| Biblical Perspectives Magazine, Volume 24, Number 39, September 18 to September 24, 2022 |
The world is ever changing in many senses. What was once viewed as wrong, repulsive and appalling is the very thing sought after today. Times do change and have changed even in areas that relating to the religious. There is evidently a vicious reawakening of goddess ancient religions opposed to Biblical Christianity on every side. There is also a thriving of syncretic and animistic religions at every turn. What accounts for this and how is the Christian to respond to all these rapid changes in this dynamic world? This paper briefly highlights some salient features about mysticism or the mystic religions as relates to the resurrected goddess worship.
Human beings have a tendency to look for something to worship. If anything happens that they cannot explain, they soon attribute it to some deity as the cause of this. Others try to explain away events using the Scientific method rejecting all other attempted alternative explanations. The fact that humans are by nature religious in one way or the other (including the so-called 'atheists' are religious!) makes them prone to seek out answers. In one sense, curiosity is a good thing because it triggers a desire to investigate but in another, it may lead to practices, rituals and behaviors that really turn people aside from the Living God. In ancient times, people turned to pagan practices, attributed all things to some form of deity or a cluster of them as the cause of all things. Men tended to construct alters, shrines or venerated some aspects of nature such as hot springs or some extra ordinarily big tree as habouring some form of divinity. They were, in most cases, animistic believing that invisible forces existed that essentially governed the world and held the destiny of the world under their full control. Life revolved around these deities whether male or female. Time was cyclical rather than chronological linear and if a people did not conduct themselves well or not offer sacrifices at the right time, the deities' wrath would instantly be triggered resulting in unexplained deaths, omens, droughts or some such calamity, not until they were appeased. To pacify these irked deities, blood sacrifices of one sort or the other, including the sacrificing of human lives would be done. This often pantheistic polytheistic worship of a pantheon of gods has been an established practice among humans in ancient uncivilized cultures. However, this form of worship is making a comeback in a big way, with the advent of globalization, post modernism, pluralism, humanistic thought among other drivers of free thought. Human beings increasingly feel that they are free to do and believe what they will without any external coercion or prescription as has been in the past. People reject any authority including the Holy Scriptures and instead prefer to think and act in ways consistent with their relative world view. The Bible is no longer the highest court of appeal nor do they think it worth imbibing the truths hidden in God's word.
What then is goddess worship? Simply stated, goddess worship is the veneration or worship of a female goddess that reigns and rules the world. She is believed to be integrated in nature and ensures that all things happen as per plan. This female deity is potent, emotional and yet caring at the same time. If she is reviled, ignored or not given due attention, she hits back in various ways including floods, heat waves, droughts or whatever way that would make her ire known. To pacify, sacrifices have to be made. Because she is in nature and controls all things, she is the source of all life and sustenance, without her, people whither and perish. But there is more, she is most powerful and does as she pleases, not subject to male manipulation as has been the case among humans for some time now. As a result, 'Gia' or Mother Earth is worshipped in different forms, some of which appear legitimate in and of themselves. Think about the environmental movements as well as Hinduistic tenets that presently affect our world, these are religious in themselves in half or more of the cases. Nature watch, Green peace, or some such organization appears legitimate on face value but underneath or undergirding are religious tenets, worship of 'Gia' the earth goddess. Therefore, goddess worship has to do with submission, veneration and exaltation of a female goddess as was the case in the ancient past. Another part we need to highlight is that goddess worship is essentially witch craft. The Wicca and other satanic organizations or movements all support weird practices that are in direct contradiction with scripture. In Numbers and Leviticus1, the Bible forbids all sorts of witch craft, sorcery or some such out of body experiences because they are not permitted by God. Wicca allows and supports goddess worship and seems to empower the initiated adherents. This has implications for all. For one thing, the God of the Bible or any male deity is dethroned. With demonic powers, individuals can achieve a lot including manipulating, controlling and battering people into submission. In recent times, we have observed the rise of clearly wicked practices, ritual and movements that are scary and yet the subjects feel empowered, unique and able to do whatever they want. In some cases, they post and show some of what they do to the whole world in the name of 'freedom of expression.' In a post-modern context, nothing is right or wrong but depends on the individual that determines how they feel about something. In the United States for instance, Satanism and these ancient religions have seen a revival of sorts and in many cases lobbying to be taught to the children, all in the name of 'human rights'. For another thing, in goddess, male chauvinism is aimed at and shot down. Words, books, sentences among others must be carefully constructed to either be neutral or in favor of this gender. Furthermore, the status of the female gender must be respected because without them, no one would exist. Things would drastically and swiftly fall into disrepair with attendant negative ramifications. A number of these claims are legitimately true but subtly mixed with erroneous thoughts jettisoning all scriptural thinking in the final analysis. This is a subtle deception point, yea, a slippery slope, even for some professing Christians. There is need to carefully watch so that only the right amounts are ingested not and over dose. In a ferociously dynamic world, it is ever so necessary for the saint to meticulously watch and pray ensuring we do not sip in the good along with the coated poison. Admittedly, it is nigh impossible to completely stop or eliminated the dangerous fangs of error but we certainly can mitigate the deleterious effects.
