Should Christians Watch Movies Like Harry Potter?

Should Christians seek entertainment from movies that are based on themes that God says are an abomination to him?

Many Christians soak themselves in movies like Harry Potter and Vampire sagas, movies that are centered around

occult practices that God says are an abomination to him.

Can Christians be entertained for hours on end by such movies without it impacting their spiritual lives,

without grieving the Holy Spirit and reducing the power and effectiveness of their Christian lives?

Are movies and shows like these just mere entertainment, or do they promote the occult to unsuspecting people in

subtle ways?

Let's look to find out.

First, let's explore what the Bible says about occult practices.

Ephesians 6 states, Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the

devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the

rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

So, apparently there are real principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness.

Are these on the radar of most Christians today?

Exodus 7 records that Pharaoh's magicians were able to turn their staffs into snakes, turn water to

blood, and summon frogs, possibly using illusions or deceiving power from Satan.

Jesus cast out numerous evil spirits.

So did his disciples under the power and authority he gave them.

Paul cast out demons, including one from a girl who foretold the future by its power.

Deuteronomy 18 says, When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not

learn to follow the abominations of those nations.

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices

witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who

conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your

God drives them out from before you.

It just so happens that all eight of these practices are well represented in the Harry Potter series.

For Christians wanting scriptural support for being entertained by occult themed movies, plays, or books like

Harry Potter, here's a list of supporting Bible verses.

On the contrary, the Bible goes so far to say that we should not even listen to those who practice the occult.

Wait, doesn't the Bible prescribe grace so that what some might find offensive, others might find as innocent

entertainment?

Well, not really.

These verses deal with dietary convictions and the observance of certain holy days, not even close

to being entertained by content that God calls an abomination.

Next, let's look at occult practices today.

Witchcraft is one of the fastest growing religions in the world.

Surveys show Wicca had an average annual growth of 143 between

1990 to 2001, and experts report that it's the fastest growing spiritual

identification in America, with the number of Americans that are Wiccans doubling every 30 months.

Even Newsweek is picking up on this.

Police departments nationwide now even have detectives assigned to finding and prosecuting satanic

ritual abuse crimes.

Dr. Don Perlmutter is a ritualistic crimes expert who trains law enforcement officers to identify

and solve these difficult cases.

Pennsylvania woman says she has killed at least 22 people from Alaska to North Carolina in the last

six years as part of her involvement in a satanic cult.

Numerous people are incarcerated for these offenses.

Many more seek healing from its effect in their lives.

Just how did we get here?

Perhaps one reason is the heavy occult push of TV shows and movies.

The Hollywood entry into the occult started in the 1960s with the show Bewitched, but it wasn't long

before we were bombarded with The Witches of East Wick, The Craft, Practical Magic, Sabrina

the Teenage Witch, a show so close to the real thing, it was even caught up in a legal battle with the

Satanic Temple for its use of their satanic baphomet symbol.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, The Originals, and many others.

Let's not forget all the vampire movies that were box -office hits and The Vampire Diaries TV show.

It's also remarkable how the influx of these shows has normalized the occult to the point that public school reading

programs are now saturated with occult content.

Harry Potter books have been on the bestseller list for many years running with leading public textbook distributor,

Scholastic.

Yes, the largest publisher of children's books in the world is distributing repackaged witchcraft to

millions of schoolchildren.

But isn't all this occult emphasis in media just for show and thrills?

Something interesting to base a good story on.

Actually, Hollywood is soaked with the occult.

Consider Angelina Jolie's experiences.

Next, look at a couple NFL halftime shows drenched with occult symbolism.

First of all, it's the Super Bowl.

I mean, the Super Bowl is kind of like the Holy of Holies in America, right?

So, like, here I am.

I'm gonna come into the, like, the halfway between, like, the church, the church

experience, and I'm gonna have to deliver a sermon.

It's gonna have to be very impactful.

It really shouldn't have been much of a shock to watch Madonna steal the stage for the Super Bowl 46 halftime show as

she rode in upon her Illuminati throne.

