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2 Kings 16:3-But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of Israel.
This is a devotional I almost didn’t write up and post. The subject deals with matters that are often difficult for disciples of Christ and ministers to discuss. I’ve often taken flack for it from others (Christians and non-Christians) who would rather believe that the subjects herein examined just are not true.
Well, as I was contemplating whether or not to write this particular article, a brother in Christ I haven’t spoken with in several years sent me an email. He informed me that he reads my articles on my website and watches my sermons that I preach at Keavy on our YouTube page.
He “felt led” to write to me and thanked me for speaking out on topics that a lot of people in the church don’t discuss very often!
My friend is a counselor who works with traumatized children. He had no idea that I was struggling with whether or not to write on this particular subject, which makes this all the more intriguing. What finally touched me and motivated me to write on this subject were these words from his email:
“Anyways, I felt impressed by the Lord to write to you this morning and let you know you’ve actually been an encouragement to me recently and aren’t aware of it. There is much to say, and I will spare you the details, but I often, possibly daily, read your writings on your website. I, also, listen to your YouTube sermons from Keavy weekly. This summer while cutting grass, I would often have headphones in listening to your messages from that week or maybe older teachings. Anyways, I appreciate your openness concerning some subjects you teach that many won’t touch…My career is at a Christian counseling center… as I work directly with children who, in most cases, have suffered some form of trauma. You are one of the few voices I have found to be a voice of sense and compassion concerning the hurting. I just want to thank you for what you do. Continue writing and continue teaching. It’s a blessing!“
Sometimes God speaks and works in ways that we don’t expect.
What a great God that we serve!
As a Gospel preacher, I have worked over the years with individuals who suffered horrific crimes of abuse as children (physical, sexual, and emotional) that were carried out with ritual forms of occultism. The technical designation is “Satanic Ritual Abuse” (or as it is commonly called, SRA). This has reference to the abuse of individuals (especially children) that involve ceremonies where Satan is praised and demons are invoked. Many in our day and age reject belief in such things. It doesn’t go along with “polite” society to mention topics like these. Indeed, there have been many public campaign attempts to discredit the reality of these horrors. But the facts tell a different story.
Listen to one former skeptic of SRA:
“Satanism has numerous different sects with varying beliefs, but many of its adherents hold values that are an inversion of idealized Christian values, which put a premium on the preservation of a child’s innocence—Satanists of this ilk look upon the defilement of innocence as one of their highest sacraments. They would be the perfect individuals to conscript in the creation of a pedophile network, or to carry out inhumane activities or “psychological tricks” on children in the perpetuation of sadistic mind-control experiments…The strength of their findings lies in the fact that the victims who claim to have been ritually abused are from disparate geographic locations and socioeconomic strata; yet they describe the same improbable, horrific events. A 1995 study published in The Journal of Psychohistory surveyed five organizations throughout the United States offering a hotline for children, including Childhelp USA, a bellwether in the advocacy and assistance for abused children: The study found that in 1992 roughly 23,000 calls reporting the ritual abuse of children had been logged by the five hotlines. Moreover, a 1991 study conducted by the National Center for the Treatment of Dissociative Disorders in Denver, Colorado, published in The Journal of Child Abuse & Neglect, surveyed thirty-seven adults who had reported ritual abuse as children and were diagnosed with either multiple personality disorder or dissociative disorder. All the subjects said they had been sexually abused, physically abused and/ or tortured, had witnessed animal mutilations, been forced to take drugs, and received death threats—83% said they had witnessed at least one adult or child sacrifice. The studies of ritual abuse survivors have contained relatively limited numbers of subjects, but in 2007 a team of researchers from the United States and Germany conducted the Adult Survivors of Extreme Abuse Survey (EAS), the largest study of ritual-abuse survivors to date. The team provided an online website for survivor advocates and survivors. The website featured a survey of 238 questions, ranging from demographics to categories of abuse. Of the 1,471 participants responding to the questionnaire, 987 completed the “Categories of Abuse” component: 191 participants