What then does goddess worship stand for? Simply stated, it demands that the ultimate deity is female that both gives life as well as ends it. She is self-existent needing no male support or assistance to rule, govern or run the world. If males will not bow the knee, they are to be slaughtered forth with. It further means and implies that the female Gender must lead as opposed to the Biblical mandate and pattern. It is thus pagan in nature, a return to what formerly was prior to the advent of the Christian gospel.
Arising from what has been postulated or presented above, goddess worship goes even further, and it makes sure that females not only defy men's authority but make independent decisions when and how they think best. Because of this world view and conviction, it triggers in women the feeling of being short changed, unappreciated, undervalued and suppressed. By that token, women demand more, are in rebellion and spend more time advocating for their rights, equality and equity. Though some of these demands are good in and of themselves because fallen man has abused them, the pundits however veer to another extreme where they upset the natural order God has set or even what nature would require. It further topples the family leading to neglect, divorce and aspirations to compete with men at all times rather than cooperate or collaborate. This shows itself in many ways than one. An example is the extreme aversion of the Biblical domestic order, or sexual preferences contrary to nature, self-assertiveness and a clear disregard of men. Women are no longer the 'weaker' gender but demand equal decision making prowess, freedom to indulge or do whatever they please, an aversion for home keeping among others. From what has been described, it is not hard to observe or discern that all these have direct links or connections to the feminist movement whose agenda is to dethrone the man, eject the traditional roles and enable women to do whatever they please without any help or interference from the man. But the feminist movement demands even more, change of protocol, structure writing, reporting and even family structure. They refuse to be under the abusive man and if possible, dominate the world as once was the case, after all, women or females are in the majority, so why should a puny male have all the fun? Away with such a thought! Women have progressed to affirm each other, empower and support one another by rejecting the Biblical order or re-interpret the scriptures in ways that they think is best.
Having defined or described what goddess worship is all about, we now proceed to highlight its dangers, effects or ramifications on various aspects of social life including the Church and family. It is abundantly evident that goddess worship is idolatry, the worship of some form other than the True God. It breaks the first and second commandments enshrined in Exodus 20. Secondly, goddess worship is a form of bondage from which the Son should set free (John 8:32, 36). Without being delivered from the dominion of darkness, people are limited and inhibited. Thirdly, goddess worship engenders needless fear in followers or adherents. They are not at liberty to live life at their best because they dread this deity. Fourth, goddess worship disrupts God's design of the family at times leading to misplaced leadership structures. Although it appears to empower women, it fosters rebellion, disregard or an aversion of the male gender. Fifth, it generates a competitive rather than a collaborative spirit in male-female relations. At every turn, women hustle to be on top of the hierarchy and or in charge, if not, all sorts of discontent erupt. Sixth, goddess worship triggers and ferments a spirit of independence, self-centeredness, materialism and in extreme cases, hate between men and women. Although we support that women should be empowered, encouraged to excel at what they do beyond the home as well as receive equitable treatment, it is of concern if women become egocentric, disrespectful of others and in the final analysis neglect their children and spouses all in the name of self-actualization or gratification. We re-echo our earlier sentiments that goddess worship is enslavement and a step backwards into the pagan past. But then, we need to state that goddess worship expresses itself in different forms and shades. Some are initiated into the spirit of this incantation unawares. They catch or adopt it from school, society, socialization, laws and in some cases from the local culture. If the Bible has been relegated to the terraces or even opposed from a given contest, then everything else becomes possible. With the advent of post modernism, things become relative as well as allowable. In the present scenario, women gripped by the 'Gia' spirit tend to reject responsibility, claim that they cannot do certain things or even reject the idea of having or growing their own children! Postulating into the future, women may 'rent' wombs, prefer artificial insemination, cloning, abortion or offering children for adoption if only they might per sue their end. In as much as we have rights to make certain decisions, in these cases, people veer to unethical extremes or even opt for out-rightly unethical practices. By that token, traditional marriage is discarded if not viewed as obsolete. The family bondage is wrecked and or acrimony becomes the norm, a new 'normal' for that matter. Another indirect offshoot of goddess worship would be upsetting the order in the Church of God to the extent that the Church is viewed as too restrictive, suppressive and not supportive to women. If women are not allowed to become preachers in church where men are, for instance, they revolt and gravitate