Eric Barger's

TAKE A STAND! Ministries

"Discerning the Times in the Light of the Word"

Whats Wrong With Harry Potter?

Gregory R. Reid, DD

On the heels of the riotous release of the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and the yet to be confirmed opinion by a major ministry that the Harry Potter series is harmless, I have felt it necessary to write my own comments on this issue. Many parents will not like it. Neither will some pastors. Please do NOT ask me if I care. Right now I am so angry at the level of compromise I am encountering among believers on occult matters that I am not interested in popular opinion. I am just interested in truth as I have come to understand it, according to the flawless, perfect Word of God. If you don't like that, don't read this. I did not survive and live to be a relatively healthy, intact adult after suffering horrific abuse, by "accentuating the positive and e-liminating the negative." When I became a follower of Jesus thirty one years ago today as I write this, I was a wounded, bleeding mess. No psychology could have healed me. I'd already been judged as "the most messed up person I have ever met" by one psychologist I sought help from at 17. No, I survived purely because of one Book - and I devoured it like a starving man. My first Bible was tattered in a year, every line highlighted, the margins filled with notes. No one will ever know what that Book has meant to me. Knowing the Author has made every word alive to me. So what does that have to do with Harry Potter? For the believer, everything. I find it unfortunate and heartbreaking that I am having to go over basic, simple truth regarding the occult for believers, because they are not being told - much less taught - the truth, and it is continually being blocked at a pulpit level. I've sounded the alarm about this for years. Now, perhaps, I can help you see the result of Biblically ignorant believers and blatant disregard for God's opinion on the occult. Now we have druids and British pastors meeting to "dialogue" and find common ground. Now, we have believers slithering like snakes in church and even sounding like pigs. I am not making this up: They have the audacity to call it the "anoinking of the Spirit." THIS is what results from no real clear teaching on what is of God and what is of the occult. Now, we have Pokemon and Harry Potter, and who cares? It's harmless, right? Just some cards. Just a fairy tale book with GREAT lessons about good vs. evil, where good always wins! Isn't that positive for kids, doesn't it teach kids to love books? To love reading? Listen, I know a GREAT book that teaches both WITHOUT witchcraft! But then, if the parents think it's so boring and useless that they only read it in church, and don't bother reading it to their kids, how can you expect kids to either love it or learn from it? I'm talking about the Bible of course. And I fully believe that communicated well, the Bible is flat-out the most interesting, powerful book in the universe. And unlike Harry Potter, it's TRUE.

As to teaching kids to love reading, I know plenty of satanist kids who are profoundly addicted to both reading and learning - from books on the Black Arts. Better an ignorant teen who loves Jesus than a killer satanist who loves to learn and has a through-the-roof I.Q., don't you think? And no, this is not a plea for raising stupid kids. But love of reading and learning is not a virtue in itself. In God's hands, it is a gift, though it is not the sainted all-important goal modern Americans think; in the devil's hands, it is a weapon; it becomes the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Love of reading is certainly not evil. Kids NEED to read. But it is NO guarantee of moral character. Ayn Rand - Voltaire - Lenin - brilliant readers and writers all - and totally godless, antichristian influences in their day. I mention this so I can knock down the ridiculous notion that Harry Potter is good because it teaches kids to love reading. In my line of work, when you leave the "spiritual" element out of things, there is in fact a huge difference, for example, between Harry Potter, the Satanic Bible, and on a more extreme level, H.P. Lovecraft's satanic rituat book, The Necronomicon. Harry Potter is not likely to snap some child's mind and make him a psychopathic killer. The Necronomicon, a purely evil, incendiary and demonic book, could. Believe me, I understand the difference. A kid with a pocket full of Pokemon and wall covered with Potter paraphernalia would probably not qualify for me as someone who needed immediate crisis intervention. On the other hand, a kid with black walls and skulls and razors and clueless parents who stay out of his room so as not to violate his "privacy", would qualify. When you consider the spiritual aspect, however, all of this takes on an entirely different dimension. The difference between The Necronomicon, for example, and Harry Potter is the difference between toxic death and subtle poison. I have a dear relative who experienced slow, gradual arsenic poisoning. It was so gradual in fact, that she nearly died from it before she realized what had happened and who was behind it. Harry Potter is just such a poison. What is the harm of Harry Potter? Just that it makes magick attractive, exciting, enticing. Kids look at THAT - and then they look at their own faith and that of the people in church, and oftentimes what they see is that the God of the Christians is presented as powerless, someone who is far removed from us and has no authority over evil. I have never known that God - my God is FULL of power - but many kids know ONLY that misrepresentation. Then they look at Harry Potter, and they compare "faiths" - which one do YOU think they are going to be drawn to? And it is not so much that Harry Potter is the problem. People have ALWAYS written spiritual pornography. (That's what it is.) It is that believers refuse to take a stand against it, rather compromising with it because "all the other kids read it." Well, if you want YOUR kids to be all the other kids, then that's what you'll have. But if you understand how strong the prohibition against witchcraft is in the Bible, allowing your kids to indulge the Potter madness is not an option. Listen to the Word of the Lord:

