Watching Evil Wax Worse and Worse

Even though Satan is a defeated foe, he is still trying to impact your life every day. This is Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell. Jan's two co-hosts join her this hour to discuss the renewed popularity of the paranormal. It's been said that when there's political unrest, there's a rise in the interest of the paranormal. Regardless of the reasons why there's a resurgence of interest in the paranormal, it has been on the rise over the past few years. In this broadcast, Eric Barger and Jill Martin-Rishie join Jan to reveal a very dark side in America and the world.

Here now, Jan Markell. And welcome to the program. You know, we look at news, views, truths from a decidedly biblical perspective. And most of you are aware that I apprise you as often as I can on issues surrounding the paranormal, the invasion into your world, and the church by the paranormal, by the occult. And you may have already experienced this in your life. For sure, you have a loved one who is encountering the paranormal.

And the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3 that in the last days, evil will wax worse and worse. And the world of the supernatural or the paranormal is, frankly, it is now normalized. It's even being proselytized. It's blatant. It's in your face. Prime Time TV is proud to present the most outrageously dark programming you can possibly imagine.

We'll talk a little bit more about that as we move into the program. Prime Time TV simply celebrates the prints of darkness, but we know that Hollywood has always done that. You can visit any major shopping mall and you'll likely find products and practices for sale that are totally occult laced.

Witchcraft sold in novelty stores just like junk jewelry used to be sold there. Just a few headlines I have seen here recently I'm going to cite. I saw one that says lack of meaning is driving millennial obsession towards witchcraft and astrology.

The article I'm reading in one paragraph. Some young people reject formal religion simply because they find it boring. They seek experiences that feel fresh and exciting and religion isn't something that checks that box. The article says as religion loses its grip on millennials, young people turn to books, magazines and the internet for ways to explore the human quest for meaning and their own religious like identity. And then the paragraph concludes people can entertain any supernatural idea they want to without approval from a religious hierarchy or institution and this freedom allows them to pursue existential needs in a variety of ways.

Well let me just say here that the variety of ways they're all very dangerous. Another headline I happen to see says witchcraft moves to the mainstream in America as Christianity declines and I'll read a paragraph. Witchcraft is thriving in the US with an estimated 1.5 million Americans now identifying as witches.

As Christianity declines across the country paganism has swung to the mainstream with witchcraft paraphernalia for sale on every high street and practices normalized across popular culture. The past two years it has become darkly politicized and then we have another last one I'm going to zero in on here and that's an article I saw kind of reviewing the Netflix series. It's called The Sick Twisted Messages in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Now again Sabrina, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a Netflix special, TV special, but the article says this and I'm only reading one paragraph. Aimed at teenagers the series contains disturbing messages about Satanism and other things frankly folks the other things I'm leaving out okay. Here's an in-depth look at the agenda behind The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. It was released right before Halloween the most important holiday in satanic circles the series takes its young viewers into an occult adventure mixed with all kinds of social messages. The viewers are taught the basics of satanism in short the series is the occult elite trying to brainwash children with its agenda and the article says The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina could also be described as a quote demonic romantic comedy but it's gone much further the main premise is custom made to be relatable to teenagers. It is about a 16 year old girl who goes to a high school loves her boyfriend goes out with her friends but also she's a witch and her family members are proud satanists throughout her infernal adventures lots of disturbing things happen and lots of messages are delivered but the bottom line is that it sells the devil and it glorifies evil. Remember folks this is netflix it's coming into your living room your family room and then the article concludes to become a witch Sabrina must go through a dark baptism and give herself to satan however Sabrina has some questions which are used to educate the viewers about satanism supporter just wrote me says dear Jan I'm a youth minister at my local parish longtime listener he says I especially appreciate your nuanced takes on pop culture and how to see the darker influences behind much of our media and working with other young people I have overheard a lot of excited discussion of a particular video game that is scheduled to come out this year titled Devil May Cry 5 and after doing some research into the nature of the game I'm nothing short of astounded at how brazenly satanic it is in summary the game allows children to play as characters who are the children of literal demons as they fight against the game's villain who just happens to be called the creator as if the glorification of the antichrist weren't heavy handed and shocking enough some of the elements of the game suggest the satanic influence goes through all levels including the music that plays during the mindless violence that happens on the screen perhaps most damaging of all is something called the devil trigger which makes the player character invincible and immensely strong while it's being used clearly this message that the power of the devil can somehow make anyone stronger flies in the face of all sense and reason that's from Alex Meron one of our followers here online now what I want to do is I want to play a quick sound bite here and it is John Stonestreet on hit the program breakpoint and I think Stonestreet is going to fill in some of the gaps that I have left out here in my introduction then I will bring on my two guests for the balance of the hour a cult spirituality is on the rise even among Christians is it just pop culture or is it the prince of darkness well my guess it's both for the Colson Center for Christian worldview I'm John Stonestreet this is breakpoint Netflix's most talked about new show this fall is the chilling adventures of Sabrina the Sabrina of