Beware of evil rituals!

The Christmas festive season has come. Many Christians will celebrate in remembrance of the birth of Christ who liberated us from the kingdom of darkness and translated us into His kingdom of light.
But, relatives and friends who strictly follow African Traditional Religion (ATR) will use the gatherings of people at Christmas time as an opportunity to do questionable rituals, rites and invocation of the spirits of the dead. ATR is not wholly against Christian values but its weaknesses lie in superstition, fear and rituals that put people in spiritual bondage.
The key guides or sources of information in ATR are witchdoctors and spirit mediums and these practice science that does more harm than good. So a Christian must try and avoid participation not only in things that are evil but also in all appearances of evil.
This advice is difficult for some people to take because they do not see the harm in mixing tradition and divine precepts. To them all is well as long as they know in their heart what they really believe in. Besides they do not want to be lonely and to feel out of place among their own people.
So some involvement will give them a feeling of belonging and a sense of identification with their relatives.
If they really knew the mission of Christ on earth they would not participate in things that run contrary to Christ’s word.
In the opening scripture above Christ declared that part of His mission on earth was not to bring peace but a sword and also to set relatives and friends at variance one against the other. This is truly a hard saying; how could one regarded as the prince of peace come as a swordsman?
A peacemaker causing division among kinsmen? The explanation of the interpretation of His words will remove this seeming contradiction.
Christ brought the truth and obviously the truth would conflict with any existing falsehood. Christ brought light; and His light would not harmonise with darkness. Christ came as the way and any other ways would need to be deserted. Christ brought real life and any life that existed prior to His coming would need to be transformed into new creatures.
Christ brought a new mindset that required a renewal of minds and a reversal of former thoughts.Those who reject Christ’s revolutionising doctrines will definitely be in disagreement with those who accept them.
Any peace that exists before the truth is known is false; therefore a sword should dissect the false peace away before real peace exists. Relationships and friendships that existed prior to Christ’s truth will be severed if some receive the truth and others reject it.
If a father holds on to profitless tradition that makes the word of God of none effect, he will definitely be at variance with the born again son.
A born again daughter-in-law will need to be excused from traditional practices and cultural rites that directly conflict with Christ’s doctrines.
The major problem is that the adherents of ATR want to force it upon Christians while Christians resist it. They argue that doing the rituals will not do any harm; you will just need to confess it to God afterwards.
They also argue that one needs the protection of both God and herbs; and that church leaders are doing it in the night.
Avoiding being present but contributing money towards an evil ritual is involvement. Do not be ashamed of standing by your convictions and beliefs. How will they ever come to salvation if for the sake of peace or for the reason of pleasing them you unwillingly participate in evil rituals?
Tradition binds and induces fear while truth liberates truth and injects love that casts out fear.
Some rituals are used as a means of transferring demon spirits from one person to the other. Some of the rituals and traditions place human precepts and philosophies above God’s laws leading to idolatry.
Evil covenants, curses and spells are usually cut and cast during rituals. Most importantly, some rituals and traditional practices result in the defilement of the spirit and the body. Defilement or filthiness attracts demonic activity like nothing else and the process of deliverance from such demonic activity can be very long and tiresome.
Instead of becoming defiled and demonised all in the name of peace-making and fostering a sense of belonging why don’t you follow Christ’s pattern of not harmonising in questionable things?
Being at variance does not necessarily mean hostility. You can, by the grace of God, listen to their suggestions and calmly and respectfully set them aside and keep yourself pure and blameless before Christ.
-For prayer and counsel call 0772889766 or email:mairos78-@yahoo.co.uk