claimed to have experienced only ritual abuse, 69 said that they had undergone only mind control, and 513 reported that they experienced both ritual abuse and mind control. Of the 704 EAS respondents reporting ritual abuse, 543 respondents specifically reported satanic ritual abuse. When the EAS investigators crunched the numbers concerning the participants who claimed satanic ritual abuse, they were amazed at how closely the types of satanic ritual abuse reported by the EAS respondents matched the types of ritual abuse found in the 1991 study conducted by the National Center for the Treatment of Dissociative Disorders. The latter study found that 100% of the subjects had been sexually abused, physically abused and/ or tortured, had witnessed animal mutilations, and received death threats: The respective percentages of the EAS respondents reporting abuse in those categories were 95%, 96%, 86%, and 93%. The National Center for the Treatment of Dissociative Disorders found that 83% of the subjects in its study had witnessed a human sacrifice, and 82% of EAS respondents had witnessed murder carried out by their abusers. When I started to explore ritual abuse, I thought it was merely the stuff of nightmares, and, I have to confess, I was initially dubious of the therapists I contacted who worked with ritual abuse survivors and mind-control victims. But over the years, as I’ve cultivated rapport with these therapists, I’ve concluded that they haven’t lost their minds, nor are they religious zealots. In fact, a 1995 study published in the Journal of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice looked at the question of whether or not therapists who work with ritual abuse victims had a tendency to be religious. The study looked at 497 Christian therapists and 100 members of the American Psychological Association and their respective diagnoses of dissociative disorder, sexual abuse and ritual abuse. The study concluded that Christian therapists and APA members diagnosed dissociative disorder and sexual abuse with the same frequency, and Christian therapists’ diagnosis of ritual abuse was only slightly higher than that of the APA members questioned. A second study, published in The Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, concluded that religious beliefs had no relationship to a therapist’s identification of ritual abuse.” (Nick Bryant, The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse & Betrayal, 661-665 (Kindle Edition): Walterville, OR: Trine Day LLC)
Most have heard of the notorious sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. Many people looking into the Epstein files are concerned with “who” is in them (and rightfully so). But perhaps we should also be concerned with the ways that some of the terrible things that were perpetrated against the survivors by those in Epstein’s orbit point to a far darker occult background. Writing of some of some of the mysterious characteristics of Epstein’s Island, researcher Thomas Horn points out:
“Why would ancient and modern worshippers of dark gods mix sex rituals with sacrifice and cannibalization of quite often very young victims? According to another famous Freemason and deeply satanic figure, Aleister Crowley, it is because “for the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A…child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim.”[377] As further elaborated by freemason S. R. Parchment: The Brothers of the Shadow who are in the flesh are usually very fearful of death and are, therefore, ever in quest of methods for prolonging their physical existence. The biblical statement that man may ‘Eat of the Tree of Life and live forever’ is not to them a mere statement, and for the purpose of prolonging their lives, they have ferreted out and perpetuated among their clan many nefarious schemes too heinous to mention. When these methods fail, as a last resort they sacrifice human beings and feast upon the flesh and blood of their victims.[378] Did the “Brothers of the Shadow” exert influence at Epstein’s gatherings? The ancient brotherhood referenced here were “living men possessed by the earth-bound elementaries,” according to Russian occultist, philosopher, and cofounder of the Theosophical Society in 1875, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. These necromancers were élite sorcerers, “devil dancers, and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population.” In general, these mysterious occultists were considered most powerful, cruel, and vindictive, vampire-like enchanters whose capacity to bridge the gap between the material and supernatural worlds was acclaimed by fallen men of the secret societies who likewise sought contact with the four elementals of Blavatsky’s Theosophy, which they thought could extend their lifetime.