Herbert W Armstrong

   I could be looking into the daily newspaper to find out whether I ought to do this program. After the last one, I did on the subject of demonism, satanism, witchcraft, and astrology. In other words, the occult.

   I'm not, I don't consult astrological columns, but it's big business these days. As a matter of fact, almost any grocery store or supermarket shelf will have books and journals, magazines and of course, even your daily newspaper will have columns nearly always by nationally or internationally known astrologers.

   Big businessmen consult astrological columns, military leaders, despots, dictators, premiers, presidents, governors, and rulers of countries, especially in the Orient and appropriate Southeast Asia do this.

   I, I didn't, I didn't bother consulting the paper to find out whether or not I should do this program. I decided to do it no matter what the sign and portent might appear to be in case you think that's dangerous. Well, that just means you and I disagree. I don't even know what the horoscope would say about me and I couldn't care less, but I do know this, that it's very important to millions upon millions of people today.

   And while it isn't important to me, except it's something that is a sociological phenomenon that needs a profound explanation and perhaps understanding it is nevertheless very important to people whose lives are inclined and intermeshed and related.

   In all that goes on with tossing sticks, bones, cards or whatnot up into the air, letting them come down reading what they mean, reading the lines on your palm, staring into crystal balls or flipping through books that portend or pretend to tell you all about your future.

   It all got started as far as historians can tell clear back at the same time, civilization got started in the so-called cradle of civilization, Ancient Babylon.

   The Bible book of Daniel talks about a King Nebuchadnezzar, a long name, but he was a young man. We always think of them as old, old fellow with beards. He was a young man at that time who had a very disturbing dream.

   Daniel was called in along with a lot of others who were called astrologers and stargazers and the like to interpret that dream. So, the Bible reveals that even kings in day way back in some of the most Ancient City States and Empires consulted continually as their top cabinet members and advisers, astrologers, stargazers, and the commenters, witches, all these various whatever they are aspects of the black arts or as they call them the white arts as they do in some cases.

   And even today, there are many people in the Western World who will consult an astrologer to find out what the signs and portents are about marriage, sex and their love life. That's primarily one consideration. And secondly, is always business. Will the person be successful in this venture or the other one?

   There are many people who simply refuse to do business on a certain day or under certain signs or whatever because they say they will not be successful. In fact, in Australia, one stock market news sheet retained the services of a professional astrologer to predict the future of stocks and shares.

   In the Far East, Heads of State still consult astrologers. It was the Prime Minister of Ceylon according to Time Magazine, I believe, who refused to take power until she had consulted astrologers as the most auspicious day to form a new government.

   Indira Gandhi, who is the Prime Minister of India delayed a decision on calling new elections until assured that the planet Saturn was in just the right position in Thailand, military leaders conceal the exact time of their birth so their potential enemies cannot get positive astrological fixes on their weaknesses and therefore maybe overthrow them or defeat them in a military engagement.

   Occult is a term the dictionary claims means merely hidden, mysterious, secretive are not revealed. But it's a term that almost defies definition when it's applied to all the various paraphernalia of this modern day in which you see even some of the comic strips in newspapers dealing like broom Hilda and the like with witchcraft in a humorous vein, yeah humorous, the occult as we speak of it today includes such far-out groups of French Onionist who claim the onion is the symbol of God.

   There's another French sect called the Fevest who dance around nude in the forest near Paris to bathe in the rays of the moon. Also in France, there was a group that specialized in going into trances by contemplation of their navel. I think you get an awful sore neck or a sore back in doing that and going into a trance. Uh I guess they did it.

   And finally, there was a group that seemed to defy all normal impulses, even those impulses that drive most people to seek an astrologer or a stargazer or a crystal ball gazer or someone who reads their palms of their hands, which has to do with making money. These people are the opposite of that. The mite of the White Cross, I think not spelled mites I think spelled mights. They sacrificed money in huge bonfires in honor of the so-called God of fire.

   But really, there's another form of the occult that is called spiritualism. It all began way back in the early days of the United States. The early in the mid-18 hundreds had quite a rise of spiritualism and spiritism. The very famous Fox Sisters with the knocking and the wrappings, the kind of seances in which they claim they were communicating with the dead through a series of, of taps that had certain significance followed by Madame Blavatsky in the Theosophy. It is a theosophical society. I know that many such societies still exist today. Madame Blavatsky's picture is either revealing in itself. Her writings are very revealing.

