What is the difference between the angels who appeared throughout history to the shepherds, the prophets, Jesus, or Mary and those angels we are cautioned not to contact?…

By contacting angels do we open ourselves up to spiritual delusion?

In this DVD… “You will see shocking interviews with youngsters who dabbled with the spirit realm and consequently got drawn into a dark world of fear and horror. Making contact with the spirit world, calling upon angelic guides, and conjuring up the dead - practices that were considered taboo only a few decades ago - have been normalized and popularized by the media and are being practiced by a growing number of young people today. This important and in depth video presentation serves as an important wake up call to those concerned about the impact of the supernatural on their children and loved ones. It offers help to those who have been victimized by spiritual deception. Finally, it reveals positive knowledge about the multitudes of millions of “ministering angels” who perform works of righteousness and have ambassadorial charge over mankind and his universe. “For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep them in all thy ways.”

Despite claims that we are living today in a technologically advanced, scientifically based culture, the fascination with the supernatural realm continues to grow among people of all ages and backgrounds at an exponential rate. Tales of spirit beings, guardian angels, demons, and the hereafter can be found in every bookstore, on every television screen, and in every theatre in our country.

Both Angelology, the study of angels from a Biblical perspective, and Satanology, the study of fallen angels or demonic forces, continue to raise questions and stir up controversy whenever the subjects are broached.

This insightful program carefully examines the metaphysical realm and answers challenging questions regarding whether or not angels really exist.

• If so, where do they come from?
• Why were they created?
• What dimension do they habitat?
• How do they interact with human beings?
• What is their purpose?

The Bible recounts stories of both benevolent multitudes of heavenly visitors and their dark counterparts. An angel’s announcement to shepherds outside Bethlehem was accompanied by a heavenly host singing, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth toward men of goodwill.”

• What is the difference between the angels who appeared throughout history to the shepherds, the prophets, Jesus, or Mary and those angels we are cautioned not to contact?
• Do angels still visit us today?
• Do we all have guardian angels?
• What about so-called new-age angels who we are encouraged to pray to?
• Do they have power to answer our prayers?
• By contacting angels do we open ourselves up to spiritual delusion?
• Is the fascination of millions around the world with the unseen world a doorway to unparalleled danger?
• Can we be deceived by spirits appearing as angels of light?
• Can we become addicted to their potent influence?

You will see shocking interviews with youngsters who dabbled with the spirit realm and consequently got drawn into a dark world of fear and horror. Making contact with the spirit world, calling upon angelic guides, and conjuring up the dead - practices that were considered taboo only a few decades ago - have been normalized and popularized by the media and are being practiced by a growing number of young people today.

This important and in depth video presentation serves as an important wake up call to those concerned about the impact of the supernatural on their children and loved ones. It offers help to those who have been victimized by spiritual deception. Finally, it reveals positive knowledge about the multitudes of millions of “ministering angels” who perform works of righteousness and have ambassadorial charge over mankind and his universe. “For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep them in all thy ways.”

For more information on the Caryl Productions DVD ‘Supernatural Powers‘ please click here.

To see a preview of this film please click here.

Britain’s Encounter with Islamic Law by Daniel Pipes
forwarded with comments by Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East Analyst & Commentator

Professor Pipes speaks to the on-going process of Islamic conquest of Europe. Britain, France, the Netherlands (among others) are already reaching a “critical mass” of in-migrating Muslims. Too many of the countries in Europe are already at an advanced stage of converting from Christianity to Islam. Regrettably, this conquest is aided and abetted by pacifistic governments and a Media who refuse to take their own governments to task over their loss of identity. Muslim clerics in Iran, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have plainly proclaimed that Europe will be Islamic in 10 to 20 years. A Muslim America is also on that agenda.

The Muslim goal, as dictated by the Koran and Mohammed’s teachings, is Global Domination for a World Caliphate of Islam.

Britain’s Encounter with Islamic Law by Daniel Pipes FrontPageMagazine.com 2/12/2008Mr. Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Miniatures (Transaction Publishers).

Beneath the deceptively placid surface of everyday life, the British population is engaged in a momentous encounter with Islam. Three developments of the past week, each of them culminating years’ long trend – and not just some odd occurrence – exemplify changes now underway.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith describes terrorism as “anti-Islamic.”

