As of late I have been thinking of infamous occultists/heretics and their bizarre stories: of Grigori Rasputin, Alister Crowley, and Guido Von List, and to what extent they may have been channeling powers unholy due to their active participation in the occult and in heresies. This then lead me to wonder how some of the people who I knew that dabbled in these sorts of things might be afflicted themselves.
My dad is certain that they’ve all had brushes with the devil, including some of the more esoteric classmates I once had, but I’m not so sure myself. I mean, I’m pretty sure demons are real and all that, but to what extent can they have power over people, and through what means? It’s hard to say if the historical persons I mentioned were remotely “sorcerers”; Rasputin just prevented the Tsar’s son from taking blood-thinning aspirin and Guido Von List incorrectly predicted the outcome of The Great War, not to mention that Alister Crowley was just an edgy poet that got kicked down a flight of stairs by some Hogwarts “shifters” .They may have been simply whack jobs, and it was so long ago to properly diagnose them. But what about the Wiccans and the Theistic Satanist I have met that claimed to have visions and such? Can Ouija Boards really contact the dead? Are these people just magical thinkers or plain nuts?
The devil obviously has them in his grasp, but to what extent?
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Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
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The idea of him, the story if him did. Until you can deconstruct it, leave it the Hell alone and repeat the Lord’s prayer.
I’m between a nap and a meal, so until I decide to nap or eat, I’ll play in this sandbox.
I’ll skip commenting on Rasputin, Crowley, and Von List and discussing to what extent the devil had them in his grasp. [Nota bene: You ask: to what extent does the devil have them in his grasp? I say: who has them now is unknown and a matter of speculation; however, when they were in this world, I would say they were a little too close to him for my comfort and I’d nag a niece who might have wanted to date any of them.
The “afflicted”, as you call them, come in all shades of gray, from tainted to tinted and including black.
If you’re a reader, add these two books to your to-read list:
I sometimes forget how subtle Satan can be. He didn’t need to give Stalin laser eyes like Frylock in order to cause as much suffering as (in)humanly possible. I mean, even a simple comment made by one of His own disciples was identified by Christ as the evil one’s words.
Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
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Nothing about human behaviour requires Satan. Just evilution!
The first petition in the Lord’s Prayer is "hallowed be your name." “I want your name to be set apart, famous, revered. I have a desire for your renown.” Don’t pray it hypocritically, and let your words and behavior demonstrate that desire. I do not consistently.
That is also what peeves me the most about YECism – it defames God before the world and earns its derision and laughter, per Augustine. The implicit or explicit derision from some deconstructionists is not wonderful, either.