Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 410 | Can Someone Be a 'Christian Witch'? | Q&A

Episode Date: April 27, 2021

In today's Q&A show, we take your questions and tackle topics like "Christian witches" and how to respectfully stand up to authority. Today's Sponsor: Annie's Kit Clubs: Give your kid something worthwhile to do besides stare at a screen all day! Visit AnniesKitClubs.com/ALLIE for 75% off your first order. --- Previous Episodes: Ep 216 | The Rise of Millennial Witches https://apple.co/32T9Fzn Ep 393 | Lil Nas X’s Satan Shoes & Why Christians Should Rejoice https://apple.co/3sRA776 --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day. Today we are doing another Q&A. This is a pre-recorded maternity episode. You guys sent me a lot of your questions on Instagram, and I am going to answer those. If you have not left a review for this podcast and you love this podcast, it would mean so much to me. If you left a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, of course, you can listen anywhere, but if you could go to Apple and leave that five-star review, maybe just tell us briefly why you love the show.

That would mean so much to me. Thank you so much. And if you haven't subscribed on YouTube, if you're on the listening side of this, you can go do that as well. The channel name is just Ali Beth Stucky. And typically the video version of this comes out between five and six central time. All right. I'm going to answer a question first about what it means to be a so-called Christian witch. of you sent me a question saying that one of your friends identifies as a Christian witch,

and this is actually not the first time I've heard this. Now, you might never have heard of this if you're listening to this and you're like, what the heck are you talking about? That sounds like a paradox, and you're absolutely right. It is a paradox. But I've actually spoken to someone who identifies as a Christian witch and she really doesn't see anything in congruent with it. she believes or she says that she believes that, you know, Jesus is the son of God who died for

her sins. I didn't really get into all of her different theological points because I was kind of stuck on this, hang on, you call yourself a witch thing. But she engages in witchcraft. And I and others that were engaging with her tried to kind of explain why that just cannot coexist. And so I'm going to explain it as well as I can today. So your friend who identifies as a Christian which I think that it's safe for me to say. I don't think this is me being judgmental. I think this is just me reading and applying the Bible is not a Christian. There maybe is a chance that she's just thoroughly confused for the time being,

but it is very likely that she is not filled by the Holy Spirit, that she has taken parts of Christianity that she likes, and then she has taken parts of witchcraft that she likes, and maybe part of the new age that she likes, and she's kind of mixed it together in some kind of religion that makes her feel in touch with different parts of her personality and different parts of her interest. But the fact of the matter is,

is that Christianity is exclusive in that sense. It's a very inclusive religion in that anyone can be called by God to be a Christian. You don't have to do something for God in order to be accepted. God came down, became, flesh sacrificed himself rose again to reconcile you to God and then to defeat death and sin on your behalf. And so he does the work and only by grace through faith can anyone no matter how sinful come to God or really be saved by God. But it's exclusive in the sense that God is a jealous

God. And Jesus says in John 14, 6, that he is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through him. So it's exclusive in the sense that it does not leave an option for other kinds of so-called spirituality, other kinds of faith, or other kinds of doctrines to share its place in our hearts. When God says that he's a jealous God, what he means by that is that he does not allow idolatry. He doesn't allow his glory to be shared with anyone else. He's not going to sit on a throne of your heart when you become a Christian. He is not only going to to sit on the throne of your heart, but as the ruler of your heart, he is going to claim everything. There's this wonderful passage in mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis where he says,

Jesus didn't come to save some of you. He didn't come to claim authority over some of you. He claimed to claim all of you. Everything in your life, everything in your heart is eventually, if you are a Christian, going to be claimed by Christ because he doesn't give you an option to just be, to just see him as a prophet or see him as a teacher. He's either a lord, a liar, or a lunatic. And so it's not possible to be a Christian and then also engage in witchcraft. God makes this very clear in the Old Testament. Leviticus 1931, he tells his people, do not turn to mediums or necromancers, do not seek them out. And so make yourselves uncleaned by them. I am the Lord your God. Now, a couple notes.