[379] Knowing what we do now about Epstein’s vampiric interest in transhumanism[380] and his bloodlust for immortality, it’s perhaps not a stretch to consider whether he participated in such arcane rites inspired by Brothers of the Shadow, including human sacrifice in trade for length of life from these masters of delusion. For anyone who may think I am stretching the possibilities here, when I asked Dr. Judd H. Burton (an expert on early Christianity and the Greco-Roman World with a PhD in history) what he made of the circular, square, rectangular, and other mysterious objects and facilities on Epstein’s island and at his mansion, he responded: My initial assessment is that, knowing Epstein, these must have some ceremonial purpose. The square and rectangle have historically been symbols of materiality and the mundane world in the occult. Conversely, circles have represented spiritual and celestial planes. With the placement of a cross in the design, it occurs to me that this may be a location where adepts/participants could perform rites that opened a portal (or whatever appellation you choose), activated likely by the spoiling of innocence and/or bloodshed, in the attempt to communicate with/draw power from the realm of demons/Fallen angels.[381] Dr. Judd’s assessment is based on a long history of occult stone circles or monuments of standing stones arranged in a circle. The size and number of the stones vary, and the shape can be an ellipse or half circle. Some are more complex, with double- and triple-ring designs, often classed separately as concentric stone circles. Stone circles were constructed across the British Isles from 3300 to 900 BC, with more than a thousand surviving examples, including Avebury, the Ring of Brodgar, and Stonehenge. The oldest is probably the Standing Stones of Stenness, a megalithic stone circle on the mainland of Scotland. It was associated with pagan ceremonies, possibly including human sacrifice and believed to have magical power.[382]…“Called a portal tomb, portal grave, or quoit, a dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb usually consisting of two or more upright stones supporting a large, flat, horizontal capstone (e.g., Stonehenge) that also matches the berm layout of a square inside a circle design on Epstein’s island. The fifteen-foot-high tumulus at the center of the Wheel of the Giants is centered on a dolmen. In the past, archaeologists believed the centerpiece was a later addition, but new work by Yosef Garfinkel and Michael Freikman of the Hebrew University discovered more ancient layers beneath those identified by previous archaeologists, as well as a new artifact supporting an earlier origin by an unknown people—we believe the Nephilim. Israeli journalist Barry Chamish attributed the site to the giants and the immortals from whom they descended. Chamish interviewed Rabbi Yisrael Herczeg, who confirmed “the possibility that giant heavenly beings or their descendants could have constructed the circles.”[ 389] When asked if he meant aliens, Rabbi Herczeg replied, “No, more like fallen angels. Og had children with Noah’s daughters and they were hybrid giants called the Anakim or Refaim. They existed in ancient times and the Bible records their presence in the Golan Heights. They could have built Gilgal Refaim.”[ 390]”. (Thomas Horn, Shadowland, 180-185 (Kindle Edition): 180-185 (Kindle Edition): Crane, MO: Defender Publishing)
What to take from all this?
First, keep these things in mind as more comes to light about the Epstein files. The spiritual warfare is raging and we are all involved in it (Ephesians 6:10-18). The longer I have lived and ministered, the more I have come to recognize that this world has lots of “layers” to it. The Bible has taught us this all along, but it is almost as if those layers are being peeled further back each day. There may be several reasons why many politicians and others are working so hard to keep these things from the public.
Second, remember to pray for and do your best to help those who have been victimized. Over the years, I have worked with several who were abused as children. Some of these survivors were victims of SRA. I still shudder when I remember one young woman who told me how she and a family member were ritualistically abused as children and then sent into churches with blood on their clothes from sacrificed animals to “curse” the Christians. Sounds incredible, doesn’t it? She was told the same thing victims are often told by their abusers:
“No one will believe you if you talk about what happened!”
Give the children the benefit of the doubt.
Matthew 19:14-But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Third, as you stand against the wickedness and help the innocent, pray also for everyone to repent and be saved. This is part of our calling as the church: we stand for the innocent and also speak repentance to every sinner. I hope that every person in the Epstein files is held to account, even while I also hope and pray that they will be saved from Hell.
Acts 24:25-Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.”
Ezekiel 18:23-Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord GOD, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
Lord, draw near to every survivor of abuse. Help them. Stop the abusers and the spiritual forces at work behind them and through them. Give everyone opportunity to hear Your word and be saved. We thank You in Jesus’ Name. Amen.