sorcery

In this blog we first go back to a blog from 2 years ago, in which it was written that since the 1960s people have become more and more accustomed to the influence of the invisible world in their thinking and meditation through music, drugs and meditation. to live. It then zooms in on drugs and in particular psilocybin, and it is noted that this drug also attracts attention for use in mental health care. Next we see that the bible also talks about drugs; it is something that is used in the end times and that people do not want to let go. The use of drugs around us also shows us again how far we have progressed on God's clock. The Lord Jesus is coming soon.

Drugs, music and meditation

We've already talked about drugs once; about two years ago and in this article.  We hebben toen geconstateerd (althans, het is mijn conclusie) dat sinds de jaren 60 van de vorige eeuw jonge mensen opgroeien met drugs, moderne muziek en meditatie. Maar dat betekent ook dat in het leven van de meeste mensen vandaag de dag deze dingen een belangrijke rol spelen. Je zou kunnen zeggen dat de toegang tot de onzichtbare geestenwereld en het ‘genot’ daarvan een onmisbaar kenmerk zijn.

When it comes to music, you can see that everywhere. Hardly anyone walks on the street without headphones or 'earphones'. The masses have music on their heads almost all the time.

You cannot immediately determine from the outside whether someone is using drugs. But on the internet there are plenty of 'smart shops' or whatever they are called, where you can easily order all kinds of hallucinogens. How special is it that in the Netherlands when all shops were closed due to the lock-down, only the food stores and the 'coffee shops' were allowed to remain open. Apparently drugs are already seen by the government as the basic necessity of life for people.

We won't talk about meditation, mindfulness, yoga and other ways to 'clear your head' here; Most people have experience with that in one way or another.

In short, for most people, "the supernatural" is quite common. In fact, most probably can't live without it.

Experiences of drugs

The Bible also gives insight about what experiencing the supernatural world does to you. Following Deuteronomy 29:18 and 19 we have here already wrote the following: 

• He blesses himself in his heart. The word for 'bless' comes from 'to kneel'. You can say that he kneels to himself and sees himself as god. That is indeed what happens in the state of higher consciousness.
• “I will be at peace”. 'Peace' is not only the absence of war but also something like 'wholeness', completeness'. The idolater deludes himself that God does him no harm because there is nothing flawed in him. He sees himself as good in the sight of God, even if he continues to "follow his hardened heart."
• “I follow my hardened heart”. Interesting is the meaning of 'hardened'. The KJV says here “I walk to the imaginations van mijn hart” en de Naardense Bijbel zegt: “met de certainties of my heart I will go on.” The combination of both is exactly what happens in the higher consciousness: your perception of reality changes, you get imaginations (images) that go deep into your soul and that you take for the real reality. These are the real certainties that settle deep inside and that no one can take away from you. As a result, you are no longer open to what God really has to say to you.
• “Abundance will take away thirst”. The KJV says: 'om drunkenness to add to thirst' and the Naarden Bible also has 'drunkenness' instead of 'abundance'. Drunkenness is a state in which you are "under the influence" and not of yourself, but of something or someone else. You are no longer in control of yourself and become like Paul[6] says 'carried away by the dumb idols' (1 Corinthians 12:2). There is apparently a thirst, a longing for something (or God?) that is satisfied by 'drunkenness', that state of higher consciousness in which you 'experience the real bliss'.

Drugs as medicine for psychological ailments

Recently I came across an article about drugs on “The Berean Call” (TBC) (see here). Het artikel is in 2015 geschreven en nu wat aangepast naar de stand van 2020. Het geeft een stuk historie van de opkomst van de ‘psychedelica’ sinds de generatie van de babyboomers en doet kort verslag van een aantal wetenschappelijke onderzoeken naar de effecten van het gebruik van  bepaalde middelen (met name ‘psilocybine’, de werkzame stof in paddo’s en truffels). Verder geeft het informatie over de onderzoeken die recent (in de VS) gewijd worden aan dit middel, met als inzet om het middel in te zetten tegen bijvoorbeeld depressie en posttraumatische stoornis. Daarmee zou het therapeutisch worden gebruikt.