   That was William James, the famous American Psychologist who died in a book that was written about getting in contact with William James by a series of guided writings in which the writer was actually subjected to a trance and then the spirit of William James uh or at least the spirit that he had, whichever it might have been took over the person writing this book. There was one chapter on this book, I think it was called, Let Us In, quite an apt title. There was one chapter in the book called, Let Us In, which was entitled, Take Us In.

   And the entire thing had to do with opening up one's mind to possession of a power without oneself. So, spiritualism or spiritism trying to contact the dead, usually through a medium became quite popular. In very recent years, it was made famous once again by Bishop James Pike, who via a medium, claimed to have communicated with his dead son.

   There have been cases too where the medium apparently consorted, not just with the departed spirit, but with the living's money. For example, not too long ago, a wife was told by the alleged spirit of her dead husband that someone was after her money and that she ought to give $25,000 of it so it would be protected into the state or the estate of the Spiritualist Church that she was going to at the time.

   In the last century, spiritualism came to life due to the famous Fox sisters and Madame Blavatsky, as I said, that began back in 1848 when they claimed to be communicating with the spirit of a dead peddler. The communication was done by various knocks and rapes. Maybe that was the first of all rape sessions, I'm not sure. Now, even though this interest in spiritualism died out rather soon after the time of the Fox sisters, there were lots of people still adhering to it.

   Some of the spiritualists claim to have spirit guides, Arthur Ford, for example, the spiritualist made famous by Bishop Pike's television seance, had a spirit guide named Fletcher, he called him, who supposedly was a French Canadian killed in World War I. It took a lot more effort to boost witchcraft. Another art long thought dead back to the public eye. And I think about 15 to 20 years ago, people would have still thought it was dead, yet today it is quite popular among the first of many famous modern so-called witches was Gerald Gardner, a British customs official. It was he who made the claim that all underground witches in England got together and had what they call a Grand Colvin to whistle up the wind back in 1588 so that the Spanish Armada could be defeated.

   And then again, as recently as 1940 Gardner claims all of England's witches got together in another great Grand Colvin they call it, this time producing a great calm which enabled the British army to evacuate at Dunkirk in the world this is known as white magic. That is witchcraft for a good purpose.

   But you know, many people still think of witchcraft is Middle Age garb it really isn't. It's been converted practically into a religion these days. And even youngsters are calling themselves witches, and I don't mean just on Halloween.

   Why were you born? To become a farmer trying to feed the population bomb? To become an entertainer to give people a fleeting moment of laughter? To be a millionaire with big houses and fancy cars and ulcers? To live out your last days at the end of a plastic tube in a hospital? To be the last to die in a war you don't understand? Is that all that is the human existence just putting in your time on a troubled planet. No, there's a great purpose for your life. A reason you draw breath and you need to know what it is. Read the free booklet. Why were you BORN? This knowledge gives reason to life. Adds meaning to all you do, for a true added dimension to your life. Be sure to read. Why were you BORN? Send your request to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345, GPO Sydney, New South Wales.

   I'm a Bible-believing Christian in the sense that I believe the Bible is God telling man what he wants man to know. And in this process, uh, God has condemned witchcraft.

   Is that good or bad in your opinion?

   Kind of a theme witchcraft is turning away from God. Get fascinated in this minor power. Then you won't have to look in a major. You can go ahead and do your thing and have power and you don't have to worry about responsibility to God.

   I've been on both sides of the fence, I've been on side with Satan, which I had a very close relationship with the devil and I've been on the side, which I have a very close relationship with God.

   This first relationship a little bit more explicitly?

   The first relationship was one of all I could do was serve him.

   If I could do witchcraft. And as long as it doesn't do anyone any harm. I think it's alright.

   Unfortunate I think that people are looking for Satan and reveling for God.

   And the way some conflicting religions would tell it, people of other religions are actually looking for Satan while they think they're looking for God.