to the next church that would countenance such. If they cannot find one like that, they apostatize or begin to attack the Church from outside using polemical works. As they tangent, they can be heard to claim that they were 'forced' out of Church by the archaic rules, male chauvinistic in nature or incorrect interpretation of scripture. They would claim that the epistles forbidding women to take authority in Church have either been misunderstood or interpreted with a biased eye. Their argument would go something like this: 'You know, Paul was dealing with a cultural situation that was time bound and not applicable for all time. He spoke only at Corinth and not London or New York you see. It was meant to correct a situation you see' or they would say 'Paul was a male chauvinist raised with a chauvinistic Jewish eye that counted only males as people to the disregard of women. Paul seems to have underrated women, thought they were less intelligent and thus not worth considering. What we think he should have said is….' What these people forget is that Paul was equally a Roman citizen, brought up in Tarsus and thus had a big picture view of things, though primarily was led by the Holy Spirit to write what he did. Opposing scripture is opposing God himself in the final analysis. That said, feminists will talk in adversarial, contentious and acrimonious terms claiming their rights are being infringed and have repeatedly been robbed. They will disregard scripture and go all the way to prove that what a man can do, they can too and in some cases even better, if not superior. That is how people of the goddess view things. They use grids and lenses far out to sea from the Biblical shores and even get infuriated when Biblical language or ideas are introduced in a discourse because they are viewed as enslaving, downgrading or self-esteem robbing to the post-modern woman. What they do not realize is that they are part of a religion, a movement whose main aim is to oppose God.
Would we then conclude that everything the Feminists say is factually wrong and thus must be rejected? Not quite, what we contend is that their allegiance is not the true God and thus they cannot submit to His dictates as enshrined in His word. The spirit of the age comes across in many ways than one including through social media, Television, Soap operas, movies, cultural events, catalogues, school curriculums, documentaries and a host of ways. Often, it is intermingled with good things such as human rights but once imbibed tend to hijack the mind and lead them to the spiritual gallows. Goddess worship is a deadly phenomenon, without handles and subtly toxic to the soul. One develops a sour, argumentative spirit that makes people hate God.
Clearly, goddess worship as propelled by feminism in all its shades and modes is firstly idolatry and secondly against the created order or even the word of God. It is an affront and stands in opposition to the God of the Bible. Idolatry may be simply defined as the veneration of anything other than the God of the Bible. Feminism makes much of its gender and points myriads back to the worship of a deity other than the true creator of the Universe. It must therefore be opposed by all well meaning sane people before it ruins their lives, societies or families. Entire homes have been ruined by this vice that practically rips against the grain of created order of things. Granted, the female gender is important and to be respected but it cannot exist alone or in a vacuum. The Christian church must meticulously watch this movement and oppose it based on Biblical principle. This may not be in sync with the present mode of thinking but it pleases God, and that is what is important.
That this problem is real is beyond debate. How to respond is another thing difficult to delineate exactly. We suggest a few possible responses that would be handy. Firstly, the Christian should know that there is always a warfare consistently going on at all times. People are looking for ways to undermine, oppose or even eliminate the word or influence of God. Second, the Christian must develop a Biblical world view. The scriptural metanarrative must be hidden upon the tablets of saints' hearts. Women are especially encouraged to take in the word of God and let it dwell richly in them lest they be led astray. Thirdly, Christians need to be aware that the education curriculum and system has often been hijacked designed to deliver in favor of the humanistic agenda. Saints need to be proactive, craft good curriculums if in homeschooling or mitigate the impact from the public schools or culture around them. Fourthly, Christians need to teach the biblical standards to the novices as to the older folk in the faith. Repeated review of God's word keeps many of us on track lest we forget. fifth, Christians must right, defend and demonstrate that their world view is superior or correct because it is based on the designer of the world's prescriptions. Sixth, males should demonstrate the Christ like character that will make the feminist' voice deem or irrelevant. Often, many feminists are either frustrated in relationships or have queer behaviors or preferences. In order to defend themselves or make up for their deficiencies, some turn to goddess worship expressing itself through feminism. It is so deep now that women now demand their own Bibles, churches or some such ministries. Although this may appear innocent and in some cases good, they do not realize that goddess worship spirit is at work in the back ground. They must regain the lost control, prowess or rights. There could be other ways to respond but the afore mentioned should suffice. We now transition towards the end of our discourse.