First, the UK government has decided that terrorism by Muslims in the name of Islam is actually unrelated to Islam, or even anti-Islamic. This notion took root in 2006 when the Foreign Office, afraid that the term “war on terror” would inflame British Muslims, sought language that upholds “shared values as a means to counter terrorists.” By early 2007, the European Union issued a classified handbook that banned jihad, Islamic, and fundamentalist in reference to terrorism, offering instead some “non-offensive” phrases. Last summer, Prime Minister Gordon Brown prohibited his ministers from using the word Muslim in connection with terrorism. In January, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith went further, actually describing terrorism as “anti-Islamic.” And last week the Home Office completed the obfuscation by issuing a counter-terrorism phrasebook that instructs civil servants to refer only to violent extremism and criminal murderers, not Islamist extremism and jihadi-fundamentalists.

Second, and again culminating several years of evolution, the British government now recognizes polygamous marriages. It changed the rules in the “Tax Credits (Polygamous Marriages) Regulations 2003″: previously, only one wife could inherit assets tax-free from a deceased husband; this legislation permits multiple wives to inherit tax-free, so long as the marriage had been contracted where polygamy is legal, as in Nigeria, Pakistan, or India. In a related matter, the Department for Work and Pensions began issuing extra payments to harems for such benefits as jobseeker allowances, housing subventions, and council tax relief. Last week came news that, after a year-long review, four government departments (Work and Pensions, Treasury, Revenue and Customs, Home Office) concluded that formal recognition of polygamy is “the best possible” option for Her Majesty’s Government.

Third, the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, endorsed applying portions of the Islamic law (the Shari‘a) in Great Britain. Adopting its civil elements, he explained, “seems unavoidable” because not all British Muslims relate to the existing legal system and applying the Shari‘a would help with their social cohesion. When Muslims can go to an Islamic civil court, they need not face “the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty.” Continuing to insist on the “legal monopoly” of British common law rather than permit Shari’a, Williams warned, would bring on “a bit of a danger” for the country.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says that Islamic law in Great Britain “seems unavoidable.”

Prime Minister Brown immediately slammed Williams’ suggestion: Shari‘a law, his office declared, “cannot be used as a justification for committing breaches of English law, nor can the principle of Shari‘a law be used in a civilian court. … the Prime Minister believes British law should apply in this country, based on British values.” Criticism of Williams came additionally from all sides of the political spectrum – from Sayeeda Warsi, the Tory (Muslim) shadow minister for community cohesion and social action; Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats; and Gerald Batten of the United Kingdom Independence Party. Secular and Christian groups opposed Williams. So did Trevor Phillips, head of the equality commission. The Anglican church in Australia denounced his proposal, along with leading members of his own church, including his predecessor, Lord Carey. Melanie Phillips called his argument “quite extraordinarily muddled, absurd and wrong.” The Sun newspaper editorialized that “It’s easy to dismiss Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as a silly old goat. In fact he’s a dangerous threat to our nation.” It concludes acerbically that “The Archbishop of Canterbury is in the wrong church.”

Although widely denounced (and in danger of losing his job), Williams may be right about the Shari‘a being unavoidable, for it is already getting entrenched in the West. A Dutch justice minister announced that “if two-thirds of the Dutch population should want to introduce the Shari‘a tomorrow, then the possibility should exist.” A German judge referred to the Koran in a routine divorce case. A parallel Somali gar courts system already exists in Britain.

These developments suggest that British appeasement concerning the war on terror, the nature of the family, and the rule of law are part of a larger pattern. Even more than the security threat posed by Islamist violence, these trends are challenging and perhaps will change the very nature of Western life.

Posted: 02/08/2008 Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com

Founder of Transcendental Meditation dies

Dr. Ron Carlson www.Jude3.com

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation, died February 6, 2008 in his Dutch home in Vlodrop, Netherlands. For nearly five decades he had promoted throughout the world the Hindu practice known as T.M. He built T.M. into a multi-million dollar organization, which includes Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. The Natural Law Party, active in American politics, also came out of his movement.