   So, wherever you go, whether in the religion or the occult, it seems that there are people who say there is the good and the bad and maybe the indifference in all of this vying for attention was emblazoned bizarre shapes and forms and bright signs and marquees and display shelves and counters of rather weird looking storefronts these days, the practitioners of the black art who would have been burned at the stake in medieval England, I'm not suggesting that that should be reoccurring today are nevertheless coming back into their own and are now at the top of a business which is roughly about the equivalent of the money that is spent in Las Vegas in the course of a year.

   There's a very great amount of disagreement as to whether occult is either good or bad or whether Satanism is good or bad as you heard. One thing is for sure, there's a great deal of it expanded today. And uh along with the drug scene in the Jesus people revival, when you look into the newspapers, you look even into the comic strip, the books available on drugstore and magazine shelves, you see a tremendous amount of the occult of astrology and of spiritism. Why?

   Well, obviously there was a vacuum created a dissatisfaction over science, materialism, not the permanent answers to problems or solutions needed for terrible problems. But the uh lack of those answers, the problems of society, all of them that we face daily of rising costs of unemployment, of the personal problems we all face of personal health. People constantly want to find out about that and go get advice about diet.

   And as a matter of practical fact, a great deal of diet, sometimes various practices such as vegetarianism, though not all the drug scene, various lifestyles returning back to the earth. The idea that man's soul or man's being is closely related to the fortunes of all of the living things of belief that even plants should not be stepped upon and ants should not be killed. All of this sometimes interrelate into the occult. So, there was a void, there was a vacuum of people who were dissatisfied with the answers to science and materialism on the one hand and religion and the spiritual areas on the other.

   They simply weren't getting the big answers to the big question. Who am I? And what am I? And where am I going in life? And what is the future of me, of my loved ones and of my community and of the whole world for that matter.

   So, conditions in the world, a lack of satisfying answers to the problems, the failure of science and the failure of religion have all contributed to create a vacuum into which the occult have readily moved. One student said science is dead while the newspapers and magazines were giving all the attention to the death of God. Science was really the one that was dying. Another student said, and I quote, "Science was something we had to work through our system, for a while everybody thought it was the only thing that mattered. It's just now that we've come to know better," end of quote.

   Another reason for the revival is the search for meaning, as I've said. And the lack of security in the world today, the concept that perhaps the occult is mystically linked with the fortunes of the entirety of the earth and the creatures upon it and how they interrelate. Yet there is still another reason, some claim the occult is like developing an innate sixth sense that you already possess. And it's only beginning to develop and to allow it to come to full maturity, this sixth sense of a kind of a spiritual awareness outside oneself, many talents and abilities, a certain perception that we don't have. And also discovering that which is real. Like for instance, the song about the uh what goes up must come down and the wheel that goes round and round and let me show you the colors that are real.

   People on LSD trips are told of how suddenly everything was so much brighter, so much seemingly realistic. When in practical fact, all they were doing was short circuiting their brains, very seriously damaging the brain and eventually perhaps the whole body. And of course, that story belongs rightly in another subject on the drug series, which we will do and we have done in the past.

   But the Bible has a great deal to say about the occult, about demonism, about witchcraft and certainly about the basic tendencies of man as he delves into some of these dark areas, seeking for answers in the wrong directions and trying to solve his problems by changing his attitude inside instead of altering the human mind as well as the human spirit by the addition of the balanced the wholesome and the good spirit of God.

   He said the tendency of man, the common tendency of man was this. And I quote from Galatians 5:19 and 20, "Now the deeds of the flesh are quite obvious such as sexual vice, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, magic, quarrels, dissension, jealousy." That's Moffatt's version of that scripture. The King James version renders the word witchcraft there and the Amplified Bible uses the word sorcery in place of magic as Paul indicated, often sexual vice, impurity, sensuality go hand in hand with magic.

   Paul was saying that when man is not seeking God's laws, when man is not actually repentant and when he is not trying to grow in Christian character, the one fellow said he believed the Bible was the word of God that he ought to live by that, fine, you ought to prove that to yourself and find out whether or not the young man was right, or whether the occult and demonism and satanism is where it's at. Because the young people are saying there are a lot to those who are as they use in their verbiage into this thing of Satanism.

   But human nature being what it is, the occult is always interesting. It has a certain frequent uh kind of a curiosity when it's dark or mystical, it is nothing more than the same accompanying paraphernalia that has been used by some of the big and the most successful churches in all of history. Going back to Ancient Babylon to some of the modern Oriental religions. And yes to many of the modern Western religions and some of those that even claim the word Christianity, there was always a certain amount of mysticism, mystical books, mystical writings, writings that apparently could not be understood or revealed except by a certain person or a certain set of circumstances.