the title is Sabrina Spellman a half witch half mortal who's about to celebrate her 16th birthday on that day which is not coincidentally October 31st she's expected to undergo what the show calls a dark baptism in which she would pledge loyalty to Satan now before you're tempted to say okay it's just another TV show that's stupid consider this according to recent reports occult ideas and practices are booming in the United States and not just outside the church a recent Pew research study found that a large and growing percentage of Americans believe in reincarnation astrology psychics in the presence of spirits and nature in fact six in ten Americans accept at least one or more of these beliefs shockingly that numbers just as high among self-identified Christians even agnostics over half in fact have adopted a cult ideas along with the overwhelming majority of those who call themselves spiritual but not religious the cults becoming mainstream in this country at least part of the reason why is how easy user-friendly and infinitely customizable the chaotic buffet of beliefs borrowed from Eastern pantheistic faiths and pre-christian religions is these days there's no church no creed no set of rules you can pick and choose whatever you like it's spirituality meets consumerism and you are the god still there's also an increase of more rigorous disciples of the mystical those who really identify and practice religions like Wicca according to new research by Trinity College in Connecticut Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions in the country between 1990 and 2008 it saw a 40-fold increase in its number of adherents one and a half million Americans now identify as either Wiccan or pagan the web publication courtsy appropriately described modern witchcraft as the perfect religion for liberal Millennials Wiccans emphasize free thought in the will of the individual encouraging learning and understanding of the earth and nature as well as tolerance and the ideals of feminism it even comes with a cool hashtag which is of Instagram in other words for most of its adherence Wicca functions as a spiritual patina on progressive politics not really a source of supernatural powers you won't find these witches stirring cauldrons or writing broomsticks but that doesn't mean there's nothing darker going on as CS Lewis wrote in the preface to the screw tape letters there are two equal and opposite errors we can fall into concerning devils and demons one is to disbelieve in or disregard their existence a posture far too common in the Western world the other is to have an excessive and unhealthy interest in them this upsurge of occult beliefs and religions in our country though often political and consumeristic is still a sign that forces of darkness are at work for one thing all false faiths lead people including people within the church away from Christ and that has eternal consequences and yet for Christians there's more immediate consequences to see the scriptures are clear Satan's defeated foe put the open shame by the resurrection of Christ but make no mistake he's still an active foe roaming about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour from Acts 19 we learned that the defeated forces of the enemy pose a very real and even sometimes physical threat those who don't take that threat seriously may end up like skiva seven sons bleeding naked and running for their lives so not every plastic lawn vampire self-proclaimed witch is a manifestation of spiritual evil but the rise of occult beliefs especially within the church is making the old call to renounce the devil in all his works even more relevant today than ever you're listening to understanding the times radio in case you were wondering Jan Markell here now I want to bring on two of my co-hosts and radio guests for the balance of the hour familiar voices of Eric Barger Eric thanks for joining me great Jan thank you and Joe Martin Rishi Jill thanks for coming in today thanks Jen I just want to pick up on what John Stonestreet said at the end of his little clip there that there are two possible pitfalls going on here one is that we disregard anything about the demons and the devil and secondly is we have too much interest which again a lot of people are doing today particularly teens and young people but what I see going on in the church is that I think they're disregarding this topic or they're they're playing it kind of too casually and as a result things are slipping into the church the occult issues are slipping into the people's lives into their living rooms we're going to talk a little bit about Sabrina here and it's because they're disregarding the importance of all of this Joe would you agree with me absolutely I think that second Timothy three is a key point here especially I think we should look at the wording of it because it says this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come and perilous there means fierce or violent and just a violent reaction and that's what we are seeing happening in the world and the church seems to be either afraid or just reluctant to step forward and in battle like we're supposed to in Ephesians six I know that it's been extremely difficult when you when you bring up the occult people feel awkward maybe there's a sense of fear there I don't know but it's not let's say I don't think on the top five in the priority list it's just my opinion Eric your thoughts on the Sabrina Netflix series now I don't know that any of us have sat down and watched it but I think this is pushing to a new level and you've been kind of an occult watcher for a lot of years not only that you have a background in rock music where all of the things we're talking about really manifest in a prominent way but I'd open talking about Sabrina the Netflix series John Stonestreet brings it up right away and the three of us have been sitting in kind of aghast at what's coming into people's living rooms right now I've never seen anything that creeped me out as much that disturbed me as much now I've seen a lot of stuff yeah you have when I when I was in the world and of course all the research since then and speaking on this issue and writing on it as you have and Jill has last night as I was looking at these final notes I went this is the creepiest stuff and this is mainstream or becoming mainstream this is pushing the envelope and the reason it's happening is because people are out there watching it the scripture is so clear about it acts 19 and I appreciate Stonestreet bringing that up acts 19 is an important passage those are believers it came together and openly confess their evil deeds and burnt their books and materials that they had used in the worship of other gods I think we need to look at our homes and our lives and see what's going on Jill you and I both in the last