I know we are not ancient Israel. We don't follow all of the cleansing laws of ancient Israel, but we do look at the laws, for example, the moral laws, and we still apply those like the Ten Commandments, aside from, and this is debatable, but aside from keeping the Sabbath exactly the way the Jewish people do, we do believe in keeping the moral law because Jesus fulfills the moral law or he reapplies and reemphasizes the moral law in the law. the Gospels, but we don't follow the cleansing laws as Christians because he has become our cleansing. He has become our sacrifice. He became our perfect sacrifice once and for all. So we don't have to do

these burnt sacrifices or animal sacrifices anymore because Jesus has become that eternally on our behalf. But when we look at the laws of Israel, whether it's the cleansing laws or whether it's the moral laws, we do look for the principle and we say, okay, God has not changed. What can we learn from what God told Israel for today? And there's a very systematic way to interpret the Old Testament as it applies to Christian life today. I really recommend systematic theology, for example, by Wayne Grudham. And also politics, according to the Bible by Wayne Grudham, gives a lot of insight into all of that. But this particular verse, Do not turn to mediums or necromancers. Do not seek them out. And so make yourselves uncleaned by them. I am the Lord, your God. We see this kind of sentiment throughout the Old Testament. And it's not, it doesn't seem to be just this kind of seemingly random cleansing law in the same way that we might look at a law against eating shellfish or mixed fabrics or something like that. This is always paired with other kinds of,

evil and other kinds of idolatry. And because in the Ten Commandments, we see a command against idolatry, we can rightly apply a verse like this to our lives today and say, okay, this would still be something that God hates because of the reasons that he gives. It is always associated with other kinds of evil that God detests. Deuteronomy 189 through 12 says, when you enter the land, the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nation. there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or cast spells, or who is a medium or spiritist, or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the

Lord. And so you see how these things that we would probably call New Age today, which actually, obviously are a very old age, is also associated with child sacrifice. And we actually see that multiple times throughout scripture, in particular the Old Testament, that whenever God talks about witchcraft, whenever he talks about psychics, whenever he talks about necromancers, necromancers, by the way, are people who claim to have some kind of connection with the dead and speak through the dead or can summon the dead for purposes of divination. And, uh, so-called prophecy or they would they would call it prophecy. Whenever we see God warning against those things, we often see not just a warning against idolatry, but also a warning against other

kinds of evil like child sacrifice. In 2 Kings 216, for example, Manasseh was an evil ruler who reigned in Judah. And this verse 6 says, and he burned his son as an offering and used fortune telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He didn't, much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. So this chapter, Second Kings 21, talks about the evil that characterized this ruler, Manasseh in Judah. In this particular verse, again, it's interesting in the long list of this chapter of what Manasseh did wrong, this verse puts dealing with mediums and necromancers right alongside

with burning his son as an offering. So we see more than once in the Old Testament that witchcraft, psychics, magic mediums are being linked to child sacrifice because it's what happens when we, and this is biblical language, whore ourselves out to other gods. We become, we start to glorify that which is evil in God's sight like abortion. Now, that doesn't mean that everyone who glorifies abortion calls themselves a witch. That doesn't mean that everyone who calls himself a witch is for abortion or is for abortion or is four child sacrifice. But the point is, that's what it does to the human heart. When we start

to engage in that kind of idolatry, we get, as we talk about many times on this podcast, brains of mush and hearts of stone. So you start to call evil good and good evil. As Romans tells us, things start to switch in our mind. We start to love darkness and we start to hate the light and we start to call the darkness light, and anyone who calls the light light, we begin to hate. And so it is impossible for this kind of darkness, which is represented by witchcraft, to coexist in the hearts of people who love the light, who love Jesus Christ. John 319 through 21 makes this very clear. And this is the judgment.

The light that's Jesus in this context has come into the world. And people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out by God. We've talked about this metaphor on this podcast before. I think it was the episode when we were talking about the Satan shoes and the Satan music video by that rhaps. but people who love darkness, like we all once were, as Ephesians 2 said, we all love darkness

at one point. When someone turns the lights on for you, if you're sleeping, you've been sleeping for a long time, it's pitch dark, someone just comes in, they turn the lights on. What's your reaction? You're super offended by that, or you're just angry, you're mad, you're annoyed, it kind of hurts your eyes. You're not going to be glad that someone turns the lights on for you. It was very comfortable how you were sleeping. You enjoyed the darkness. You didn't want the lights on. You were very comfortable in your slumber.

And then someone comes on and they turn the lights on. You are going to be angry at that. And unless you let yourself get used to that, unless you accept the light that exposes all the things that you didn't want to see, unless you allow your eyes to adjust to that, you're going to want to go back to sleep. You're going to love the darkness and want to go back to the darkness. But if you allow your eyes to adjust to the light, you realize how much better it is to be awake. Like how much better it is to be in light. But this particular passage in John 3 is saying,

yeah, light came into the world. Someone turned the lights on when all these people were sleeping and pitch dark and they hated it. They wanted the light to go away. They wanted to turn the light back off. And I think that's important for us to realize, too, when we talk to our friends who are still in darkness, again, as we once were, yes, they're going to be very angry because darkness hates the light. But it's also important for us to remember that the light is not scared of darkness. Like the light is not scared to turn on as Jesus also says, like a city on a hill is not supposed to be hidden. You don't light a candle and then put it under a basket. And so we are not scared to turn on lights.

