The Encroaching Darkness

Can we be a shining light in spite of the encroaching darkness?

Let's just be honest here. Witchcraft is a religion. Witchcraft and its more modern incarnation, Wicca, are pagan religions. Can you even imagine what the ACLU would do if every movie and TV show you've ever seen that glamorized witchcraft was actually glorifying God and Christianity? Somewhere there's been a shift where it's offensive to have a cross or a ten commandments monument in a public place.

But it's completely acceptable and unquestionable to promote witchcraft to kids. Welcome to Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell, brought to you by Olive Tree Ministries. Today, Jan talks about the encroaching darkness in our world.

Reminds us that the light of the world, Jesus Christ, shines much more brightly and has defeated the dark enemy. She talks with Jill Martin-Ritchie and Eric Barger for the hour. Here is Jan Markell. This is something that's really, really happening. I cannot believe that this is happening. Halloween is coming right around the corner. Right now, as we're filming this right now, it is October 22nd, right?

So you might be seeing on the 23rd, depending on how long it takes to edit. On October 25th, there are thousands of witches, they claim to be witches, that say that they are casting a binding spell on Donald Trump. They said that at 11.59 p.m. on October 25th, thousands of witches will simultaneously conduct a ritual which is meant to bind Donald Trump. Unlike a curse, or a hex, a binding spell is not meant to cause harm. Rather, witches hope to prevent President Donald Trump from doing harm to the United States by his actions. So they believe that they're doing something to help the country in a positive way, which is hard to prove that they've done it because it's pretty much saying, yo, we're making a spell so that he doesn't harm anyone.

Welcome to the program. Well, that little sound bite was referring to something that happened. That's actually a month ago now. But as I speak, the same group of radicals is planning to do the very same thing at one minute to midnight tonight, November the 23rd.

That's the date this program is airing. Let me just sort of set the stage here, because if you're a regular listener, first of all, you know that I like to sound the alarm as often as I can, that the dark world is trying to gain ground on the Christian. That is why I do regular paranormal updates here, because you or someone you love is trying to be seduced by the world of the paranormal and the blatantly occult.

Just a few examples here before I introduce my guests for the hour. Some headlines I just picked up recently. The US witch population has seen an astronomical rise. Headline number two, the fastest growing religion in America is witchcraft. Headline number three from Newsweek magazine, a number of witches rises dramatically across the US as millennials reject Christianity. Headline number four from LifeSite News, witchcraft rising as Christianity declines.

Headline number five talks about the statue of Moloch outside of the Colosseum in Rome, and we'll spend a few extra minutes on that, explain what it is and what it means and what on earth is the statue of Moloch. If you're just going through a grocery store line, you're going to come across spellbinding books. You'll find one that's the official Harry Potter spellbook.

If you're just looking for this kind of a topic, let's just say for discussion here on Amazon, you're going to find revenge voodoo dolls on Amazon. And you've heard me talk on this radio program before about the new world religion that seems to be environmentalism, which is just another form of paganism. Now, I'm not suggesting that those who want to take care of nature are pagans. Don't hear me say that because I'm one who wants to take care of nature, okay? But I'm saying that forms of environmentalism are pushing the envelope which can lead to paganism, and I believe this will be a major component of the coming one world religion. And this could be called eco-spirituality. And when we were introduced recently to Greta Thunberg from Sweden, a rabid environmentalist, young woman, I think she's only 14, scolding the world at the UN.

But yet Sweden has declared her the successor to Jesus Christ. All I'm saying is there's a spiritual component to some of the things going on in environmentalism related to nature, etc. I came across recently a children's book of demons. I'll talk more about that just a little bit later. You already heard a clip of those who are wanting to put a binding spell. They did so right before Halloween. As I said, coming into the program, going to do it again the evening of November the 23rd. That's when this program begins airing. Some other things I want to cover while we have the time in this particular hour is that when we do talk about this topic, I like to bring into the studio with me two people who I think are experts.

And one would be Jill Martin Ritchie, daughter of Dr. Walter Martin. Jill, thank you for coming in today. Thanks for having me, Jan. And Eric Barger is going to be with us for the hour as well. Eric, thank you.

Good to be with you again, Jan. Let me just ask you both. I just went over that lineup and we'll get some of the sort of bullet points of these topics as we move along here. But of this lineup, it took me five minutes to get through just some basics here. Jill, what strikes you the most profoundly? What sets off the loudest alarms about some of the things I just went through here? The rise of evil and the rage that comes with it. I think we are used to seeing evil things around.

But the incredible growth in them and the all pervasiveness of them everywhere in our culture. And then add to that the rage that is going along with it. One really great example is going back to the witches cursing President Trump. And they're also cursing us. They're also cursing us. That's important to note.

Yes. It's not just President Trump. It's everyone who supports him. That curse is aimed at all of us. And to measure the rage, I think you need to take a close look at what is in that spell. We won't go into everything, but there's one really curious item I think that makes a big difference, and that is a tarot card. And it's called the tower. And usually when people have tarot cards read for them, they're afraid of the death card. But this particular person, several people online, actually point to the tower card as being the one that is the most dangerous. And it depicts a high crumbling tower and its meaning is dark and dangerous. And it really actually talks about absolute chaos and destruction, Jan and Eric.

So I don't think that they are really telling the truth when they say to us that this particular spell means no harm because this tarot card is the center of it. And that's what I mean by the rage. There is rage behind this evil. We see it everywhere. We see it in the satanic temple, which is growing by leaps and bounds. It's out there. And I think that is really something different, something that's increased.