six months have written and rather extensively and we'll just dwell on it for minutes here but we wrote about the Arch of Palmyra turning up in Washington DC and let's just give a little quick history there the Arch of Palmyra was a part of the Temple of Baal going back several thousand years it was in Syria ISIS destroyed the remnants of the Temple of Baal or Baal in 2015 and its history goes back to the book of Kings Ahab and Jezebel but Ahab and Jezebel turned up in Washington DC last late September the same time that the Kavanaugh hearing controversy was going on and what was going on in the Temple of Baal several thousand years ago was horrific and I think there was some issues related to the inauguration or the installation of Judge Kavanaugh probably related to the left's pushing back on abortion issues while abortion was going on Temple of Baal give me your thoughts on the timing because the timing was most interesting well my father always used to say that when events come together in a certain way there may be the smell of sulfur in the air and what was so interesting about the Arch of Palmyra is first of all it's linked to Baal which of course there was a child sacrifice linked to Baal and then where it was set up which it literally was like a keyhole when you look through it you saw the Capitol United States Capitol yeah and so there was the actual location of it and then there was the timing of it and the timing of it was that it was installed on the 26th of September 2018 and then the hearings where Christine Ford came against Brett Kavanaugh happened on September 27 so someone might say well why does that matter okay how is the the Arch of Baal linked to that well the interesting thing is is that when you dig into Christine Ford's background which is kind of a hidden thing on the internet you really have to search to find what Christine Ford was involved in and it turns out that for many many many years she has made a career of being involved in the abortion drug so this is something that is not common knowledge but when you put it all together you have the smell of sulfur in the air yeah well America welcomed this Arch of Baal this Arch of Palmyra which was a part of the Temple of Baal and they celebrated it again as Joel said the US Capitol building was right in the background the picture you have to see the picture to have the full impact and you know is it any wonder that the confirmation hearings were just consumed in turmoil what you've got a literally a satanic remnant of a terrible piece of archaeological history now this isn't just a piece of plastic folks the Arch of Palmyra replica is 11 tons so I mean it's a huge piece of whatever that they made it out of I'm assuming they made it out of molding material that they used to replicate different archaeological items it's a replica it wasn't anything original it's a replica but I'm just saying it's not a piece of plastic no let me say while we're talking about this Jan your article summoning up demons which was your email on October 23rd of 18 it's got a picture of the Arch in it but the article is really worth reading and folks if you want more information about this kind of thing and about this Arch you need to see Jan's article summoning up demons and you just go to olive tree views.org olive tree views.org and then go to e-newsletter and it was October of 2018 you have to scroll down I want to reference one more thing and then let's discuss it when we get back and as I said in my intro today you've got shops in our major malls Mall of America the various malls around the country that are dispensing they're displaying that are selling items that are simply shocking and stunning we've got to Spencer gifts in the Chicago mall has been featuring items for teens including t-shirts encouraging them and written on the t-shirt the words summon up demons they're encouraging kids with the products they're selling in this Spencer gifts in Chicago to commit literal acts of bloodshed and so a local pastor intervened he and I saw him online he went down there he couldn't believe it so he had to go see it for himself he was filmed coming out of the store he says quote we're so close to being Sodom and Gomorrah we're living in a place where just anything goes do whatever you want whatever you feel and then he concludes all I'm going to say is repent for the kingdom of God is at hand let's just play that little clip I've always loved witches and wizards I'm big Harry Potter fan so when I heard the words witch store I had to go and see what this was so I headed to New York City's oldest occult store it's called enchantments once inside you are surrounded by books broomsticks herbs black cats everything that you can think of that you would think of when you hear of the word which arrows and media are staples of the place so that was something that immediately I felt like I was in a witch and magical store so I talked to the owner Stacey rap and she told me a little bit about this store and what it does for the people that visit it we sell ingredients supplies tools books the most common thing would be the spell candles and or the spell kits which candle magic is a very easy place to start and I had to ask about dark magic and evil spells because of course just like everybody just talked about that is what everybody thinks that this store is about bad magic is or black magic is magic that intends to do harm to another person we don't practice any form of black magic we don't recommend it people ask about it we tell them no but beyond all that is what they're known for which is their custom carved candles which are really intricate and are selling all over the world okay folks this is blatant indoctrination going on at your local mall okay I'm coming back in just a couple of minutes we're going to continue in part two of my programming I'm trying to focus again how is the paranormal invading your life or the life of someone you love a whole lot they may not be aware of it you may not be aware of it my co-hosts and guests today myself are just trying to make you aware of some of the issues that you're going to encounter because the devil is alive and well on planet earth back in just a minute or two just a quick reminder every saturday morning all understanding the times radio broadcasts are posted to our website you can listen to them there at olive tree views dot o-r-g every weekend this program brings you topics not often talked about among christians topics like the one jan jill and eric are discussing today are rarely mentioned in mainline christianity and yet these themes will be prominent in the last days if you're enjoying today's conversation would you become a financial partner with us this ministry is listener supported we depend on you for financial support please write with your tax deductible