November 20 (Deuteronomy 18:9-22)
I know I’m supposed to be dealing with confession of sin today, but a rather troubling thing has surfaced on Face Book I believe needs desperately to be addressed. People who are professing Christians are suggesting it is no problem to go watch moves like Harry Potter. I can hear the arguments a thousand times in my mind, so I won’t spend a great deal of time addressing them; rather I will show from scripture it is both adultery and idolatry at the same time. One of my high school acquaintances suggested she watched the Wizard of Oz and is now a Christian, apparently believing that is proof such things are harmless. That kind of sounds like Satan's suggestion to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Indeed, has God said, now superimpose, watching movies about witches, warlocks, and sorcerers is bad? Using that logic one could then conclude because God delivered someone from prostitution, it’s okay to continue being a prostitute.
In ancient biblical times, under the law of Moses, mediums, spiritists, sorcerers, and all false prophets got the death penalty (Deuteronomy 18:9-22). Pay special attention to verse 20, “But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other Gods, that prophet shall die.” Israel was commanded not to marry foreign women because those women would lead them to honor other gods who were really not gods at all. They disobeyed and ended up worshiping other gods. Their excuse was that it was harmless because they also worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Nonetheless, he destroyed both the Northern and Southern kingdom for their adultery/idolatry. It’s adultery for Christians to play the harlot with mediums and sorcerers because the church is the bride of Christ. The whole book of Hosea deals thoroughly with that topic. When a bride goes and joins herself to another she is an adulterer. It’s idolatry because anything that comes between us and the pure worship of our God is idolatry by definition. For one who professes to be a Christian to take pleasure in watching a movie based entirely on witchcraft and sorcery is most assuredly committing idolatry.
I engaged dozens, if not hundreds, of acts that were clearly not pleasing to God before I was called to our Lord. When Jesus called me into an intimate, personal, relationship with Him, I quit doing those things because I instinctively knew they were displeasing to Him. I don't believe for a moment doing good deeds will earn me God's grace. I do not, nor have I ever believed one can earn God's approval. That said, God's word makes it abundantly clear those who are His children passionately desire to be pleasing to Him above all else. Of course I have stumbled and sinned more than once in the past 38 years I have been a disciple of Christ. That admitted, I have strived to immediately confess known sin the moment I have become aware of it, claimed his forgiveness as promised in I John 1:9 and continued down the straight and narrow path that FEW will walk. If you insist on watching things like Harry Potter, I would ask this final thing of you. When God disciplines you for doing so, you immediately fall on your knees and beseech His forgiveness and be wise enough not to play with such fire again. Be assured, He will discipline you for indulging such things. Of course, if he doesn’t, one of two things is true: 1. I’m full of hot air; 2. You aren’t one of His children.
My final thoughts on this subject go something like this. For decades people have argued Marijuana is harmless and that it does not lead to heavy drug usage. None of the studies can confirm it does or doesn’t. Would you want your child to try it to see if it’s true? Do you think so little of your child you would experiment with him? Jesus promised that anyone who caused one of his children to stumble would have been better to have had a millstone hung around his neck and that he be cast into the sea (Luke 17:2). Can you swim with a millstone around your neck? If so, you can ignore this warning. And that’s God’s word for us today.
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