Maharishi, who promoted the Indian Hindu schools of Vedanta and Yoga philosophy, sought to sell his Hinduism to the West under the veiled deception of pseudo-scientific language. Using terms like “The Science of Creative Intelligence” and “Natural Law”, he sought to make acceptable his Hindu religion to the western scientific mind. In reality, his writings and teachings show these terms to be merely a pseudo-scientific euphemism meaning Hindu Monism and Pantheism, that All is One and All is Impersonal. Transcendental Meditation was in reality a “short cut” version of Raja Yoga or the meditative technique of Astanga Yoga.

In his commentary, On the Bhagavad-gita, Maharishi said, “the aims of each system of Indian philosophy are fulfilled through the practice of transcendental meditation.” What is this philosophy that Maharishi brought to the West? Following the Vedanta school of Hinduism, Maharishi taught the unity of all things: that the entire universe and all existence are of one impersonal essence or nature. Maharishi teaches that the physical, personal world is illusion; only the transcendent and spiritual are real. Man in his true nature is said to be impersonal. The illusion of the physical, personal existence of man merely produces suffering in life. To eliminate suffering, says Maharishi, one must eliminate the physical, personal realm of existence.

In order to transcend this illusory, physical world and achieve a state of enlightenment, or oneness with the impersonal cosmos, Maharishi said a person must use the yoga technique of Transcendental Meditation. Though it was claimed by followers not to be religious, the entire teaching and practice is clearly Hinduism. In order to practice T.M., a follower is required to go through an initiation ceremony bowing before an altar of a Hindu guru. At the ceremony they receive a Hindu “mantra” or word on which they are to meditate on during the practice of transcendental meditation.

The bottom line is that Maharishi and Transcendental Meditation promote the ultimate rebellion against the Creator. They deny the infinite personal Creator/God and replace Him with an impersonal All or Brahman/Atman of Hinduism. They also deny the physical personal creation and replace it with an impersonal spiritual cosmos. The sad reality of T.M. is that an impersonal universe never loved or cared about anyone. Only a personal Creator loves and cares for His creation. True Biblical Meditation is not an inward, subjective descent into yourself as T.M. promotes, but an outward objective ascent to the personal Creator who “so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life!”

Posted: 02/13/2008.
Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com

By Ingrid Schueter: www.sliceoflaodicea.com

The New Evangelical Left Erects Conservative Straw Men

Evangelism, Purpose Driven Madness, Emerging Church

Paul Edwards has a must-read article on Townhall.com today. The most important thing he says is this:

The Religious Left is successfully redefining what it means to be a conservative evangelical by misrepresenting what it means to be a conservative evangelical.

His next most important point is this:

The new voices of the Religious Left Rick Warren, Joel Hunter, Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis, et al are defining down what it means to be an evangelical by making the symptoms of man’s sin (poverty, disease, etc.) a priority rather than addressing the cause of those symptoms (sin) and the cure found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul Edwards rightly points out how the dishonest and slanderous portrayals of conservative evangelicals create a straw man caricature that is easy to take down and replace with their leftist evangelical model. Men like Tony Campolo, Shane Claiborne, Rick Warren, Jim Wallis and company completely ignore the rich history of compassion ministry and the ongoing work being done by conservative evangelicals around the world. It is only through this dishonesty on college campuses and in churches around the country that men like these can attract followers for their supposedly more compassionate left-wing causes.

In the job that I do I get to meet a wide cross-section of believers involved in ministries of every kind. This fall I interviewed two missionaries who work on India’s border with Nepal in a remote region that is extremely primitive. They have opened a school for street children there. What started as a complete leap of faith is now growing by leaps and bounds as God has blessed their faithful labors. These Indian Christians told of miracle after miracle in God’s provision for them in their work, and their entire motivation is to serve Jesus Christ by caring for and sharing the Gospel with these forgotten children.

Brad Hayes of Outstretched Hands of Romania is a conservative Christian pastor who left Milwaukee, sold his house, his car and all his belongings, took his family of 7 and moved to Calarasi, a poor town in Southern Romania. He has been there several years now, holding tent meetings, teaching in surrounding villages and ministering to children through street ministry. The love of Christ and love for these children shines through his sacrificial work for Jesus. You won’t hear about Brad or the Indian missionary couple from Shane Claiborne or Tony Campolo or Jim Wallis. They don’t resemble the straw man callous conservative evangelical that they prop up at all their events. Further, the real issue Rick Warren and his ilk have with conservative evangelical compassion ministry is that it is done explicitly in Jesus name and with the Gospel front and center as the greatest need of all they serve. It is the Gospel part, front and center, that they do not want. So they mock conservatives, paint them as callous, selfish and narrow in their concerns, and then, playing off their false portrayal, they offer up an alternative. It’s very clever, and very dangerous for those gullible enough to believe them.