gifts to olive tree ministries box one four five two maple grove minnesota five five three one one reach us by phone at seven six three five five nine four four four four jan jill and eric return right after this brief time out thanks for supporting this radio outreach now heading into its 19th year there is a common misperception that radio stations actually pay host of programs like understanding the times radio when in fact programs like this deal with serious weekly radio costs if you would like to underwrite this program give us a call monday through friday central time at seven six three five five nine four four four four at seven six three five five nine forty four forty four or just give conveniently online at olive tree views dot org that's olive tree views dot o-r-g you can always drop a tax-dedicatable check to olive tree ministries box 1452 maple grove minnesota five five three one one that's box one four five two maple grove minnesota five five three one one proclaiming both the news and the good news this year the attempt is made with the idea in mind that we grasp the seriousness of what occultism is it is something which can enslave the mind and possess the soul and therefore the christian must be aware of it and be prepared to deal with it and that we can find the sources of modern occultism far back in antiquity it is no accident that the jews themselves were warned by god in deuteronomy chapter 18 not to imitate the pagan cultures in the land that god gave them because if they did they would receive the same judgment how the paranormal is gaining interest in america that's the theme of today's edition of understanding the times radio if you've just joined us jan's meeting this hour with co-host jill martin rishi and eric barger let's return to that conversation again here's jan markell and we're all being acclimated to this in mass ideas that used to be considered a cult are now not just being normalized to the general public but proselytized all over the place to the public in ways that i can only believe because i saw it for myself in 2018 just the level that we're at now and it's getting to a point where every year we're asking ourselves how much more blatant can this possibly get point is the occult is openly fully being sold to the masses now this is trendy this is a hip thing to do it's trendy now if you've been to a mall lately which i had to do for that unicorn symbolism report i did a while back that's the first time i set foot in a mall in years you will find that there are many boutique stores that carry an occult or witchcraft section in the store now of course they don't call it that i actually refer to it as being free spirited or something like that but you have unoriginal stores everywhere trying to be edgy and cool urban outfitters and spencers and they're selling witchcraft books and tools like they're just selling people another t-shirt or bumper sticker the makeup chain sephora this year even tried to sell a starter witchcraft kit but it was poo-pooed not not because it's wrong by the way to indoctrinate a bunch of young girls into occult practices that they couldn't possibly understand the ramifications of but because practitioners of the craft came out and were outraged that the store was attempting to appropriate their traditions okay welcome back you're listening to understanding the times radio and in studio with me eric barger joe martin rishi let me just refer to the books they've each written because i think they're an authority when it comes to the issues of all things dark the fact that the anti-christ system is being prepared for the world in order for that to happen well he's got some useful idiots out there who are preparing the way and they're preparing the occult way obviously hollywood is the biggest promoter of all these dark things but lots of other people are as well eric barger has written the book entertaining spirits unaware the end time occult invasion you can only find it at eric barger dot com eric barger dot com joe martin rishi has written a sort of a manual for all things occult the kingdom of the occult she is the daughter of dr walter martin find the book at walter martin dot com walter martin dot com don't call us folks we're not carrying a lot of products right now but you can find that at eric barger dot com and walter martin dot com eric and joel indicated that things have been ramped up we've been talking about that my sound bites are talking about that satan used to be in the shadows now he's sort of almost in a spotlight i never thought i'd live to see the day where that would happen in such a blatant way eric the identity of satan seems to be changing it's not subtle anymore he's almost a hero now he's been a hero to those in the rock music world for probably 40 years but now he's becoming a hero to everybody well it's mainstream is what's happening and that had to happen before antichrist comes i think all this is just in preparation that the world would be prepared to accept something like antichrist or someone like antichrist it's pretty amazing and you know i just thought if in five years the three of us are sitting here talking if we're still on the earth and the rapture hasn't taken place and we're talking about this issue how can we say it's gotten any darker it's so dark right now you wonder where it's going to go and i thought of your articles and your kind of your byline for the last few months i never thought i'd see the day and really that's exactly what we're seeing folks and if the church doesn't wake up and recognize our responsibility to be a force of good in the world and an evangelistic force to the lost i mean if we don't realize what we're to be doing right now and we need a wake-up call well the church does need a wake-up call particularly on this and joe we're going to get into this just a little bit later but i want to just bring this element in because when it comes to pushing back against some of the darkness it seems of all places the catholic church is involved in it evangelicals are sitting on the sidelines and i don't get that but it goes back to the fact that the church is dropping the ball evangelical church is dropping the ball yes and it's a puzzling thing when you go to try to find help for people who are demon possessed and they're coming to you saying i i'm having these issues or they have a close family member who are having you know who is having this issue it is extremely difficult to find anyone i just tried in the twin city area a few years ago and let me tell you it was impossible there was no one here i could send them to but why has the catholic church stood up and tackled this i don't get that this is something they've done really down through their history and they have a specific ritual for it and so they have kept that ritual alive