Would Tommy’s case be any less miraculous, however, because it was not divinely ordered by a sentient being that watches over the world? In fact, it would seem even more miraculous. Tommy’s recovery would be the result of the influence of powers and systems well beyond the comprehension of man. It would be, in effect, a miracle generated by all of life, time, and power; the act of something omnipresent and omnipotent.
When God appears to Moses at the burning bush and Moses asks for his name, God replies, “I am who Am.” I am “all being”; I am everything in relation to everything else simultaneously in the great seemingly chaotic system. “But there is profound irony in this name. It expresses the process of being rather than something finite that could be named like a thing. The meaning of the text would be accurately rendered if it were translated ‘My name is NAMELESS.’ ”13
Using this understanding of the miraculous, is it not possible that the paranormal could be a result of such processes? If something like cancer can mysteriously disappear from a patient whose death sentence has been announced by the best medical minds, then why couldn’t an image in the form of a ghost or UFO or hairy ape-like creature appear visible to an individual? Within all chaotic systems there are aberrations—anomalies that are produced from the interactions within that system. Could not the vision of a spirit be such an aberration? Could psychics not occasionally be right? As early shamans tried to influence the massive systems around them, they found both success and failure. Upon success, the shaman would try to repeat what he had done that had led to the success, thus leading to the earliest form of dogmatic ritual. However, if the shaman’s repeated rituals did not again produce favorable results, then the shaman was able to cast blame on the conduct of his tribesmen rather than admit his impotency in the face of the Great Mystery. Religion was born of the unknown chaotic systems and their underlying interconnectedness, and man’s attempt to control those systems. Likewise, man tries to call up spirits, predict the future, and signal UFOs through ritual and dogma. The influences of such actions and rituals will probably never be fully understood, but it doesn’t necessarily make such things supernatural, but rather, natural in the grandest sense of the word.
RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF THE PARANORMAL
I have little to no doubt that some ideas in the previous section will be contested by both sides, but that is part of the beauty of ideas, and I welcome an open discussion that will hopefully bring people together to discuss differing notions of God and reality.
But there exists a modern church, one that has been built through thousands of years of culture and society, miracles and paranormal events. The modern church is one that both fully engages in the paranormal, and yet sits on the sideline, hesitant about entering the paranormal fray. As mentioned before, the Christian church has undergone many changes throughout history as it has tried to adapt to the ever-emerging scientific discoveries, and it will, no doubt, have to defend itself again in the future. The church and the paranormal have a long, parallel history that is the result of the same cause—the miraculous and mysterious. Whether it is a thunderstorm that lights up the sky for early man or a ghostly apparition that appears before a stay-at-home mom, the belief system remains similar: there is something more than our concrete reality, something beyond our vision and understanding. In that regard, religion, and particularly the Western-dominant religion of Christianity, has formed the basis of much of the paranormal belief systems. Ideas about angels and demons, heaven and hell, ghosts and chariots in the sky, have come from the Christian tradition. Therefore it is necessary to our understanding of the paranormal to understand the exact viewpoints of the modern church with regard to these subjects.
SID ROTH AND THE MESSIANIC MESSAGE
I happened upon Sid Roth’s program, It’s Supernatural, while flipping through the television channels one day. The show appears on the Inspiration Network, a network whose mission is “to impact the destiny of people and nations for Christ through media.” This is not a channel I would normally stop at, but the title of the program caught my attention, and I began to watch. Sid Roth was interviewing guests regarding Christian perceptions of UFOs and discussing the theories regarding the Nephilim—the fallen angels and demonic entities that were put forth by I. D. E. Thomas in his book, The Omega Conspiracy. Sid was raised an Orthodox Jew and then converted to Christianity and began his ministry known as Messianic Ministries, which focuses on trying to convert Jews to Christianity. Sid’s personal history in dealing with the occult is what led to a conversion in his life; it sounds similar to Saul’s miraculous conversion while on the road to Damascus. “When I was 29 I got involved in New Age. I got in over my head. It was called the occult back then, now it’s called New Age, but it’s all the same, it’s really Buddhism … I got in over my head and almost lost my mind, and I was rescued by Jesus. I lived the life of the movie The Exorcist. I had something evil inside me.” It wasn’t until Sid recognized this evil and the way that it was destroying his life that he finally cried out for Jesus and was converted. “I had separated from my wife and daughter; life was too hard, I pretty much threw in the towel … I woke up the next morning and there was a presence in my room of love that I had never experienced in my entire life. It was so tangible and so real, and I had a knowing inside me that Jesus was my messiah and he was stronger than the evil inside me and that the evil inside me was gone. Then I heard the audible voice of God for the first time in my life and it said ‘return to your wife and daughter’; I did and God restored my life, my mind, and my marriage.”