And Eric, what struck you the most as I laid out the roadmap for this hour? There's no such thing as white magic. That's an old saying that I've said for many years since the days I was writing and speaking about Harry Potter. But there's no such thing as white magic. People think that magic, occult magic, that is some form of supernaturalism outside of God, Jehovah God, they think they can manipulate that and do it for good. But the origin is evil no matter what they say about it. And in this case, I think when they say it's only being done for good, it's kind of tongue in cheek as they look down their nose at people and say, we're going to tell them this, but we know better ourselves.

I think a lot of the church, Jan, it's like Isaiah 30, which says that there are people who want to rebel against what the Lord says and they say to the seers, and that would be to the good seers. Don't tell us what we don't want to hear. Prophesy illusions. Tell us lies, in other words.

I think a lot of people have been so conditioned to only hear what they want to hear in the context of Christianity that whenever we bring up things like we are today, people go, well, I don't want to hear about that. I want to hear something that's uplifting. Well, listen, we need everything that God's got to say, folks, and he's got a lot to say about these issues we're talking about.

All right. But the other angle that I want to emphasize in this hour is that this is also entering the church. Let me play a clip because the church is embracing some of the things that we're sounding the warning about this particular hour. The church is embracing the very things we're talking about.

Well, which direction has Hollywood gone since the 80s and 90s? It seems that shows containing magic have continually increased while Christianity portrayed in movies and shows have continually decreased or worse, blatantly mocked and ridiculed. So is it really shocking that American millennials are rejecting Christianity while embracing the way of the witch?

Not really. Life imitates art. So not only is the world being seduced by sorcery, but also the Christian church. There are major Christian ministries today who are selling what they call angel boards, and they are Ouija boards. So just a rebranded Ouija board. It's called an angel board, and they call it an angel board where you can talk to your angels. Typically, New Age will say spirit guides, but the terminology doesn't matter.

It's all the same thing. There are tarot cards. They won't call them tarot cards.

They'll use a different name, but there are tarot cards that are being sold through major Christian industries right now. Those are just the extremes. It's creeping in in more subtle ways that, as Steve said, it absolutely is infiltrating our churches, and it's stealing our children.

There's our friends over at Skywatch TV. Jill, you ever think you'd see the day? No, I knew it was getting worse. And I know my father used to preach about this back in the 60s and 70s, how churches prefer soft lights, soft music, and even softer sermons. So there was a lack of fire there, and perhaps what Jesus is referring to by churches that are lukewarm.

And unfortunately, without that, there is no desire to go to battle. And so now all of these things are being developed. People just seem so attracted to, drawn to the New Age type things, the tools of the occult that would help people communicate to a dimension that really is full of only a terrible evil that wishes to destroy them.

Eric, go ahead. You know, this reminds me, I'm sure that Dr. Martin would say if he were alive, how is this going on? And I know the way he would preach about this. But it does remind me of the way that when Rome sent missionaries, especially we think of South America and Mexico down through there, we know about what happened there. They would come in and they would preach their brand of Christianity. And then the natives, the pagans, would be told they can keep their religion too, as long as they have what Rome was teaching as well.

So they mixed it together. And I think this is what we're doing today, too. In evangelicalism and in Protestantism, we're deciding that we can somehow have all the trappings of the occult world.

But if we Christianize it, we can smile and say it's OK. Somebody sent me a picture and I referred to it in the intro here. You can find a spell book in your grocery store checkout line, the unofficial Harry Potter spell book as you're checking out of your groceries. How many programs have the three of us done, either blatantly exposing Potter or at least emphasizing the fact that it's influencing children to be comfortable with the paranormal? A lot.

Yeah, a lot of programs. I mean, it's pointing them to a power. I mean, that power is real.

We all know it's real. The thing that is so sad is that it's the far weaker power. God is the great power.

Satan is just a creation. And it's sad that they are being drawn to this darkness to the point where their lives are being completely destroyed. Well, Jill, I want to refer to an article you wrote. You wrote it for our e-newsletter.

This is a month ago now. And the title was The Encroaching Darkness. And we can't read it, folks, but I certainly can highlight some of the things that I think we should just talk about, at least for a few minutes here, because it was a powerful article. You kind of introduce it saying what is happening to the world around us, someone poured gasoline on the very dry tinder of the human heart and our world is on fire. Evil is good. Good is evil. Satan is alive and well on planet Earth. You talk about some other things and then you go into a story that was really big back in October, a full month ago now.

Amazing story. The world's largest Ouija board. Nothing to be joking about, to be honest.

Nothing to be joking about. It's called Ouijazilla. Again, you can see some of these things visually on the radio version of our YouTube, on our YouTube channel, Jan Markell's Olive Tree Ministries. And we put a picture of this in the e-newsletter. Folks, sign up on my website, OliveTreeViews.org, views.org, OliveTreeViews.org.

Just go to e-newsletter, put in your email and you'll get these once or twice a month. We put in a picture of this, Jill, of this huge Ouija board. Talk to us a little bit about what's going on behind the scenes here and the consequences of a Ouija board that is 400-pound pointer. Just the pointer alone is 400 pounds. Right, a monstrous 9,000 pounds. So I think they said a size of four full-size semi-trucks.

Five. Five full-size semi-trucks, yeah. They said it's heavier than an elephant, longer than a brontosaurus, and nicknamed Ouijazilla. This has got to be, I think, the largest tool of the occult that I've ever seen on this planet. I mean, you might point to the Palmyra Gate as a large tool, but it's not used the same way, the one that we were talking about that led to the Temple of Baal that travels the world and sits in large cities. This is even larger than that. I mean, it's huge. And it's the brainchild of a man named Rick or Mortis Shrek, who is the vice president of the talking board historical society. That's just right outside Salem, Massachusetts. Appropriate.

