In some churches it is customary to dismiss Sunday morning worship with the pronouncement of a biblical benediction or blessing. I always liked this and for years made it a practice - one of the favorites, of course, being: "The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace" (Num. 6:24-26).
A certain question occasionally crossed my mind, however: Are our words at this point really conducive to effecting God's blessing on the people, or are we rather engaging in something of a "nice you were here; we wish you well" routine? Interestingly, in prescribing this blessing, the Lord had stated: "So shall they [i.e., the priests] invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them" (vs. 27). It is food for thought.
Recently, however, attention has focused somewhat on the pronouncement, not of blessing, but of cursing - at least two teams participant in the World Cup soccer games in Germany (one African and one South American) having declared their retention of shamans (witch doctors) for the purpose of pronouncing curses on their opponents.
While living in a culture blessed with an adequate presence of godly men and women as to preclude much of what may be witnessed in some parts of our world (ten righteous would have altered the situation and its outcome in Sodom - right?), the fact remains that there are those sufficiently engaged in the occultic and demonic as to indeed exercise malevolent spiritual powers, particularly in pagan cultures.
We recall attending the Sunday service of a particular evangelical church some years ago in which the denomination's Foreign Missions Director was the morning speaker. He had just returned from a mission church in northeast Aftrica where, in terms of religion, the native peoples were animist and spiritist. At birth babies were dedicated to evil spirits in the hope of warding off their ill will and onslaughts through life. Demon possession was dominant in the culture to the point that a separate room in the church had been set aside for exorcisms. During the Sunday service in which the Director had been present at the mission, a native woman had been suddenly lifted by unseen powers and physically thrown across the auditorium (only, of course, to be removed and taken to the exorcism room). Conditions seemed more than a little reflective of Mark 1:23-26; Acts 8:7, etc. The Director's presentation the morning we heard him was not one of pulling for finances or seeking to induce some emotional response. It was rather the sharing of a man intensely moved by what he had seen and experienced.
Is the demonic, in whatever form or expression, then to become a dominant theme of the believing community? No. One may here recall that while Philip performed "many" exorcisms in Samaria, his message was Jesus Christ (Acts 8:5,7; see also our entry "Worshiping Whom?" archives, June 27, 05).
Finally, in hearing and reading of the World Cup series and attendant shamanism, the thought ran through my mind: in our own nation's increasing hostility toward the faith and those of faith, to what might we eventually be opening the door?
This, too, becomes food for thought.
Burl Ratzsch