"Suffer not a witch to live>" (Exodus 22:18) And no, I am not suggesting this as a way to eliminate the problem with witchcraft in our country. It was something Israel had to do to protect their covenant and their country. But just because we're in New Testament times doesn't mean since we don't kill 'em therefore we just let 'em in for dinner. Which is quite literally what you do when you let Mr. Potter in the door. Now go ahead and call that extreme. But I didn't write the Bible. I'm just TELLING you what it says. You can twist it any way you please to make it say what you want it to. But if you claim to follow Jesus then understand that acceptance of witchcraft or the occult in any way shape or form, whether through Potter or the little Astrology bit you just can't resist reading in the paper, it is FORBIDDEN and it is POISON. "But", someone says, "It's FANTASY! Don't you know the difference between real witchcraft and fantasy for children?" Uh, don't YOU know the difference between real sex and pornography? Pornography is more dangerous in the long run because it blurs the line between reality and FANTASY. Potter is SPIRITUAL PORNOGRAPHY. And as even mass murderer Ted Bundy admitted before he was executed what a HUGE role pornography played in him actually acting OUT the despicable crimes he would later commit, fantasy books on magick are just as deadly because they ALSO blur the line between fantasy and reality. The argument that because it's "fantasy" it is not "dangerous" is ludicrous. Now. The next argument is, "It's not witchcraft like the Bible says. Harry Potter is a sorcerer." (Please refer to previous articles on Christians who have no idea what the occult is.) The New King James reads: "Do not allow a sorceress to live."Witchcraft and sorcery are exactly the same thing. Another key scripture: "And (Manasseh) caused his sons to pass through the fire...he practiced soothsaying (telling the future - psychic hotline mean anything to you?) , used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums (psychics) and spiritists (those who talk to the dead.) He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger." "But I don't do those things!", someone protests. Well Harry does it all. So maybe you're just a "Potter enabler." Nahum 3:4 calls this activity spiritual adultery. Before I hear something about us being in the New Testament under grace, let's read Galatians 5:19-20: "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are these...witchcraft..." etc. There are dozens of similar passages. Paul actually encountered a Harry Potter wannabe, who followed them around like a town cryer, saying, "Listen to these men, they show you the way to God!" I imagine some Christians, who can't tell the Holy Spirit from a demon spirit, and who don't know the truth of the scripture from the deception of the world through the media, would have said, "Wow, she's really supportive of Paul!" But if you read the "original Greek" (I love that phrase, it makes me feel like I'm back in Bible School!) she is actually saying, "They show you A way to God!" The devil is very sneaky, and he can fool a lot of people who don't understand how fine edged the truth is, discerning between soul and spirit, bone and marrow. The Bible doesn't say there are WAYS to God: Just one. "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life: No one comes to the

Father but by Me", Jesus said, and Acts tells us that "There is NO OTHER NAME under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." Paul of course, knowing the truth and full of the REAL Spirit, turned around and rebuked the spirit in her, which came out screaming I imagine. And the result was, she got saved, and a bunch of big businessmen using her occult talents to get rich got UNEMPLOYED! When the occult demon left her, she had no powers left! Isn't that great?

Did you know that J.K. Rowlings, author of Harry Potter, is projected to make $100 MILLION DOLLARS off of the latest Potter book, Goblet of Fire"? You better believe that the occult is big business, from Potter to Sabrina, from Marilyn Manson to the Psychic Hotlines. And I am not endearing myself with the world, nor with very many believers, in taking such a hard line against such an "innocent" story. Listen folks: I have a right to say this, most of the skeptics don't. I paid a price for 7 years of deep occult involvement, lured in part by "innocent" games like "light as a feather", Gong Hee Fot Choy, Jeanne Dixon's astrology column, and other "harmless" things. And it has left scars that are deep and permanent. (Not wounds, thank God - God heals those. The scars do remain.) So please don't tell me I am an extremist. First of all, I didn't shoot the dog. I'm just reporting God's opinion to you, and it's up to you if you want to ignore it because you don't like it, or obey it because He said it. Secondly, you are hearing from a man who nearly lost his life because of involvement in escalating occult activities that started out with "Pottertype" stuff. And I am a voice crying in the wilderness against our complacent compromise. Why? Because while we are talking cutesy about this WONDERFUL book series that makes kids want to read, I am wondering what the results will be from a satanic rock band that recently came to Dallas and convinced 5,000 kids to get on their knees in a mockery of the Christian altar call and give their lives to satan! And you wonder why I am so extreme. Sheesh. You do the math. No - kids who read Harry Potter won't automatically become devil worshippers. But EVERY kid who reads it will open up the door of their mind - some a little, some a lot - to the whispers, influences and lies of demonic spirits. That's just spiritual fact. Get angry at me if you must - if I'm wrong, well, then by all means, buy them all and read them with your kids - after all, it IS a terrific read. But if I am right - don't call me down the road when your kids starts participating in a Wiccan group and you are upset because you don't know where you went wrong, having raised them in church and all that. Now's your best chance to say, "I've had enough of the compromise. No more Potter, no more Pokemon, no more Halloween, no more R rated movies (ouch!) and no more contamination in my house." "But my kids are bored with God!" That's not His fault. Do you really think a good antidote to God- boredom is an immersion in Potter mania? If you want your kids to get on fire, not with Potter's Goblet but with truth, then get into the Book of Acts, read it, believe it, live it, and walk it, and get kids to do the same. There's more supernatural in that book than a hundred books JK Rowlings might be yet to write. It's the REAL power. And if you think "God doesn't do miracles anymore" then I truly feel sorry for you, because the Devil knows differently, and as long as he can convince believers that he has more power today than God, then he can continue to devour our youth into the black hole of occultism.

As for me, I'm going to walk in the might of who God really is. I trust you will do the same, dispense with this silly and dangerous compromise and become the true warriors God has called us to be. Gregory R. Reid greid@elp.rr.com

Read more from Eric's book Entertaining Spirits Unaware Read more about Harry Potter If you are not already a subscriber to Take A Stand! O N L I N E click here! Take A Stand! Ministries - POB 1485 - Rowlett, TX 75030 (972) 495-9490 http://www.ericbarger.com