30 November 2023
I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6-7 NET)
Someone asked me how I got to know so much about pagan religion, witchcraft, satanism, etc.
Some years ago, I spent a lot of time reading and researching in psychology of religion. At that time, I wrote a good bit on a blog that is long gone. I cannot say how it happened, but I got the attention of some folks in the pagan community.
Let me chase a rabbit for just a moment. I've already warned that there is a lot of bubble-headed nonsense online that shows up under the labels of paganism, satanism, witchcraft, etc. There was a time I didn't know the difference. But there is also a smaller group of genuine pagan believers, and they are rather elite in the sense of being highly intelligent and quite talented in other ways. I'm willing to bet you've encountered some without knowing it. They aren't generally threatening, just rather eccentric for the most part.
In turn, I've been classed as rather eccentric among Christian folks. Apparently, what I wrote rang the bell for these folks and they began commenting and engaging me in offline conversation. I didn't judge them, as most Christians they had encountered did. In return, they shared with me a lot of their "secrets" -- stuff most outsiders didn't know. I read some of their source materials. By no means was I sympathetic to their beliefs, but I did manage to help a few of them untangle some private issues that haunted them.
That's because I have long believed that evangelism didn't require immediate full conversion. As noted in the verse above, some mission fields require an incremental approach. With these pagan folks, I was convinced that I could at least open the door to genuine gospel truth if I didn't alienate them with the standard overzealous approach. I knew I could trust the Lord to finish the job, or not, in His time.
This is a luxury available to those of us who embrace the Doctrine of Election. It doesn't depend on us to convince anyone to follow Jesus. All we really must do is manifest Him to ensure everyone gets a clear vision of Him. He does the rest. Because this allowed me to relax, I got acquainted with a lot of those oddball folks and they let me see in the windows. Everything I learned is consistent with what I've said so far about Heiser's Unseen Realm and related teaching. These people are just another particular group trapped in the lies of the opposition elohim council.
Evangelism should not look like dragging someone kicking and screaming into the Covenant. It should look more like a nudge in the right direction for those who have gotten a bad taste of false Christianity. It can be in small increments.
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