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Has anyone heard of this?

My wife (we are still seperated) has some friends who are Christian Wicca and she has been going to some of their meetings and she has been reading a book about it that they gave her.

I am scared for her and especially my kids!

She took some of my kids over to their house for a birthday party. The fact that they are Wiccans just really bothers me, I dont want my kids over there!! She said I was prejudice and narrow minded.

My wife says that Wiccans dont have anything to do with the Occult or paganism. I truley dont know that much, only what I've heard.

But from what I've heard this is a match that cannot be.

"You shall not permit a sorceress to live."
(Exodus 22:18 ESV)

There shall not be found among you ... anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD.
(Deuteronomy 18:10-12 ESV)

Now the works of the flesh are evident: .... sorcery...
(Galatians 5:19-20 ESV)

Hi Jayme, I know a fair bit about Wicca.

Your first problem is that the word means different things to different people and different groups. Some refer to themselves as "Wiccan" if they're just into trying to live a life taking care of the plannet, and others are fully paid-up witches. I could post you detailed information about dozens of different groups using the name "Wicca" and they would all have radically different beliefs, practices and terminology.

Generally Wiccan as a religion (which can incorporate the practice of Witchcraft and there are lots of different definitions of the word "witchcraft" too) is usually connected to Goddess worship and pagan elements such as magic and belief in spirits. Its a neopagan religion, in that its a modern attempt to make something akin to druidism or whatever religion existed before Christianity, but it doesn't actually have any link with any actual early religions rather than a few elements swiped from it. It didn't actually exist until the middle of last century. Its usually very female oriented which people like if they feel the church has been patriachal for too long. There's often a strong emphesis on healing and nurturing and blessing. (but if it isn't blessing from God its worthless)

There is a Christian wiccan movement that tries to blend the nature elements of Wicca with Jesus' teachings. Personally I think a lot of what Jesus said and did would have to be watered down or re-interpreted for it to work, but plenty of religions do that.

I think you need to find out what this Christian Wicca group actually believes since it could be anything from Mary-worship (apparently an aspect of the "goddess") to casting spells to simply having reverence for the seasons.

You mention paganism, another word that means different things to different people. Its actually fromn the french for "countryside" (rather like heathen) and originally just meant people who didn't live in the cities - and were thus uncivilised in their worship. Often it refers to pre-christian religions, or non-christianity, or even gets mixed up with satanism.

In my mind Christianity is incompatable with what is generally accepted as Wicca, but because people take words and re-define them (think how the JW's have re-defined words such as "Christendom" so that it means something radically different to a non-JW as to a JW) its hard to pin down actual beliefs.

I think you're right to be concerned. I think you need to find out exactly what these Christian Wiccans believe before you can go any further - although prayer is always pretty good in any situation....:friends:

But in the immortal words of Carman -

"I said "hold on a minute, I have to interrupt,
If Jesus ain't the only way this teaching is corrupt...""

There you go Jayme, you gotta kill your wife and every woman she's studying with!

Come on Prodigal Son, be fair. We are not under the Old Testament penal code any more, seeing that the Israeli Theocracy hasn't been in existence for 2500 years. However the moral condemnation of sorcery which underlies this law still stands.

This idea is sumarized in the London Baptist Confession of 1689, (which is also found in the Westminster Confession of 1647).

Matt

A girl I used to work with was Roman Catholic and converted to Wiccan. Her version of Wicca was that she still believed in God, but she also believed in other, lesser gods. She got into ouija boards, scrying, spellcasting and all that stuff. It was weird.

To keep this in perspective, consider the occult practises of the WTS.
Communicating with the dead. (See the WT Bangalor just posted)
Foretelling the future, looking for signs, sacrificing children, studying pyramids, numerology (used in prophecy, 1914,1925,1975), use of Masonic symbols in their literature etc. :coffeeread:

And the refusal of the representatives for Christ's blood and body are eerily very similar to the Satanist's 'black mass'. :fear:

:shocked:

Hi Malkah,

Thanks for your help.

