Occult Oxymoron: The “Christian Witch” Phenomenon

Occult Oxymoron the Christian Witches Phenomenon, PDF format

In the late 1990s and into the 2000s there was a flood of movies and TV series glorifying witchcraft and the occult, resulting in an explosion of interest in the satanic dark arts.  This has happened at various times in modern history.  But the difference this time was that these stories presented even the most obviously evil themes and characters in a very good light, making them all the more attractive especially to young people.  There was, of course, the Harry Potter series of books and the movies which followed, which depicted the young hero as a “good” wizard, with the books becoming the most popular book series in history, and the movies a phenomenal success globally.  The TV series Charmed was about three young sisters who were depicted as “good” witches.  It too became a massive success.  And another TV series, Angel, actually depicted the hero as a vampire with a restored human soul, and therefore a “good” vampire.

Witchcraft, Satanism, vampirism, demons (often depicted as human-like creatures), spirits, and other occult themes were everywhere in those years.  The spiritual damage was incalculable.  An entire generation of children was raised on this fare.  Hundreds of millions of older people lapped it up too.  The occult had not only become big business, it had entered the mainstream.

At the time, I made the remark that things had changed so much – had gone so far downhill – that I believed the time would come when we would actually be confronted with the concept of a “Christian” witch or Satanist.  It was the logical next step: to go from merely “good” witches and “good” vampires to “Christian” ones.  To completely blur all distinctions between truth and error, light and darkness, God and Satan.

People thought it would not happen.  A “Christian witch”?  Isn’t that the ultimate oxymoron?  Light and darkness, Christ and Satan, supposedly merged? – combined? – united?  The term, “Roman Catholic Christian” was an oxymoron as well, yet there were hundreds of millions of people in the world claiming to be just that; and who at the time could have imagined the rise of so-called “Chrislam” (a merging of supposed “Christianity” and Islam) either?

Well, what was unimaginable to most back then has come to pass: the concept of a “Christian witch” has come into being.  “Christian witchcraft” is a rapidly growing phenomenon.

Now of course there is no such thing, in truth, as a “Christian witch”.  It is utterly impossible according to the Bible, an absolute contradiction in terms.  One who is a true Christian, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, cannot be a witch, and a witch cannot be a true Christian.  The moment a witch is converted to Christ, he or she ceases to be a witch.  And when a professing “Christian” announces that he or she has become a witch, that person reveals that they were never truly converted to Christ in the first place.

Christians are called to complete separation from all such works of darkness: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?  and what communion hath light with darkness?  and what concord hath Christ with Belial?  or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?  and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?… Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord…” (2 Cor. 6:14-18).  One is either a child of God or a child of the devil.  One is either a child of the light or a child of darkness.  When you are delivered from the power of darkness, you are translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son (see Col. 1:13).  There is no middle ground between light and darkness, Christ and Satan.

The Bible is crystal clear.  To the nation of Israel, God’s people in the Old Testament, the Lord said, “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.  For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee” (Deut. 18:10-12).  Language could not be clearer.  And in Exod. 22:18 the Lord said, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”  This was the command to Israel under the law, but it shows how abhorrent witchcraft is to the Lord.  Through Samuel the prophet the Lord said, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Sam. 15:23).  Yes, witchcraft in all its forms and branches is a sin before the Lord.

And it is precisely the same now!  For in Gal. 5:19-21 there is a list of what are called “the works of the flesh”, and one of them is “witchcraft”.  And it says, “they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

No question about it: witchcraft is an abomination, a work of the flesh, and the one who engages in it is not a child of God.  Christianity and witchcraft (or the occult in general) are absolutely incompatible.  They are mutually exclusive.

Yet, incredibly, although there can be no such thing, in truth, as a “Christian witch”, there are now people who think they are both, and who call themselves both!  They are witches who call themselves “Christians”!  The “Christian Witches” website says it is “For those who love Christ and the Craft.”[1] Yet Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other” (Matt. 6:24).  And Paul wrote: “what concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Cor. 6:15); and, “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils” (1 Cor. 10:21).  It can never be “Christ and the Craft.”  It is only ever Christ or the “Craft”.  It is Christ or Satan.  Never both.