Like that's what we should be as Christians. We go into rooms, we turn on lights, we turn on a lamp, we light a candle. That should be our goal in every sphere that we occupy, every relationship that we have. And that doesn't mean like aggressively calling people out in every conversation that we have. That just means showing the light of the gospel and sharing the light of the gospel and word and indeed in all things that we do. Christians are constantly turning on lights. That's going to make a lot of sleeping people mad.

And this might be the case for you who asked this question. for your friend who is pretending that she can have a partnership with darkness and light at the same time. It's just not possible. God does not coexist with idols. He just, he won't do it. And so your job as her friend is to lovingly keep on turning on that light even when she tells you that she would rather be asleep in the darkness. Ephesians 5, 8 through 12 says, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. So all of us were once darkness. We don't have judgment or personal condemnation towards those who are in the darkness. We don't think that we're better than them in any way. We're not unkind to them because we know we were all

darkness at one point. We've been there. We've been the person asleep in slumber, not wanting to wake up, angry when someone turn the lights on on our sin. And so we understand that. For at one time your darkness, Ephesians 5 says, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

The rest of that chapter is really wonderful and enlightening as well, no pun intended, and you'll know what I mean if you read the chapter. But so I would encourage you to speak the truth to your friend. And it might make it a little bit easier that she identifies as a Christian because maybe she would be responsive to biblical truth. She is claiming to believe, I guess, that God and his word have some kind of authority or influence in her life. And so I would also read the book Tactics by Greg Kokel.

he gives very wonderful tips and engaging in these kinds of difficult apologetics conversations in a way that is kind in a way that is inquisitive rather than accusatory. So perhaps she just needs to be made to think about her faith. Like maybe she just needs to think about, okay, how am I allowing these two things to coexist? Maybe she just needs to be prodig just a little bit. And she just needs to see the inconsistency in that. And so I have a lot of hope and a lot of optimism for your friends and for your ability to be able to talk to her and to love her and to turn the light on and show the gospel, show the gospel to her. And so I hope that was helpful.

I hope it gave clarity to you and hopefully a little bit of equipment as well. All right. Next question. Your favorite built bar. So a lot of you guys love Bill Barn. I'm so excited about that. They're just a great sponsor. And I've told you guys before,

I do not say that I have personal experience with one of my sponsors if I don't. Like, I'm not going to tell you, oh, I tried this service. And it was wonderful. I saved so much money if I haven't done it yet. Now, I still might encourage you to do it, but maybe it's not a service necessarily that we have had a chance to use or that we have to use. But I also am very picky about my sponsors.

I don't say yes to. every sponsor request because it doesn't apply to you guys or I just don't think it's a good fit. And so I only talk about sponsors that I think could really help you guys. And I only say I have personal experience with my sponsors if I really do have personal experience. I have a lot of personal experience with Bilt Bar. I would not tell you guys that they're an amazing tasting and filling protein bar if I had not personally experienced that.

And I have. And I've tried, I think, almost every single flavor. One of the ones that surprised me that was really good because I'm not like the biggest mint fan in the world, but the chocolate mint one is really good. You guys know 18 flavors, chocolate flavors. And I'm also not like a chocolate fruit person quite as much, but I do like they're like chocolate raspberry, even chocolate cherry. Again, not one that I would typically go to, but it's good.

The only one that I have not tried. and it's probably very good. I just don't like coconut. There's chocolate coconut, and I'm just not, I just don't typically like coconut flavor, so I just haven't even tried it. But I'm sure if I did try it,

it would be really good. So probably chocolate mint or peanut butter brownie. Those are both really good flavors, but they're all good. Okay. Next story, how to stand up to teachers in high school without disrespecting authority?

So I love this question, and I love the heart behind it because that was not my heart in high school. Like, I've always had kind of a problem with authority a little bit. Like, I, just from a very young age, the idea of respecting someone or deferring someone just to someone just because they are in a particular position or they have a certain title, it's just never sat well with me. And I'm not saying that's a good thing. I actually think it's very important to teach kids in particular situations to respect authority

and to defer to people who are in authority. Now, I don't think that we should teach our kids to do that unconditionally because there are a lot of people, a lot of adults that abuse authority at the expense of kids. And so I do think it's important to teach kids to be discerning and to push back when they do need to push back. I probably went too much in the direction of pushing back. And I was the same way, you know, I was the same way with my parents. And again, I'm not glorifying that because we are called to respect our parents in the Bible.