Since that time Sid has been actively engaged in his Messianic Ministries and has actively pursued trying to keep people away from the occult/New Age movement, which he says is very dangerous. “The occult is a counterfeit, a good counterfeit, of something authentic. Anything authentic has a good counterfeit, and that’s where most Christians get caught. My experience is that anyone who has been in the New Age and has become a Christian has a special discernment for those working with New Age powers … I can just walk into a room and feel it.” Sid’s focus is on converting Jews to Christianity and away from the New Age/occult practices. Sid states that a Jew, more than any other ethnicity or faith, requires a supernatural sign in order to be moved by God and cites the biblical book of Corinthians where it says, “The Jew requires a sign.” “I was hungry for the supernatural before I met Jesus, and I was hungry for the supernatural after I met Jesus. Hence, the show, It’s Supernatural. Most people don’t know the reason for the show’s name; but the reason is that the best way to reach a Jew is to make the supernatural the platform, because the Jew requires a sign. If you look at the leadership of the cults and the occult in America, you’ll find an amazingly high percentage of Jews. Why? We have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge.” Sid believes that Jews are more often drawn to the devil’s counterfeit supernatural because they have a special yearning for the supernatural; and since they do not have an intimate knowledge of Jesus, they have no positive direction in which to steer that drive. Robert L. Snow, former police officer and author of several books, including Deadly Cults: The Crimes of True Believers, writes, “Interestingly, studies have also found that cults are more appealing to certain groups of people. For example, research has shown that the percentage of Jews in cults is far higher than the number of Jews in the general population. Estimates of the proportion of Jews in cults range from 20 percent to 50 percent.”14
A quick reading of the Old Testament will show that the Jewish people were often skeptical and required repeated instances of supernatural evidence to be convinced of God’s presence. Various miracles were performed in order to keep God’s chosen people following Moses through the wilderness; the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and various supernatural actions that interceded on behalf of the Israelites as they battled enemies and sought their promised land. Sid’s belief is that this long tradition of supernatural signs and intercession is a
t odds with modern Judaism’s nonacceptance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. This leaves a divide in the Jewish desire for the supernatural, and the satisfaction of that desire on earth through the purported miracles of Jesus. Since the Jewish faith rejects the notion of Jesus as the Son of God, they are left waiting for a supernatural sign from God, a manifestation of God on earth—and they have been waiting a long time. Naturally, some will seek out other sources of supernatural evidence and beliefs and become drawn into the New Age belief systems to satisfy that need.
While Moses conferred with God on Mount Sinai, the people grew restless waiting for him. They sought out Aaron, whose staff God had caused to blossom, and he instructed them to build and worship a golden calf. When Moses finally came down from the mountain, he was so angry that he broke the stone tablet, which contained the words of God. Moses himself had to demonstrate great supernatural powers, not only to the Pharaoh, in order to secure the release of the Jews, but to the Jewish people themselves in order that they would follow him.
Likewise, Sid claims that his ministries contain that element of the supernatural that will cause the Jewish people to rise up and follow Christ, rather then continue waiting for the Messiah or getting immersed in New Age occult practices. “I will reach more Jews doing It’s Supernatural and not platforming that I’m Jewish and believe in Jesus and you’re Jewish and you too can believe in Jesus. I do lectures around the country and around the world for that matter about the supernatural, and many that attend the lecture will be healed. I recently had a lecture in Brighton Beach where 400 people received the Lord. They didn’t receive the Lord because I was a great evangelist, but because in the middle of my talk someone in a wheelchair stands up and starts walking, and her attendant grabs the mike and says, ‘I’ve never seen her walk before,’ and then it was easy to say, ‘The God that just did this, how would you like to know him?’ ” Sid claims that miracles occur at his lectures, enabling him to lead Jews to Jesus. He also claims that his ministry would not be possible without the supernatural.
Sid believes that the resurgence in belief in the paranormal is consistent with the approaching return of Christ, and that the devil is increasing his efforts to lead people to their spiritual and physical deaths through drawing them into a counterfeit supernatural belief system. He cites Deuteronomy, chapter 18, which states, “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord…”
“It is an abomination for anyone to be involved in the New Age; but it is worse for a Jew because a Jew is under a covenant with God, a gentile is not.” According to Sid and his ministry, the paranormal, as we know it today and as discussed in this book, is a counterfeit designed by the devil to entrap the human soul; and the New Age, which often has paranormal links, is a new version of the occult. The recent increase in paranormal and occult belief patterns has been exacerbated by the modern church’s rapid slide toward rationalizing its traditional beliefs. “Religion [today] is just fumes, it’s not the authentic anymore. They found that by eliminating the supernatural, speaking in tongues, etc., they can grow and they get extremely large. You don’t see praying for baptism in the Holy Spirit in public anymore, you don’t even see a message on speaking in tongues in a charismatic church because they think they can’t reach nonbelievers with messages like that. So the church is holding back on the supernatural; the devil is not holding back in the New Age so it’s a pied piper. It’s a no contest … if the church ties one arm behind its back, what do they expect?” Sid refers to these churches as “seeker-sensitive,” in that they downplay the supernatural to appeal to a wider audience.