Appropriate, yeah. He was going for a Ripley's Believe It or Not record. But I think it's far more than that, being that he is the vice president of that particular society. The funny thing is, is we heard about it going up. We heard that it was there. But, you know, we never heard anything about it doing anything. There is not a single news story out there that that particular Ouija board had any power whatsoever. And I know you and I talked about that, Jen, when they were building it. Is it really possible that the Lord would allow something this large to work?

And I think we did not think that that was going to be the case. Eric, your thoughts when you heard about Ouijazilla? Certainly just another PR campaign by the occultists. Ouija boards, at least this is the way I view it, they're a very personalized thing.

They speak personally to people. The spirits that are behind them are speaking personally and giving people information that they think that no one else has but just them. And suddenly when they're giving it back, in other words, when they hear it coming back from a Ouija board, then they begin to believe that if they follow that, well, that's a spirit that knows all about me.

So I just follow along with it. They really don't understand what they've gotten into. And our human nature is that we're drawn to the mysterious in so many ways. And many just think it's a game. And just like a trip to the local psychic, though, they come back away from that experience with something way more than they expected.

And in this case, more of a PR thing. But it just shows that this is not in the back room of some occult bookstore on a side street in a major city. This is out in the open. It's all over the Internet and certainly in news services, too.

We see these things that are going to grow and become bigger. And I don't mean just the Ouija board itself in this form. And the Satanic Temple, whose headquarters are in Salem, they work hand in glove with this talking board society. So that tells you who some of the people are surrounding the whole phenomenon. You're exactly right, Eric. This is a huge occult publicity stunt.

But I also think, too, that they maybe secretly were hoping for some kind of demonstration of power. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell and I have in studio with me two guests for the hour. Familiar Voices of Joe Martin Rishi, a daughter of Dr. Walter Martin. She's actually authored a 700-page book, The Kingdom of the Occult. You'd have to find that at a Christian bookstore. And Eric Barger from Take a Stand Ministries. And Eric has a kind of an occult-oriented book as well. The title of that, Eric, is Entertaining Spirits Unaware, the End Time Occult Invasion. And by the way, the download version of that, we have dropped the price on it.

So it's got great principles in it to help people really discern what's happening around them. OK, and that's ericbarger.com. That's right.

And Jill, you say this. I'm going back to your article again. This is about a month ago. We put out an e-newsletter once or twice a month and Jill wrote this one. Actually, it was written near Halloween. She highlighted some crazy things going on in the world of the paranormal. And again, I do these updates and I encourage the writing of these kinds of articles because of the rampant paranormal activity that's going on as we speak. You said this, Jill, as Christians, we see the enemy ramping up his strategy and breaking free of restraint. And this means that there are victories to be won.

We are fighters and it's time to check the armor and scope the battlefield. And I think that's a very important point because we have to push back. We have to be a salt and light and try to delay this kind of decay. And it's occultic decay that's just skyrocketing right now. And it's coming for our families. Exactly. It's coming for us.

For those we care about, friends, family, co-workers, people we care about, they can't see it. No. And you know, I went to a Christian school pretty much my whole life. There was stuff like that going on there. I learned all about the Ouija board at my Christian college. There you go. Everyone was using the Ouija board and I thought this has to be innocent.

Christian college kids all using it. Or how many kids have tried to talk to the dead based on what they read in Harry Potter that had a huge influence on our culture? Look at all the magic movies and magic books that came after.

So really a sad set of circumstances. One thing I did want to say though, in regards to the magic resistance, the witches that are coming out against everyone is that an undeserved curse will never come to rest. That's what Proverbs 26 2 says.

None of us deserve this curse. And they are really wasting their time doing it. That's a good reminder. And the power of Jesus Christ is far stronger. So that's why part of our weaponry, some people have Facebook pages, some people have shows, some people have blogs, some people work at their churches. There are ways to get this information out there and to fight back.

I want to play one more clip in this segment. As of late 2018, multiple mainstream news outlets have covered the topic of witchcraft being on the rise in America. It's estimated as many as a million people identify as being a witch in the US, with 20% of that population to be in New York.

Um, what does this mean exactly that you cast a binding spell on the president? So we're here in Brooklyn, where a group of pagan witches have gathered to place a hex on the newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh. One article says that the witch population has doubled in the decade as millennials cast off Christianity. New York Post says, So why has witch popularity doubled? Perhaps it's because millennials were raised on Harry Potter. Or maybe it's because of the rise in popularity of yoga and meditation, researchers suggest. Regardless, millennials have embraced astrology and the supernatural, even if they aren't quite sure why.

In fact, Stella Bugbee, editor-in-chief and president of The Cut, told The Atlantic that their horoscope content traffic increased 150% from 2016 to 2017. I tend to agree to the old saying, life imitates art. It's not hard to see that the masses follow pop culture trends that appear on the American idols of Hollywood. Even in my own life, when I started searching for truth, I was drawn to witchcraft. The Craft was one of my favorite movies in high school, which probably had a big influence on my interest in Wicca. The movie is based on four high school hotties that start dabbling in the craft and make it look like lots of fun. Changing the color of their eyes and hair, turning red lights green, and levitating off the floor. Of course, this is only one of hundreds of movies and shows that glamorize sorcery. Looking back now, I can see the paganism seed was being planted all throughout my life growing up. Cartoons like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Captain Planet are laced with components of magic, sorcery, and calling upon the elements. That's YouTuber Light Exposing the Darkness. Folks, you can see this on the radio version of our YouTube, on our YouTube channel.