Yes my wife says they just have a special interest in the planet and the life on it. But they also have these healing stones and rituals that they use to cleanse the body of evil and negativity. They gave my wife some and she wears them constantly, she goes to the cleansing ceremonies to get them charged back up.

I also believe that they dont follow Jesus in the way that the scriptures describe for true followers. They believe in many of his teachings but its not a relationship. Its more of a respect for the parts that they agree with. Many groups admit that the teachings of Jesus are valuable, but that is far from actually being a "slave of Christ" and putting complete faith in what he did at Calvary as the only way to salvation.

Who is Bangalor? :D

Warm Christian Love
Bangalore

I did the crystal healing thing back in the day. We used to "cleanse auras" with burning rowen branches.....

One of the problems is, with something like this, there is no structure at all. Only what "feels right" - which isn't a basis for any solid faith.

If you consider the main tenet of satanism (or of one branch) is (thank you Alistair Crowley, gotta love that man:funnyface:) "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." and the "white" witches (which is sometimes connected to Wicca) adapt this to read "If it harms no-one, do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."

This makes for, at best, an ineffectual faith where feelings rule supreme, and, at worst, an extremely dangerous path into the occult.

Again, another problem with this sort of group is you can never be sure who you're fellowshipping with. I personally knew people who trawled certain "soft" occult groups (Rieki healing etc) to find potential recruits for the hard stuff.

In Jesus none of that is necessary. His word and authority is all we need. But if someone doesn't realise this, or has a vague idea about Jesus but is not solidly grounded in him, its easy to get sucked into all the nice sounding new-age ideas.

Heaven forbid, I'm the last person to recomend doctrine and theology as a cure for anything, but there is something to be said for having a firm grasp of the scriptures, of what Jesus has done, of who He is and how one recieves salvation. When Matt talks about God's opinion of witchcraft/spells/divination in the OT, he has a point. God knows that its a dangerous, slippery slope, so it doesn't hurt to know what God says on the subject.

Mind you, I knew the whole Tanakh pretty well and I still thought it was somehow okay to read the runes and Tarot and do some other wierd stuff that I'd rather not discuss. So really, God's the one who needs to open blind eyes.

XXXXX

Isn't he your evil twin whom you keep locked away in the attic.......?:funnyface:

Hi Malkah,

What you said here about there being no structure and following feelings I think really explaines why it is appealing to my wife.

I think she is tired of all the strict structure that her life has been under as a JW. Now she can express her feelings and exercise her free will over her life without having to check with the WT or hear about it from the elders.

She is very much into following her "feelings" and I have infact heard her say similar to what you mentioned, doing as one feels as long as it dosnt hurt someone else.

One problem I see with this though is that, with so much focus on self and "your feelings", others will eventually be hurt in some way. Consider the contrast with how Christians strive to be focused on Christ rather than self and seek to imitate His focus on others, even at the discomfort of themselves.

But I can understand her need at this time to try to find her "self" because the WT takes that away and dosnt replace it with something truley sustaining, the way only Jesus can.

:drinking: jayme

Malkah had one branch right, but there is another Christian-Wicca Branch, which are the ones who recognize either Jesus or Yahweh as being their patron God, some also include the Shekina into this as a Goddess figure. The issue here though is the fact that "Wicca" as it stands, has too many off shoots that the traditional sense of the term has been lost, and there are too many things to it to pin down.:read:

Some see it as a healing, of using what the Earth gave them to protect others, not necessarily using "Magicks". :wizard: In fact I known some Wiccans who will not use Magick, but who pray instead. I even know one CW who says she sees Jesus as an "aspect" (a form of the Lord that is holy and real and lives in the universe to guide us) and that the basis of his teaching is found in every holy text. Love, basically, protecting your neighbours, not holding grudges, etc... She's a very loving person, in fact, and acts more Christian than some Christians I know. :shocked:

Honestly, this is a very complicated and multi-faceted story, especially as some forms of Paganism and Wicca are so flowing and eclectic. I think personally what they call themselves is irrelevant, as long as they love and follow the laws of God. Too many people are so willing to throw labels upon people, that sometimes they miss something beautiful. And sometimes they cover something ugly. I'll not say much more on this subject though as it is a touchy and odd one. :friends: