The CharlieCharlieChallenge - Are We Really Doing This?

Do I really have to write a post on this? I feel like I'd be withholding information if I didn't. But why? Shouldn't everyone know this already?

Well anyway, this is your friendly neighborhood reminder not to summon demons.

For those who don't know (all quotes in this article are from this website)

A terrifying new Twitter craze has been sparked by claims a simple ritual can be used to summon the spirit of a Mexican demon called Charlie.

Let's take a quick moment to just clarify some things factually wrong with this whole thing. First off, spirits don't have nationalities like we do. Whatever demon(s) are answering to this name, they are not "Mexican". They are no different from any other demons. Second,

The dubious rite involves placing two pencils on a piece of paper in the shape of a cross, before writing the words yes and no inside the four squares formed by the pencils.

This is nonsense to get occult types intrigued. They think, "Ooh, I have to do a ritual to invoke this guy! This must be something special!" The fact is, demons aren't limited to silly pencil rituals. These same beings that try to be all cool with their "rituals" are so desperate to mislead you, they would have still answered even if you didn't do the ritual. They'll tickle any itching ear willing to listen. (I used to talk to, and sometimes prayed to what I later learned were negative spirits, please don't assume that I don't know what I'm talking about.) Third,

Anyone who contacts him must chant "Charlie, Charlie can we stop" before calling his visit to an end or risk "leaving a portal open for demons to come in and out of your house as they please".

Absolute nonsense. I apologize if I seem less patient than usual in this post, but let's be honest with ourselves. If you're someone who is invoking demons, you're welcoming them into your life, and as long as you do that, their influence is ABSOLUTELY not bound to words that you say. The portal for them to enter your house/life is always open even if you ask them to stop, until you allow the power of Christ to close it. YOU CANNOT CLOSE IT YOURSELF. They may appear to listen because they're not moving ouija boards around or directly talking to you or what have you, but they're not listening. They will not obey your request to stop, without Christ backing you.

Now let's talk about why you shouldn't do it. See, some people like to think of demons as undiscovered fountains of wisdom that society won't accept. These people like to see demons as something to turn to when they're desperate. The problem is, demons are genuinely, truly evil. Not "evil" in the sense of being "different" or "edgy" or "unappealing to conservatives" or "fun-loving goofs who are misunderstood by uptight human beings". No, demons are evil in the true sense of the word, and they will be evil to you, too. They are not your friends.

See, you don't befriend demons when you contact them. Likewise they do not befriend you. If you contact one, and you're genuinely interested, of course they'll answer questions and get you curious. They're not gonna flip the ouija board over and make scary faces at you and tell you to go back to church because if you follow them you'll be eternally punished. The problem is, the people who do things like this won't understand what they're actually doing. If they get a friendly response, they'll be more interested, assuming the demons just want to help them with, quote, "dating tips" and "life advice".

They'll tell you things, for sure. But it's all lies. It's all things to mislead you. And before anyone thinks of pointing out that things are going well so far - naturally. Your first step isn't going to lead you into some rough situation. It's only after you're in it for awhile and you don't even know what's going on anymore that their influence takes over your life and ruins it. It doesn't make you cool, it puts your life in danger. Demons aren't misunderstood goofs or fountains of wisdom, they're liars who HATE you, and make themselves seem appealing at first glance so they can lead you step by step into destruction, confusion, and negativity.

Anyone who contacts demons for any reason is in for a bad time. If you want help in life, if you want a spiritual force to turn to, if you want to call on a non-physical being, if you want someone who is misunderstood by this nonsensical world, JUST TURN TO GOD!!! God is listening, and if you read His word, you'll understand that a lot of people who claim to know Him unfortunately aren't listening in return. God has plainly extended a hand to all of us to fulfill the role in our lives that these people are turning to demons for. You don't have to search some underground text or perform some nonsensical ritual to get in touch with a being that truly loves you and wants to help you. Just accept Jesus! God will lead all those who believe in Jesus to righteousness. Life on Earth won't be perfect even if you're Christian (as if life would have been perfect if you looked to a demon...) but you will be much better equipped to deal with it. And unlike demons who, when things get rough, will just make life even rougher for you because they don't care about you, God will help you through it! Even if things seem rough, God will guide you through it! And also, unlike demons who work negativity into your life subtly until you can't see it right in front of you, God works good into your life in ways that are both extremely obvious and subtle, and when you look back on things, you'll clearly see it. God is listening, you who want to call upon a higher force. And God wants to help you.  

