Salem Witch Trials

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry, Mike Capenroth here.

Glad you're here.

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Discovering Colossians by S.

Lewis Johnson, adapted by myself, is out on Amazon.

Discovering Colossians, it's a great, warmly written by S.

Lewis commentary that has great footnotes, say goodbye to endnotes, and you can pick it up at Amazon if you'd like.

If you want to order a bunch of them, somebody just order 25, you get a deal, 40% off if you have a bulk order like that.

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Also, I will be two places this fall, Lord willing, who knows with a variety of things that are going on in my life, if you make it or not, but I'm scheduled to speak at the Pactam Conference with Pat Ebenroth, Michael Beck, D.G.

Hart, that's in Omaha, the 6th and the 7th, I think we offered free tickets to someone earlier, and I'm secondly going to be in Kingsport, Tennessee.

I've never been down in that region of Tennessee before, I've been only to Memphis, so I'm sure this is way better.

The Deeply Rooted Conference.

It's on the topic, a topic that I like to talk about, assurance.

And there are eight speakers, I will be there the 10th and 11th, and slip back home to preach here on Sunday morning.

You can register at deeplyrootedpodcast.com, deeplyrootedpodcast.com.

I look forward to meeting all the men there, the speakers, I've had some interaction with Joshua Banks before, and I know of Sean Morris through PresbyCast, but beyond that, Deeply Rooted Conference, November 10th and 11th, in beautiful Kingsport, Tennessee, on the doctrine of assurance.

I like that, so I think maybe I'll show up if I need to, but this is my first time flying a Legion Air, so I'm not sure about that.

The other day, I was working through a passage in 1 Peter, and at the end of 1 Peter 5, it says about Satan, Be sober-minded, be watchful.

Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

To him be the dominion forever and ever.

And we, as evangelicals, I'm sure you do as well, since you're probably an evangelical if you're listening.

Maybe you're a pagan that likes the show, who knows? You believe that there's a real devil.

Obviously, the devil's talked about in the Bible, the slanderer, the great adversary, the accuser.

And we, I think at least initially, we give credence to the fact, yes, the devil exists.

Satan exists.

We, of course, as cessationist and reformed Christians, okay, for Scott Clark, small r, we don't get in a lot of casting demons out and walking around the building, putting heads around things for Satan and this, that, and the other.

But even as I was talking to John Moffat a while ago with a book called Invisible War written by Donald Gray Barnhouse, I don't know.

I don't know if we, it's not that we don't think about Satan enough, but like what he does.

So, and how real he is and how ravaging he can be.

In first Peter, these Christians are dispersed.

They're getting persecuted.

They're suffering.

They're suffering.

And I think what Peter's doing is he's saying, this is satanic, right? The persecution of the church.

If Jesus loves the church, died for the church, what will Satan do to the church? Satan will try to ravage the church.

Now, of course, Satan cannot unelect people.

Satan cannot do anything except what the Lord Jesus sovereignly allows.

Think Job chapter one and two, but Satan exists and of course he's the accuser and good thing we have the advocate, the righteous one, the Lord Jesus, first John chapter two, verses one and two.

But as I was thinking about all this stuff about Satan and how maybe we don't really walk through Ephesians 6, 10 and following with spiritual warfare stuff like we ought to, and maybe just because we can't, you know, how often do you think of angels? You can't see him.

How often do you think of Satan? You can't see him, et cetera.

I read a little article on the Salem witch trials, a true American horror story.

And I don't know the author.

I didn't study the author.

I don't know what his theological background is.

And therefore that's my caveat, Tom Thiessen, Salem witch trials, a true American horror story.

And I started reading it yesterday and I thought to myself, wow, this has got some serious stuff in it.

And he goes through at the very beginning of what was happening there at Salem and Cotton Mather was a pastor.

He said of Mather was no simple minded man.

He came from a well-known and respectable family in Boston.

His father Increase Mather was appointed the president of Harvard college in 1685.

Cotton was a well-received scholar, a professor at Harvard and a gospel minister in Boston.

He carefully documented much of the demonic horror that was going on during the 17th century in Massachusetts.

