Jan Markell's most recent Understanding the Times radio show is about a rise in interest in the occult that is becoming popular even in the churches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCqRDA5LA5A
This is certainly another sign of our closeness to the end as the religion of the antichrist will certainly be occultic and satanic.
The scripture that is quoted to concemn this is
1 Timothy 4:1-3 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats...
I want to point out about this passage that in context it is clearly referring to the Roman Church with its prohibition against marriage for its priests and prohibition of eating meat, at least on one day a week, and this was part of the scriptural basis for identifying the papacy as the Antichrist according to Luther and perhaps other Reformers. If you leave out the last verse it has a more general application that also seems appropriate but isn't really what the passage is saying. The "doctinres of demons" in context appears to point to the doctrines of the Roman Church. The "falling away" or Great Apostasy that is also taken as a sign of the last days was intrpreted by the Reformers to refer to the doctrines of the RC Church.
HOWEVER, there is no doubt that occultic practices are directly connected to demons and their doctrines, and that we are now seeing a spreading of apostasy in the churches.
Although all this does point to the nearness of the Tribulation period, it can also be seen as the ltest phase in a progression of deviations in the churches that have been accumulating over time, from as far back at least as the rise of Liberal theology in the 19th century, and I keep returning to the idea that we could turn back the coming judgment at least for a time if we reversed the trend.
That would mean seeking God for undertsanding of where to start, and I think that would likely be by requiring women to resume covering our heads in church. We require men to be bareheaded on the basis of that same passage of scripture and since we read that literally it makes no sense not to read the requirement for women to be covered also literally. There may be other places to start but I keep coming back to this as a glaring departure that desperately needs to be rectified.
If we did that I think we could apready start to see improvement in our spiritual vision, because it's deviations and sins that cloud our spiritual vision. The attack on biblical inerrancy by the Great Bible Hoax of 1881. also needs to be recoghnized and addreswsed. And another thing I've been forgetting lately that I'd add is that too many churches are soft on divorce and remarriage and I don't think you can just repent of that without doing something about it, but each case would have to be decided separately.
It seems too much to ask but if God convicted us it could be done.
