Gary :
You’re listening to a special edition of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come in this revisit to our 2000 series: “Religion in the News,” plus answers to your questions in “Contending for the Faith.” And in “Understanding the Scriptures,” Dave and Tom will continue their discussion of God’s salvation. In addition to this radio program, we publish a monthly newsletter which we make available free of charge. We also produce and distribute a wide variety of teaching materials including books in print, e-book and audio book formats, CD’s, DVD’s and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word. For a complete list of materials or to get a copy of today’s broadcast write to us at POB 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708, call our toll free order number 800-937-6638, that’s 800-937-6638, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org . If you would like a copy of this broadcast on compact disk ask for program #1609, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program. We continue now with our special revisit to the year 2000. Now:
RELIGION IN THE NEWS
A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the New York Times News Service, Dateline: Zdanovo , Russia . There is trouble in the one room matchbox home of Anatoly Matuzov and his wife Yakatarina, two grizzled, middle-aged residents of this mud road farming village. Like many families in trouble, they have summoned a priest. Unlike many families in trouble, they have also laid in 13 half-liter bottles of vodka. By the time the priest is gone 7 or 8 hours hence, the vodka will be too. Let outsiders snicker and make cracks about appealing to a higher power, in Beriadia, a region of southern Siberia that is an outpost of the mystical Mongol religion called Shamanism, vodka is quite literally “holy water” sprinkled, dabbed and most of all, drunk as an integral part of religious rites. And the vodka carries a kick. After 90 minutes of prayer and libation, neither the Matuzovs nor other relatives at the ceremony seem to be troubled at all. You drop, you pray, you talk to God said Alexe Spasov, one of two shamans who minister to a cluster of villages along the shore of the huge Bratz Reservoir, a few hundred miles north of Mongolia. According to the Beriad tradition, I’m here to bring some moral calmness. Many people might regard shamanism as the “John Denver” of religions: a 1960s earth mother kind of faith, with a heavy dose of channeling and an occasional side of psychedelic mushrooms. In much of the world, various forms of Shamanism are found on most continents. It is a complex religion. Mongol Shamanism dictates that humans have at least three souls, two of which reincarnate and that animals have two reincarnating souls that must not be offended, lest the animals desert the humans’ hunting grounds. Reverence for the earth is a tenet of the religion. Mongolian shamans talk to many gods. Among others, 100 upper ones led by the Father Heaven and Mother Earth; 13 divinities bound to earth and fire and a host of local spirits that stand guard over holy sites like mountains and rivers. A shaman’s role in this order is to mediate between the spiritual world and mankind.
Tom:
Now Dave the vodka produces an altered state which facilitates contact with spirit entities. I mean we’ve said before, shamanism the world over it is the same idea however you can contact spirit entities, whatever device it takes, that’s the heart of it.
Dave:
So here we have another proof for the fact that matter is not all there is. There really are spirit entities out there. We do talk about that in the book as well. And they do communicate and we can prove that because the communication, I mean I’ve interviewed people around the world who have had no contact with one another, but they come out with the same messages from these entities and they conform to Satan’s four lies that he introduced to Eve in the Garden of Eden. So we know that they do exist and we know pretty well who they are because of what they say, but here we’re kind of back to what we were talking about—I mean what evidence do they have for this? That’s what this book is about: An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith. What evidence do they have for this hierarchy of gods? Father Heaven and Mother Earth and the hundreds of deities and all this thing that they are going through, their ritual and so forth—what is the basis for that?
Tom:
Well, some of it’s pragmatism. In other words, something seemed to work—you are getting information from, you know in an altered state of consciousness, whether its on vodka, or sacred mushroom or whatever, but they get—it’s like they are led into it—it’s entrapment basically.
Dave:
Well, unfortunately the Bible warns that there are deceiving spirits out there and that men will heed them. They bring the lie—seducing spirits the Bible calls them that bring the doctrines of devils and these are doctrines of devils. But the point I’m trying to make is—what—just give me a solid basis for this. Why do you believe this, I would say to the shamans? They’ve been led into this; this is something that they’ve done. You say it works…sometimes it seems to work. The information they get isn’t necessarily true. Generally it’s not, but sometimes it turns out to be. But here they are putting their trust in some spirits out there that they think they are communicating with and in order to communicate with them, you have to drink vodka. You have to get into a state of consciousness where you’ve really lost touch with your own rational faculties and with the physical universe around you and you have no basis for believing. How can you verify what’s going on? But, Tom it’s not just up in Mongolia …
Tom:
Mongolia , Siberia , right…
Dave:
It is all over this world. There are people consulting a Ouija Board, or Tarot cards, or they consult a medium in a séance or they just trust the pastor because he sounds convincing. And then you’ve got an awful lot of pastors these days who don’t even believe in God. They don’t believe anything and it’s just kind of a business for them and they’re involved in just sort of salving people’s consciouses and calming people down. You’ve got the death and dying movement, where what do they do? These dear people are dying and what is their purpose? Not to tell them where they are going. Not to tell them about salvation, not to warn them of the possibility of judgment, but just to say that everything is going to be okay, let’s be positive about this and so forth, so this article that you read is just symptomatic of so much of what’s going on out there.
Tom:
And Dave our concern is well—why would we even pick out an article like this? Because it seems a little bizarre, but when you break it down, these are the same things that in a sense, are going on in the church. We have subjectivity, we have the contemplative movement where you are trying to experience God, or go through some kind of ritual and have God speak to you or commune with spirits and so on. This is our hearts’ concern. This is why we have this program—search the Scriptures daily—because if it’s not according to God’s Word, then it’s not His way. And if it’s not His way, we are into strong delusion.
Dave:
And the only reason you say that Tom, is because we can prove the Bible is God’s Word.
Tom:
Amen.
