SPIRITS OF THE LIE - PART TWO

I asked Shoefoot through interpreter Mike Dawson, Joe's son, who grew up among the Yanomamo, how he would answer a skeptic who thought his experiences with the spirits were nothing more than hallucinations brought on by the drugs he took. Shoefoot's 70-something-year-old eyes sparkled at the question; he enjoys responding to challenges by skeptics, especially when he speaks to university anthropology students. Its ironic that this "primitive" man considers the highly educated anthroplogists who study his people, are, at best, deceived. He told me of knowing shamans who had many of the same spirits he had had, yet, unlike him, they did not come to know them as a result of taking drugs. Whether the contacts were made with a clear mind or in a drug-induced state, descriptions and details were nearly always identical; they all communed with the same spirits.

Mike added that we of the sophisticated West have trouble relating to a culture in which spirits, i.e., demons, are a real, everyday part of life. However, that doesnt mean they're necessarily exclusive to the dense jungles of the Yanomamo. He said that on one autumn trip to the U.S. with Shoefoot, he was shocked as his friend, the former shaman, continually pointed out representations of spirits he had known being featured across America as it celebrated its most financially successful holiday: Halloween. Some time later, Shoefoot was given a sampling of TVs Saturday-morning cartoon characters and power figures. It was more of the same. He was not aware of the worldwide popularity of the Harry Potter books, which introduce children to sorcery and encourage them in the practice of witchcraft. As Mike explained this series of books to him, he was grieved that so many young people were being set up for the suffering and bondage that had tormented his own people.

Shoefoots subjective experiences in a culture dominated by lying spirits are readily substantiated when compared with other demon-driven lifestyles throughout the world. Furthermore, they are consistent with what Gods Word says about such spirits. The prince of "the rulers of the darkness of this world" (Eph 6:12) is a devourer of human souls, who also delights in their physical destruction through depravity and disease. The technologically advanced societies on this planet may be able to ward off the latter, but they will reap the far worse temporal and eternal bondage of their souls.

The culmination of this will take place under the demon possessed and empowered Antichrist. However, the preconditioning for that event, which began in the Garden of Eden and has become widespread in our day, will manifest itself in an increasingly demonized society and an apostate Christianity, as the Apostle Paul warns: "Now the [Holy] Spirit speak-eth expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (1 Tm 4:1). The world, blinded and bound by "the god of this world," is ripe for every form of contact with spirit entities and will reap its horrendous consequences.

Lord, give us a love for the truth, and a heart to rescue those in bondage to the lie.
TBC.

I first heard this story as a radio interview on Focus on the Family. What struck me was the comment that although many of the demons that Shoefoot was familiar with were evident to him in his trip to the U.S, the Great Spirit was not apparent anywhere. Food for thought. Perhaps its time to revisit the Book of Jeremiah and bury ourselves in the Gospel.