His book receiving a hearty endorsement from the governor of Boston, William Stoughton.

Anyway, and I was reading this and of course, Salem is close here to my house and the church close meeting an hour.

And you can go up to Salem.

I don't really like to be around Salem and Halloween.

Sometimes we'll just walk past the witch trial museum.

Maybe it's a witch museum.

I can't remember.

When I'm there and just walk into the little lobby in the gift shop, everybody's all dressed up.

Not just the staff people, but the visitors.

I do like to go to Salem mass because that's where Adoniram Judson got on the ship and headed off to Burma.

I think he started to go to India, but ended up in Burma.

And he started off as a Presbyterian, but it ended up as a Baptist on the ship.

So that's a whole other story.

I want to read a little bit of what Mather says about these witch trials.

And of course, you know, you watch the modern day stuff and they're just basically modernists and they don't believe in anything supernatural.

I also know that when it comes to a lot of this, there's so much subjective stuff going on and so many tattletales.

And if I was the pastor, of course, I would have done it completely differently.

And I, you know, one caveat upon another caveat upon another caveat.

But it's kind of, I mean, when I read this, I just thought, wow, the author puts a court document with the original wording of a new law that had passed in Salem because of all the witchcraft stuff.

When I was a kid, we watched, I don't think it wasn't Scooby-Doo, it was some witchy-poo.

Some I don't know what it was, HR Puff and stuff, maybe.

The young people have no idea what I'm talking about, witchy-poo.

It was a court document.

Here's a law.

Can you imagine having this law? Because so many weird things were happening.

Supernatural things, fake things, psychosomatic things, made up things, but so many things were going on.

That's my point.

Here's the court document, invocation or conjuring of any evil or wicked spirit, or shall consult covenant with, entertain, employ, feed, or reward any evil and wicked spirit to or for any intent or purpose, long run on sentences, semicolon, or take up any dead man or woman or child out of his, her, or their grave, or any other place where the dead body resteth, or the skin, bone, or any other part of any dead person to be employed or used in any manner of witchcraft, comma, we're still one sentence here, as far as I know, yeah, one sentence.

Sorcery charm or enchantment, or shall use, practice, or exercise any witchcraft, enchantment, charm or sorcery, whereby any person shall be killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed in his or her body, or any part thereof, period.

That is a bill against conjurations, witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked spirits, December 1692, Salem Witch Trials, Documentary Archive and Transcription Project.

That's pretty, and the writer says, and I'll ask the question, I don't have to make it up.

What was going on in Salem that there had to be an official law like this passed? I mean, there's a lot of weird laws passed.

Could there, I mean, literally, could there be a stranger law passed? Well, probably the answer is yes, but I can't think of one off the top of my head.

That's, okay, so what are the inferences here? Here's an inference.

People were trying to get some skin, some bone, or part of a dead person to be used for witchcraft.

They're trying to get dead men, dead women, dead children, take them out of their graves, wherever they were placed.

I mean, they were trying to make it all inclusive.

They were using them.

Now, whether people really saw people turn into ghosts or demons that took the shape of black pigs or monkeys, or what happened with chicken feet, chicken feet.

We grew up fairly poor.

My mom, I don't know if she bought a bunch of chicken feet to eat for soup or something, but I got ahold of some chicken feet once, and I brought them to school for show and tell.

If you kind of pull the tendon, if memory serves rightly, you could get them to kind of condense a little bit or grab ahold of something or whatever you want to call it, contract.

I remember, I don't know what I was in, fourth grade, fifth grade, and I would, on the way home, touch the chicken feet to the girl's shoulders.

I got in a lot of trouble for that.

No more.

I mean, I think there's domino chicken feet, but this is real chicken feet.

So if you have a four-year-old boy, watch out for the chicken feet.

Completely not related to this.

I don't know if you like Jordan Peterson or not, but I listened to him talk to a Rolf guy, R-R-R-R-R-R-A-F-E or something.

I forgot his last name.

About boys and contact and parkour and jumping and running and appropriate play and wrestling and all that other stuff.

It was really insightful.

I thought, man, that guy knows what he's talking about.

