Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits My dad got mixed up with a lot of that soul travel, stravel and it really messed him up. He has now passed on , and I like to think of him as remodeling God's kitchen. Dad was a builder, so I always imagine that he and Jesus are working a piece of wood as Jesus reteaches Dad.
--- Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.
-Auntie Mame
Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits HasahZ I am glad that you have found a faith that makes you fulfilled and happy. It does sound as if you had a lot of evil spirits in your life before and have finally gotten rid of them and their influence.
But my position is rather the same as Onyx' If we start burning or destrying books / knowledge / information wholeale just because we believe it is wrong for others, we run the risk of becoming evil ourselves.
By doing that we are destroying free will - a God given grace. So no matter what we believe or feel is the correct religious belief system - and there are many who fully and deeply believe that their faith is the correct one who are not catholic, we would be going directly against what all christian religions DO belive in- which is that God gave us free will.
Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits I'm not sure where the wholesale idea comes in, this is one person who had decided what to do with her books. I probably would have burned my books too, instead I ripped them, messed them up, dumped stuff on them. I don't go around looking for new age, occult etc books to destroy them... these are books I gladly purchased in my own wondering days just like the woman in the blog. I guess I don't see the 'wholesale' connection.
I do still struggle with the knowledge part of it as well. I suppose the best way to counter false teachings is to be aware of them and what they promote. At the same time I don't think I'd be able to idly sit by if I saw people selling books about the best ways to commit suicide or the best way to bomb a building. I have a lot of knowledge about things I shouldn't have knowledge on. Yes, I can pass it on now as Jesus got me out of it but to promote it without warning about it, I couldn't do that. And if the blogger takes scripture seriously she is probably also aware of the passage about those who burned their own scrolls and books. Someone well grounded in their faith would probably not be so affected but someone who is where I was at, no catechesis past junior high confirmation, someone who had things in their life that contradicted so much... how would keeping those books around for them to find help them?
The only difference between this woman and I is that she needs the money and came up with this idea to get rid of the books. I just ripped mine up, destroyed them, totaled them. I could have sold them on ebay, ubid, etc but I chose not to pass on all the lies in those books. Knowledge of lies just helps us to know the lies.
Again, I'm sorry if this caused offense. Personally I wouldn't mind a picture of occult stuff burning, I spent so many years lost in it all. Would it be different if it were a satanic bible? They do exist as well. I've never read one nor do I intend to, would it's contents be considered knowledge or just dribble of mad men?
--- ...Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Amen
Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits
quote:
By doing that we are destroying free will - a God given grace.
Naw. It isn't destroyed by Hazah burning her books. Free Will to do whatever is not bound by someone else's action alone. Those people who would search for that, will find it ultimately. Like they say, where there is a will, there is a way.
I took two years to find an Edgar Cayce book that I could read with no prob. Hell bent? No, but I kept looking till I found one. I am sure several may have been burned or destroyed along the way, but it didn't inhibit my free will.
What she is averting by not allowing books she feels are bad is an action by her that allows complicity in another's sin. Like sin by association. So in the end it is her conscience, which drove her free will, not to allow the books to get into the hand of what may be a fragile mind.
In that end, she is acting out as a good Christian. I applaud that. She must move according to the Spirit that drives her at that moment in time, as should we all in any faith.
Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits I guess the other verse that comes to mind is this;
1Th 5:16 Always rejoice.
1Th 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
1Th 5:18 In all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all.
1Th 5:19 Extinguish not the spirit.
1Th 5:20 Despise not prophecies.
1Th 5:21 But prove all things: hold fast that which is good.
1Th 5:22 From all appearance of evil refrain yourselves. 1Th 5:23 And may the God of peace himself sanctify you in all things: that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Read the whole chapter in context. If I claimed to now be free from my new age/occult dabbling but still wore my crystal ball around my neck , still did automatic writing and talked about reincarnation (as in believing in it) would I not be keeping the appearance of evil?
It's not even the appearance of evil that made me want to get rid of my books, it was knowing the way I was caught up in those lies before and knowing I didn't want to be in them again.
--- ...Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Amen
Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits I remember some age before 6, I assume 4 or 5 where I found those berries that look like currants but they aren't. They still tasted edible and good but they were poison. They had an appearance of being something they weren't and me not knowing any better had just ingested them. I was given ipecac syrup so I wouldn't have their poison inside anymore.
Again, I'm not promoting going to a new age store/shop and start torching the place, this is a collection that one person has and their way of getting rid of it. I thought I had gotten rid of all my books already and that's why I was surprised by that pile I found. Books I've already trashed before these were handwriting analysis, more chakra books, the tarot decks themselves, several Depak Chopra books, another book by Melvin Powers (I think?) about the Power of Our Mind, Several Shirley MacLaine books... I was so into all of that. I was beginning to believe in past lives and a time between lives... I already was 'talking to dead people' to copy that movie with the little boy that saw dead people. I can't see me ever wanting to delve back into any of that junk but just to be on the safe side, why keep these books around? I don't want to give them away or sell them, just want to trash them. It's not knowledge but lies. I remember enough of the lies I believed in, I don't need to have them here to keep looking at them.
--- ...Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Amen
Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits I jumped in when I saw something about burning books.
The idea of someone being so public , asking for money really bothers me.
But the question is once one starts, where is the line drawn?
Yes there are evil books out there, I don't want them, I don't want to see them, but neither do I want the responsibility of censoring what can and cannot be read.
--- Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.
-Auntie Mame
Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits Granted, the act of selling a picture probably could be done away with but I understand where she's coming from. I was so angry at the garbage I had let myself get stuck in. I fought with it and when I was finally free of it I wanted to trash those books. I didn't want to pass them on. There's plenty more where they came from for someone that really wants them but at least I myself wasn't putting it all back into the world.
I find it interesting even in the midst of my anti-Catholic mode, I didn't get like that with what I have that's Catholic. Maybe deep down I never really believed all the anti-Catholic stuff I was trying to buy into, I don't know. I would read about others who had trashed anything and everything they had but I was held back from that.
I guess it was just a comfort to me as I was one that destroyed all the books I kept finding that I had. I just now have one more stack to get rid of and I think that should be the last of them. I knew that stack was where it was but I thought it was a stack of school books, not this.
Perhaps it's the realization of what I had been messing with, maybe it's the same for her, I don't know. Then there's another question, in this particular case, should I be more concerned with what the world may think or what God may think? Yes we can compare destroying one's own collection of New Age books to Nazi's burning books but in reality it is a bit of a stretch... if it was a crowd of people going to New Age stores and setting fire to them that would be doing wrong because they're now destroying someone else's property and by our laws we can't do that. It was freeing for me to destroy my own... all the junk I thought I could mix in with God that really was so far from Him, I was living lies.
--- ...Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Amen
Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits I misunderstood at first, thought it was a group burning, so that is why I made the comparison.
--- Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.
-Auntie Mame
Re: Money Well Spent to Make the World Less Open to Evil Spirits I understand now, your response makes more sense now. *blush* Perhaps I didn't introduce it as well as I should have.
I remember my first year of college and my modern dance teacher telling me about the Age of Aquarius and all so excited about it. I was used to my folk dancing, German & Polish... try moving on to modern dance after years of doing folk dancing but my end of class project I managed to get out of the regimental movements I was used to. Maybe life has gone that way for me. Less and less interested in the world so much as I am looking up! Yet at the same time I have to watch where I'm walking unless my ankle gives out on me again! I'm really good at falling up stairs, I think it's a hidden talent I have.
--- ...Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Amen
I'm really good at falling up stairs, I think it's a hidden talent I have.