Aside from dancing alongside depictions of Baphomet and a fallen angel, this halftime show performance

also had its fill of subliminal messaging.

But the real focal point of this Illuminati ritual for me was during the closing song where Madonna

took the stage with the gospel choir standing before the Illuminati all -seeing eye and

openly worshiping Lucifer when she sings her famous song, Like a Prayer.

Switching gears from blatant witchcraft and satanic rituals to the seemingly mundane by

comparison performance in 2013 when Beyonce took the stage at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Despite flashing the Illuminati hand sign or the giant illuminated eye taking center stage during

the final number, this relatively tame halftime show performance showcased one of the Illuminati's and

Hollywood's darkest agendas.

I raised my hands up and it was kind of the first time I felt

something else.

Come into me.

Closing out our list is the Queen herself appearing in the 2015 halftime show Katy Perry.

That's how I got introduced to the music industry.

I swear.

I wanted to be like the Amy Grant of music.

Yeah.

But it didn't work out and so I.

Sold my soul to the devil.

Katy Perry has dabbled in a little bit of everything.

So when it came time to choose a musical artist to represent the whore of Babylon, Katy Perry was

undoubtedly the obvious choice.

Dressed in flames to represent a phoenix, Katy Perry took to the checkerboard stage where the pieces for

the ultimate Illuminati halftime show fell into place.

Capping off both ends of the performance representing the light of Lucifer, this Freemasonic virtual

went right under the noses of the general public.

Occult hand signs and symbols like the covered eye, the triple six or six six six, taken from

Revelations 13 as the number of the beast or Satan's number, and satanic horns are

commonly displayed.

The all -seeing eye, the symbol of the sun god Lucifer or the eye of Horus, who is Lucifer in

Egyptian satanic mysteries, is frequently shown.

Even the satanic pentagram that has been used for centuries in satanic churches is now proudly displayed in

many movies, including some of the latest Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts movies.

Harry Potter star Emma Watson proudly sports satanic signs and Daniel Radcliffe recently

starred in a movie called Horns that's full of occult symbolism and themes.

Next, let's turn to Harry Potter specifically, not to single it out, but because it's one of the leading movie

franchises in history and one that is openly based on occultic themes.

Over the last 20 years, over 500 million Harry Potter books have been sold.

The movie series has grossed over 8 billion dollars at the box office.

The entire Potter franchise, with all of the books, films, theme parks, tours, theater shows, and

toys, now exceeds 25 billion dollars.

Consumer research shows that over half of all the children between the ages of 6 and 17 have read at

least one Harry Potter book and 25 of Americans have seen all of the movies and 61

had seen at least one.

Does Harry Potter stir up interest in witchcraft?

That's certainly what Ed Hubbard thinks, the guy who founded the witch school that has campuses in Illinois and

Massachusetts.

J .K. Rowling created a phenomena that brought magic to the forefront of human thought and unwittingly

reopened a new round of ancient battle.

Christianity's battle to destroy witchcraft in all its forms.

Harry Potter has rekindled interest in beliefs that were already growing in the United Kingdom and the United States for

more than 50 years and that belief is a faith called Wicca.

Film producer Warner Brothers admits that the first Harry Potter movie was an accurate portrayal of witchcraft and even

the author herself claims that one -third of the material was drawn from real witchcraft practices.

A new exhibition at the British Library in London reveals how she relied on the real history of magic and

alchemy to create her wizarding world in Harry Potter.

I think what I'm hoping people take away from the exhibition is that there's this huge rich

historical history of magic and folklore that kind of lies behind the Harry Potter books and that a

lot of things that they might have thought were imaginary are actually based on fact.

So the idea about bizarre stones, they can come and see a real bizarre stone, they can come and see alchemical manuscripts describing how

to make the Philosopher's Stone, they can see Nicholas Flamel's tombstone.

Hopefully they'll be really inspired by that and inspired by the history in the stories and understand that J .K.