they've trained priests to deal with this reality of demon possession so it seems to me when looking at their history that they have never turned away from the reality of possession whereas the evangelical church seems to either turn away from it or dismiss it as being extreme that's what's troubling me eric your thought on that yeah evangelicals today i mean we're into the secret sensitive purpose driven you know all that stuff you know we we've got all these plans that leave the unseemly things like you know righteousness you know we don't talk too much about that we don't want to talk about holiness we don't want to talk about anything that has to do with demonic or satan we better that's the problem we better be doing that i don't think every sermon should be full of it necessarily or you should be focused on that but my gracious we need all of god's word just not the stuff that feels good that we have been told will fill the seats up how often have we talked about that what you're saying i think eric is in general too is there are certain topics bible prophecy is one of them but what we're talking about today is another one that doesn't really fit the agenda quite as well in the evangelical churches again as church growth the purpose driven church growth emphasis that's where the church is heading today on the other hand as i just said the catholic church for some reason has stepped up to the plate and is fighting demons while the evangelicals are saying we're not going to go here okay i think we've probably covered that sufficiently but that is a sad commentary eternity is at stake it's a very sad commentary yeah i wish i could say that it was different but it took you know like i said a lot of effort to try to find someone to help people and i don't know that that really has changed much it could be the fact that they just people don't want to go there dealing with demon possession is a very scary thing they are you know i never sell satan short when it comes to intelligence or strategy and we learn that from how he handled jesus what he did with jesus in his temptation satan has a specific strategy he is highly intelligent and when christians are dealing with demons they come out with things about your background that you may not want others to hear and it's embarrassing so there are a lot of things going on in that type of a setting that might cause pastors and others to turn away a lot of pastors they're not equipped to deal with this they certainly weren't equipped in seminary and bible college in most cases anyway those that are equipped to deal with it you know it's like they're overrun with needs at this point so i have the same thing people write me i live at such and such or in this community or state i need help or my friend does or my family member does and it's the same thing where do you send people we've got people in mental hospitals that are being labeled as mental illness when it possibly could be demon possession you provided me with a quote jill by the way you're listening to understanding the times radio if you're wondering what this strange discussion is all about it's myself and my two radio co-hosts slash guests for the hour talking about the rise of the paranormal i bring this up a couple of times a year if not more because it is making inroads into your church into your living room into your entertainment life it's not just creeping in it's absolutely storming in and you need to be aware of it right now we kind of morphed a little bit into this issue of demon possession first of all jill if there is a christian listening out there they don't need to worry about can they be demon possessed i think we need to clarify that no there is no evidence in the bible that christians can be demon possessed in fact going once again to the life of jesus if you look at how the demons reacted to him they were terrified they spent a large part of their time cowering and trying to get away from him and all he had to do was say one word to them and that was go so they did not want to be anywhere near him and i just don't like to see the logic and i don't see any scriptural basis for christians being demon possessed god will not share space we are the temple of the holy spirit and the holy spirit is not going to share space with demons fear dwells when people don't know about things when when there's ignorance about issues and and that's sometimes we open that door with fear and not to a possession but you know the devil loves to beat on us loves to try to detract and try to stop us from our mission and if we're focused on our mission we'll understand what we need to do at this point in time but uh sometimes we open the door just because we don't understand the enemy's uh devices paul says we're never to be unaware of his schemes jill you made me aware of this dr stafford betty that's the name dr stafford betty professor of religious studies cal state university bakersfield and an article entitled the growing evidence for demonic possession what should psychiatry's response be talk to me a little bit about this dr betty actually has seen and if you go into his article little bit he talks about how he was visiting with people in institutions and saw things that did not fit into the world of the natural so in other words he saw people being picked up and thrown he saw others speaking languages that they had never learned and so it triggered something in him and he thought wait a minute maybe there is something to the reality of beings that exist and he's quick to say in his article that of course it has absolutely nothing to do with the bible nothing to do with satan or demons but that these are actually evil spirits on their own that's their nature intelligent beings that we cannot sense he says what they will of their own who seem to bother or oppress us or in rare cases possess our bodies outright and with whom we can relate or communicate to in a variety of ways so here you have a man who is completely secular wants nothing to do with the spiritual aspect of this but he has to acknowledge from the evidence that he sees with his own eyes that there is some kind of reality some kind of being there that is evil what does he conclude well the whole point of his articles to try to get other people in the secular world to put aside their prejudice against you know based on biblical teachings put aside that prejudice and go explore this and document the things that are happening so that it can prove that there is something there so i don't really know how successful he's been at this but interestingly enough dr kirk koch who dealt with the occult for 40 plus years he's an incredible resource and he wrote about this and his work was so well documented from an evidentiary standpoint that he was invited to speak at these conferences for psychiatrists many