Rev. David Holwick K
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
March 16, 1997
Deuteronomy 18:10-15
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I. Email from Beyond.
Subj: I'm sure you know me
Date: March 1, 1997
From: Diane@ppi.com
To: Internet.Mail.Delivery@polaris.pacificnet.net
Hello. I'm Jeanne Dixon a psychic, medium, healer, spiritualist,
clairvoyant & astrologer.
My horoscopes and predictions are found in all of the major
newspapers and publications worldwide.
I can predict your future.
I can ease your pain.
I can help you make decisions that are important in your life.
I can help resolve job anxieties.
I have a psychic pool filled with hand picked psychics all with
the same capabilities as mine.
I, along with my psychic pool, have helped millions of people all
over the world to resolve the unknown.
Please call and let me help you.
My psychic facility can be reached 24 hours per day and seven days
per week including holidays.
If you have a credit card, please call the toll free line.
If you want to bill this call to your telephone, it is only
$3.99 per minute after 5 minutes.
#4052
A. Jeanne Dixon is better than I thought. She's been dead over a year.
Dixon gained national prominence as a psychic when her prediction
that President Kennedy would die in office came true.
Parade magazine in 1956 quoted Dixon as predicting that a
Democratic president elected in 1960 -- a tall young man with
blue eyes and brown hair, would die in office.
Dixon said she told interviewers that the president would be
assassinated, but they refused to publish that.
She claimed to have made hundreds of accurate predictions and
gave readings for President Roosevelt.
Not all of Dixon's forecasts proved true.
She predicted, for instance, that World War III would begin in
1958 over offshore Chinese islands.
The Soviets would land the first man on the moon, and Nixon,
not Kennedy would be President in 1960.
She claimed to be a devout Roman Catholic.
B. Psychic ability is all the rage.
1) Psychic hotlines, supermarket tabloids.
2) Many believe in astrology, ghosts, UFO's...
a) ESP experiments at Wheaton College Psych class.<<<<
3) Everyone wants to know the future, have special power.
C. Do humans have psychic abilities? Can we see the future?
II. Psychic religion defies God.
A. Divination, sorcery, spiritism, witchcraft, seances rejected.
1) Reason for Canaanites' annihilation. Deut 18:10,12
2) Do not practice it. Lev 19:26
a) They have a defiling influence. Lev 19:31
b) They are to be put to death. Exod 22:18
B. It is a violation of first commandment.
1) We claim powers God reserves for himself.
C. Spiritual warfare.
1) Example of evil king Manasseh. 2 Kg 21:6
2) King Saul's downfall with witch of Endor. 1 Sam 28:7
3) The New Testament ties it in with Satan.
a) Paul and slave girl. Acts 16:16-20
b) Ephesians and psychic scrolls. Acts 19:15-19
III. Psychic religion doesn't work.
A. Nebuchadnezzar and psychic hacks. Dan 2:5
1) Only Daniel could interpret, because God revealed it to him.
a) He had no innate "psychic" ability.
2) Jeremiah, Isaiah 47:12-15 expose foolishness of psychics.
B. Scientific doubt.
1) Psychic ability unproven, except for shoddy experiments.
a) See aura - body behind wall?
b) In one hundred years, not a single person has given
consistent evidence of psychic ability.
(even paranormal investigators agree)
2) James Randi's $10,000 challenge.
3) Book that looks at prophecies - after the fact.
C. The rare exceptions.
1) Example of Balaam, pagan prophet. Num 22:7-12
a) Hired to curse Israel.
b) Blesses them, repeatedly.
2) Pharaoh's magicians. Exod 7:11
a) God's power (through Moses) is greater.
3) In each case, God is behind it or it greater.
IV. Why people believe in psychic ability.
A. Accuracy is exaggerated.
1) "Psychic Internet" claims 90% accuracy.
a) Better the more info they have on you.
b) Revealing preferred title: "intuitives."
2) Nancy Reagan - it didn't happen again.
B. We want to believe, and accept anecdotes as facts.
1) Random "hits" are remembered.
a) Dixon remembered for predicting Kennedy's assassination.
b) Actual prediction not as accurate.
2) Psychics and police.
a) Even used in Roxbury (missing persons, etc.)
b) Readings are vague, and victory is claimed if only a
few fit.
c) NEVER leads directly to solution.
3) Psychic phone scams.
"Joan Cook" Broomfield, Colorado, was a counselor on the
Psychic Friends Network for six months a few years back.
She said she is no psychic, but at $24 a hour it was a
great job.
(The networks earn $240 on top of that).
She was recommended for the job by her teacher in a
counseling class, who said Cook would be free to do
traditional counseling on the network.
But she quickly discovered that her callers didn't want
basic, common-sense advice.
They wanted supernatural insights.
On January 8, 1992, she got a call from Tonia in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Tonia wanted to know whether her husband was going to beat
her.
Cook tried to convince her to call the emergency number 911.
She also gave Tonia the names of churches that might
provide counseling.
The woman's reaction:
"I called for a READING. I want my READING!"
So, Cook says, she concocted a tarot reading to back up her
recommendation.
"Only when Tonia was thoroughly convinced the advice came
from the cards and not just some ordinary individual did
she seem inclined to access the FREE resources ALREADY
available to her in her OWN community," Cook said.
Why was Tonia's husband so angry?
Cook says he had discovered that Tonia had racked up a
$5,000 phone bill talking to "psychic" counselors.
#967
C. Fitted to human nature.
1) Reason for popularity of newspaper horoscopes, which are
bogus.
Author Kurt Koch tells of a young university psychology
student who was planning to write his doctoral thesis
on the psychology of superstition.
Since he needed funds, he advertised himself as an
astrologer.
He gained numerous customers and for each of them he made
identical horoscopes.
He drafted them to be as ambiguous as possible and included
positive character traits.
Later, he was "showered" with letters of appreciation.
His proven experience became the basis for his paper.
#2015
D. Satan behind it?
1) Many have gotten sucked in occult with séances, Ouija boards,
fortune-telling.
2) Young people are especially vulnerable.
3) Influence of Heavy Metal Rock & Roll.
V. Can skeptics believe?
A. Arguments against psychics can be used against Christians.
1) Bible is filled with visions and prophecies.
2) We believe in paranormal.
3) But miracles and visions of the Bible are different.
B. Real messages from God.
1) Micah and prediction of destruction of Jerusalem. Jer 26:18
a) Biblical prophets had a hard, transforming message.
b) They were unpopular. But true.
2) Fulfillment of Biblical prophecy (Israel).
C. Test all visions. 1 Thess 5:21; 1 Jn 4:1
1) Be wary of psychic claims.
2) Satanist hysteria.
3) Mike Warnke exposed.
VI. We can know Who holds the future.
A. Forget psychic abilities - use your natural ones.
B. Christians can know enough about future to have hope.
C. Our fates are determined by God's will and our response, not
stars or Tarot cards.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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