Jan Markell's Olive Tree Ministries. Eric Horoscope increased 150% between 2016 and 2017. Again, I think the point is obvious. Even though it doesn't work. But if you think it works, if it just works once, in other words, if something is predicted and then it takes place, well, there must be all the time. And we know that's not the case.

And that's been clinically proven. But, you know, it used to be when I was a child, now that's a long time ago. It was kids went to a party and somebody said, hey, I know how we can levitate somebody, you know, and that was about all you had to deal with. But today it's a whole different thing because Satan has proliferated all these different catches that will catch people, these hooks that will hook and he's got a hook for everybody.

If you open yourself up and you decide you want to get into this, there's going to be a way for you to get into the world of the occult. And once you get in, it's a lot harder to get out. It's almost like Hotel California. I want to change topics here a little bit, go into another area that I think we need to spend just a moment on.

A couple of things. As a matter of fact, Jill, outside of the Colosseum in Rome, now it's for a minute. Let's just remember what happened in the Colosseum in Rome. So many Christians were martyred in that location. The Colosseum is owned and run by the Vatican as we speak.

And until next spring, sitting outside the entrance, not in a corner, not in a place where the lights are turned out. But as folks enter the Colosseum is a giant statue of the demon god Moloch. And it's welcoming visitors into this Colosseum where unspeakable things happen.

Going to be there through, I believe, next Easter, next spring sometime. What Moloch did or what the people did to honor this god Moloch is so horrific, it's almost unspeakable even on the radio. Why do you think the Vatican, Jill, would want any association with Moloch sitting into the entryway here of the Colosseum in Rome? I think all we need for that, to really understand that, is to go look at what Pope Francis said about Islam and Christianity.

That basically it needs to be syncretistic. It needs to all be one belief. We have to tolerate each other that the god of Islam is the god of Christianity. So that tells me right there that he's throwing wide the door to these deities that he's been caught in several different media events where there have been pagan goddesses worshiped. And now you have Moloch sitting in front of the Colosseum. But do they get any worse? Do they get any worse than Moloch?

Well, that's pretty bad. Moloch is pretty bad, although the other goddesses that he was sitting with as they were worshiped, they were bad. But Moloch is the one that, if you look in scripture, his statue was set up outside of Jerusalem in the Hinnom Valley. So the Bible says that the ground was soaked with blood.

The Hinnom Valley is outside the old city, the old boundaries, and right across from the Dung Gate, which is quite appropriate, I think, for geographical location to Moloch. It's horrific. Now, the statue that's set up there is a movie statue. It was created by someone who actually was deep into occult magic decades ago. And that particular statue was used on the movie set. And now it's been transported outside of the Colosseum. Unbelievable to see it.

And it's a pretty graphic image of Moloch. Something very bad is happening on the international world stage. The rise of power, the rise of Satan's power, it's out there and more blatant than ever before. Eric, your thoughts on this god Moloch, the statue Moloch, outside of the Colosseum and the Vatican connection?

Jan, you asked Jill if it could get any worse. I'm not sure. When you begin to compare one evil god to another statue, something that represents an evil god to another, it's like, which one? It's pick your poison.

It's awful. And the Vatican, by this being set up where it is, the Vatican is in complete control of that property. It's up to them to say yes or no to this kind of thing.

They've said nothing. And that should tell us a lot because this is like, there couldn't be anything more vile in the sight of God than this thing that represented what it represented and continues to represent even in our day. Yes, in our day, it's represented by abortion. Probably enough said there.

Go ahead, Jill. One more thing about Moloch is all we have to do is go look at Deuteronomy. Exactly. And God named who Moloch is. Moloch is a demon. That's who he is. And that's who all the rest of them are. And they are evil through and through, Eric. You are so right.

That kind of evil for it to be on the international stage is almost incomprehensible. It is. A few minutes ago, I pulled up Deuteronomy 18 and had it on the screen in front of me because I knew we were coming to this. It's right there. It's in the nine forbidden practices of the occult that I write about in Entertaining Spirits Unaware.

In fact, it's the very first one in Deuteronomy 18, verse 10. Let me just say, going out of segment one here, that we do have CDs and DVDs of Understanding the Times 2019. Speakers J.D. Farag, Robert Jeffress, Amir Sarfati, Jack Hibbs, yours truly, Lori Cardoza-Moore. Interviews with a number of the speakers as well.

You get six features in the CDs or DVDs. Give my office a call if you'd like. Check out my store, OliveTreeViews.org. Views as in Viewpoint, sign up for our various newsletters. Already referenced the E newsletter with Jill's fantastic article from a month ago.

Print newsletter where these items will be offered. That's all I'm going to say about that other than hang on to the date of Saturday, September 26, 2020 for next year. We'll say more about that. Going into the new year right now, I want to take my first break of the hour. When I come back, we're going to continue this discussion. We've got some things to hit on yet.

I think you'll find them a little bit on the stunning side. Back in just a minute. Welcome to Understanding the Times 2019. Joey, where are you from? I'm from Donnytown, Pennsylvania. I'm from Chicago, Illinois. We're from Still Bay in South Africa. Orlando, Florida. Alco, Nevada.

The great state of Texas. I'm with Deb and Ginger, and they have made this a girl's day out. Yes, we have. We've been coming for about 20 years. Is this your first time here? It's my second time. How many conferences have you been to? Three.

I think four or five. No, this is our first trip here to Minneapolis. And strangely enough, we love the weather.

The minute we leave, we're looking forward to next year. What struck you most? How relevant this conference is and how relatable it is to our everyday lives. I had no idea that so many pastors didn't believe in the rapture and that 98% of them ignore the prophecies in the Bible.