April 2019 was set for the first “Christian Witches Convention”, to be held in Salem, Massachusetts, USA.  The woman organising the event styles herself the “Rev. Valerie Love”.  She claims that she was “born a witch”, but because she was in the Jehovah’s Witnesses cult from the age of 4 until she left it at the age of 30, she had to stifle being a witch.[2]

No one is “born a witch.”  We are all born as sinners, and as we grow our sinful natures take different directions: into false religion, all kinds of other sins, etc.  Some become Papists, some Muslims, some atheists, some witches, etc.

According to her, she is a “Christian witch” and an ordained minister of “spiritual consciousness”.  And she has established the “Covenant of Christian Witches Mystery School”, the purpose of which is to assist “Christians” to tap into magic.

The plan was for the convention to be held from April 15-21, 2019.  On the final day, “Easter Sunday”, the plan was for the “Christian witches” to hold their first ever “Easter church service.”  Love said: “Sunday morning, Resurrection Sunday.  Easter Sunday, the first ever that we’ve ever done, Christian witches church service.  And this is probably the heart of the whole convention for me.  Bringing a word to you from the pulpit [of] Rev. Valerie Love at a Christian witches church service.”

Again: it is impossible for such a thing as a “Christian witches church service” to be held.  Dress it up any way you like, try to disguise it as much as you like, but a gathering of witches, whatever they may call themselves or their gathering, is a witches’ gathering.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Romanists call their gatherings “church services” as well, but they are not – they are false religious gatherings, regardless of the terminology used.  No matter how much I may think I am an astronaut, or how often I may call myself an astronaut, I am not an astronaut.  Thinking that I am, and calling myself such, does not make it a reality.  Those witches who call themselves “Christians” are no more true Christians just by thinking it and saying it than the Jews were Abraham’s spiritual children just because they said they were (Jn. 8:38-44).

And Love was joined by a man who calls himself “Prophet” Calvin Witcher (is that surname really genuine?).  His website says that he is an “internationally recognized Prophet [isn’t it interesting how all these false teachers feel the need to always stress that they are “internationally recognised” – because gullible people believe what they read] and his spiritual mandate is to see, speak, and translate from the spirit realm to this physical world.  Prophet Calvin brings God’s messages to humanity through powerful teaching and training, allowing non-traditional followers to hear the divine voice of hope.”[3]  Sounds like your typical, boastful Pentecostal con-man, doesn’t it?  And that’s not surprising, because he comes from a Pentecostal background, and even still claims to “speak with tongues”.  But read further in his website, and you find that he describes himself as a “Psychic-Medium”.  This is a man who is seeking to combine elements of Pentecostalism with outright witchcraft and sorcery.

Consider what he says about the Bible, God’s Word, and about the Lord Jesus Christ:  “The Bible is a huge book of sorcery.  You literally can’t get around that.  You can’t get around Jesus being a magician.  There’s just no way.”[4]

“The interesting thing is,” he says, “most of the time when people come against magic, sorcery, mysticism, the occult, you name it, the new age community… they are not really coming against the Bible because the Bible honestly doesn’t teach that when you understand it and break it down.  The Bible is not against magic.  The Bible is a magic book.  The Bible is a grimoire, hands down.”  A grimoire is a magician’s manual for invoking demons and supposedly the spirits of the dead.

This devil-inspired man dares to lay his defiled hands on God’s Word and to claim that it is a book of sorcery, and that God’s own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is nothing but a magician!  In saying such things, he reveals his utter ignorance of the Bible and its true message, and of the Person and Work of the adorable Lord and Saviour, the eternal Son of the eternal Father.

