By: James Clement Taylor
I am a Christian and not a Wiccan. A Christian is one who has been
baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and who has
made a personal, freewill decision to commit himself and all his or
her life to our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these
things are true of me. I am a member of St. Mary's Eastern Orthodox
Church, Calhan, Colorado. In this paper I am not speaking as an
agent for any church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility
speaking the truth in love, as we Christians are suppose to do.
A Situation of Strife and Shame:
There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not
Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell. Any decent
person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many
people from this fate as possible. But is this belief correct? Jesus
Christ, having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion,
a Pagan, proclaimed: "Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such
great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come
from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in
the kingdom of heaven. But the scions of the kingdom will be cast out
into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
(Matthew 8:10-12)
If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is
clear that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell
will contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus
Christ sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of
heaven, and those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a
refusal to judge others.
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will
also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15).
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the
same measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:2).
"But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice."
(Matthew 9:13)
"Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge
not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be
condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:36-38).
Is it not clear? Anyone who fails in these things, will calling
himself a Christian save him? Anyone who obeys God in these things,
will being unbaptized condemn him? Jesus said, "Not everyone who
says to Me, 'Lord,Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21).
Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because
there is no way we can earn our way into heaven, because there is no
way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace, which alone
can save us. But it is clear that it is not by faith, in the sense
of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved either. The faith
which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor faith
that we have the right theology and/or belong to the right church.
Rather it is faith in God, and His mercy.
"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God
who has mercy," (Romans 9:16)
But the Wiccans, you will say do not have faith in God. Yet by their
own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them Satan
worshippers are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even
believe that Satan exists. Instead they worship a Goddess and a God
whom they understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity.
Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it
should. In the Bible we find the following:
"The Paul stood in the midsts of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of
Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as
I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I
found an altar with this inscription: TO THE unknown GOD. Therefore,
the One whom you worship, without knowing, Him I proclaim to you."
(Acts 17:22-23)
The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the
form of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they
worship the same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should
know it!
For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and
must prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy
Apostle John has given us the method for doing those. You have only
to attend any public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are
there, to see "whether they are of God (IJohn 4:1). You will find
that, while the power manifested there may be less than what you have
experienced as a Christian, that power is clearly the power of God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been
terribly slanderer by us. They have lost jobs, and homes, and places
of business because we have assured others that they worship Satan,
which they do not. We have persecuted them, and God will hold us
accountable for this, you may be sure, for He has said, "Assuredly I
say to you, inasmuch as you did to one of the least of these My
brethren, you did it to Me." (Matthew 25:40).
Let us from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare
that hence forth, we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others
or condemn them, so that He will hot have to judge and condemn us for
our sins.