many years in a row so that is a documentation that's out there that obviously dr betty was not familiar with and probably would not accept because dr koch was you know a christian it's like one of you said to me when we were doing some prep here is that that people have to be asking questions when 10 men can't seem to hold down 120 pound woman that there's something very strange and supernatural going on correct yes and my father saw that many times he did he did yes he dealt with those who were demon possessed and it was a very frightening thing he literally saw 10 15 men not able to hold down like a 90 pound woman and he saw a woman talking and her lips don't move but the voice is there talking these are things that are common that you see in exorcisms exorcisms they take sometimes a lot of time they take a lot of men because you need the strength and that might be one reason too why churches don't want to go there because of the manpower and the time invested and jesus said there are demons that don't come out except by fasting and prayer so it could be an extended period of time dealing with these beings but unfortunately it's growing gets out there and it's growing and someone needs to step up and handle it i've said for a long time that a lot of churches don't want to deal with it because it will give them a bad name in the community believe it or not that's the truth they just skirt around it because they want a nice tidy very neat without any of these uh these exterior things that they they just would rather not deal with but i wrote about this in in my book disarming the powers of darkness and jan when you interviewed me about that book some years ago now i remember i stayed away from the stories about that i've had personal experience with deliverance sessions and seeing the demonic and what they can do up close and personal i'll tell you if you've ever been involved with anything like that if you've ever seen it trying to help somebody be free you never forget it one of these i'm thinking about that was at least 30 years ago and it's still just as real as if it just happened this week i'm sure a lot of folks in churches just don't want to deal with it haven't thought about it it's not been talked about from the pulpit so they think it's no big deal but we have a lot of people running around in this culture and there's going to be more because of this open influence of occultism and supernaturalism that's coming at people well i recently did a program with steve bankars and he was a new age guru and one of the best and one of the richest that's very young man and we talked at that time about some of the things creeping into the church and we talked that in that program that's i think two weeks ago now we talked about christ alignment which is christianizing tarot cards so i don't want to revisit that but then i also made a reference to steven about the fact you know that we have christianized ouija boards now i want to play just a little clip here christianized ouija boards are called angel boards so this is how the enemy is creeping into it could be the first baptist church down the street from you folks because it's making evil look and sound good this is what you're seeing before you as an angel board this is actually being sold to churches there are actually churches that are purchasing angel boards essentially the occult has taken over the church it's the same thing as a ouija board guys there's no difference in it except they say you could communicate with your angel yeah you're communicating with the fallen angels and the nephalene the children this angel board which is nothing more than the occult bleeding into our society and into lukewarm christians this right here is your tarot card reading where you can have your cards of christian cards angel cards which are no more than tarot cards to give you your reading of the day america this is what christianity has become did you know 40 of americans actually meditate a day 40 when the bible says to meditate on god's word not on self well and here again eric we get into what he's referring to at the end of that clip there is this contemplative prayer contemplative prayer going on in in probably half our churches today think this is just fine and again it's a kind of a occult ized version of meditation satan's got a door for anybody to walk through different doors mark different things but they all lead to the same place and that's what we have is just this openness to it and once again it comes back to the church not knowing what is going on not realizing and not having the understanding of it and that's why we do these programs on this every so often i think that it's important to take a look at satan's strategy he is changing how he is approaching this world we are in the end times and the very fact that he is changing his strategy should be a big red flag for the church think about it years ago satan was in the shadows he was hiding in the broom closet like the witches say so now he's come out into the open and he's come out blatantly he's come out in our faces everywhere just the arch you know the triumphal arch of bail you know the old foe of jehovah in the old testament sitting there you know just framing capitol hill in america this is something where you have to look at it as a christian and say he is out there he has changed his tactics why the times are coming to an end and satan is not afraid to step out of the shadows anymore afraid that he'll turn people away no he's changed his strategy and he's become even more aggressive well the kingdom of the antichrist is being built folks and we're here to push back against the darkness we'll do that as we close off this program in my closing segment coming back in just a minute or two don't go away every fall olive tree ministry sponsors a weekend conference to bring together the best teachers on current events in the bible this saturday event is one of the largest gatherings of its kind in america today save the date september 21 plan to join us at eden prairie minnesota's grace church in the coming weeks and months we'll tell you much more you get a preliminary look at who'll be speaking on september 21st by visiting olive tree views.org for conference information you can also phone 763-559-4444 or write to olive tree ministries box 1452 maple grove minnesota five five three one one please stay with us jan and her co-host will be right back i have watched the tide of our times deteriorate for decades some say we are in the time period known as the beginning of sorrows but that actually comes later in god's clock and calendar still without an eternal perspective people are discouraged today and that is why hebrews 10 tells us to encourage one another olive tree ministries has products that will help you do that visit our website olive