I wasn't aware of any of these things a year ago. I think the thing that's impacted me the most is the speakers that I hear today. It's just really exciting to see them in person.

I listen to them all the time, so I feel like I know them. I would crawl through broken glass to make this conference. The rise of the supernatural, the supernatural without Jehovah God. I think this is all an end times thing.

Yeah. I believe the rise we're seeing today is exactly related directly to the days that we're in biblically, that we're in the end times. We see these things happening.

It doesn't shock me that we see the world running after these things and the publicity that's going on with it. Since you lead busy lives and can't always be near a radio, we offer electronic listening under radio at our website, OliveTreeViews.org. You can download the OnePlace.com mobile app, and you can watch the program on our YouTube channel if you're visually oriented. Find it under Olive Tree Ministries and Jan Markell. We don't share information contained in today's programming to scare you, but to prepare you to go into spiritual battle as we face last day's opposition from a defeated foe. Now here is Jan, Jill and Erin. Melissa Madeira is a self-proclaimed witch, and she's been casting spells for New Yorkers for years. But since the election of President Donald Trump, she says she's been using her magic a little differently. I am very, very pleased with the results we've been getting. Earlier this month, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as a justice to the US Supreme Court.

That's despite being accused of sexual assault in the 1980s. So on Saturday, Madeira and a coven of other witches met her at her Brooklyn bookstore to put a spell on Kavanaugh. There was a lot of rage in the community following the hearing with Dr. Ford and Kavanaugh's confirmation, and we wanted to give people a chance to engage in a little bit of direct action through spirituality with us. But Madeira's tactics haven't charmed everyone.

She's received death threats and people have protested outside her bookstore. She hasn't shared how the witches cast the hex, but she believes the spells are helping to expose injustice in the Trump administration. Every time we've done it, we've seen new information come out about whether he's been engaged in tax fraud or Russian collusion or fraud with the election and stuff like that. Every time we do it, more and more comes to the public eye. Welcome back, Jill and Eric. One point I have here is what we're talking about.

These witches casting spells. This has gone on for literally centuries. This is nothing new. What is new is it's headlines in major periodicals, publications. Fox News covers it. Tucker Carlson features these people and they talk about it around the world.

This has not been happening perhaps the last three to five years. This is literally in headlines. These people are almost heralded and celebrated.

That's what I see as different. This is a war in the heavenly. Yeah, there you go.

It really is. This is similar to, I think, I don't have personal knowledge of this, I'll be clear, but I think all we have to do is go to Daniel and remember the delay. Daniel was praying. When the angel finally appeared to him, he said, what?

I've been delayed by war in the heavenly. So we as Christians, right, people of the word, the word of God, we as Christians know we live in a supernatural reality. What I think is astounding is how that supernatural reality is breaking into the mainstream media.

That to me is just absolutely amazing. I think that's my point. All these clips, and they're prevalent on YouTube, of course, which is kind of the modern venue for people who want to keep up on news and don't care to turn the television on. And every other video is topics like we're talking about.

Eric? I see it like this, Jan. The rise of the supernatural, the supernatural without Jehovah God, I think this is all an end times thing. Yeah, I believe the rise we're seeing today is related directly to the days that we're in biblically, that we're in the end times. We see these things happening.

It doesn't shock me that we see the world running after these things and the publicity that's going on with it. Nor should it shock me that God is also on the move in a very dramatic way. And that's a great thing because wherever evil raises its head, as long as the Christian is willing to stand up and speak up for the truth, God is on the move. And certainly he's in the move regardless, but the good things happen when we stand against evil. I've said that for a long time about spiritual warfare. It's end times. Really good point.

Jill? The thing that is amusing, and I look at this as the irony of God, if we listen to what that particular witch was saying, that she was so pleased with the results and pleased with the results. And every time she cast a spell, they found out a new piece of information. The only problem is, is that all three pieces of information that she listed are not true. It's true. Yeah. They're fake news. I just look at that as the irony of God, that he is the creator, the greatest power on earth, and Satan simply cannot ever compete. I'm going to Newsweek magazine now.

I intro'd the whole program, giving some headlines. Newsweek, number of witches rises dramatically across U.S. as millennials reject Christianity. That matter, replace U.S. with Western world. Newsweek article says the number of witches and Americans practicing Wicca, religious rituals increased dramatically since the 90s, with several recent studies indicated there may be at least 1.5 million witches across the country. Trinity College study conducted in 1990 estimated only about 8,000 Wiccans in the U.S., and that's 1990, but the increase has been led by a rejection of mainstream Christianity among young Americans, as well as the rise in what we're talking about here, with 1.5 million potential practicing witches across the U.S. Witchcraft has more followers than the 1.4 million mainline members of the Presbyterian Church. And then someone speaks into the article saying, Plus Wicca has effectively repackaged witchcraft for millennial consumption. No longer is witchcraft and paganism satanic and demonic. It's pre-Christian tradition that promotes free thought and understanding of earth and nature.

Let me use that to morph into something I want to talk a little bit about for a few minutes anyway. Let me address this first to Jill, and then Eric, please, I want you to weigh in as well, because the New World religion to me appears to be environmentalism. Earth Day came along in, I think, 1972.

Interesting on the same day as Lenin's birthday. So Earth Day came along in 1972, seemed rather harmless. Now it's become a new form of paganism. It's become almost eco-spirituality. Jill, talk to us for a few minutes about eco-spirituality.

And then I want to refer to Greta Thunberg, who absolutely ignited the world back in late September at the UN. This whole incredible rise of eco-spirituality that we are seeing is rooted, of course, in New Age spirituality. And Jen, in the last days, it's a fulfillment of Romans 1, 18 through 25. They exchange the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the creator who is forever blessed.