Barack Obama’s Very Controversial Pastor by Sharon Hughes

Barack Obama’s friend and pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, said in a 2003 church publication, “In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11. White America and the Western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared,’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns.”

But Barack Obama says he is “proud” of Rev. Wright and values their 20-year-long friendship, even if they “don’t agree on everything.”

Wright, who performed Obama’s marriage and baptized his daughters, is also his close spiritual advisor. Barack’s 2004 keynote speech to the Democratic National Convention was based on a sermon by Wright called “Audacity to Hope,” which also inspired Barack’s book, “The Audacity of Hope.”

In the November-December 2007 issue of Trumpet, their church’s publication, Rev. Wright praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has described whites as “blue-eyed devils” and Jews as “bloodsuckers.” In the magazine Wright wrote, “He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest…and will be remembered as one of the 20th and 21st century giants of the African-American religious experience. His integrity and honesty have secured him a place in history as one of the nation’s most powerful critics…and a religious leader who is sincere about his faith and his purpose.”

Farrakhan’s photo is on the cover of that church magazine, accompanied with the headline: “The Minister truly epitomized greatness.” Wright also presented Farrakhan with a “lifetime achievement” award during a church gala in Chicago, “For his commitment to truth, education and leadership.” (See Wright’s video honoring Farrakhan).

Recently Obama distanced himself from Farrakhan, but not from his pastor or his praise for Farrakhan. Why not?
For the record, it was Farrakhan who said:

“They call (Hezbollah) terrorists, I call them freedom fighters. No one asks why they would do such a thing. Why would they do such a thing? What has driven them to this point? That’s what the UN, the U.S. and Europe doesn’t want to deal with because the Zionists have control in England, in Europe, in the United States and around the world.”

“The white man is our mortal enemy, and we cannot accept him. I will fight to see that vicious beast go down into the lake of fire prepared for him from the beginning, that he never rise again to give any innocent black man, woman or child the hell that he has delighted in pouring on us for 400 years.”

“Hitler was a very great man. He wasn’t great for me as a Black man but he was a great German and he rose Germany up from the ashes of her defeat by the united force of all of Europe and America after the first World War.”
“Now, that nation of Israel, never has had any peace in forty years and she will never have any peace because there can never be any peace structured on injustice, thievery, lying and deceit and using the name of God to shield your dirty religion under His holy and righteous name.”

“Do you know some of these satanic Jews have taken over BET?… Everything that we built, they have. The mind of Satan now is running the record industry, movie industry and television. And they make us look like we’re the murderers; we look like we’re the gangsters, but we’re punk stuff.”

“This Koran says that the Jews have altered the word of God out of its place. They did not want the masters of the people to know what Jesus really said, what Moses really said, because then you wouldn’t have a yardstick to measure their deviations.”

“The Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He rose Germany up from the ashes.”

Farrakhan also claims to have received revelations directly from God, and conferred with the dead Elijah Muhammed while “on a wheel that you call a UFO,” about secret meetings of Ronald Reagan with his cabinet. (Click here to hear audio of this claim).

Farrakhan’s views are not only anti-Semitic and racist, but his efforts have not been to integrate Black America into mainstream America, have not been to unite — something Barack Obama claims he will do as President of the United States.

Clearly, such views are dangerous to be affiliated with on any level if you’re a candidate running for the President of the United States — the President of all the people of the United States.

Do you think Hillary will use this information against Barack? Absolutely, if she thinks she needs to, and that it will help her win.

Interestingly, Obama took back his invitation for his pastor to pray at the launch of his campaign, apparently fearing controversy from Wright’s Afrocentric teachings, and many are wondering if he wins the presidency, will he ask his close spiritual advisor, Rev. Wright, to pray at his inauguration?

