Category: Edifying Quotes


“You can well afford to see fewer comedy shows on TV. Unless you break away from the funny boys, every spiritual impression will continue to be lost to your heart, and that right in your own living room. The people of the world used to go to the movies to escape serious thinking about God and religion. You would not join them there, but you now enjoy spiritual communion with them in your own home.”

“The devil’s ideals, moral standards and mental attitudes are being accepted by you without your knowing it. And you wonder why you can make no progress in your Christian life. Your interior climate is not favorable to the growth of spiritual graces. There must be a radical change in your habits or there will not be any permanent improvement in your interior life.” ~A.W. Tozer

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star-wars-logoAs a child I was literally mesmerized by the Star Wars movie series (IV, V, and VI).  I had watched them so often, I could literally quote almost every line from all three movies from memory.  My parents did not raise me in the New Age (New Spirituality) or any formal religion for that matter.  My temple was the theater and doctrine formed from the movie mysticism I chose to feed on.  I can say without equivocation that Star Wars was one of the greatest influences on my false understanding of myself and of God.

Sadly, the lies fed through the pop/entertainment culture today are even more seductive and influential in shaping the hearts and minds of this generation.  Watching movies is not like going on a roller coaster ride.  We should never, NEVER allow our children to be taken on a “ride” that will, in the end, lead them far away from Jesus.  I would never allow a child to get into a car with someone he didn’t know, so why would I allow him to take a mental-heartfelt journey with some godless movie, TV show, video game, toy, or book?

We are called to be active, not passive viewers, guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, carefully discerning every message by weighing everything against the Word of God.  Tragically, too many  authors  intentionally design entertainment in such a way as to grow the old, selfish man, leaving viewers more satisfied by the world than with the God who loved them and died for them.  Then we wonder why our children have no interest in the True God and His Word.  

For a few of the many unbiblical concerns with Star Wars, I’ve included a Q&A from The Berean Call below.

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” 3 John 4

Related Articles:

God is not the God of the Force ~Dave Hunt

Is Jesus or the Force with You? ~Unity in the Truth Blog

Can You Believe in the Bible and Evolution (Audio Link) ~The Berean Call

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The Berean Call Newsletter 

Question: Our grandson and some of his friends from church seem to be obsessed with the Star Wars film series. They trade Star Wars cards and play Star Wars games. I don’t feel good about it but don’t know why. Can you give me some information?

Answer: I remember when the film Star Wars first appeared. Rabi Maharaj (the ex-guru whose story is told in Death of a Guru) and I went to check it out together. We sat there poking one another in astonishment as evidence piled upon evidence that this was pure witchcraft and Eastern mysticism and that its creator, George Lucas, knew exactly what he was doing.

The Force is obviously the “god” of Star Wars. One thought remained after the action had faded from the screen: “May the Force be with you.”  We saw that on T-shirts and bumper stickers. A whole generation began to believe in this impersonal Force that can be used to empower one to do magic feats but holds no one accountable, as does the personal God of the Bible.

This is the Force of witchcraft with a dark and light side: black magic and which magic. Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi were the followers of the “the old religion,” as one of Vader’s soldiers reminded him. The “old religion,” of course is “wicca,” or witchcraft. The Force with its Dark and Light side is amoral. There is no right or wrong, just alternative sides of the Force.

The “laser sword” which Luke Skywalker learned to use is a divination device (forbidden in Deuteronomy 18 and elsewhere.) which only a Jedi Knight can wield. To become a Jedi Knight one must be initiated into that altered state of consciousness through which one enters the occult world.

Luke tried unsuccessfully to use the “laser sword” with his own intellect and skills. So Obi Wan covered Luke’s eyes with a visor. Unable to see, Luke could instantly deflect the laser emanating from the little ball dancing about in mid-air because he “let the Force take over.” This is the altered state of consciousness which opens one to possession by evil spirits.

Obi Wan is a false “Christ.” After he gave his life to save his companions, he became Luke’s spirit guide, speaking to and guiding him from the spirit world of demonic power.

Luke could not destroy the Death Star with his high-tech spaceship and weapons. But hearing the voice of his spirit guide, Obi Wan whispering, “Luke, let the Force take over,” he went into his altered state of consciousness, the Force possessed and worked through him, and he destroyed the Death Star — which meant nothing because the Force was still in place with both its Dark and Light sides.