If the Bible really is “a huge book of sorcery” as this impostor claims, the right thing to do would be to burn it!  For Acts 19:18,19 says, “And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.  Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men”.  By “curious arts” is meant the so-called “magic arts”; the “black arts”; occultic practices.  Those new converts to Christ burned their magic books!

But Witcher doesn’t tell men to burn the Bible, even though he claims it is a huge book of sorcery.  Both Love and Witcher believe that witchcraft can be combined with Christianity, despite the Bible’s many warnings against involving oneself in anything to do with the occult.  Ignoring the biblical warnings completely, Witcher claims that church leaders only teach against witchcraft to keep their flocks as slaves!

And what “proof” does he supply for claiming that Jesus was a magician?  Well, he points to the miracles which Jesus performed.  He said, “You’re talking about the whole of Jesus’ adult ministry is all magic, all sorcery.  Even if we just say ‘Jesus.’  Every particular miracle Jesus does defies human law, defies the laws of the universe and the world.  So… you can’t really talk about being a Jesus follower without doing what he did which is magic.”

He also said, “You’re talking about sorcery at its base understanding, it’s really just being able to change the natural by supernatural means.  That’s really it.  It’s an alchemical process.  It’s to say that you turn water into wine.  One, two fish and fives loaves of bread, feeding the multitude – absolutely forms of sorcery.  Walking on water defied the natural realm and laws that govern this physical plane.  That’s all realms of sorcery.  Magic is simply just using the props to do it.”

What blasphemy to say that the Lord Jesus Christ was a magician!  He is the eternal Son of the eternal Father, God the Son, the Almighty!  He is the Creator of all things.  He did not perform those miracles by any form of magic, but because He is God!

But here’s the interesting – and very revealing – thing about all this nonsense spouted by Witcher: he says that Jesus was a magician, that He used sorcery to perform miracles by defying the laws of nature, etc.  This would imply, then, that this is what magicians/sorcerers can do.  And in fact, he says a “Jesus follower” must be able to do the “magic” Jesus did.  This would include (as his own words show) walking on water, feeding thousands with very little, turning water into wine, etc.  And Love and Witcher point to Jesus’ words in Jn. 14:12: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

And yet – neither Love nor Witcher are able to perform Jesus’ miracles – by their own admission!  Love said that she was not taught how to do the things that Jesus did, such as raising the dead, despite what Jesus taught in Jn. 14:12.  And as for Witcher, he admits that this verse has “haunted” him, and said that both he and Love were still working on getting up to the level of Jesus!

Hold on a minute!  They can’t have their cake and eat it too.  Witcher says, “you can’t really talk about being a Jesus follower without doing what he did which is magic” – and yet he claims to be a “Christian magician” while at the same time admitting that he can’t do what Jesus did! He says that basic sorcery “is really just being able to change the natural by supernatural means” – he makes it sound so easy, saying it’s “just being able” to do such miraculous things – and yet he admits he can’t!

So then, just to be clear: Jesus was supposedly a sorcerer who performed magic; all His followers should be able to perform the same magic if they are truly His followers; and yet neither Love nor Witcher have ever “got up to the level” of Jesus!  Well then: if Love and Witcher, who claim to be experts and guides for others, have never performed “magic” like they say Jesus did, how can they claim to be genuine and powerful practitioners of witchcraft and sorcery and magic?  They are charlatans by their very own admission!

What is the true meaning of Jn. 14:12?  The apostles and some other early Christians were given such extraordinary gifts as working of miracles, miraculous healings, etc.  And by them doing greater works than Jesus Himself did, the meaning is not that they did greater miracles in kind – it has nothing to do with professing Christians performing even greater miraculous miracles than Jesus did – but that they did more; because they lived longer, and travelled further, than Jesus did, and performed miracles in His Name and by His power.  Also, and even more to the point, the “greater works” refer to the greatest miracle of all – the conversion of sinners to Christ.  Under the ministry of the apostles, more people were converted than under the Lord’s personal ministry while on earth.  And as the verse says, this was because Jesus returned to His Father in heaven; for from heaven He sent forth the Holy Spirit, who worked through those men unto the conversion of great multitudes in those times.