tree views.org olive tree views.org we have books and dvds that are uplifting and that will remind you that the king is coming soon and the darkness will turn to dawn if you want to stay up to date also check our daily headlines posted hourly every day the sons of isekar in first chronicles 12 were men who understood the times god wants us to be in the know up to date and looking at events that cause us to await his return you say now billy do you believe that they were really demons yes i believe that they were real demons in jesus day and i believe they're real demons right now there is a real devil there's a real devil in the world now the bible teaches it and we can see evidences of his work everywhere and all of us that are living the christian life meet him every day because we're in a conflict not with flesh and blood the bible says but with spiritual forces principalities and powers and rulers of the dark places there is a devil and there are demons and now with a wrap up of today's discussion on the rise of the paranormal in america once again jen markel the satanic display in a town square raising eyebrows and sparking controversy some say it's simply a matter of freedom of speech but others find it offensive especially because it's placed right next to a nativity scene local ten news reporter amy viteri live now in boca raton with more amy well victor here's the source of all that discussion you can see that giant pentagram right there behind me actually defaced with spray paint as you can see there but that nativity scene you mentioned that holiday religious display just a few feet away and tonight boca raton had their annual holiday street parade and you can imagine this generated a lot of discussion they call it the most wonderful time of the year and for many it's also the most religious in boca raton people who gathered to admire the nativity scene in sanborn square also saw this a large pentagram weighing several hundred pounds and causing a clash of public opinion okay welcome back we're wrapping up an hour i've got in studio with me eric barger and joe martin rishi and i referred to their books and i will one more time particularly eric's entertaining spirits unaware end time a cult invasion you've got to find that at eric barger.com and eric your newer one again on the powers of darkness the title of that is yeah disarming the powers of darkness and it really deals with our the path to victory and and uh what we need to do to help others and again that's eric barger.com and then joe martin rishi's encyclopedia the kingdom of the occult jill is the daughter of dr walter martin and you can find that a 700 page book it's like an encyclopedia kingdom of the occult at walter martin.com remember the programming is posted to my website every saturday morning and if you'd just like it downloaded to a device sign up for the oneplace.com mobile app oneplace.com otherwise you can just stream it at olive tree views.org new every saturday morning olive tree views.org jill you run our social media jan markell's olive tree ministry is found on facebook and olive tree men on twitter we have olive tree ministries on instagram and you hear the pulse of a lot of people over on social media a lot of them and we were talking a little bit off air here about some of the things going on on social media let's just talk reddit for a moment we're not on that and and that's kind of new to me talk to me about it well reddit is talk about a pulse it really is a pulse for millennials a lot of them go there there are reddit subgroups if you're wondering what reddit is it's a website it's a kind of a quote unquote news site but it's also where everyone comments and then they rate each other's comments up or down and then of course the most popular topics go to the top with the highest ratings and then they also created subgroups so there is a subgroup on the occult and i believe it the count of membership in it now is at least four hundred thousand maybe four hundred fifty thousand members on this reddit subgroup so the occult is alive and well in parts of the millennial generation it's it seems to be the influence in my opinion of media like harry potter entertainment like harry potter these kids grew up with that and so now something that was again in the shadows is now out there worldwide all of these things tarot cards tea leaves talking to the dead you know that was part of harry potter and you see it now you are we are actually seeing the results jan exactly we're seeing the results of these entertainment giants and what they preached and it is affecting culture and it will affect in in many many ways a lot of people listening today eric you may be aware of something this morning on instagram yeah the witches of instagram talk to me about it the witches in instagram have 400 000 followers as well at least in october they did pretty amazing these are just a series a group of witches that have joined together and look at the following they've gotten the influence the influence is pretty amazing and social media people can decide to be self-styled in their religious beliefs they can put away all the traditional beliefs and decide to believe what they want to believe and this is of course really fit for the millennials it's a it's a trap that that will really take a lot of them well they are targeting they're targeting these younger people they've always done that and hollywood does that as well but they're doing it so successfully and then the rock music industry does as well so do these younger people even stand a chance today when it comes to the dark issues they're just surrounded by it go to a movie go to a concert that's what's celebrated so many of the millennials also have no basis in absolute truth they weren't raised in church they don't have any affinity for christianity they instead have a distaste for it and so i mean what hope do they have when that's the direction that their lives are going so they're open to look for some spiritual experience elsewhere that's one of the first headlines i read when we opened this program lack of meaning is driving millennial obsession toward witchcraft and astrology and those some of those kids grew up in christian homes i'm sorry but they did and they decided to go down a different path and you know how deep they chose to go down we probably don't know but some may have gone plenty deep we were talking a little bit off air jill about the irony we were going back to sabrina the netflix program terribly terribly dark the thing that is so amusing in a way and i say that from an ironic standpoint mainly the irony of god is here you have a program where a lot of money has has obviously been put into it a lot of promotion has been put into it and it's all about satanism it's all about witchcraft and what they did is they made