Back to chicken feet, monkeys, and black pigs.

So that was the law.

That was from the document of the court.

Now, here is Cotton Mather who wrote about some of this stuff.

I'm not saying I believe it all.

I'm not saying this, that, or the other.

I'm just saying Cotton Mather.

And by the way, his biography, I think he got an award.

I can't remember which one it was written.

Cotton Mather by Silverman, I believe.

Really, really well written.

I'm not like totally down on everything Cotton Mather said or did, but it'll be a fascinating historical and theological read.

Because nine times out of 10, if I watch anything about the Salem Witch Trials, it's bogus.

It doesn't have any of the right theology behind it or anything else.

Here's what Cotton Mather says.

And I'm so sorry I have my, I'm just so stuffed up.

I can't do anything about it.

Had the CAT scan the other day, blah, blah, blah.

Had a bone biopsy the other day too.

That was not blah, blah, blah.

They said, it'll feel like you fell for about four days.

I feel like I fell.

This is day three.

Mather.

Sometimes they would be deaf, sometimes dumb, and sometimes blind.

And sometimes they played a mean pinball.

Sorry, I just added it.

And often all this at once.

One while their tongues would be drawn down their throats.

Another while they would be pulled out upon their chins to a prodigious length.

They would have their mouths open under such a wideness that their jaws went out of joint.

And anon, they would clap together again with a force like that of a strong spring lock.

The same would happen to their shoulder blades and their elbows and hand wrists and several of their joints.

They would at times lie in a be-numbed condition.

That's kind of how I feel like right now.

I'm lying in a be-numbed condition.

I wore the strips at night.

Doesn't work.

Still sound the same.

So let's do some videos.

Who wants to do a video like this, whether your nose is plugged or unplugged? Sound the same.

And be drawn together as those that are tied neck and heels.

Imagine that.

And presently be stretched out, yea, drawn backwards to such a degree that it was feared the very skin of their bellies would have cracked.

That's some serious yoga there.

They would make most piteous outcries that they were cut with knives and struck with blows that they could not bear.

This is Cotton Mather writing this.

Their necks would be broken so that their neck bone would seem dissolved under them that felt after it.

And yet on a sudden they would become again so stiff that there was no string in their heads.

Yea, their heads would be twisted almost round.

And if main at any time, sorry, if main force at any time obstructed a dangerous motion, which they seem to be upon, they would roar exceedingly.

Thus they lay some week's most pitiful spectacles.

And this wall as a further demonstration of witchcraft in these horde effects, when I went to prayer by one of them, that was very desirous to hear what I said.

The child utterly lost her hearing till our prayer was over.

Cotton Mather.

Like Mike, what do you do with that? I don't know.

I'm just trying to do radio.

What do you talk about after 3,600 shows? Oh, wow.

Here's a court scene that unfolded that the writer talks about.

Order was given to search the old woman's house.

I mean, because some kids were playing around and this lady, this house, maybe she's a witch.

From whence they were brought into court, several small images or puppets or babies made of rags and stuffed with goats here and other such ingredients.

When these were produced, the vile woman acknowledged that her way to torment the objects of her malice was by wetting her finger with her spittle and streaking of those little images.

The abused children were then present and the woman kept stooping and shrinking as one that was almost pressed to death with a mighty weight upon her.

But one of the images being brought under her, immediately she stared up after an odd manner and took it into her hand.

And she had no sooner taken it that one of the children fell into sad fits before the whole assembly.

This in Mather's book as well.

This the judges bade their just apprehensions at and carefully causing the repetition of the experiment found again the same event of it.

They asked her whether she had any to stand on by her.

She replied she had and looked very pertly into the air.

She added, no, he's gone.

And then she confessed that she had one who was her prince with whom she maintained.

I know not what communion for which cause the night after she was hurt, expostulating with the devil for his thus deserting her.

Where are you devil when I needed you in court? That is from, get my stuff right, Cotton Mather, Memorable Providences Relating to Witches and Possessions, FamousTrials.com.

Woo, my cable drive, no compromise radio.

Charlton Heston.

Matter of fact, it is.

It's a matter of fact.