That is what is at the heart of this. With the rise of Satan's power, the growth of New Age movement, now you see bursting out of that New Age spirituality or eco-spirituality. And that is where they consider all is one. They are wrapped up in monistic pantheism. All is one, all is God, nature is divine, and man is divine. Just as Satan once promised he would be in Eden, right?

Genesis 3, 5. So humans have a responsibility now to protect nature or we will all face extinction. This is the fear factor. They have brought in the fear factor.

And when you don't know the Lord and don't have trust in him and can't go to prophecy, can't go to revelation, you don't understand the truth of it. You are wrapped up in a lie, you are deceived, so you panic. And so we see this culture of fear, this terrible culture of panic out there.

They're terrifying their children. Greta Thunberg from Sweden who addressed the United Nations. Donald Trump kind of threw a curveball again at her. He's famous for these curveballs that he throws because at the UN he diverted attention from this young woman, 14-year-old, to Christian persecution, thankfully. But nonetheless, Thunberg, she was declared the successor to Jesus Christ by the Swedes. She's from Sweden. She made such an impression and she's making an ongoing impression even as we speak.

This UN situation was many, many weeks ago now in September. She's making an ongoing impression on the whole world. Eric, your thoughts on this? You know, Jan, with the waning of the baby boomers and the values of their parents and the rise of the millennials in Gen Z, now we have a view with the majority of people that are coming up behind us to reject everything before them. So it's not a surprise since they've been schooled to think of all things environmental as being most important since that's been one of the keys, especially in our universities, but now down in our grade schools and preschool and so on. If this is what they're schooled with, they've grown up with it.

Greta Thunberg, I think this is what partially what's happened to her. Now she is autistic and shame on those parents that have used her as this kind of tool because that's where it came from. But they're New Agers.

This is how it got there. This should not shock us. But at the same token, when we see the way the world has taken up her cause, it shows us the general view of the world is to save the planet at all costs. And of course, they look at us as if we're crazy because we look to a God who, well, Revelation 21 says, is going to destroy this planet with fire.

The minute you say that, their hair catches on fire right on the spot. Yeah. I believe that this whole environmental movement, and again, not suggesting we shouldn't be environmentally sensitive to nature.

Never would I ever suggest we shouldn't do that. But the extreme forms of it, I believe, are being used by the so-called New World Order to bring about the one world government because they're going to declare we need some international crisis to make the world one. And I think it's going to be environmentalism. It's going to be the extreme forms of paganism and environmentalism to bring about the one world system.

And that's where I think this eco-spirituality is going to play into. It's playing into it right now. Keep your eyes on this, folks. Don't laugh at it. Don't just brush it off as something silly. It's got a sinister agenda. I'm absolutely convinced it has a sinister agenda. You know, Jan, care for the planet has now turned into worship of the planet. Well said. And it's drawn.

This is really not commonly known, but this eco-love is drawn from the pages of the Hindu Vedas, the scriptures of the Hindus. It's all wrapped up in the whole karma thing, too. It's focused on an impersonal universe. How can a universe that has no personality whatsoever know all these things or possibly know any of these things about us?

It can't. So it's a direct attack on God, drawing away from his personal love for us. You are listening to Understanding the Times Radio. If you join me late and I'm doing my probably at least three to four times a year paranormal update because the world is saturated with this, those you care about and perhaps you yourself being attacked by things of the dark nature. You may not even know it. I suspect you don't know it.

And that's why we just try to bring these things to your attention to protect those you love and particularly younger people. Jill and Eric, I got an email. Let me read two short paragraphs from the email from Teresa in Virginia, the state of Virginia. She says a book brought to my attention through Christian Homeschool Facebook page. The book is titled Children's Book of Demons.

Christian Homeschooler. The person gave a detail of the book's content, which was so disturbing. I thought I should share it with your ministry. She says, here's a review. Someone who's reviewed the book.

Apparently, please know this isn't like me to post things like this, but I couldn't let this one go. Some friends and I were in a bookstore tonight in the children's section. I might add, and we found this new book.

Now, I couldn't put it down without investigating more. One review on the back said I was summoned to read the book and another says I wish I had this book as a child. I could have been harnessing their supernatural powers for my own benefit upon opening the book. There is a new demon on every page with a bio on his abilities and whatnot. Now, most of them are silly, like this one does your homework and this one makes you sick so you can stay home from school. But then there are some with the ability to possess children's toys.

One more sentence here. I cannot believe we have become so desensitized to evil and to witchcraft that there are literal books geared towards children to teach them how to summon demons. I then went over to Amazon to look this up. Indeed, it exists. Children's Book of Demons.

It's called a paperback. It says, don't you want to take out the trash tonight? Maybe you're swimming in homework. Perhaps that big bully is being a real drag. Well, grab your colored pencil, drawing skills, and dial up some demons.

Be careful. Even if these spirits are more silly than scary, they are still demons. And their Publishers Weekly praises this book, The Children's Book of Demons. I could go on and on with testimonials praising this book, titled A Children's Book of Demons, so that children can summon up demons. Eric, your thoughts? The book belongs in the trash.

Take out the trash now. It's just more blatant. I've said, I said years ago, because of the rise of the occult in Great Britain that we saw very well documented when Harry Potter first came out. It won't be long before now there's a proliferation of a lot of other authors, a lot of other movies that are going to be aimed at younger kids that are going to draw them that direction.

And certainly, we watched it happen. And I have a picture of the cover of this book. And folks, if you want to watch this particular program on our YouTube channel, we'll show you the cover of this book, This Children's Book of Demons.