While emails questioning Obama’s Muslim roots flood the world-wide-web, and he answers those by pointing out that he is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ, an Afrocentric church that preaches what the New York Times calls Black liberation theology, a good question to ask is why does he continue to affiliate with a church, a pastor, that honors Louis Farrakhan, a man who called Judaism “a gutter religion,” the Pope an “Antichrist” and Adolf Hitler “a wickedly great man,” and said that “White people are potential humans - they haven’t evolved yet”?
Related:
-Oprah Winfrey Attends Wright’s Church

-Obama’s Pastor brings up Monica Lewinsky

-Wright’s video honoring Farrakhan)

-Farrak
han audio of UFO experience claim)
-Video about Barack Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ

© Sharon Hughes 2008

Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim, wants to be our President?
Obama even says if he wins the election, he will be sworn in on the Quran—not a Bible!

Can a good Muslim be a good American? This question was forwarded to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years. The following is his reply:

Theologically - no. . . . Because his allegiance is to Allah, The moon God of Arabia ..

Religiously - no. . . . Because no other religion is accepted by His Allah except Islam (Quran, 2:256)

Scripturally - no. . . Because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Quran.

Geographically - no . . Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns to in prayer five times a day.

Socially - no. . . Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.

Politically - no. . . Because he must submit to the mullahs (spiritual leaders), who teach
annihilation of Israel and destruction of America , the great Satan.

Domestically - no. . . Because he is instructed to marry four Women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Quran 4:34)

Intellectually - no. . . Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.

Philosophically - no. . . . Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran does not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatoria l or autocratic.

Spiritually - no. . . . Because when we declare “one nation under God,” the Christian’s God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as Heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Quran’s 99 excellent names. - - -

Therefore after much study and deliberation…. Perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. - - - They obviously cannot be both “good” Muslims and good Americans.

Call it what you wish..it’s still the truth. You had better believe it. The more who understand this, the better it will be for our country and our future. The religious war is bigger than we
know or understand. . ..

We must not tolerate Islam’s barbaric “Honor Killings” in America…

Sisters Sarah Said, 17, and Amina Said, 18, both students at Lewisville High School near Dallas, were found dead on Tuesday night riddled with bullets after being shot by their father after he threatened to kill them because they began to date boys and associate with non-Muslims. These girls who just wanted to live a normal life as American high school students, were slaughtered as honor killings, a practice perfectly acceptable under Islamic law. Yaser Abdel Said, the father and murderer, still remains on the loose.

We were outraged this morning, along with many other Americans after hearing about the honor killings of two young girls which occurred in Texas this past week. Outrage does not begin to describe the emotions felt when one hears of this disgusting ancient Islamic practice that took place right here within our own borders, taking the lives of two beautiful children. (see DVD “The New Barbarians: Training Children to kill“ and learn about Islam. www.caryltv.com)
We ask all members of the United American Committee to take action after reading about this outrageous, barbaric, and disgusting event by contacting mosques, Islamic centers, and Islamic groups to express your outrage at their silence and at their unwillingness to press for the reform of their ideology to bring them into the 21st century.
Please fight back - contact your local mosque and speak of your disgust at this barbaric behavior. You can use the following Islamic resource to find a local mosque or Islamic center to express your outrage. Be prepared to receive less than honest responses. Use their resource http://www.islamicfinder.com and enter your zip code.

It is important that we keep the pressure up and let them know that such ancient barbaric ideologies within their beliefs such as honor killings will not be tolerated in the West, and that they must act to reform their beliefs or else they are not welcome here.
For more information visit - http://www.unitedamericancommittee.org/said_sisters.jpg

THE GOLDEN COMPASS piggybacks off Harry Potter indoctrination!

1. Another Sinister Anti-Christian Assault Targets our Children.

Philip Pullman’s first book, The Golden Compass (USA title, Northern Lights, UK title) is to be released by New Line Cinema on December 7th. Pullman’s award–winning trilogy His Dark Materials second book, The Subtle Knife and the third, The Amber Spyglass all spell an atheistic antagonism towards Christians and Bible themes as it promotes not only black magick but also a loathing of “the church” seen as the enemy of “middle earth”, an alternative universe.

While countless hundreds object to Harry Potter’s glorification of child-friendly witchcraft and the reading aloud of its Wiccan and Pagan religious themes in the classroom, a more troubling concern is avowed atheist, Philip Pullman’s trilogy, which lures preteens, teens and indeed all its readers, into occult manifestations of spirits and wages outright battle against the Bible’s teachings on morals, creation, sin and the spirit world. The trilogy is published in 21 languages, combined sales have totaled more than I million, and it occupied #5 slot under the four Harry Potter adventures on the New York Times Book Review in 2001.

