Witches Not Funny — Were And Are Murderers Of Both The Born And The Unborn By Abortion
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” — Exodus 22:18
On Halloween young girls all across our country go out dressed as witches. In our public libraries there are numerous books for young people portraying witches as cute, comical characters. And we all remember the “good witch” in “The Wizard Of Oz” movie. But, witches are neither funny nor good. In his book “Witchcraft” (Penguin, 1952), Penethorne Hughes writes:
“They used their physical knowledge to do evil to humans, for they were notoriously poisoners, and the Italian name for a witch (as the Biblical one) is that of poisoner. One hundred and seventy Roman women were condemned for poisoning under the pretence of incantation, incurring the Lex Cordelia against sorcery and peasant peoples of less sophistication carried it on, as witches or not, all through history — to be called in by their betters as circumstances dictated. By the Middle Ages, they were naturally accused of poisoning wells and Holy Water stoups, infecting barbers’ flour, smearing corrosives on door handles, and making a malicious distribution of toadstools. Also with creating sexual strangulation in men — as perhaps can be done by physical means.
“They spread the plague, and provided vials of murderous acids as readily as they provided aphrodisiacs. Lady Alice Kyteler is accused of ‘the making of potions and lotions from obscene and foul recipes’ (the hot-house prose is that of Dr Summers), ‘the slaying of enemies by lingering disease, and many black secrets beside’. The full tally of the employment of witches as poisoners, by politicians and wealthy women, would be tedious….
“Witches cast spell; they raised havoc; they poisoned; they aborted cattle and inhibited human beings; they served the Devil, parodied Christian practices, allied themselves with the king’s enemies; they copulated with other witches in male or female form, whom they took to be incubi or succubi; they committed abuses with domestic animals. More, they did these things consciously, in the belief that they served a diabolic master and challenged Heaven. Their motives were confused, their impulses bemused, and their proceedings more and more remote from any common original practice. Yet they did them, and the reasons for what they did lie in the earliest religions and beliefs. Besides these witches, thousands of technically innocent people died, as a result of mass hysteria and pious fear. The symptoms caused death, long after the disease had virtually expired.
The Witchcraft - Abortion Connection
Abortionists who use potions to kill/murder unborn babies — such as the French RU-486 “abortion pill” — are practicing witchcraft. And Dr. James W. Scott, a member of the Trinity Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Hatsboro, Pennsylvania, gives us some important Biblical information on this subject in the 12/96 issue of the OPC’s national magazine “New Horizons.” Writing re: the issue of contraception, Brother Scott says we need to rethink St. Paul’s condemnation of ‘pharmakeia’ in Galatians 5:20. He says: “Most Bible scholars have uncritically assumed that this Greek word means ‘sorcery’ or ‘witchcraft’ (as translated in English Bibles). But ‘pharmakeia’(from which our English word pharmacy comes) originally referred to the use of potions, drugs, and often poisons, generally for evil purposes. Since the concoctions were often thought to have magical properties, the word developed the secondary meaning of ‘sorcery.’ Both meanings were current in Paul’s day: which one fits better in this text?
“Galatians 5:19-21 presents along list of ‘deeds of the flesh.’ These are personal vices, which would be common in the general population. But sorcery was the craft of a sorcerer, not really a common vice. The use of potions and drugs for evil purposes, however, was widespread. It makes more sense to find such ‘drug abuse’ listed alongside such things as immorality, idolatry, jealousy, and drunkenness, than to find sorcery on such a list….
“What would then be in view is the evil use of potions and drugs, especially in connection with sexual practices. That would refer to the potions and drugs used to prevent conception and destroy fetuses.
“Interestingly, the early third-century theologian Hippolytus, in the first clear reference to contraception made by a Christian in a work that has survived, condemns certain women who are ‘called believers,’ and yet use ‘drugs for producing sterility’….Thus, there is good reason to think that pharrnakeia in Galatians 5:20 refers to the evil use of potions and drugs, especially contraceptive and abortive agents.
“There is likewise good reason to find condemnations of contraception (and abortion) in Revelation 9:21, 21:8, and 22:15. In 9:20-21 people are said not to have repented of their idolatry, murdering (including abortion and infanticide),pharmakeia, immorality, and thievery. Once again we find ‘pharmakeia’ in a list of popular vices centering around sexual immorality. And again we say, this arguably includes the use of contraceptive drugs. The same analysis would be made at 21:8 and 22:15. (At 18:23 there is probably a reference to sorcery, since the passage is not listing personal vices, but describing the evil influence of ‘Babylon’ on the world; cf. Isaiah 47:9, 12).”
Though the Westminster Standards do not address this matter, Bro. Scott says “the early laws of Presbyterian Scotland punished with death ‘the taking of potions to cause abortion’ and also punished ‘the using such means. ..to hinder conception.’
“However, under the influence of increasingly degenerate secular culture, the largely apostate Protestant mainline churches gradually embraced contraception, especially in the second half of this century. This was not an isolated development. The birth control movement was an integral part of a general culture movement away from traditional Christian morality. In the pursuit of pleasure without consequences, moral objections to contraception, abortion, homosexuality, etc., had to go.
“The historical alone does not prove that contraception is wrong. However, should we expect an immoral and hedonistic society to come up with genuine moral insight, contrary to nearly two millennia of consistent teaching?”