You'll be shocked out of your mind when I show you the cover. You have to go to our YouTube channel, Jan Markell Olive Tree Ministries, and we'll show you what we're talking about. Jill? I think it's very significant that in the gospels, three out of the four gospels, you see a large part of them focused on Jesus's earthly ministry, right? And who is he dealing with? He deals with casting out demons. And he tells us specifically in Matthew what it is a demon wants. It's fascinating to see that.

And when you look at it, you have to say, why? Why was this portion of the gospel set aside for this? It's because it is real and because the power is rising and it is because we as Christians are going to need to fight against it. Jan, in the first segment, I said that a lot of Christians just want to hear nice, fluffy things.

Last Sunday morning, I preached on spiritual warfare in a church and I do that often, but I made the statement that if you don't believe spiritual warfare is real and you don't believe it's anything to be worried about, then take a knife or take a razor blade and cut the Book of Mark out of your Bible because it'll be of no good, because that's the central theme of the Book of Mark is victory over the devil. You want to communicate with my two guests for the hour? Reach Jill Martin Rishi at WalterMartin.com. She's the daughter of Dr. Walter Martin. WalterMartin.com.

Reach Eric at EricBarger.com. Jill, one more topic before we head into another area here in the close of the program. And I came across this online. I even posted it to our headlines.

And we do that, folks, six days a week. If you'd like to go to OliveTreeViews.org. I posted this article about the occult roots of the whole drag queen phenomenon, which was fascinating. No surprise to me.

How about you? No, it's scary. I think from the standpoint that you would not necessarily expect this level of darkness.

Yes, they're dark. And yes, they're lost in sin. But you would not expect this level of targeted evil. Targeted evil. Targeted evil.

Yeah. And it is targeted. There's a recent article in MissionAmerica.com. And in it, they actually, yeah, and they actually point to the San Francisco based Satanic temple, and we were talking about the Satanic temple involved out in Salem, which is where their headquarters is.

But this takes place in San Francisco. They say that they have a large number of LGBTQ identifiers and so much so that they hold what they call pink masses that reach out to this group. So what is really frightening, though, I think, is that the leaders of this group have said that they will fight Christian conservatives to the death.

Hmm. So there is a root of Satanism here showing itself in the drag queen community. And as I said, it's detailed in this article and quite fascinating and quite alarming. You can Google that folks, the occult roots of the drag queen whole experience. Fascinating story.

My thanks to Linda over at Mission America for exposing that. Jill and Eric, I just want to morph a little bit while we still have time because a fascinating book that your dad wrote back in the 1960s, you have updated. And I think the original book came out in the mid 1960s, The Kingdom of the Cults by Dr. Walter Martin, which you have now updated considerably. But I think a fascinating angle to all of this is that back in the 60s, he couldn't even find a publisher.

Now it's a classic. And not only that, it's an 800 page classic, which many, many people have in their library. Why couldn't he find a publisher back some 50 years ago?

Right back then is where we started to see the rise of evil, the rise of the occult. And you saw it in a lot of atheism and agnosticism that came out. You would think in that climate that there would be more publishers open to it. But as we have all experienced, sometimes with publishers, they look at it as kind of a hot potato.

They don't necessarily want to be the ones to throw it out there in the public. But this is cults more than occult. This is cults. I know. And it was that way initially.

But then Zondervan did come alongside my father. And not only did they publish his book, but he was actually the editor for their department on cults and the occult for many years. And they embraced it, did promote it, and it really took off. You wouldn't think that a book that talked about Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormonism and Christian Science and all of these things would be of great interest to the public. But it was because the answers were not out there. No one had gone to the original sources. And that's what my father did, is he went to the original sources and let them speak for themselves. Originally published in 1965.

And you've got Jehovah's Witness, Christian Science, Mormonism, Spiritism, the Cult of Antiquity, the Theosophical Society, Buddhism, Classical and Zen, Baha'i Faith, Unity School of Christianity, Armstrongism, the Worldwide Church of God, Unification Church, Scientology, Eastern Religions, Islam, the cults on the world mission field, the Jesus of the cults, cult evangelism, the road to recovery. What have you done to update this? Well, we took a good long look at the book because it's been out for a very long time and it's gone through different editions, obviously. And we thought, how can we bring Walter Martin back to this book?

And so that's what I was really praying about. So what I did is I looked at the 1985 edition, which is the last one that my father did. I tried to go back to that, to lay it out the way that book was laid out, to remove anything that I felt was extra that had been added and to focus on his thoughts, his organization.

How did he put the book together and work from there? So that's what we did. We went back and made it very much like the 1985, only it's updated. It has all the new statistics. Wherever possible, we tried to inform people about changes that had occurred in each one of these religions. You even cover, apparently, you say here, the Unitarianism chapter, which was added back after 22 years. And now Kingdom of the Cults has been number one in the Unitarian Universalism since it came out in August.

Number one where now? On Amazon, it's been steadily at number one in Unitarian Universalism, which I thought was quite amazing. Meaning Unitarian people are looking into it? That's usually a place where the Unitarians go to look for books. So unless their families are going there too, someone is going to Unitarian Universalism and buying a lot of the Kingdom of the Cults. But the three of us did a segment on Marianne Williamson a couple of months ago now. This ties into the theology and Marianne Williamson's Course in Miracles.

Exactly. Unitarianism is really, if you want to take New Age theology, New Age spirituality, and give it a formal name, then you have Unitarianism because it basically is the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, only God is not who the Bible says that he is. They redefine every single term. They embrace this whole universe that has absolutely no love, no emotion. How can a non-personal universe know anything about us?