In The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda was a yogi. He taught Luke that his mind was actually the channel of this power, and that he could do whatever he believed he could do — which Yoda demonstrated by raising Luke’s spacecraft out of the swamp with his mind. This is, of course, the witchcraft power of positive/possibility thinking and positive confession.

Luke went into the cave to do battle with Darth Vader. When he cut off Vader’s head the audience cheered. Then came a perfect Zen Buddhist twist: When the severed head was exposed, it was Luke’s own head. As the popular song goes, “I am you, and you are me, and his she, and all is on.” This is the pantheistic lie of Hinduism, that in fact you are God, you are the universe.  That has been experienced on drugs, in yoga or in hypnotic trance by millions, the state of so-called cosmic or unity consciousness.

Throughout the film, a large serpent was frequently seen giving its blessing by moving in and out of the frame, again a very subtle message.

Amazingly, when Vader was finally vanquished, he joined Obi Wan and Yoda in the spirit world of Ascended Masters. Such was his reward for playing the Dark side of the Force! These three comprise the unholy trinity that would continue to guide Luke!

There is much more, but hopefully this will convince your grandson and his friends that they are being led into the occult.

~Dave Hunt, The Berean Call Newsletter, May, 1998

Related Articles:

God is not the God of the Force ~Dave Hunt

Is Jesus or the Force with You? ~Unity in the Truth Blog

Can You Believe in the Bible and Evolution (Audio Link) ~The Berean Call

Self Love“Another book, coauthored by Myers and Malcolm Jeeves, states that “the most common error in people’s self images is not unrealistically low self-esteem, but rather self-serving pride; not an inferiority complex, but a superiority complex.”A recent study conducted by Scott Allison et al indicates that people give themselves reasons to think positively about themselves. For instance, they regard themselves more highly than others by remembering unfair actions against themselves instead of their own unfairness to others. There is a definite self-serving bias in all of us. Self-esteem and self-love do not need to be encouraged; they are part of the fallen, sinful nature. In Jeremiah 17:9 we are told, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Man is self-serving, self-affirming, self-loving, and self esteeming because he is self-deceiving. Many of the ways that man serves, affirms, loves, esteems, and deceives himself are found in the research as well as the Bible.”

“The Bible does not present self-esteem, self-worth, self love, self-confidence, or self-fulfillment as needs that must be met to create capable, loving, well-adjusted people. Instead, the direction of Scripture is away from self and toward God and others. Self is not to be enhanced or catered to. Self esteem is not even mentioned. On the other hand, Paul warned that a Christian is “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” (Romans 12:3). And when it comes to esteem, Paul says, “. . . let each esteem other better than themselves” (Philippians 2:3). From the context of Scripture, the fallen nature is already biased in the direction of self. Self-love is already there or Jesus would not have commanded us to love others as we (already) love ourselves(Matthew 22:39).”

“There are those who try to use the Great Commandment to justify self-love. However, the Great Commandment teaches just the opposite: to love God and others. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:37-40).”

“Is the commandment to love self a commandment of God or is it a commandment of men? We found no Bible commentary that said that Matthew 22:39 (or parallel verses in Mark and Luke) commands us to love ourselves. However, many people have distorted the meaning of Matthew 22:39 to give credence to their self-love teachings. For instance, humanistic psychologist Erich Fromm says:

“If it is a virtue to love my neighbor as a human being, it must be a virtue—and not a vice—to love myself, since I am a human being too. There is no concept of man in which I myself am not included. A doctrine which proclaims such an exclusion proves itself to be intrinsically contradictory. The idea expressed in the Biblical “Love thy neighbor as thyself!” implies that respect for one’s own integrity and uniqueness, love for and understanding of one’s own self, can not be separated from respect for and love and understanding of another individual. The love for my own self is inseparably connected with the love for any other self.  If an individual is able to love productively, he loves himself too; if he can love only others, he cannot love at all.(Emphasis his.)”

“Fromm was an atheist who argued against the fundamentals of the Christian faith. It is even more disturbing when Christians parrot such misunderstandings of Jesus’ words about loving neighbor as one loves himself. Rather than properly exegeting the passage, they use Scripture to support a pet theory.”