Sid’s message is one of return; return to the traditional, supernatural beliefs upon which the church was founded. The steps that modern churches have taken toward minimizing belief in the Holy Spirit and miraculous healings and so on are costing souls in the ultimate fight against Satan. To be fair, however, the modern church is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the miraculous and supernatural in that it has repeatedly been burned through false ministries headed by con men who have fleeced believers for their money while claiming miraculous healing abilities. The hypocrisy is also found in charismatic church leaders, as newspapers discover their sexual exploits; and all the while, science continues to gain more and more insight into what was previously considered supernatural. The church has had to move toward the rational and push the supernatural to the sidelines of their ministries in order to win new believers. Sid, however, thinks this is a grave mistake; to him, the paranormal resurgence is a call for the church to return to its traditional values and belief systems so that people actively seeking the supernatural will seek it through the church rather than through the occult, New Age, or paranormal. The stakes for people’s belief could not be higher because of the ability for belief to drive the course of human history.
“It’s sort of like Adolf Hitler. Do you really think that nut could have mobilized the entire nation without supernatural help? He had supernatural charisma.” In the case of Hitler, the people believed his cult-like charisma and the people followed. It was, perhaps, the greatest display of evil the world has ever known, and the Jewish people were its greatest victims.
CLIVE CALVER AND WALNUT HILL COMMUNITY CHURCH
Reverend Clive Calver is the head pastor of Walnut Hill Community Church, which is, essentially, one of the seeker-sensitive churches that Sid Roth indicated was leaving behind the supernatural traditions upon which the church was founded. There is no altar call at the end of the service, no public speaking in tongues with interpretation following, no laying on of hands and anointing in oil for healing; rather, it is a church that is focused on expressing Jesus’s love and devotion in the community. Clive is not your typical small-town preacher, either. Born and raised in Great Britain, he obtained his degree in theology from London College of Theology, was president of World Relief for seven years, and the head of the Evangelical Alliance of the United Kingdom. He has authored 20 books on the subject of Christianity, has appeared on CNN, BBC, and ABC, and led the Youth for Christ movement in Britain. He is an imposingly brilliant man, his office more like a library than a traditional office, and his stare is one of unhindered intelligence and education. I immediately felt like the dumbest person in the room.
Clive is the culmination of the modern church leader: educated, worldly, experienced, focused on community and world outreach, and focused on showing Jesus’s love to others through charity rather than condemning to hell those who don’t believe. The Protestant separation from the Catholic Church was one of the biggest steps toward religious rationalism in the history of religion. It took away much of the magical symbolism that distanced the believer from God. No longer was a priest needed for confession, no longer was the bread and wine transubstantiated into the actual body and blood of Christ, no longer were dogmatic rituals the basis of worship. A new, freer, more accessible God had arrived onto the scene, and today’s evangelical churches are the spawn of that reformation.
Likewise, much of what Calver and his work are about is also what they are not about; they are not about the televangelist nightmare that has caused so much damage to the evangelical Christian religion. He is not causing people to pass out with the wave of his hand, and people in wheelchairs who have been unable to walk are not standing up in front of television cameras, nor are there any other innumerable frauds happening that have previously been wrought upon the Christian religion by the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons of the world who have been so divisive. Several weeks before we met, a massive earthquake had struck Haiti, killing over 200,000 people and wounding many, many more. Reverend Pat Robertson commented on his television program that the earthquake was the result of a contract that the Haitian people had made with the devil in order to get out from under the contro
l of the French.15 I asked Calver about that statement. “You know, I don’t normally utter obscenities to someone who is interviewing me, but the idea that God sends an earthquake to punish people in that way without the warning beforehand would be ridiculous, if you want to be theological about it. I don’t think that has any connectedness at all. I think if you want to see where God was at work in the earthquake, it was in the response—the rescuing.”
However, it is the notion of the devil, the idea of true and pure evil, which remains an inherent difficulty for Christianity and has led to much debate over the nature of evil and its personification in Satan. Recent modernist ideas about the nature of humanity and evil have allowed belief that there is no such creature as the devil, and that evil is merely a lack of God’s love in the person who is committing the evil act or that evil acts are merely part of the range of human behavior. The denial of a true devil has left open the possibility of other denials within the Christian belief system. However, blaming the devil for things such as the Haitian earthquake is just as devastating to the church’s message. Calver says, “There are two dangers that face the church when they’re encountering these issues, one is to disbelieve in the devil and his existence. The second is to magnify his power and influence much further than they should.” Calver cites the much-publicized rites of exorcism used by the Catholic Church and made famous in The Exorcist as an exaggeration of the devil’s power. “I’ve watched an 18-year-old girl pulling her face off because of the stuff [occult] she’s been engaged in and then how she was seeing herself. I’ve seen the results of the trickery that the devil has been engaged in, and if the church believes its own message, then you don’t need to go stomping around for three or four hours to release someone. If they want to be free from occultic involvement, you can see that happen in a moment; in the name of Jesus they can be released. You exult Jesus and dismiss the devil.” Calver points to the actual Greek texts of the Lord’s Prayer and cites a fallacy in the line “deliver us from evil.” “It’s just not there in the Greek. The actual line is ‘deliver us from the evil one.’ So the force of evil has more to do with George Lucas and Star Wars than it does with any theology. Scripture has always been up front and personal about a personal devil and recognizes the existence of a power of evil. Not as powerful as Jesus, but no less real.”
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