And yet they say that it does. And then once again, they embrace things like karma. They bring all these things in. It's really something that stuck around for a very long time, as Marianne Williamson's Course in Miracles shows us. This is again, folks, an 800-page book. It's the classic, The Kingdom of the Cults, updated here in the last year by one of my guests, Joe Martin Rishi, and the daughter of Dr. Walter Martin. Eric, go ahead. I remember Dr. Martin made the statement it was the fatherhood of God and the neighborhood of Washington Heights.

Right. His ministry struck me so much. And really, I'm in the ministry I'm in today because of the inspiration I received from him in the early days of my Christian walk.

I bought The Kingdom of the Cults about 1982, and I remember for years carrying my Bible and The Kingdom of the Cults in my suitcase. That's great. It meant so much to me.

I've got it marked up from one side to the other. I can't wait to get the new version, by the way, Jill. And everybody should have one because it has the updates and you brought things back. And I love what you're doing with this. It was the most important book in my life besides the Bible and Dr. Martin's ministry, the most important ministry to me. Anything that reflects him in a deeper way, I think the church desperately needs today.

So I really wanted to just put my testimony on it, that what it meant to me and what I know this book will mean to others too. Thank you, Eric. That does mean a lot. I am just always amazed at what God will do if you're willing to let him use you. And that's what my father was. He was willing to let God use him in whatever way he chose to use him, even though it meant sometimes very difficult situations, a lot of hate, a lot of anger. In the end, it was all worth it when the Mormons would come up to him at the end of a Bible class and throw their arms around him and say, thank you for telling me the truth. And that's what this was all about, his life and this work.

And Dr. Martin passed away in 1989 and he founded Christian Research Institute and was the original and only Bible Answer Man. Thank you. We're not caring at folks. One of the reasons is you almost need a weightlifting class to carry this book around because again, it's 800 pages.

So we're not caring at how can they get a hold of it? They can find it at WalterMartin.com or any bookstore. Any Christian bookstore. Any bookstore. How about online bookstores? Amazon. Amazon has it.

Yes, they do. And we are actually, for those who don't want to carry around an eight-pound book, we are coming out for the very first time with an abbreviated version, a short study guide of the Kingdom of the Cults. And that's coming out in January. In January.

Yeah. Where will they find that? That will be everywhere too. So if you've got a local Christian bookstore, there still are some out there, folks.

Some are closing, but many of them are still out there and you can check in your local Christian bookstore for the Kingdom of the Cults and then you have a companion. The Kingdom of the Cults study guide is coming out. Study guide in January.

Right. That's coming out. The study guide's actually coming out to go along with the handbook. The handbook is the abbreviated version. So you will be able to use the handbook and the study guide for teaching small groups or for teaching college classrooms.

It just depends on what format you prefer. If you have questions, folks, write, Jill, at WalterMartin.com, WalterMartin.com. No, right here, folks.

Just write to WalterMartin.com to have all this. Eric, why don't you wrap up this hour and take your time. You got a couple of minutes. Well, we've talked about some kind of heavy things.

I get that. But there are great victory stories that I want to direct people to. One is in Acts chapter 13, but Acts 16, probably the one that most of the Christians listening have heard, I hope all of them, but Paul and Barnabas as they were preaching at Philippi, you know, they baptized Lydia and her household and immediately Satan sent a demon possessed girl. And this girl was speaking the truth.

She was saying something that was correct, but Paul knew it wasn't in the right spirit and she did it day after day after day. And finally he turned around and he cast the demon out of her and he was arrested for it. They were in a jail. And at midnight, the Bible says they were singing and praying and praising God.

And what happened in the middle of that circumstance? And by the way, the jail at Philippi, our jails today would be like a country club. And it was total darkness in the middle of this jail and they're chained to the wall probably, or at least to the floor. A great earthquake shook the jail as we know, and the jailer gets saved.

He comes forward. He's ready to kill himself thinking the prisoners escaped. And it would mean his life anyway, probably to be tortured as he would die. But he said, I'd rather take my own life than have that happen.

That's what he was saying by putting the sword on the floor. And Paul stopped him and the jailer gets saved and this whole household gets saved. And who knows how many other prisoners got saved. And it all started with the apostle Paul standing against evil. And that's exactly what we need to do in our days that we live in today.

Take that example and make it real and put it into our lives. I pray that nobody here gets arrested and no one's put in jail and no one is tortured or anything like that. But I want to see captives set free and do everything I can between now and the time I leave this earth.

And I hope that everyone listening feels the same way. Let me just go out of the program saying that the world of both adults and children, as we've talked about for almost an hour, are being programmed to accept Satan's occultism while rejecting God and the Bible. But one day Satan will be permitted to bring to worldwide power an occultist, the Antichrist. And in the kingdom of the Antichrist, the use and acceptance of the occult will be widespread in order to reach the point where people will openly accept and love the occult. Prior conditioning and brainwashing is required.

The conditioning has been happening now for several decades. All we're asking is won't you be salt and light and delay this decay until he comes to rescue his church, which could be today. I want to thank you all for listening and we will talk to you next week. It is both a privilege and a challenge to be born for such a time as this.

The enemy seeks to steal and destroy and we need to learn the warfare that defeats him. Let us hear from you. Drop us a note through our website OliveTreeViews.org. Call us Central Time at 763-559-4444, at 763-559-4444, write to Olive Tree Ministries in Jan Markell, Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311.

That's Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311. All gifts are tax deductible. Until next week, stay on the front lines, put on the weapons of war, and prepare to go into battle against a relentless enemy. The victory was won 2,000 years ago on the cross.