But I was very, you know, independent-minded growing up. And that certainly transferred into high school. Although there were a lot of teachers that I really started to love in high school. I just wasn't like a school person. Not that I didn't do well in school because I did do pretty well in school and in college, but I just didn't like it. I didn't like the whole structure of it. I didn't like sitting down in class.

I didn't like math or science. There were only a few subjects that I really liked and I really enjoyed. And I would have rather spent my time out of class, reading and discussing and things like that than sitting in a class and going through, you know, fill in the blank worksheets and things like that. So in that sense, I just didn't like school, not organized, always losing my pens, didn't really love authority and all of that kind of stuff. I'm making myself sound like some like crazy rebel, and I wasn't at all. I just had a bad attitude towards some things. And so I love that this person who is asking this question actually cares about respecting authority because that was just not something that was top of mind for me for high school.

And again, not saying that that is great. I think that there should be a balance probably that we teach our kids and that the reality is that you, person who is asking this question and all people who are in high school or this age are under the authority of the Lord first. It sounds to me like you're probably a Christian that you have a hard time with some of the things that you are learning, maybe because you find them morally repugnant, maybe because you find them historically inaccurate. And so I love that you are critically thinking and you're wondering, okay, how can I stick to the truth without disrespecting my teachers? And also, I'm guessing your question is how to do well in class. You don't want to be

ostracized either. You don't want to be bullied, certainly not by your teachers or mistreating. or anything like that, which you shouldn't be. But unfortunately, a lot of people are at the risk of that these days. If you don't fall in line with the particular ideology of your school or your teacher, you are worried about not getting a good grade, which is very, excuse my language, stupid. But I understand that fear, and that's what a lot of kids are facing today. But you are under the authority of the Lord first, and he is most concerned with you pleasing him. You are also under the authority of your parents for the time.

being, although I'm guessing if you're in high school, you have more freedom and flexibility than you probably did in middle school or lower school, but they still have authority over your life in a lot of ways, which is a very good thing in high school, even though we feel like we know everything at 16. That's why being a teenager can be so dangerous. And that's why, like, you know, teenagers, insurance, car insurance is so insanely expensive because we make stupid decisions. and we don't think through consequences and we don't think through the next step. And that's because our frontal lobe is not developed until we're 25. So we're doing the best we can.

And plus there's hormones and insecurity and all of that. Being a teenager is a tough time. But I think the most dangerous part of it is that you actually think that you have all the life experience that you could possibly need to be the wisest person in the world and that your parents know absolutely nothing and that you've got everything figured out. But it's good that we do still while we're teenagers have authority in our lives, any attempt, by the way, by the left to subvert that authority or subvert that care and wisdom and guidance that parents give to teenagers is so dangerous.

It's so dangerous. It actually makes teenagers more vulnerable. And I'm not talking about, you know, abusive situations where parents are abusing their authority. I'm just talking about the normal parent-child relationship that should extend through adolescence, because we're just not to the point yet of being able to make good, long-lasting decisions. Our brains just aren't there yet. So God has given us the family structure to be able to protect us from making decisions that could ruin our lives.

That's why fathers are so important in particular. Mothers too, but especially fathers. And I know I'm going off on a tangent. But that's why we see so many studies saying where there is fatherlessness in a family, there is a much higher rate of teen pregnancy. There's a much higher rate of teen delinquency, of dropping out of high school, of low grades, depression, anxiety. God actually created us to need the direction, the discernment, the help, the love, compassion, and care and protection and provision of a father. I certainly don't think it's a mistake that he refers to himself as a

father, but he has given us fathers who are supposed to be an earthly representation of that. Of course, not everyone enjoyed that while growing up. But all that to say, the parent-child relationship is so important. God created it. He intended it that way. And again, any attempts by ideologues, by progressives, by the government to try to usurp that authority, it only makes kids vulnerable. I saw this, I saw a change in the law in the state of Washington, for example, that said now 13-year-olds, the parents have 13-year-olds will no longer have any acts. to the medical records of their child, 13 years old. I mean, that is a child. You're a child. And so as a parent, are you in violation of the law? If you're trying to look at your child's labs and your child's numbers to try to help them figure out what's wrong and what the best path is, I mean, that is, of course, what the left does. That's what progressivism does, as we've said before, it only knows how to tear down. It doesn't know how to rebuild. And so because Progressivism holds, just like communism always has, is that the parent-child relationship is actually

oppressive and the family structure is actually oppressive and gets in the way of the advancement of communism. It has to be destroyed little by little. And so these laws that are made in the name of privacy are meant to disintegrate the family. And it's not good. Again, the people who pay for that are teenagers. So that was, I know, that was a rant that was an aside. from my answer to this question. So all that to say, the reason why it's relevant is that authority is important, teachers' authority is important, parents' authority is important in a child's life, in a teen's life to a certain extent, but the Lord's authority is supreme.