Also, unlike demons who lead you to Hell in hatred and indifference, God wants to lead you to Heaven in love and mercy.

May God bless and guide all of you according to His perfect will. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Worth a Read

EDIT: Please note, this post is about documents spreading lies about God's word. These specific pages listed below help to expose some truly bad writings, but I don't actually support the site they're hosted on, either. Read here for another side of that website. This site also teaches that it's okay to ask the dead to pray for you. Which it isn't.

It's easy to be misled by false words being spread throughout the world today. I hadn't even heard of some of these, but if you have, it's important to understand what's wrong with them; why they don't line up with God's word.

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/gospel_of_judas_exposed.htm
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/book_of_enoch.htm
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/jesus_papers.htm
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/da_vinci_code.htm

One or two of these also touch on the alleged gospel of Thomas, which is also false.

keywords so people can search this post: gospel of judas the book of enoch the jesus papers by michael baigent the da vinci davinci code by dan brown gospel of thomas false teachings exposed heresy lies

Romans 1:20 and Disproving All Other Faiths

Note for believers: This post deals extensively with questionable belief systems. Shamelessly discouraging them, mind you, but still talking abut them. Though it's not really essential reading for anyone who already believes, if you do read it, you may want to pray before reading it. Just to be safe. 

Anyway, I was confused about this verse the first time I read it.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

The verse is saying that the world itself, what has been created, is evidence of God. A point I saw somebody make about this is the sheer amount of complexities in our universe that manage to work. That's a very good point. It's quite unlikely that things like the human eye and spider webs could be as complex as they are without some kind of divine guidance.

But I had another thought regarding this. When I was into all that esoteric nonsense, the visions I had (as a result of trying spiritual things I heard about on the internet without understanding the impact of them), were of otherworldly things, things that looked odd and just carried an inherent feeling different than feelings you'd experience when looking at the real world. Some "felt" pleasant, while some "felt" dark and wicked. (They were all dark and wicked, but, you know.) Those were the result of demonic influence. Even then, though, I had the simple capability of understanding that the feelings in these visions didn't match up with feelings elicited by this world - the world, you understand, that is real and is created by God. But let's not be mistaken, here - this phenomenon isn't just limited to those lost in esoteric fantasies. It happens to everybody who doesn't follow Christianity, and it's absolutely proof of the message in Romans 1:20. Let's begin.

wicca is a perfect example to use here. The belief ties, into nature, an atmosphere of inherent magick (that is, "magic" that is allegedly real) and ethereality; dreaminess, one could say. This belief encourages the use of this magick as well through spells, and it also encourages an admiration and a sense of grandeur in regards to the fantastical world it paints, comparable to some fictional work about elves or something, but made into a reality. Art regarding wicca is, in my experience, usually extremely saturated and colorful.

The problem is, when you actually enter nature, these mystical feelings elicited by the wiccan belief system are not elicited by the actual nature created by God. The magick that is supposedly part of nature, according to wicca, is not present in the woods around us. The artistic interpretations inspired by it, with the exaggerated color saturation and visuals, do not actually reflect what nature itself is. That is because nature is not a sentient entity, is not to be worshiped, and has no ties to alleged "magick". In fact, "magick" isn't real either - humans have no inherent powers like this, it's demons at work, trying to mislead you and get something out of you. (I have done spells in the past! I know how it appears to users, and how spiritually poisonous it actually is!)

new age beliefs are another one. These beliefs focus a lot on spiritual practices. Overall "spirituality" is a big aspect of new age, and you can't get too specific in describing it, since it's a broad term. But generally speaking, new age beliefs tend to promote (the search for) an all-encompassing sense of peace, of calmness, of light, of love. new age things tend to elicit a sense of dreaminess or of some spiritual grandeur, seeing as how "spiritual" it is. new age artwork is usually quite abstract and colorful, from images of energy waves to images representing things related to chakras, and the list goes on.

