closely related to what we were talking about—holistic medicine. There’s some kind of a power out there and these people would probably have different ideas about what this power is. Now, it does say in the article that trying to call upon certain gods, Santeria, or voodoo actually came from Africa. The natives when they were brought over as slaves, they were forced to become Catholics. So in order to go along with their slave masters they changed the names of their voodoo gods—their gods from Africa to the names of Catholic saints, so you find Catholicism now as very much mixed in with Santeria or voodoo, vodun, or whatever you want to call it. But the point is that they think that some power is triggered when the witch doctor slits the rooster’s throat and he sprinkles the blood in a certain pattern and then he mumbles a formula the gods have to come through. They think there’s some connection. Now, you say well, but you had animal sacrifices in the Old Testament. Yes, but not for that purpose. In fact, the Bible very clearly says that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin.

Tom: Right. It was a type; it was a sign of the Christ to come.

Dave: Exactly. Those animal sacrifices looked forward to the Lamb of God with a sinless God/man who would pay the penalty that his own justice demanded for our sins. So, there was no virtue in that. You have a similar situation in Catholicism where you have an anathema unless you acknowledge that the ritual….

Tom: Right. Liturgy, the sacraments, basically.

Dave: The sacraments, right. Unless you acknowledge that they transmit spiritual power: ex opere operato. That’s a Latin term that means “in the act itself”.

Tom: Mmhmm.

Dave: So this is exactly what these people believe when they sprinkle pepper, when they put corn in front of the courthouse, when they sacrifice animals—they think that that very act then triggers some spiritual power and this is not grace. This is not according to God’s love and his purpose and plan. You don’t even have to be—it’s like—it’s science.

Tom: Mmhmm. It’s the laws

Dave: A religious science.

Tom: Mmhmm

Dave: Yeah, it’s like the laws of physics and chemistry. Well now there some spiritual laws in this realm…

Tom: Mmhmm

Dave: And you learn it from your father, who learned it from your grandfather and when you follow this ritual, then, bingo! Now Tom, I think any one—and we’re not trying to jump down someone’s throat and say well, you’re all wrong. But let’s be rational about it. It has nothing to do with morals. It has nothing to do with submission to God’s will. In fact, it’s a means of imposing my will upon the universe…or upon others.

Tom: Well, Dave…look at example here. You have somebody trying to manipulation—

Dave: Right.

Tom: Trying to change someone’s mind—a judge…

Dave: Right.

Tom: You’d have something intervening to corrupt justice. Spiritually, right?

Dave: Right. So in other words, it’s a technique for me to play god—it allows me to play God and I can impose my will on this universe. Now, a voodooist would think about that rationally. Why should this power out there submit to me? See, it’s a lie of Satan. He pretends to go along with you. Now if you just follow this ritual…you just do this…then this power will be at your disposal. Just like the Star Wars force. You learn how to play the light side—well, why don’t I play the dark side? Darth Vader—he’s got all the power and friends and influence and wealth. So it’s totally amoral.

Tom: Mmhmm.

Dave: It’s irrational and it allows me as the serpent said to Eve, “You can become like the gods! So you can manipulate people’s minds and consciences. Now, Norman Vincent Peale, interestingly, he gives you examples of this. How he went out to ask for a donation of $5000 from 10 different men and one of his board members is sitting back there visualizing these people writing out a check for $5000 and it worked! And Norman Vincent Peale would tell you in his book Positive Imaging, wow! This is fantastic! Think about it. It is not even ethical, let alone is it biblical.

Tom: Mmhmm.

Dave: That I can get other people to do what I want them to do. So this is the whole appeal of this power. It’s the whole appeal of what we were talking about—holistic medicine. Somehow I can make it work the way I want it to. That’s a delusion and the sooner I learn that there is a God in charge of this universe and I willingly submit to his will, the better.

Tom: Right. And we’re not denying that these people are particularly in voodoo are contacting spirit entities. But, but, this is a frightening religion and they will tell you that because they come into bondage. They can’t get rid of these entities in many cases.

Dave: When we submit to God’s will, we’re set free. We’re not in bondage. Oh well, but I’ve got to have it done God’s way then. Yeah, because he’s smarter than I am and he loves me and it delivers me from the burden of trying to play God myself and I submit to his will and that’s best.