The tragedy in all of this is that Witcher’s blasphemous beliefs are a product, to a large extent, of his unbiblical Pentecostal background.  Yes, he was once a Pentecostal.  And this background made it easy for him to cross over from Pentecostalism into witchcraft and sorcery.  He said, “My background in Pentecostalism really set me up on a good foundation.  We had tools.  We did anointing oils, prayer shawls, demonology was taught very regularly at least in my circles.  So those conversations were not weird.  We talked on the gifts of the Spirit… going into magic was a very easy segue…. The only thing it did was expand that particular power outside that particular practice.”

Pentecostalism is not biblical Christianity.  It is unsound in doctrine and unsound in practice.  And its emphasis on what it falsely claims to be miraculous gifts of the Spirit narrows the gap between its spurious version of Christianity and the occult!  Much of what occurs within Pentecostalism is occultic: being “slain in the Spirit”, so-called speaking in “tongues” and “prophecies”, hypnotic music, a heightened emotional state and even hysteria – all these things occur within various branches of the occult.  They are counterfeits of the true gifts of the Spirit which the apostles possessed.  It can very easily be a stepping stone into hardcore occultism, for so much of it falls within occultism already.

Witcher went on: “We believe that we are one with the Spirit…. All Christians are mystic, especially Charismatics [because] it was always taught that I and my Father are one.  We are one with the Spirit.  We are the children of God.  We are the children of the Almighty…. There is no difference between me and the Father.  There is no difference between me and Jesus.”

It is true that many Charismatics are mystic – no doubt about it.  But Witcher’s use of the words of Jesus, “I and my Father are one” (Jn. 10:30) has nothing to do with mysticism, nor is the “I” in that verse referring to professing Christians!  Jesus was very obviously speaking of Himself.  He is one with God the Father.  Witcher may believe that there is no difference between him and the Father, or between him and Jesus, but he is horribly deceived by the devil.  This is not the meaning of Jn. 10:30, nor is Witcher’s heresy taught anywhere in the Bible.  His teaching is nothing but occultic New Age/Hindu/pantheistic mysticism, the demonic notion that all men are “one with the divine”.  It is a typical case of a blind man pulling what he wants to find out of the Bible, even though in truth it is not there.  It is amazing how many people, who have no true knowledge or understanding of what the Bible says, will dogmatically assert that they know what it says and means! 

“Christian witchcraft”: a growing phenomenon amidst the abounding religious confusion and delusion of our times.  Satan is merging his various religious lies.  For centuries he has fobbed off the impossible on the world: the so-called “Roman Catholic Christian.”  In recent times we have seen the growing merger between the Seventh-day Adventist cult and what passes for “Evangelical Christianity” today.  Even the Mormon cult is increasingly being accepted as part of “Christianity”.  And yet another impossible combination is being accepted by some: “Chrislam” – an attempt to merge Christianity and Islam.

And now we have “Christian witchcraft”.  What’s next on the horizon of Satan’s smorgasbord ?  In today’s mixed-up, confused and crazy religious world, all we can say for certain is, “Never say never”!  The devil has a few tricks up his sleeve yet.  The way that leads to everlasting destruction is a very broad way indeed.

May 2019

Shaun Willcock is a minister, author and researcher.  He runs Bible Based Ministries.  For other articles (which may be downloaded and printed), as well as details about his books, audio messages, pamphlets, etc., please visit the Bible Based Ministries website; or write to the address below.  If you would like to be on Bible Based Ministries’ email list, to receive all future articles, please send your details.

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ENDNOTES:

[1]. www.christianwitches.com.

[2]. The Christian Post, February 19, 2019.  All quotes by Valerie Love are taken from this article.

[3]. https://calvinwitcher.com.

[4]. The Christian Post, February 19, 2019.  All quotes by Calvin Witcher are taken from this article.