Excerpts from “12 Steps to Destruction” by Martin and Deidre Bobgan (pp. 57-67) http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/e-books/12steps-ebk.pdf

Self-Esteem pill bottleDo People Actually Suffer from Low Self-Esteem and Self-Hatred?

What about people who claim to hate themselves? Do they actually hate themselves or are they trying to gain sympathy and support? If they tell someone they hate themselves, the common response is to rescue them from that idea. In the process they receive sympathy and support not normally given. It is a predictable transaction that once begun can become a habitual way of relating to others and receiving support. There are also those who are unhappy about themselves and their circumstances and generalize them into some kind of self-revulsion, all the while loving themselves.

On the other hand, there are some who do experience personal revulsion because of their sin. In fact, unconfessed known sin, such as resentment, bitterness, hatred, and self pity, may make the person feel guilty and therefore uncomfortable. The actual guilt may then be transformed into feelings of self-hatred and worthlessness. In that case, the person does not need more self-love, self-acceptance, or self-esteem.

The person needs to repent and confess and be cleansed. We are not saying that there are no individuals who genuinely think they hate themselves. But, what they generally hate is something about themselves or their circumstances. They exhibit actual love for themselves in that they continue to spend most of their time concerned about themselves, even if it is with unhappy thoughts. They generally get to the point where they are unhappy about themselves because a discrepancy exists between their aspirations or desires and their performance or condition. This intensive hatred is evidence of high self-interest.

Thus a woman who aspires to be thin and beautiful rather than fat and ugly by cultural standards could end up hating her condition and thereby think that she hates herself, because her desire for a perfect figure is discrepant from the reality of being fat and “ugly.” She is reacting to the discrepancy, but the root of the problem is self-love and even pride. She does not actually hate herself. She hates the discrepancy. If she truly hated herself she would be happy, or at least satisfied, to be fat and ugly. But, her self-love in tandem with the discrepancy makes her miserable.

Dr. David Myers, in his book The Inflated Self, discusses research having to do with how people view themselves and others. The research demonstrates that there is definitely a self-serving bias at work in individuals. Myers says: Time and again, experiments have revealed that people tend to attribute positive behaviors to themselves and negative behaviors to external factors, enabling them to take credit for their good acts and to deny responsibility for their bad acts.

Numerous research studies contradict the common notion having to do with self-image. In his book, Myers presents research to support his statement that: Preachers who deliver ego-boosting pep talks to audiences who are supposedly plagued with miserable self images are preaching to a problem that seldom exists.

Excerpts from “12 Steps to Destruction” by Martin and Deidre Bobgan (pp. 57-67) http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/e-books/12steps-ebk.pdf

High Tower 1“Our lives are full of supposes. Suppose this should happen, or suppose that should happen; what could we do; how could we bear it? But, if we are living in the high tower of the dwelling place of God, all these supposes will drop out of our lives. We shall be quiet from the fear of evil, for no threatenings of evil can penetrate into the high tower of God.” ~Hannah Whitall Smith 

OldRuggedCross_B&W“The loss, the rejection, the shame, belong both to Christ and to all who in very truth are His. The cross that saves them also slays them, and anything short of this is a pseudo-faith and not true faith at all. But what are we to say when the great majority of our evangelical leaders walk not as crucified men but as those who accept the world at its own value—rejecting only its grosser elements? How can we face Him who was crucified and slain when we see His followers accepted and praised? Yet they preach the cross and protest loudly that they are true believers. Are there then two crosses? And did Paul mean one thing and they another? I fear that it is so, that there are two crosses, the old cross and the new.

“. . . But if I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of self-assured and carnal Christianity whose hands are indeed the hands of Abel, but whose voice is the voice of Cain. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before the cross it bows and toward the cross it points with carefully staged histrionics—but upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.”

