I grew up going to a Lutheran church, but only sporadically and I did NOT pay attention. I'm aware of the Pagan symbolism issue, and my best friend is Pagan, but when she talks about this sort of thing it's mostly denouncing God and talking what sounds like nonsense. I haven't really learned anything from her.
Agreed on Catholicism. I know many Catholics to be good people (at least from what I can tell), it's the higher-ups that are problematic.
My faith is almost entirely founded on spiritual experiences, most of them evil and having driven me into His arms. Almost no education, I'm practically an imposter.
Spiritual experience and being driven into his arms is the best teacher anyhow.
Plenty of people view the Bible through an exclusively intellectual lens, but what they miss is that the spirit realm is not intellectual to begin with.
Your friend, whether she knows it or not, is captured by satanic forces. It’s that simple. Demons don’t tell the truth, so whatever spirits she communes with will present themselves as ancestors, nature spirits, fairies, aliens..basically anything except what they actually are: demons.
I’ll go out on a limb and assume that you want to know about paganism to be able to speak intelligently with her on these issues. While that doesn’t hurt and could potentially be advantageous, no one comes to the truth by their own intellect or even any intellect at all. In other words, you’re not going to convince her of anything through sheer intellectual discussion and debate.
Much like you described your own experience, I’d say that generally is how many people come to know the real God: through spiritual experience often borne of spiritual tribulation.
The best thing you can do is pray that God reveals himself to her as he revealed himself to you and so many others.
Sidebar, I’ve found that many sermons by a man named Derek Prince give a very good outline of paganism. You can find his stuff on YouTube and probably Rumble.
I suspect any spiritual good she experiences will be deemed a Pagan god in her eyes. She's told me of experiences regarding getting nosebleeds from painting the entities she sees. Demonic as hell, but she doesn't believe me.
When we have such debates, my arguments are weak to the point where I wonder if I'm wrong. And I know I haven't done the reading. So I'm trying to fix the problem.
Thanks for the recommendations.
No, you’re right. She’s wrong. Whether or not you can articulate it or feel confident in your debating skills is irrelevant to that point.
It doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t sharpen those skills, to be clear.
I’m just saying that your skill or lack thereof in that area is not going to be what ultimately saves her or not.
I actually have a very good friend in the same boat as your friend.
Ultimately, neither you or I can do what only God can do - which is to show her beyond a shadow of doubt the truth. So I do not take the burden of God’s duties upon myself, and neither should you.
Our job is to proclaim the gospel, not to argue it to people whose eyes and ears are closed. If someone tells me that the sky is green and the grass is blue, I’m not going to argue with them.
Beyond that, the best we can do is focus on living a good example and pray for God to awaken them.
And I don’t know about you, but I have plenty of work to do on myself in that regard anyhow. I constantly fail at living a proper example, but it’s something I fight for and will continue to fight for every day.
That’s not to say I have made no progress, either. I have, but there is more to be made. I want to be a man who when people look at me and my life, they want what I have. To where I don’t need to try and convince them that my theological beliefs are correct, rather, they notice that I have something far beyond what they have and so they inquire of their own volition and curiosity.
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