The New Age Movement (NAM) affords a lot of things to take place including the occult and Spiritism (Pollitt 1996). Premised on postmodern thought and practice, absolutes are abhorred and individuals do as they please, feeling really empowered. It is like in the times of the Judges when people did as they saw fit. Several people have written on Wicca, witch craft and all other forms of occult practice, with our daily reading about the proliferation of Satanic practices all around us. A time was when any mention of the occult was not tolerated in the public space and thus clandestine but in these degenerate days, the veil has been lifted. There is a huge come back of pagan practices expressing itself in different ways. That which appeared legendary is back in a big way. In Kasama of Zambia, among the Bemba's many legendary stories take their rounds around shrines, unique natural features such as water falls (Chishimba), hot springs or some such things. Turner has written a very penetrating paper on wimmins, Wicca and goddess worship that are well worth reading. In that paper, he not only gives the history, background and development of these occult practices, he also demonstrates that these have returned in a modern dress, though essentially the same in nature. Dave Hunt and Welford have written on what witchcraft can do and how it affects the world, if not the church. Stanley J. Grenz (1996), David S. Dockery & Gregory A. Hornbury (2002), and Herbert J. Pollitt (1996) have documented how things have evolved in the world from absolute truth to a relative context that has ushered in ecumenism, laxity, enhanced divorce rates as well as resulted in decimated families and churches. Then we have writers like Rebecca Brown and others that, in the name of advancing the cause of Christ have fallen prey to New Age antics if not trifling with the occult. Witch Craft is increasingly the new normal that people align themselves to.
There are certainly many lessons to be harvested from this consideration, with potential to effect changes in not only our worldview but our values and practices. Want of space and time forbids us to drill deep or highlight all the salient points yielded from this study. We however focus on the most important lessons every Christian worth their salt needs to walk away with. For then, we shall be able to inoculate the Church from errors presently terrorizing not only the Church but the entire society at large. To achieve our ends, we simply highlight these lessons in point form, scarcely adding any detailed narration. We trust the elucidation above has effectively dealt with that aspect. Here goes:
* Feminism goddess has a clear agenda. It will not rest at anything until it achieves its goals.* Feminist agenda claims historical rights that were "robbed off" sometime in the past, effectively changing the narrative. It has, in the past many years formidably working hard to change the script.
* Feminism, in its essential nature, aims to eliminate male dominion. It has progressively done this in several stages and approaches, one of them being the changing of the male pronouns like "he" to 'them' or 'humans' etc.
* This world view aims at reviving ancient ritual practices couched in Wicca or witch craft.
* Effectively, this rebels against Yahweh, the God of the Bible.
* Consequently, the saints need to be aware and take heed. There are far too many enemies round about at the present time.
* By that token, Ecumenism has received a lot of momentum in a globalized world. It does not tolerate the exclusive nature and claims of Christianity thus hostile to the faith.
* The World Council of Churches (WCC) and others have reverted back to ancient pagan religions syncretically mixing them with Christianity.
* Sadly, the Church is adopting Psychology2 and Occult practices into its worship. Note that the word "Music" is derived from "muse" a Greek god, child of Zeus.
* The Church has incorporated many wrong things from the Occult, Psychology into its practice effectively polluting it. There is need to watch at all times.
* The Church has allowed a lot of mythology to get into the Church but will be crushed at Christ's return.
* Saints need to open their eyes to see the deleterious danger and damage presently being effected by the occult world.
Feminism has made serious inroads in all sectors of society. With it has been a resurrection of the ancient worship of the goddess. Witch craft and other mythological phenomena have weaved their way into public life and hardly questioned in our day. The Christian should be aware of this and make sure they have a clear mind, standing on the truth.
Bibliography
Brown R. (1987). Prepare for War, Whitaker House.
Dockery, D.S & Horbury A.G. (2002). Shaping a Christian world view, Broadman & Holman.
Grenz J.S. (1996). A Primer on Post modernism, Eerdmans.
Pollitt H.J. (1996). The Interfaith Movement: The New Age enters the church, The Banner of Truth Trust
Turner A.(n.d.). Wimmin, Wiccans, and Goddess worship, Indus School Resource.
| This article is provided as a ministry of Third Millennium Ministries(Thirdmill). If you have a question about this article, please email our Theological Editor |
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