a mess of it so they the witches do not wish to be associated with there's division there's division division in the community right the irony of god is that the way that this series is written the witches are upset because they never want to be associated with satanists and the satanists are upset because what do they have to do with witchcraft you know there's different segments of satanism right now there's the satanic temple who denies that there is a satan then you have the other group of satanists anton levese satanists and they're off in a different direction and you have many many more groups and they don't want to be associated with witches and witches don't want to be associated with them but what you've got here in this netflix program is oh they're all working together and they're all part of each other and so what they've done is reinforce all of these old stereotypes that the witches are trying to get rid of that the satanists are trying to get rid of and i look at that as the irony of god god i do you know another thing about the show i wanted to point out really quickly is you know how men today our men are under attack okay and we saw it with brett kavanagh and we are seeing it in this program too because there is a quote from one of the witches about this program and they're basically saying that patriarchal supremacy is everywhere and it's even here in the world of sabrina the teenage witch and these bad men are everywhere and witchcraft fights against them that's another message they're sending there so it's it's a show that has a blended group of messages but i love god's irony that he comes in and says okay you know and the whole thing gets all mixed up and everybody's upset with each other and you have division being sewn in the world of the occult well christians need to unplug from netflix that's all i can say i mean i don't know if there's a sanctified version of netflix maybe there is i don't know but i think you pay for your seduction here eric you made an interesting comment to me and we know what's going on particularly in venezuela you said hopelessness gives rise to the occult and the reference here was the fact that venezuela is literally falling it's in chaos as we speak it's an utter chaos how do you apply that to our topic today we don't know exactly what's going to happen in the future obviously we don't know what will happen with our economy and so on but when an individual or a culture is hopeless i believe they go looking for answers in the case of the millennials and the generation z folks a lot of them just don't have that basis to go back and and look at church that they had as a child or sunday school they had when they were a young person they they don't have that and so they start looking for things and they look around and there's all kinds of answers that satan wants to give them so hopelessness i believe whenever a culture goes hopeless and venezuela is a great example it was a an affluent rich we're not talking very long ago that's right but now every grave has been robbed there are cults that have formed around dead gang leaders you can go online and watch and see the videos you can see what their jails look like what the culture looks like and i believe that this hopelessness that has invaded that country that's a microcosm in a terrible way of what the world would look like when hope is gone maybe this is why people would be looking for anyone that can give them a solution in the end days as those events that take us up to antichrist happen we live jill you and i live in a pretty dark part of the country here we live in the twin cities area of minnesota and we have what's called every year we have paganicon and it's a pagan festival pagan pride and for some reason they get together in a local hotel here in the twin cities area actually march of every year they glory in wickedness and we're actually in one of the occult capitals of the world now i don't know why that is because i mean the church is still here right now the church is the restrainer the church is putting a lid on all the things we've talked about today because the church and believers are still here there's a lot of things the dark world can't get away with but once the church is gone my goodness can you imagine what's going to be unleashed when believers are out of here well i think if you look at second timothy three to go back to what i started with and that i think it's so powerful for men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection trucebreakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good this is what we are facing it's all real it's all out there now satan has changed his strategy and we have to change ours eric your final thoughts yeah i've lived in seattle over half my life talk about darkness yes i live right now in the least church county in the united states folks have heard me say that before we are still the light no matter what and no matter what our surroundings are no matter who is around us no matter what the opposition looks like look up our redemption is drawing near let's take people to heaven with us let's rescue the lost those who need deliverance let's get them the help they need let's be the people that god has called us to be going to quote romans 8 38 and 39 for i am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord and then the wonderful words of first john four four you are of god little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world i want to thank you for listening we'll talk to you next week thank you for joining us for understanding the times radio with jan markell or reaching the world to report current events from the lens of scripture this broadcast cost you nothing to listen it cost us thousands of dollars each weekend as we produce and distribute this weekly program would you consider becoming a financial partner with us in this ever-changing world christ's followers need to stay informed and to be aware of current events from a biblical perspective this is where you'll hear compelling programs every week to highlight hidden dangers in our culture and the hope that comes through faith in jesus christ we invite you to join us in helping to underwrite this listener-supported broadcast please write with your tax-deductible gifts to olive tree ministries box 14 52 maple grove minnesota five five three one one you can also give it olive tree views dot org or by phone at seven six three five five nine four four four four around the clock olive tree views dot o-r-g is also the place to go for daily updates on global events from a biblical worldview we're looking forward to hearing from you this week thank you for your continued prayer support join jane next week when she returns with another information and inspiration packed hour designed to help you understand the times