Rowling knew a huge amount about the mythology, the folklore and the science

and the magic behind the stories that she incorporated very lightly into her stories, which gave them a huge amount of

layers of depth and interest.

So at the moment we're in the divination room, it's my favourite room in the exhibition and I think divination

is kind of treated with a bit of humour in the books and as if it's not too serious a subject but I

actually love the kind of historical accounts of it and all the different ways that people have tried to work out what's going to happen in the

future.

I have a lot of fun with divination in the Potter books because I make it quite clear that you get lucky once every million

times.

We've got books about palmistry and tea leaf reading and some kind of practical

equipment that you could use for those things.

I think one of the things I learned about witches is that they get a really bad rep through history

and that it's quite hard to find positive accounts of them, which is what we really wanted to focus on in the exhibition.

But once we did start looking for positive accounts, they were out there, they were just a bit rarer.

And I'm really excited that we're able to show a painting by John William Walthouse called The Magic Circle, which is a very

positive portrayal of a witch.

She's very kind of beautiful and she's doing protective magic and it's different from the kind of

more traditional negative view of witches that you get in a lot of books of the

time.

Well, I think the Harry Potter books have done a lot to change that.

I think trying to think about magic as something that can be

used for good in the books is a really important part of them.

Witches and wizards in the Potterverse, they are morally neutral.

You are as good or as bad as you decide to be.

There's nothing inherently wrong about performing magic.

It's simply an ability that some people have.

Harry Potter books and films are full of magic, witchcraft, and wizardry.

The lead roles are played by wizards, witches, and other magical creatures.

Unlike other fantasy children's stories that contain witches and the like, such as the Chronicles of Narnia, the

Harry Potter books do not have a positive biblical worldview.

The distinction between good and bad can become blurred as both the good and evil characters participate in different

types of witchcraft and magic.

Witches and wizards.

In the Potterverse, they are morally neutral.

You are as good or as bad as you decide to be.

There's nothing inherently wrong about performing magic.

It's simply an ability that some people have.

The Bible clearly condemns all kinds of witchcraft, sorcery, and spiritism.

In fact, there's not a single instance in the Bible where the occult is represented favorably or as acceptable

fantasy or entertainment.

Further, Potter movies include dozens of references to real life, nonfiction places, persons, and

occult practices that make it vastly different than other movies.

Does every Christian develop a fascination for the occult after watching Harry Potter?

Certainly not.

Do some?

Yes, absolutely.

At least that's what the official Wiccan religious organizations are saying.

In fact, the Pagan Federation in England had to appoint a special youth officer to reply to the flood of

inquiries following the success of the Harry Potter books, stating it was quite probably linked to things like Harry

Potter, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

According to this London article titled, Potter Fans Turning to Witchcraft, the Pagan Federation deals with an

average of 100 inquiries a month from youngsters who want to become witches, and it claims it has occasionally

been swamped with calls.

So, what's the problem with Harry Potter?

As we see it, there are several.

First, there's the fundamental issue of seeking entertainment from movies that are based on content that God calls an

abomination.

There was a strong reason that God wanted to drive out such practices from his people, and we doubt his views have

changed.

Next, non -Christians and Christians with shallow roots are likely to be swayed by these influences to explore

occult practices, entering directly into what God calls an abomination.

In the words of ex -occultist Stephen Dolan's, Here is Satan's plan.

You whet the appetites of children who are confused and not quite grounded in family morals, values, and

standards, and introduce them to Harry Potter, a boy wizard who learns and practices the art of witchcraft and

sorcery.

You then bolster their interest in these practices and instill in them the idea that there is no good or evil, only

magic, and that it's okay to practice witchcraft because it's a moral, wholesome thing to do, as well as the

fact that you will receive a reward from it.

Finally, when their interest in these practices is at its highest peak, offer use of the internet, which is

exploding with information that is theirs for the taking.

Teach them how they too can be just like Harry Potter.

Just because a book is fiction, does this mean it has no effect on its readers?

The sober reality is that fiction is a powerful communicator of ideas that influence both thought and

behavior.