It may actually sound quite close to Christianity (minus the chakras) when described vaguely like that, and concepts like "light" and "love" and "peace" are things Christians certainly (should) go for, but you forget something when you make flawed comparisons like this. new age hides an inner darkness to it, because it's influenced by demonic practices, and beliefs adapted from other, older, demonic belief systems. For example, the meditation promoted by the new age movement, which is allegedly intended to bring peace and balance, is actually a way to basically swing the door open to demonic influence. When you enter into this kind of meditative state, you're not transcending anything, you're not bringing any balance, you're not doing anything else, because that's not how spiritual things work in our world. It's an illusion, a fantasy. It's only an invitation to let negative forces (ones just like the ones described by Christianity, go figure) work through your vulnerable state. Likewise, the dreaminess portrayed by new age things doesn't reflect the real world. The alleged "higher truths" sought through these meditative practices are just as false as the practices used to find them. The real world that God actually made, is more grounded, and carries a sense of solidity that these misguided spiritual practices don't give you.

Another big one is nihilism. While not a theological worldview / religion (it involves atheism, which is a theological worldview / religion), it's an influential worldview, and not in a good way. Everything I've ever seen pertaining to nihilism elicited extreme feelings of emptiness. It can be compared to an old black-and-white movie with poor lighting, or something, but a scene with no actors or background music - very depressing, to be sure. But here's the good news about that - it's false. It's absolute lies. A poorly-written fantasy. The world isn't inherently empty like that. The feelings elicited by those old, faded, impersonal, black-and-white images do not match up with the colored, active, emotion-filled world in which we actually live. The argument could be made that these feelings are just subjective and aren't, in themselves, evidence that nihilism is wrong. Well, you know, Romans 1:20, the verse that started this post, states that the evidence you seek is in the world itself. Read on...

God paints a picture in the Bible, of a world containing beautiful nature scenes, but ones that don't carry anything inherently special or ethereal, or require worship or admiration. This lines up with the nature of the world in which we live. God paints a picture in the Bible of a world where light and dark are both at work, neither one being universally encompassing. This also matches up with the real world. God paints a picture of a world where there is Earth, Hell, and Heaven. This also matches up with the real world, seeing that the other alleged worlds described by esoteric beliefs are fabrications of demonic influence (that disappear when that demonic influence is blocked), and don't actually manifest in any way in the real world. Seeing that new age transcendence is also a product of demonic practices that hide an inner darkness, the things seen through that can also be determined to be false. The world truly reflects God, and God alone. No other beings, no other deities, nobody else's interpretation of it or anybody else's design. It is truly, truly, clear and evident in the world in which we live. And thus, as the verse states, mankind is without excuse. Any other view is truly a willing disregard of things inherent in our world.

I don't intend to go through every single belief system that isn't Christianity and describe in detail what specific things make it false, but the rule applies to all of them, regardless. These beliefs all paint pictures of worlds that carry atmospheres, visual perceptions, and interpretations of things which don't line up with the workings of the world in which we actually live. God's word, on the other hand, matches up to it completely. And how great it is that this is the case. I wouldn't want to live in any world molded after anybody else's design.

May God bless you all, according to His perfect will. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Random Thought

Don't get revenge on people, or use brute strength to get a point across (Matthew 5:38-39). You can use your muscles and ignore deeper thoughts for awhile, but when your muscles get old and useless and you can't win using violence anymore, what will you have then? (Mark 13:31)

Be strong in spirit. Be strong physically too, if you like, but in non-physical strength given by God, you can be strong and overcome challenges without violence, without revenge, and in a way that will not fade. (1 Timothy 4:8-9)