   The Bible records a case where a witch was sought by a king. In this case, King Saul and I'm going to come back and tell you about that. In just one more minute.

   For centuries, the occult arts have been kept hidden behind closed doors. But now in today's society, many have turned to the methods and secrets of the ancients. Decisions are made according to the chance form of a card, the pungent odor of incense or the shifting position of the planets. Probably people, you know, dabble in the occult. Maybe you wonder whether there truly is help and guidance in a crystal ball that the future can actually be known from tea leaves or from the lines in the palms of your hands.

   The booklet, "The Occult Explosion - What Does it Mean?" explains what's really behind these organisms and divinations and examines why so many of these enlightened times have turned to mysticism for answers. Write today for your free copy of the booklet, "The Occult Explosion - What Does it Mean?" Send your request to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales.

   King Saul of ancient Israel had issued a complete moratorium on all witchcraft. I mean, he was going to get it out of the country. He said there couldn't be any witches but just in case because Saul was a superstitious sort and was already uh contrary to God's law and many things he was doing, he kept one witch and allowed her to be like where he knew where to get to her. When he came to a position of great stress wondering about the immediate future militarily as well as domestically, he decided he would seek to this witch even though he had made it a law punishable by death for anybody else to do so, which says something about the government at that time, there had been lots of Water Gates in the past.

   So, Saul, it says in I Samuel 28, had cleared the mediums and wizards out of the country. That was what God of course had told him to do. But when the Philistines mustered and went into camp at Shunem and when Saul mustered all Israel to encamp at Gilboa, Saul was afraid, and his heart trembled with terror at the site of the Philistine army, he consulted the Eternal, but the Eternal God would not answer him, it says in the Bible, Saul, of course, was now contrary to God's law, God wasn't hearing him. That's what a plain that says in place after place in the Bible. So, Saul said to his aide, find me a witch so I can go and consult her.

   The rest of the story tells how the witch of Endor, the name of ships in the days gone since that time, it was there readily available for Saul to consult with her. Now she did something which is unique and rather unusual and I think says a lot by itself, she conjured up for Saul, the actual bodily presence of Samuel who by this time was dead. It illustrates the point in those days you see, even the witches knew better than to try to tell somebody that was a departed soul. They didn't believe in those days in the immortality of the soul. They believed in the biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the body. And so, the witch had to try not to rapping or tappings or just a voice to claim to be in contact with a soul. But she had to conjure up an apparition, an actual mind's eye vision, which she had the power to do because she was in touch with real not fault. She wasn't a fake at all. It wasn't anything fake about the witch of Endor. She was in touch with real spirit beings, believe it or not, they have the power to conjure up for Saul, the actual bodily presence, not that it was Samuel, but it was an apparition which certainly looked like Samuel. So, Saul could see there was no belief at that time in souls, there was a belief in the bodily resurrection of the body. So, Saul did through this medium find out what the future held the immediate future. But that knowledge was of no comfort to him actually fell on the ground and began to weep about it. When he heard what bad news they had to tell him.

   Today, we find a lot of society much in the same position in which Saul found himself way back then. One, not following God and not even claiming to in the main. Two faced with giant problems both in the short range and the long range. Three hungry for the answers, but not in contact with God, not living according to God's laws, not getting any answers from God. People claiming I can't understand the Bible. It's just a lot of mystery to me. It's just a lot of mumbo jumbo. It doesn't make sense. And so, people increasingly today are turning to magic and the black arts to all of these various forms of uh the occult to help them solve their problems.

   Now, this is only, you know, page one paragraph, one of the psychology books. It is a fact that the more the stress, the more people tend to seek for spiritual solutions, they don't look for scientific or pragmatic or practical solutions when a terrible emotional climax of some sort, some terrible trauma looms ahead in their personal lives or for the nation as a whole. And so instead they try to seek for some spiritist solution to the problems of the time we've been examining the reasons for the occult revival. There's still one however that we have left out.

   The occult, whatever it is, is very real. It's just as real as science and maybe should be studied as much, if not a little more than science now a days since it's new.