A. W. Tozer, God’s Pursuit of Man (Camp Hill, PA: Wingspread, 1950), 53.

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“To be in Christ–that is redemption; but for Christ to be in you–that is sanctification! To be in Christ–that makes you fit for heaven; but for Christ to be in you –that makes you fit for earth! To be in Christ –that changes yours destination; but for Christ to be in you–that changes your destiny! The one makes heaven your home–the other makes this world His workshop.” ~Major Ian Thomas

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When You Read The Bible Through

The following poem by writer Amos Wells, emphasizes our need for thorough Bible study, remembering that “every word” is important But

“[Jesus] answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”(Matthew 4:4):

“I supposed I knew my Bible
Reading piecemeal, hit and miss,
Now a bit of John or Matthew,
Now a snatch of Genesis,
Certain chapters of Isaiah
Certain Psalms (the twenty-third);
Twelfth of Romans, First of Proverbs
Yes, I thought I knew the Word;
But I found that thorough reading
Was a different thing to do,
And the way was unfamiliar
When I read the Bible through.

Oh, the massive, mighty volume!
Oh, the treasures manifold!
Oh, the beauty of the wisdom
And the grace it proved to hold!
As the story of the Hebrews
Swept in majesty along,
As it leaped in waves prophetic,
As it burst to sacred song,
As it gleamed with Christly omens,
The Old Testament was new,
Strong with cumulative power,
When I read the Bible through.

Ah, imperial Jeremiah,
With his keen, coruscant [shining] mind,
And the blunt old Nehemiah,
And Ezekiel refined!
Newly came the Minor Prophets,
Each with his distinctive robe;
Newly came the Song idyllic,
And the tragedy of Job,
Deuteronomy, the regal,
To a towering mountain grew,
With its comrade peaks around it,
When I read the Bible through.

What a radiant procession
As the pages rise and fall,
James the sturdy, John the tender
Oh, the myriad-minded Paul!
Vast apocalyptic glories
Wheel and thunder, flash and flame,
While the church triumphant raises
One incomparable name.
Ah, the story of the Savior
Never glows supremely true
Till you read it whole and swiftly,
Till you read the Bible through.

You who like to play at Bible,
Dip and dabble, here and there,
Just before you kneel a weary,
And yawn thro’ a hurried prayer;
You who treat the Crown of Writings
As you treat no other book
Just a paragraph disjointed,
Just a crude, impatient look
Try a worthier procedure,
Try a broad and steady view;
You will kneel in very rapture
When you read the Bible through.”

Open Bible“The abundance of grace in Christ makes it possible for us to “reign in life.” Reigning in life is being a Christ-like overcomer. It is growing and maturing in the things of Christ. It is living above circumstances instead of under them. It involves walking increasingly in the liberty of the Lord instead of in the bondage of the world. It involves walking in the wholeness of Christ instead of in the brokenness of man, but it can only be done “through the One, Jesus Christ”. Such cannot be produced in any way by the religious efforts of man, even the dedicated and zealous attempts of a serous Christian. It is only “through the One, Jesus Christ.” Reigning in life comes from trusting in, depending on, abiding in, counting on the One who walked upon this earth and overcame the world, the flesh, and the devil. It comes from looking to the One who always did those things which were pleasing to the heavenly Father. Then, as we draw life and strength from Him, we become more and more those who display His love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.”

“Such spiritual fruit comes from the grace of God at work in and through us, because it is the life of Christ flowing into and through those who do not deserve it, could never earn it and could never produce it on their own.  That is what life in Christ is all about. Jesus came full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace (or, grace upon grace)” (vs.16). The true Christian life is by grace from the moment of new birth right on into eternity. Christian living involves one layer of grace upon another, upon another, upon another, etc. Oh how we underestimate the overwhelming abundance of the grace of God. Every day is to be lived by the sustaining grace of God. Every step of progress and change into greater heights of new life in Christ is to be taken by the transforming grace of God. Only God’s abundant grace can take people from death reigning over them, to them reigning in life.”  Bob Hoekstra, “The Psychologizing of the Faith”, pp. 20-21

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“Blest be the dear uniting love
that will not let us part;
our bodies may far off remove,
we still are one in heart.”

“Joined in one spirit to our Head,
where He appoints we go,
and still in Jesus’ footsteps tread,
and do His work below.” 

“O may we ever walk in Him,
and nothing know beside,
nothing desire, nothing esteem,
but Jesus crucified!”

“We all are one who Him receive,
and each with each agree,
in Him the One, the Truth, we live;
blest point of unity!”

“Partakers of the Savior’s grace,
the same in mind and heart,
nor joy, nor grief, nor time, nor place,
nor life, nor death can part.”

“Blessed Be the Dear Uniting Love”, Charles Wesley (1742)