 Tuesday, June 10 2014
The masthead at the top of today’s blog, was a memorable photo in 2008. The hands are those of Barack Obama, who was then running for President. He holds good luck charms which he had collected, including a small statue of Hanuman, the four armed Hindu monkey god. President Obama recently visited Asia. Much of the attention was focused on his assurances of American military presence in light of new aggressiveness from both North Korea and China. What most media overlooked was the spiritual significance of his travels. Along with the obligatory banquets, speeches, and press conferences, the President took time to display his eclectic religious belief. He regularly reminds people that he is a “Christian” but goes out of his way to be syncretistic. In India he danced with Hindus to celebrate Diwali, an important holy day for Hindus. This may be seen as honoring the local culture of a country. But it seems that he’s making more of a universalist emphasis — that all religions are equally important and valid; that all faiths are one and that differences must be ignored in theology and conviction.
He is the President, and he should send a message that we respect all peoples and faiths. But helping to light a sacred fire to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi (wife of Vishnu, one of the three main Hindu gods), a demon I’ve dealt with, is a bit much for me. (Some Diwali rituals are directed at Ganesh the elephant god.) Diwali may be considered benignly as a “festival of lights,” but it’s better understood in Hinduism as the dispelling of ignorance with the transcendent experience of oneness with the universal god. Some Hindus worship not Lakshmi on this occasion but Kali (aka Jezebel), a decidedly virulent demon I’ve faced many occasions. Perhaps you think I make too much of this, but as an exorcist, watching our President pay homage to a demon, though he doubtless has no idea what he’s doing, isn’t a pleasant sight. And ignorance of participating in a religious ritual is no excuse for the curse it can cause on him and on our country. First Corinthians 10:20 makes it plain that the worship of false gods is the worship of demons. An encouraging word: ONE GOD“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). That is pretty hard to get around. One God. No other name that can save men (Acts 4:12). The Bible states this over and over (Joshua 22:22. Malachi 2;10, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 4:6, James 2:19). The latter, James, tells us that even demons believe this truth. But much talk of religion today is about how all roads lead to the same place, all truth is one truth, and all gods are the same, just called by different names. That belief may be popular, but it’s not biblical. To think of the Lord as the One and True Living God of the Jews and Christians as being the only God can earn one the title of bigot; but it’s also the only true way to be a believer.
Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did� (Luke 4:18). You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online. |