   I think people are attempting today through science, but I don't believe it does.

   I think that the supernatural things when you talk about, it's always been here in the last century or two, the Western world has simply chosen to ignore them because of empirical science.

   It's a fad, it's a silly fad that will come and go.

   So, you think it's only a put on [inaudible]?

   [inaudible] scientific or evidence whatsoever.

   Just a bunch of so-called experts who have spoken in public.

   A lot of people in this world you see follow astrology and learn certain, you know, hidden secrets.

   Man, with his fantastic ego thinks that he can control many things, including maybe supernatural forces.

   I really don't know too much about them. You do have to be in harmony with the idea of nature. That is the use of imagination. Imagination is central to magic but is the creative use of imagination.

   I think it is that it's all in the mind about have what I would take psychology for [inaudible].

   I take it seriously.

   It doesn't sound real to me.

   [inaudible] science nothing really serious.

   It's a fad, it's a bunch of bunk.

   But the one thing we've been leaving out is that it is outside of science and many people get into the thing because they find for themselves that it is real.

   And let me tell you by the time somebody has sat with his hair standing straight up on him, scared after that, watching his pajamas fold and unfold themselves by themselves and closed the drawer or watch his toothbrush float around the room of its own power or watch tables in levitation seances where they actually do precisely as you've heard that they do. He knows that there is something that is real. The question is, is it right? And is it good? There are examples in the Bible of very real powers involved in the meddling and the dabbling in the black art. That's precisely why God's word does, as a young man at the beginning of this program, you heard him say it, condemn it.

   But the reason that many people use the occult art is because there is a reality there, a real power involved. It seems to them that they are in control of that power. Actually, I think if they knew the truth, they would discover, it's quite the other way around. In Acts, the 16th chapter. That was an example of what sounds much like the occult today. Luke wrote about the experiences of the Apostle Paul and himself.

   This is taken from the Amplified Bible (Acts 16:16), as we were on our way to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who was possessed by a spirit of divination, possessed by it, claiming to foretell future events and to discover hidden knowledge. And she brought her owners much gain by fortune telling. She did what a lot of people would like to do today, of course. And she did make money at it. She kept following Paul, it says in that account, and the rest of us shouting loudly. These men are the servants of the Most High God. They announce to you the way of salvation. It's an interesting commentary on demonism from the pages of the Bible.

   But without exception, demons always recognize true servants of God, and they always proclaim that they were the true servants of God. There's another interesting thing too, but I think you ought to bear in mind. Search the Bible through and every single time you see someone falling under the influence of satanism or demonism, they physically will fall away backward. That is a fact of scripture and when they are coming under the awe, the power, the fear of God, they will fall forward on their knees.

   I have heard though I have not witnessed myself of many religious occasions or maybe even seance occasions with people falling away backward or becoming virtually rigid in the grips of something that was a farce that was very real. So, there's no question about that aspect of the occult. There is a real power there. But is it the kind of a power you want to control you or that you want to come in contact with, you ought to write for this new brochure on, The Occult Explosion - What Does it Mean? [inaudible] you see the [inaudible] on newsstands in drugstores and supermarkets or books about astrology, about mind science about other worldly super science fiction novels, about life in outer space, and the like. You've heard sensational stories in newspapers and magazines about satanism, demonism, witchcraft. It has to do with the I don't know whether I should say offbeat cult. Maybe that's not quite right and some people might be offended, but at any rate it has to do with all this business of Satanism, demonism, witchcraft and the explosion of this kind of pseudo knowledge that is available all around you today.

   This booklet is something you desperately need to at least be informed about this new attempt to capture people's minds by the use of the occult. So, write for the booklet called The Occult Explosion or just mention a booklet about the Occult. Even if you say the word cult, we know what you mean. If you want to drop off the first, oc, it's Occult, the occult booklet and all you need to do is to request it by sending your letter to, Post Office Box 345 Sydney, New South Wales. Be sure to tell us the call letters of your station, we need that. That's all there is no cost but tell us the name of the radio station to which you've been listening, the call letters and then send your letter to, Box 345 Sydney, New South Wales. Until next time, this is Garner Ted Armstrong saying goodbye, friends.

   You have been listening to the World Tomorrow. If you would like more information, write to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales.