Witchcraft Is No Longer Hiding

I recently heard someone claim that witchcraft is the fastest-growing religion in America. That statement is difficult to verify because witchcraft is not a single, defined category. Many people practice tarot, astrology, or spellwork without claiming any religious title at all. Still, the numbers should alarm the church. In 1990, roughly 8,000 American adults identified as Wiccan. By 2008, that number had grown to 342,000, representing a massive increase in less than two decades. When combined with those identifying as Pagan, the population reached nearly 682,000 according to the American Religious Identification Survey. The broader trends are equally concerning. Christianity has dropped from 78 percent of the American population in 2007 to 62 percent today. The vacuum left behind is not being filled by hard atheism but by a rise in homemade spirituality. Pew Research shows that 30 percent of American adults consult astrology, horoscopes, or tarot cards annually. Among women aged eighteen to forty-nine, that number is even higher at 43 percent. Many people identify as spiritual but not religious, and a vast majority of them believe in spiritual forces detached from the God of the Bible. Americans have not lost their appetite for the supernatural. They are simply trying to access it without submitting to God. They want power without obedience and spirituality without repentance. God has always treated such practices as grave sins. He addressed these matters clearly in His Word. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD. (Deuteronomy 18:10–12 KJV) Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them. (Leviticus 19:31 KJV) When the Gospel took root in Ephesus, the believers did not try to sanitize their occult practices. They rejected them entirely. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men. (Acts 19:19 KJV) We cannot treat witchcraft as harmless entertainment. We also should not treat those caught in it as enemies. Many are lost people searching for identity and hope in a dark world. They are turning to these things because someone offered them a counterfeit light. Jesus Christ remains the only answer. The church needs to preach the Gospel, teach discernment, and stop being embarrassed by the supernatural reality of the Bible. The occult has moved from the shadows into our bookstores and social media feeds while the church has been asleep. Wake up. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. (Ephesians 6:12 KJV) #MoreJoyMinistries