In Reply to: I don't agree with you, Bryon posted by Acheick on March 09, 2003 at 13:58:27:
The issues you have raised about not enjoying life, or humour and going about in a self righteous manner full of fear of the devil is I agree a religious counterfeit to true holiness. The COG/Family certainly created a strict system of religious control as part of their camoflage so we wouldn't recognize the very real evil spirits running that delusion. The world is full of that kind of deception. It's like Dylan said, in, 'Eve of Destruction', "You can hate your neighbour, but don't forget to say grace." You are quite right we can safely dump all that craziness and I'm sure there will be rejoicing in Heaven over it. In addition I heartily agree that Christians need to watch out that the devil doesn't doesn't put the fear of the devil in them. No Holy Spirit filled Christian fears the devil. While we shouldn't fear evil we should however fear the Lord and depart from evil. The child that is given godly instruction and has a loving home is not likely to stab their teacher at school because she confiscated their Pokemon cards, but a lot of children do not have that kind of home. And while I am sure that few will embrase Satanism as their religion because the magic creatures they were introduced to as children made sorcery look like fun, I think you will have to agree that such things certainly would give them a little push in that direction.
Did you know that the same company that created, 'The Dungeons and Dragons' role playing fantasy game, long ago, bought up, 'Pokemon'?
I don't have any kids, but I have a young niece and nephew that play with that stuff and they are good kids, but I have noticed that they tend to get sick easy and the eldest boy gets strange bouts of depression. A children's video I bought him about David and Goliath, two years ago, has been sitting several feet away from a VCR and TV, but it still has the plastic wrapper on it. I have seen him play a, 'Harry Potter' video game where Harry runs around with a magic wand in his hand and that really turned him on. We grew up with Mickey Mouse as the, 'Sorcerers Apprentice', 'Bewitched' and similar stuff and boy did we ever turn out to be 'angels'. Very few kid's today know about Jesus and you can be sure that Satan intends to keep it that way.
So now I am off to sprinkle some holy water on my nephew's Pokemon cards and sing some hymns as I watch the little critters squirm. It's lots of fun you should really try it some time. But whatever you do don't tell your kids I told you about that, because I will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Heh heh heh... The Lord bless.