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| HEADACHE... ugh... |
| Dear Nathalie, Thank you for the letter, and the genuine concern for our credibility. However, I find that your arguments are far weaker than are ours. |
| It's only natural that you would find my arguments weaker than your own, otherwise you would believe the same as I. |
| Their letters are in this color, my letters are in this. |
| I sent them a e-mail, protesting against things like Harry being evil and corrupting kids etc. Here's what it became... *groans* Headache. |
| The Harry Potter series in inundating the youth of this country with occult practices and methodology. Even if some of the statements our site makes regarding these books is argueble, the previous statement cannot be argued. |
| Everything can, and will at some point, be argued. That Harry Potter would make children want to become witches and wizards might be true, but that does not make them turn to Wicca or similar religions. I have worked with children, and Harry Potter happened to be one of the few things they all liked. Though none of them actually believed that the books were remotely real, or that witches exist. |
| Actually, my greatest concern with your letter is the concern for your eternal destiny. |
| And I'm glad you are human enough to care, and I only wish you won't try to force-feed me your religion. It has happened several times before, and it only makes me even less willing to try to believe in your religion. If you are really meant to be a Christian (or anything else for that matter) you will find your own way there, if you drag someone kicking and screaming into a religion that person will never truly believe. |
| The Apostle Paul by the direction of the Holy Spirit wrote: "If we (Christians) have hope only in this life, we are of all men most miserable." What profound truth exists in this statement! You see, Nathalie, if we view Harry Potter, Wicca, Freemasonry, and other occult (or quasi-occult) pedagogies in the limited time-space continuum of today, they are all wonderful. However, when viewed in the light of eternity, these teachings foster tragic results. |
| You can't be sure about that. Everyone is doomed to be wrong some time. Would a God who loves you really want you to be miserable? I think not. So if these things makes you happy, shouldn't God approve of them? Besides, wouldn't being a Christian bring a similar kind of damage? There is no proof that one religion is the right one, and if, for an example, Hinduism would be the right one, do you honestly think that everyone who didn't believe in that would be punished? (*feels the urge to go watch 'Dogma' again*) |
| This, of course, leads us to the question: Where will you spend eternity? If you were to die today, what would become of your eternal soul? |
| No one can be sure. If there is a God I assume that this being would accept me with my faults, no matter if I had worshipped this God or not. |
| The Bible teaches that "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life". |
| But the Bible can be wrong, humans wrote it after all. And it is human to fail. |
| God has offered all men and women this gift, and all we must do is to reach out by faith and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as payment for our crimes against God. Have you trusted Jesus? If not, turn from sin and yourself, ask God to forgive your sin and save your soul, and trust God to keep His Word to you in this matter. |
| I cannot ask a being I don't believe exist to save something I don't believe anyone have. And I don't believe that I would have to worship a God to get my (questionable) sins forgiven. I have never thought of God and Satan as anything real, merely the best respectively the worst in us all. If you tell me that there is a God and that this being is materialized, then I'm afraid I can't believe you. The reason why I'm not practicing Wicca anymore was because those believes were not mine, and so far I haven't found a religion which matches my beliefs, though Wicca is the closest so far. Besides, if there really was an all-mighty God, then why would this God not stop all the horrible things that happens in this world? Why let humans hurt each other, and animals and the nature, when this God could have made us think in a different way, since God would be all-mighty God would have been able to see what would happen before it happened, and stopped it. The only thing that I can come up with to explain this is that God is very sadistic and I don't want to believe that so I prefer not to believe in God. |
| Please look to eternity, not the present. Please turn to Jesus today. |
| What if there is no eternity? Wouldn't it be better if we were all happy during the time we had rather than foolishly hope for happiness after death? I find that the Bible and the Harry Potter books are alike (except for the fac that I *want* to read Harry Potter and it's nothing you are forced to read in school). I've taken in what Brita H�ll wrote in her article about the books, mainly because it made sense. "To let an 11-year-old wizard play the role of Jesus isn't as far fetched as it might seem. For a child miracles and magic are the same thing. The author JK Rowling also makes it an important point to see the difference between good and evil wizards, positive and damaging use of magic. In Biblical spirit she shows that neither the good nor the evil is static. Like Satan in the beginning was an angel who fell, is the evil Voldemort from the beginning a good wizard who turn. Jesus is tempted in the desert to use his powers to his advantage. To Harry the road to personal gains is open, but he chooses not to walk it. ----- The headmaster Dumbledore plays the role of God. He is 'the greatest wizard in the whole world' and the only one Voldemort is truly afraid of. Dumbledore stays in the background, can see right into Harry and carefully steps into the action every now and then to help." (translated from Swedish by me, so I can assure you it sounds way better in the original language.) |