It is most important. And if you are tempted to sin or you are asked to sin or you are caused to sin or you are ask to affirm that which you know is not true, either is not biblically true, is not morally right, is factually incorrect, then I do think it is your responsibility first to obey the Lord and to refuse to do those things. Easier said than done. But I think if you have a concern about the curriculum, if you're like, okay, this curriculum is divisive, it's trying to tell me that my friends who are white or my oppressors, it's trying to tell me that I'm oppressed by them. It's starting to create this kind of self-loathing and resentment. It's starting to make me see

people only by their skin color rather than who they are and their character. Or if you're concerned with how they're teaching history that doesn't seem to be correct, that doesn't seem to be factual or if they're trying to teach you that, you know, Christianity is oppressive and evil, whatever it is, I do think that you have the responsibility, and by the way, the total ability and equipment to maybe along with your parents and maybe along with other concerned families, to raise these concerns with your teacher and with the administrators and to be able to articulate your case for why you don't think this curriculum is not only right, but also not productive. You're not trying to say that the teacher has to only teach that which you

completely agree with. But the standard, need to be objective. It needs to be factually correct. And we should push back against any kind of curriculum or direction that is causing people to feel uncomfortable about their immutable characteristics like race and is causing resentment against the students because they are weighing themselves on some scale of intersectionality and oppressed versus oppressor. That is not of God. as James 3 talks about anything that creates, that kind of hatred, anything that creates, that kind of jealousy and rivalry and deceit is a wisdom that is actually demonic. But wisdom from above is peaceable.

It doesn't show partiality and it bears good fruit. And so I think we have to use discernment to be able to tell the difference. but you are equipped to be able to, hopefully with your parents, hopefully along with other families, to be able to raise your concerns. That's a way to respectfully raise your concerns. Also in small ways, if you're willing to just raise your hand in class and to just say, hey, like, what about this? Or have you ever, like, thought of it this way or something? Again, I would say read tactics by Greg Kokel. I wonder if that would help you in rather than coming across as combat. to your teacher, being inquisitive and being curious and kind of pressing in on some of the

assertions that your teachers may be making that you don't agree with. Maybe you do this in front of the class. Maybe you don't. Maybe some private conversation. Now, in my experience, people in that kind of authority can get defensive if they feel like a kid is questioning their expertise. It's kind of like when you question a doctor's opinion or diagnosis that he gives you sometimes, you know, doctors, they get all ruffled because of that. But the fact that, fact of the matter is you have every reason and every responsibility and every right to be asking those questions as part of what it means to learn. I would also encourage you to kind of take that inquisitiveness and take that curiosity and pressing against the mainstream dogma and any group

projects that you do when you're talking to any of your friends. Just encourage your friends to start pushing back, even in their minds, against everything that they are being told politically, ideologically. I think what's most important is that we have kids that can think critically. Yes, I come from a biblical worldview, and I wouldn't have that worldview if I didn't think that it was the correct worldview. But I think one thing that really worries me is youth seeming inability today to think, to think through good arguments, to be able to actually reason, to be able to come up with an argument that's not filled with a million logical fallacies.

And I also am worried about youth's inability to write, their inability to communicate, their inability to be able to articulate things in a way that's grammatically correct, or rhetorically compelling, or anything like that. I think it is that, it's that mind shrinking and critical thinking inability that is going to spell disaster for our future. I think the fact that most teens today, unlike when I was a teenager, are spending their time numbing their brains scrolling through TikTok rather than exercising their minds, even like in a good conversation or a good book or something like that. I think that is what is going to spell disaster. So if you can be someone who critically thinks, who can ask questions

when you're told something, who can push back against the mainstream or the popular ideas that are being perpetuated in your circles or in your school, I think that you're on a really good path. And so I just really appreciate this question. Of course, I believe and know that you are trying to do this in a way that is kind and trying to do this in a way that is really helpful. And so also just pray for the boldness and the ability to be able to do that. All right. That's all I've got time for today.

I will see you guys back here soon.