When I was looking for Dutch information about this, the TBC article was immediately confirmed. Here vind je bijvoorbeeld uitgebreide  informatie over de historie van het middel en de inzet in de geestelijke gezondheidszorg. In een van de onderzoeken wordt geconstateerd dat “the most interesting conclusion was that a mystical experience could be aroused and that those who had a mystical experience also experienced all kinds of positive changes in their behavior and in the way they looked at the world and themselves. This was also confirmed by people in their environment.” Overigens mag psilocybine in Nederland nog niet therapeutisch worden toegepast en zal het nog een paar jaar duren – verwacht men – voordat het door de ziektekostenverzekering wordt vergoed. De GGZ verwijst daarom op haar site naar Essence (zie ook here where you can participate in 'psychedelic retreats' on a commercial basis. In this movie wordt bijvoorbeeld gezegd dat een psilocybine-trip van een halve of hele dag je net zoveel oplevert als jaren durende  psychotherapie. Overigens doet men bij Essence niet geheimzinnig: op de site hebben ze het bijvoorbeeld over spiritualiteit, mystiek en sjamanisme. Alleen dit maakt al duidelijk waar we het ‘medicijn’ moeten plaatsen.

Incidentally – and that is not the advice of the GGZ – you can simply order the drug online at a 'smart shop' for home use, I have discovered. It's that easy today; not just psilocybin, but really anything and everything you can have delivered to your home, if you are only 18+! Drugs not only for 'recreational use', but also increasingly as medicine for psychological ailments.

They did not repent

When we find that society as a whole is using psychedelics simply and promotes it as a medicine for the soul, then we are apparently entering a time when people can no longer live without drugs.

Remarkably, the Bible writes about that time. We read in Revelation 9 that after the 6^th trumpet 1/3 of humanity perishes and that the people do not repent despite these judgments It is written twice: 'they are not converted'.

“And the rest of the people who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands; they continued to worship the demons and the gold, silver, brass, stone and wooden idols, which cannot see, hear, or walk. Also did they not repent of their murders, their sorcery, their fornication and theft.”

Revelation 9:20,21

It is a terrible time with unimaginable circumstances of death and destruction and yet people still cling to these five characteristic things:

• Idolatry, worshiping the demons by pursuing god experiences
• murders, no life is safe and murder is a mark of the times
• sorcery, the use of drugs as a necessary condition for survival;
• Fornication, an omnipresent evil
• Theft; no property is safe from this ubiquitous evil.

These five things we see increasing throughout society today, in all walks of life.

sorcery

The word translated in Revelation 9:21 as 'sorcery' is in the original Greek 'pharmakeia', from which also our words 'pharmacy' and 'pharmaceuticals' are derived and means 'using or administering medication'. Given the context of the word (here, but also in Galatians 5:19 and Revelation 18:23) it does not mean the normal medicines, but rather the agents that bring about a magical state. Hence the word 'sorcery', which at first gives us the impression that it is something that happened in the past but has hardly any meaning in the Western world today. On the contrary, it is precisely the drug use that permeates society as a whole because people try to bring some relief in their hopeless condition.

Galatians 5:19 shows that "witchcraft" belongs to "the works of the flesh" and that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

“The works of the flesh are known, namely, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, vijandschappen, ruzie, afgunst, woede-uitbarstingen, egoïsme, onenigheid, afwijkingen in de leer, jaloersheid, moord, dronkenschap, zwelgpartijen, en dergelijke; waarvan ik u voorzeg, zoals ik ook al eerder gezegd heb, dat wie zulke dingen doen, het Koninkrijk van God niet zullen beërven.”

Galatians 5:19-21

Idolatry and sorcery are two works of the flesh, both of which have to do with man's direct access to the spirit world. You could say that idolatry mainly refers to the pursuit of God experiences from a religious context or background. Sorcery then relates to the search for consciousness-expanding experiences with the help of certain substances (psychedelics). But both lead to 'fantastic' indescribable inner experiences that bring people into communion with – and thus under the influence of – demons. They are parks over which God can only pronounce His judgment.

The Lord Jesus is coming soon!

If drug use is one of the hallmarks of the time of the great tribulation, how close must we be to that time. But that means that the Lord Jesus will soon come to take His church to Himself (see for example also here ).