With the leading book publisher in the US flooding students with Harry Potter books, it's not surprising that there is such an

increase in those joining in the practice of witchcraft and magic arts.

The internet is full of kids attempting to develop their spell -casting abilities.

There are untold numbers of people who are rooted away from exploring Christianity and its truths because their

fascination is captured by occult -based movies.

We also believe that all Christians who soak in these movies are, at a very minimum, desensitizing themselves

to occult themes, relegating them from actual satanic forces to the places of harmless entertainment,

not knowing the extent to which the enemy uses these movies to lead people astray.

Movies like Harry Potter desensitize people to the reality of the occult, shifting evil to the place of

myth, fantasy, and entertainment.

We guarantee that people would think twice about enjoying a Harry Potter movie after observing actual satanic

ritual abuse, a practice that goes on more often than most know about.

If the occult is all just fantasy, then why does the Bible condemn it so strongly?

God's Word certainly doesn't endorse the fake or fantasy kind either.

For some grounded Christians, the effects may seem to be minimal.

However, they can do something just as bad.

They can reduce their effectiveness for living powerful, faith, and spirit -filled life.

If Scripture tells us to strive to be full of the Holy Spirit and not to grieve the Holy Spirit, it's logical

to conclude that our actions and lack of actions play a part in the same.

Scripture says repeatedly that we should be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Is this going to happen by saturating our minds and hearts with occult themed movies like Harry Potter?

The Bible also admonishes that we should not grieve the Holy Spirit.

Can we grieve the Holy Spirit without even knowing it?

While God Himself is the one who fills and the one who is grieved, we certainly play a part by protecting our vessels,

the very container He wants to fill and empower.

The prophet Ezekiel warned us against occult practices that can actually drive God far away from His own

sanctuary.

Today, we are that sanctuary, the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says that we should have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Psalms warns us not to set anything wicked before my eyes.

Deuteronomy cautions us not to even bring abominations or detestable things into our houses, but to

destroy and abhor it.

Thessalonians cautions us to examine or test everything carefully, hold fast to that which is good,

and to abstain from every form of evil.

Leviticus 20 states, and the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits to prostitute himself

with them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from his people, and continues by saying that we should

consecrate ourselves and be holy and keep God's statutes because He is the Lord who sanctifies

us.

Finally, Ephesians says that we should have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather

expose them.

Would Jesus watch hours of Harry Potter movies, especially given His act of ministry against demonic

oppression of His day?

What should you do if you feel like you've already crossed over the line, gone too far?

Fortunately, with God's power, the solution is simple.

First, expunge these movies and paraphernalia from your life and home.

Next, repent, asking God to cleanse your life and your mind, will, and emotions from these things.

Next, replace these with things that are true, noble, just, pure, and lovely, and meditate

on these things.

Focus on setting your minds on things above, not on things on the earth, and learn to not be conformed to

this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that you can prove what is that good and

acceptable and perfect will of God.

Acts 19 describes how God's Spirit convicted many who were practicing magic.

They confessed their deeds and burned all their books, valued at 50 ,000 silver pieces.

When I was younger, I enjoyed playing competitive paintball games.

I'll never forget sharing some of my fun paintball experiences with a vet who fought in the Vietnam War.

After trying to persuade him to come out to some of our battles, he grew quiet.

Finally, he said, why would I want to go reenact battle when I've seen the real thing?

Friends, witchcraft is real.

Movies like Harry Potter make it look like fun and games.

It's not.

It also lures many to directly or indirectly engage in practices that are specifically forbidden in God's

word, and for good reason.

As Focus on the Family's Lindy Beam said, anytime the dark side of the supernatural world is

presented as either harmless or even imaginary, there is the danger that children will become curious and find out

too late that witchcraft is neither harmless or imaginary.

The Bible says that these things are an abomination to the Lord.

So why would you want to be entertained by them?

If David said that he will set no vile thing before my eyes, so he wouldn't offend the Lord, why would you

want to go watch hours of movies that promote and exalt the very thing that God says is an abomination to him?

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