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I sat down one evening to watch a prime-time sit-com which is considered a family show. I was shocked, however, when the show opened with the children using a ouija ("wee-jee") board to try to predict the future.

To many Americans, the ouija board seems perfectly innocent. In fact, ouija boards are often made by toy companies and sold in toy stores. But the bare fact is that ouija boards, along with tarot cards, palm reading, crystals, tea leaves, astrology, numerology, spiritism, witchcraft, voodoo, seances, psychics, mediums, channels, etc., are forms of divination and the occult. As such, they are far from innocent and should be avoided like the plague.

Divination is the effort to perceive secrets or predict future events by magic or contact with spirits. It is just a small part of the superstition and paganism which pervades our society. Millions of Americans choose to put their "faith" in psychics, lucky charms, witchcraft, astrologers, and New Age gurus rather than in God.

Why? First of all, people are without a knowledge of God. True worship of the Creator has been largely excised from our society. In addition, the Church has failed to fulfil its task of declaring the Word of God to the world in spite of criticism, ridicule, and lawsuits. In the absence of declared truth, the unsaved have been seduced by their own carnal desires, lured into seeking happiness, pleasure, and fulfillment by ungodly means.

Second, the Church has failed to truly demonstrate what it says it believes. The world's indictment that Christians are hypocrites is sadly true in enough instances to give ammunition to those who are anti-Christ. The Church needs REVIVAL--not a special series of meetings to stir excitement, but a divine call to commitment, holiness, and service. I am convinced that God has been calling for some time. He is waiting on us to open our hearts, believe God's message, and submit to His will.

Third, from the beginning, people have desired power for themselves apart from God--in short, to become gods. This began in Eden when the serpent promised Eve that the forbidden fruit would make her "like God" (or "like a god," Genesis 3:5). Many, such as Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:30-33), Belshazzar (Daniel 5), and Herod Antipas (Acts 12:21-23) have sought to glorify themselves rather than the true God. Such people have, like Faustus of legend, sold their souls to the devil in exchange for the elusive promise of earthly wealth, power, and pleasure.

The devil has been busy. I find clear evidence of a Satan-inspired conspiracy to win the hearts and minds of the nation. Prayer and any reference to Christianity and the faith of the founding fathers has been censored in the public schools.

As Cal Thomas said recently, anti-Christians have taken the Ten Commandments out and put condoms in. Any Christian influence is denied under the banner of Separation of Church and State. In many documented instances, children's textbooks have contained favorable references to witchcraft and the occult, and have even taught pagan and New Age occult practices such as "guided imagery."

People of all ages are being fed a steady diet of sensuality, materialism, anti-religious bigotry, and New Age ideas such as the equal validity of all faiths, reincarnation, and past life regression by television, movies, and other media. Every news program has become a tabloid. Most major newspapers contain an astrological forecast, character-assassinating innuendo, and sexy tidbits. Movie and music stars, often the most narcissistic, exhibitionistic, self-serving, and needy people in our society, have been made society's real leaders.

In the Bible, the true God condemns the seeking of spiritual power and knowledge which is not of God (see Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 19:31, 20:6; Deuteronomy 18:10; 1 Samuel 15:23; Galatians 5:20).

You say that you don't really believe in divination or other pagan practices, that they are just for fun and perfectly harmless? Then why do you pay money for these things? Why do you even play with things that are an abomination to God?

You do these things because, deep down, you really hope they are true. But let me ask you:  if they have power, where does the power come from? What is the source? There are only two sources of spiritual power, God and Satan. If it is not of God, it must be of the other.

In Part 2, I will continue discussion of the deadly wave of paganism sweeping our country.