| Nathalie, Just a few more questions for you to ponder. I am not arguing or trying to force-feed you anything. I merely want you to consider all of the possibilities and ramifications of your condition. (Note: I have been classified with a condition. And strangely enough it is not depression.) What if I am right and you are wrong - or - you are right and I am wrong? Which one of us has lost the most? Me - so I may sacrifice a few of the pleasures sin has to offer for a few short years - But you, Nathalie are risking ETERNAL punishment for temporary pleasure. The arguement is made bleaker for you by the fact that ALL fulfilled prophecies of the Bible have been 100% correct - many time related prophecies fulfilled to the very day. (Note: It says on their homepage that divination is forbidden... hmm... I wonder...) Are you willing to take that risk? I do not want to start bantering back and forth, so you need not respond unless you feel that you need more information or direction. I am willing to help, but needless arguings gains nothing for either of us. (Note: Especially since no one ever answers my questions.) |
| I have one last question: Is there anything I could have said to make you change your mind about Harry Potter? |
| Thanks for writing back. Here is the bottom line: We have studied witchcraft and the occult sciences for more than 15 years (Note: I'm willing to bet that you had decided what it was all about before you even started.) in order to reach those that are entangled in these practices with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We also have been alerting the Christian community to the infusion of these philosphies into mainstream society. |
| Why not leave them alone? They don't try to get Christians into their stuff, so why should you get them into your? You should come voluntarily to a religion, because you were looking for it, not because someone broke down your faith in something else :( All I see is a more civiliced kind of witchhunt here. |
| That would be a 'no' then. And then I'm afraid that you are not the kind of people I'd like to surround myself with. Open mindedness is something I value highly in people around me, and this could never be classified as that. Wiccans doesn't worship Satan, they worship the all (or the God and the Goddess, which are the male and female aspects of the all. You can easily put this as an equal to your God), they are a nature religion and they are in no means any threat for you. If they leave you alone, why not leave them alone? There is obviously no point in even pointing out the similarities between the Bible and Harry Potter books, nor anything else that *should* be looked upon as a good thing in your eyes, since you won't listen. So I'm not going to. |
| Nathalie, With all due respect, (and I am trying to be kind and gentle with you, not mean and hateful) this is no witchhunt at all. We are giving the truth. |
| You don't know if it is the truth. The Bible is a book, if you choose to believe in what it is written in it, fine, but then let other people believe in other things. We know that Christianity is there, it's pretty hard to avoid it. |
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| Harry Potter is no different than the infusion of the same philosophies of the New Age Movement into the school system in the 1980's. We and many others were instrumental in alerting parents of the risk of occultic teaching to their young children. A course in occultism disguised with moral messages (whether it is Harry Potter, Duso the Dolphin, or Pumsy the Dragon) does not make it any more moral than any other such strategy. As a matter of fact, this is the same method that Freemasonry uses to advance their highly occult teachings. So to answer your question, I am afraid that we are too aware of the truth to be influenced by what anyone has to say. (Note: Read that a couple of times and think about what that means.) Actually, it is our hope that we can open your eyes to the truth and see what this could mean to young children. Please do not take these words sarcastic or harsh. I certainly do not mean to be unreasonable (*cough*), arrogant, or "holier than thou". We are genuinely concerned, and our years of study into this area have made us discerning enough to see the truth. Thus when we see the truth, we are bound by our calling to give the truth to others. |
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| The choice you make in this matter will be one you vividly remember 10,000 years from today. |
| Unless we are both wrong and there is no afterlife... *shrugs* |
| We give this information out of love and concern, not arrogance or hatred. We also do not force anyone to listen. We did not hold a gun to your head to make you read the information on Harry Potter, and I am not forcing you away from any belief system. You have a choice. You can accept the truth, or reject the truth. It is that simple. If the Holy Spirit of God is convicting you that your religion is false, you should listen to Him. |
| The same voice inside of me that is telling me that Wicca isn't my religion is also saying that neither is Christianity. Besides, there are many paths up the mountain, but they all reach the top in the end. |
| Now matter how gentle and loving the Wiccan adherant seems, that individual will face the wrath of God unless he or she turns to Jesus Christ. |
| This is fruitless, since you are trying to make me turn to a religion I don't even like in the first place and whatever I might say seems to have no affect on you (which can only be described as scary). |
| Furthermore, we are very aware of what Wiccans believe, nor this is not an attack on Wicca. There is much more of the occult sciences than Wicca, and black magik is a powerful force that has drawn many Wiccans to Satanism. |
| Which is their choice to make. No? This doesn't mean that all Wiccans turn to Satanism. |
| However, the Wiccan worship of the Mother Goddess is as big a lie of Lucifer as is Satanism. |
| Look, I practiced Wicca, that is what we do. We do not worship the devil, we do not sacrifice animals, we do not harm people. Naturally there are minorities who act differently, but you shouldn't judge a group on the actions of individuals. |
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| End of letters. Let me put is this way: When you stop listening to what people have to say, but still expect them to listen to you, something has gone *very* wrong. |
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