Well, what do I want to teach you? Well, I just was reminded that Satan was real and I don't know what kind of, I mean, some of the accounts are really dumb, but Satan does exist.

That's something I know for sure.

In addition, I want you to know that experience never validates truth, right? It's truth is truth and experience is experience.

I mean, I can experience something, you can, two different things.

And so which one's right? And we have to be careful just because someone says, I saw something, I experienced something.

Let's say it's a doctrine of, I don't know, the gift of healing.

Well, someone in Sri Lanka had the gift of healing and it's been recorded that they've healed 14 people of their organic diseases instantaneously.

What do you think of that, Mike? I don't know, I wasn't there.

And so I'm not going to change my doctrine based on experiences.

And so really the thought of the show today is, it's just weird.

It's just interesting.

It's interesting to think about.

Certainly, I believe in demons and demon possession, don't you? Jesus, remember when he gets out of the boat, there met a man from the city who had demons.

Remember, he didn't have any clothes.

He didn't live in the house, but he lived among the what? Tombs.

And when he saw Jesus, what'd he do? Cries out, falls down, says with a loud voice, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God, I beg you do not torment me.

And remember, Jesus commands the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

And he says, what is your name? Legion, many demons, et cetera.

There's a boy, remember, that was getting thrown in the fire by a demon.

I believe in demons.

I don't know what's going on at Salem because some of the accounts were just really bogus.

And some of the accounts were said by people who are trying to hurt other ladies and didn't know other way to do it.

And it just was bad, bad witnesses, a bad court system, a lot of bad stuff.

Mather, the New Englanders, okay, got my attention, are a people of God settled in those which were once the devil's territories.

Indian stuff, I guess.

Indians, do you want to say that? No, I repent.

And it may be easily supposed that the devil was exceedingly disturbed when he perceived such a people here accomplishing the promise of old made under our blessed Jesus, that he should have the utmost parts of the earth for his possessions.

Having obtained help from God, we continue to this day, where for the devil is now making one attempt more upon us, an attempt more difficult, more surprising, more snarled with unintelligible circumstances than any that we have hitherto encountered.

And so attempt so critical that if we get well through, we shall soon enjoy halcyon days with all the vultures of hell trodden under our feet.

In other words, why is all this going on? Well, because this used to be Satan's pagan land, and now there are Christians here.

What do you do if you ever met somebody that was demon possessed? I've been in ministry now, one way, shape or form for 30 years.

I've met some people that seem wild, but I don't know if they are demon possessed, right? I'm not told anywhere to cast out demons.

People say, well, Jesus did, the apostles did.

That doesn't mean I should.

I have a question for you.

If there's one place in all the Bible that there would be some instructions for pastors on how to cast demons out, if that had to be something regularly that we did, where would that be? Answer, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, or Titus.

That's where it would be in the past, what we call the pastoral epistles, and we would be told exactly what to do.

One thing's for sure, we can't blame our sinful behavior on demons.

We're carried away and baited by our own lust, James 1.

And if I did meet a demon possessed person, I would give them the gospel because I know that if it's their flesh, if it's a demon, it's a combination of the two, as God is sovereignly pleased to save people, if He saves them, they will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the demons will go.

So if I met somebody that was crazy, I'd preach the gospel.

If I met somebody who I thought might be demon possessed, I'd preach the gospel.

If I met somebody that I knew was demon possessed, which I've never met anybody before, some people have, in Sri Lanka, I would preach the gospel.

I do believe Satan is real.

And I do believe that when I see the persecution of Christians, especially a la first Peter and the destruction of their property, of their lives, it might not be Satan doing it directly like Job.

Maybe it is, but it's more through people who are his pawns.

And so maybe this makes you want to read a little bit more about what Cotton Mather did.

My name is Mike Cabendroth.

This is No Compromise Radio Ministry.

What do we have? Well, we have the Pactum Conference.

We have the Deeply Rooted Conference.

And I am glad that there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

I'm glad greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

And I'm glad that Satan is a defeated foe.

And one day he will get what's ultimately coming to him.

My name is Mike Cabendroth.

This is No Compromise Radio.