“But unlike J.K. Rowling’s tales of a young wizard, Pullman’s trilogy delves into the moral complexities of weighty philosophical and religious questions. The epic story, which was inspired by Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” subverts fundamental Western religious principles and is populated by compassionate witches, malevolent theologians and a feeble, disingenuous God.” (1) Some readers have accused Pullman “of endorsing Satanism” (2) and he says of himself, “…you can tell from the general thrust of the book that I’m of the devil’s party, like Milton” (3).

The most shocking instruction of Pullman’s trilogy is the idea that every human has a “daemon” (pronounced demon), an animal familiar that serves as the embodiment of a person’s soul. It is good, wholesome, able to be communicated with and takes on the “feelings” and “emotions” of the person it is attached to. In the last section of this five-part expose a definition of “daemons” is given by the actors, actresses, the director and crew of the movie from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5alYLJS4OrE but here, let’s examine Pullman’s ferocity towards “the church”.

THE CHURCH: “MAGISTERIUM”.

At the centre of Pullman’s plot is the “Magisterium”, the dark side of a political religion, a thinly disguised Roman Catholic Church during the Inquisition. His depiction of the despised “Magisterium” is an extreme cruel church body involved in assassination, kidnapping, torture and strict control. Many of Pullman’s vast audience are unsuspecting of his deliberate spiritual and social engineering in his anti-Christian plot. This, along with Harry Potter fantasy and much of so-called “entertainment is contributing to today’s pluralistic and secular “conditioning”, and is part of the apostasy (falling away from the faith. 1 Tim 4:1) the Bible predicts must take place before the swearing in of an end-time global religious, economic and political leader. Many of Pullman’s vast audience are also unchurched and not able to discern the wickedness of man-made religion in contrast to God’s “true” church comprising of a worldwide body of believers in His Son, Jesus Christ who value His accomplished work on the cross, the giving of His life for the deliverance of sinners and an eternity with God the Father.

Pullman’s “Magisterium”, indeed an evil dictatorial tyrant of an enemy, a dogmatic, institutionalized, man-made religious authority which seeks to gain control at the expense of people’s lives and freedoms is not distinguished from the True Church Body, indeed he conjectures: “every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling”. J.K Rowling, author of Harry Potter, employs the same disapproval against non-witches (Christians) or those who aren’t sympathetic to a pagan worldview and gives them the derogatory name, “muggles”. (See DVD Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged. Making Evil Look Innocent.) Pullman’s characters continue the anti-Christian propoganda and aggressively pit against “the church” (an ongoing agenda in government and the entertainment industry: see DVD “Gods of Entertainment”).

Of Pullman’s “church” the beautiful Witch, Queen Ruta Skadi says, “Let me tell you….who it is that we must fight….It is the Magisterium, the Church. For all its history….it’s tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can’t control them, it cuts them out….. They cut out the sexual organs…. And every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling. So if a war comes, and the church is on one side of it, we must be on the other, no matter what strange allies we find ourselves bound to….Lord Astriel (the heroine Lyra’s father) was my lover once, and I would willingly join forces with him, because he hates the Church.” (4)

(1) & (2) Alona Warofsky (Washington.com) The Last Word: Philip Pullman’s Trilogy for Young Adults Ends With god’s Death, and Remarkably Few Critics (Feb 19, 2001)
(3) Peter Hitchens : “This is the most dangerous author in Britain.” The Mail on Sunday, 27 January 2002, p.63
(4) The Subtle Knife. Pgs 50-55).

