Millennials never experienced role-playing games of the eighties, such as Dungeons & Dragons, indulged in without the aid of computer-generated graphics. Back then I did many exorcisms on D&D players. They so invested themselves in their characters, such as the Druid, the Sorcerer, or the Wizard, that they became demon possessed. In today’s gaming world of human interaction with visual feedback on a computer monitor, it is even worse. There is no violent or immoral theme too evil for the gaming industry to exploit. One observer remarked that “the combination of low culture and high technology” provides “the instruments for libidinal extravaganzas devoid of any socially productive component.” The American Academy of Pediatrics sums it up this way: “Playing violent video games is to an adolescent’s violent behavior what smoking tobacco is to lung cancer.” And no game franchise is worse than Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat is the second best-selling fighting game franchise. Its media universe includes movies, a TV show, a stage show, comic books, and a game – all with a satanic Leviathan dragon as the branded symbol. The Kombat theme centers on martial artists with supernatural powers out to save the world by violent bloodshed. Gruesome combat scenes finish with moves known as Fatalities, murdering one’s opponent. This can include bashing an opponent into pieces, impaling them on a bed of spikes, or disposing of them in a pool of acid. Or the loser may choose to exit by suicide, depriving the winner from murdering his opposition.
The latest Kombat movie, released in April, is still packing theaters. It is also the most successful film to-date on HBO Max. The plot features occult themes of souls being saved by a god of thunder, a soul-eating sorcerer, and dragon-marked saviors of humanity who have a power known as “arcana.” This is a play on the word “arcane” which refers to secret occult abilities. In the movie, arcana gives those who possess it the power to shoot a laser from one’s eyes, teleportation, supernatural strength, and the belief that touching the blood of a departed fighter allows the dead man’s spirit to fight alongside the current combatant.
The occult and witchcraft aren’t the only dangers to movie fans of Mortal Kombat. There are moral and psychological effects as well. Aggression, less control over personal behavior, an inability to direct one’s thoughts with inhibitions – all this is the result of the national obsession with gaming. This past year, 63 of the largest 66 police jurisdictions saw increases in at least one category of violent crime, including homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Should we blame the game? Not entirely, but today those ages 15-24 account for 14% of the population but are responsible for 40 percent of all arrests. And I believe that the nearly $200 billion gaming industry is driving a lot of these statistics.
If you are a Christian and watched the 2021 version of the Mortal Kombat movie without spiritual discernment, you have contributed to the looming age of the Antichrist. The battle that should concern you isn’t that of cage fighters with arcana or shaolin temple, Buddhist kung fu martial artists. It’s the war being waged for your soul by Satan. As Ephesians 4:27 says, “Don’t give place to the devil.” Don’t immerse yourself in a movie based on a satanic worldview of good and evil, God and Satan, or you may find yourself in mortal combat with demons inside your own soul.