2. Undermining The Basics of Christian Beliefs

Philip Pullman, like J.K. Rowling, is British born and a best selling author of fantasy literature which has captured the hearts of millions of children worldwide. Pullman and Rowling both teach paganism in that they want to help their readers discover the possibilities “within”. Jesus said, no good thing comes from within, “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’;” (1)

Pullman’s moral teaching goes further. He says,”Harry Potter was born to be a wizard, and I don’t really like that idea. I wanted to get away from the notion that somebody is born with a particular destiny…Lyra’s and Will’s responses are the responses of every young person who is faced with something difficult and is courageous enough to deal with it.” (2)

12 year old heroine, Lyra’s “responses” lead her to have sex with Will Parry whose father had been a powerful shaman in another world. The “responses” Pullman speaks of are narcissistic and goad against Judeo-Christian morality. He does not approve God’s storytelling in the Bible because it teaches morality he rebels against. He says, ‘All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create. They teach the morality we live by. They teach it much more effectively than moral precepts and instructions… We don’t need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do’s and don’ts: we need books, time and silence. “Thou shalt not” is soon forgotten.’ (3)

Unlike Rowling who admires Christian author C.S.Lewis’s Narnia Stories, Pullman said, “I hate the Narnia books, and I hate them with deep and bitter passion, with their view on childhood as a golden age from which sexuality and adulthood are a falling away.”(4)

In his article: “This is the most dangerous author in Britain”, well known British journalist, author and broadcaster Peter Hitchens writes that Pullman actively pursues an anti-Christian agenda and that he “knows perfectly well what he is doing” in his attempts to undermine the basis of Christian belief.

A vital belief to Christianity is that God is eternal and The Creator, Who is outside of creation: “Who was, and is, and is to come.” (Rev 4:8). But Pullman’s philosophy states otherwise. His atheistic “concept” is a deification of “Dust”. In The Golden Compass, p.394 reads, “This will mean the end of the Church….the end of all those centuries of darkness! The Dust will change everything.”

Pullman explains:” Dust permeates everything in the universe, and existed before we individuals did and will continue after us. Dust enriches us and is nurtured in turn by us; it brings wisdom and it is kept alive by love and curiosity and diligent enquiry and kindness and patience and hope. The relationship we have with Dust is mutually beneficial. Instead of being the dependent children of an all-powerful king, we are partners and equals with Dust in the great project of keeping the universe alive. It’s a republican relationship, if you like, not a monarchial one. I don’t find it difficult to think that Dust might suggest a new kind of relationship with a God.” (5)

During his schooldays in Wales, Pullman spent much time with his Anglican Parish Priest grandfather, yet today rejects his Christian roots and is an outspoken atheist, supporter of the British Humanist Association and Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.

True to his religion Pullman rejects God as “Absolute Authority” but has his concept “Authority” killed off in the last book by 2 year old Lyra. He says, “… a brief word about the Authority…. The God who dies is the God of the burners of heretics, the hangers of witches, the persecutors of Jews….that God deserves to die. The Authority, then, is an ancient IDEA of God, kept alive artificially by those who benefit from his continued existence. (5)

The Creator God exists through His Own Power and Will and is not reliant on man to keep him “alive artificially”. Indeed mankind is kept alive because of His Grace. The God Who died, Jesus Christ, did so voluntarily, in an action of love and obedience in accordance with His Father’s plan for mankind’s salvation. Jesus said just before His crucifixion, “the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded Me.….the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me…” (John 14: 30-31)

It is the “prince of this world” Satan, who has had innocents burned, witches hung and Jews persecuted…and one day God will give Satan his due comeuppance and cast him into the Abyss prepared for him, until then Pullman’s arrogant writings are but futile jabbering.

(1) Matt 15:18-20
(2) Alona Warofsky (Washington.com) The Last Word: Philip Pullman’s Trilogy for Young Adults Ends With god’s Death, and Remarkably Few Critics (Feb 19, 2001)
(3) & (4) Peter Hitchens “This is the most dangerous author in Britain.” The Mail on Sunday, 27 January 2002, p.63 http://home.wlv.ac.uk/%7Ebu1895/hitchens.htm
(5) www.geocities.com/the_golden_compass/rvreligion.html)

3. Pullman’s Sources of Rebellion

At a Conference in Oxford, England in August 2000, Philip Pullman told the audience: “We’re used to the Kingdom of Heaven; but you can tell from the general thrust of the book that I’m of the devil’s party, like (John) Milton. And I think it’s time we thought about a republic of Heaven instead of the Kingdom of Heaven. The King is dead. That’s to say I believe the King is dead. I’m an atheist. But we need Heaven nonetheless, we need all the things that Heaven meant, we need joy, we need a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives, we need a connection with the universe, we need all the things the Kingdom of Heaven used to promise us but failed to deliver.” (1)

Pullman’s hatred of Christianity’s God and the church is influenced by Englishmen John Milton and William Blake. Pullman drew the name for his trilogy, His Dark Materials from Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost which became a major inspiration in his life, and in which Milton (1608 – 1674) grapples with many difficult theological issues, including fate, predestination and the Trinity. Milton’s grandfather was a devout Roman Catholic who disinherited Milton’s father for embracing Protestantism. Milton while raised in Christianity rejected the orthodox teachings on the Trinity and Divinity of Jesus and embraced several religious views outside of contemporary Christianity.

Milton was a proponent of monism that teaches everything in the universe including God, spirit beings, souls, minds, and all nature are composed of the same single material substance. He also believed that the soul dies with the body. Within the story Paradise Lost, he incorporates paganism, classical Greek and Christianity. Alan Jacobs, literary critic of Wheaton College, claims Pullman’s trilogy is a recasting of Milton’s trilogy, only instead of a theist world-view Pullman presupposes a world-view more in line with Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Rousseau was the developer of liberal and socialist theory proposing man is innately good but corrupted by society. By contrast, the Bible says that despite Adam and Eve dwelling in a perfect world, they chose to rebel against God. Falling from perfection they became sinners, their spiritual corruption, which all generations since have inherited.

Today, because of man’s continued rebellion against God, man remains a sinner bent on his own self destruction and that of his environment. However, once again, in the Millennium to come (the thousand year reign of government by Jesus Christ), like the Garden of Eden, God will perfect the environment and throw Satan, its destroyer into the Abyss, locked and sealed up so he can longer deceive the nations. (Rev 20:2-3). Afterwards, for a short time Satan is set free, and will once again deceive nations worldwide “in number they are like the sand on the seashore”. What could make a people who, for a thousand years had a righteous government and perfect environment rebel against “the camp of God’s people, the city He loves”? (Rev 20:7-10) The culprit is man’s heart! Jeremiah 17: 9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Yet Pullman and Rowling want their readers to look “within” for power and good decision making.

Another spiritual influence in Pullman’s life was artist and poet William Blake (1757 – 1827) who illustrated Milton’s Paradise Lost. Today, Blake is touted as “far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced”(2) yet poet William Wordsworth wrote: “There was no doubt that this poor man was mad…..whilst others accept him as mystic and visionary.” Blake was besieged by supernatural visions and spiritual apparitions and said, “The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself.” (3)

Blake’s hatred for “the church” and his philosophy about “imagination as existence itself” has influenced Pullman’s fantasy literature. Spiritual Imagination/visualization/looking within “as a state” is rooted in eastern mysticism’s practice of “the presence of God”, “yoga concentration”, “contemplative prayer, “communication with spirits, “meditation/stilling of the mind” et al.

Eastern meditation’s “stilling of the mind” is a self induced hypnotic trance, employing an emotional or volitional experience and is an integral spiritual vehicle to “connect” through use of spiritual imagination to the so called “reality” of “Human existence”. This discipline of “finding meaning” through “making the mind go blank or empty” differs from Biblical meditation which instructs us to rely on cognitivety: the mental processes of perception, memory, judgment, and reasoning to study Scripture’s doctrines as revealed by God’s Spirit of Truth and Wisdom. (See DVD Yoga Uncoiled: From East to West.)

Pullman’s heroine, 12 year old Lyra Belacqua “reads” her “truth meter”, the “alethiometer”, through eastern meditative skills, communicates with the spirit world around her and can tweak her mind/imagination at will: “…she (Lyra) found that she could sink more and more readily into the calm state in which the symbol meanings clarified themselves…. ‘It’s almost like talking to someone, only you can’t quite hear them, and you feel kind of stupid because they’re cleverer than you.” (Golden Compass. P 150)

“Lyra turned the hands to the (relevant symbols)…Then she sat still, letting her mind hold the three levels of meaning together in focus, and relaxed for the answer, which came almost at once…. She blinked once or twice as if she were coming out of a trance.” (Golden Compass. P 174)

“I got a way of making my mind go blank, and I just see what the pictures mean straightway.” (The Subtle Knife. P 94)

(1) Peter Hitchens: “This is the most dangerous author in Britain.” The Mail on Sunday, 27 January 2002, p.63
(2) Jonathan Jones. “Blake’s Heaven.” The Guardian. 2005
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake