The growing number of practicing witches in the US appears to have overtaken the declining number of mainline Presbyterians. A Trinity College study in 1990 found only 8000 wiccans in the US. Several recent studies indicate there now may be somewhere near 1.5 million involved in some form of witchcraft. Presbyterians are down to 1.4 million.

The Pew Research Center claims that this phenomenal interest in witchcraft has been primarily among young adults. Several factors in our increasingly pagan culture have contributed to this. Much of the blame can be laid at the doorstep of the churches who have not called out the godless propaganda in the public schools and universities. We now have two generations burdened with this atheistic, materialistic worldview based on the theory of evolution.

But the worldview of the world drains all purpose out of life. If you are taught that you are simply an accident in an uncaring universe, suicide often becomes very attractive, particularly if you come from a dysfunctional family.

Unfortunately there are not many stories of rescue. But a recent one is typical. It is the story of Sarah Anne Sumpolec that was covered in a recent issue of the Christian Post. She remembers moving a lot as a child and in one house her father announced with excitement that it was haunted. He also made her a present of a “very old book” on witchcraft and told her at one point that witchcraft was “who we are as a family.”

By 15 years old she was dabbling in seances and tarot cards and browsing New-Age bookstores. Eventually she had “an entire altar set up in my bedroom” where she would cast spells as a good witch and worshiped gods and goddesses. She remembers being seduced by the promise of power.

Eventually, after a failed suicide attempt, she ended up in college, rooming with two Christian girls. After the initial friction, she discovered that they exuded a peace and security that intrigued her. She began to eavesdrop on their Bible studies and soon took them up on an invitation to join them. 

Hearing for the first time the message of God's love and grace, she says she made God an offer. “I told Him that if He was real, and if He really wanted me —then I was His. He took me up on the offer.” She burned all the books, candles, and idols “in a big bonfire.”

“I know God was pleased with that,” she said. “I had traded a whole lot of nothing for a whole lot of God.”

Bill Lasasso, former senior pastor of Pathways Community Church in Largo, FL relates when a coven of witches attempted to disrupt the worship services. They had not counted on the fact that this church had purposely taken on a very welcoming stance toward a community with many bizarre behaviors and lifestyles.

When the first witch came in to scope out a strategy, she found a very welcoming atmosphere where the people lovingly confronted her with the power of the gospel. In confusion she made a quick exit. But she came back two weeks later with her husband to testify that they had committed themselves to Christ. 

This incensed the members of her community of witches who came to their baptism to “claim her back.” Lasasso said, “They were greeted and welcomed by our people, but they did not utter a word.” In the spiritual warfare that followed, the witches set fire to an associate pastor’s porch.

In the struggle, two more witches came to Christ before the spiritual skirmish ended with the witches retiring to lick their spiritual wounds.

The congregation learned that witches are normally more afraid of us than we are of them. Christians should never forget 1 John 4:4, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.”

Chick Publications has one tract on the occult that has stood the test of time. With an intriguing title, BEWITCHED, it is a gripping story of a wayward young person and a praying grandmother.

During our case lot sale this month (May 2024), 1000 copies of BEWITCHED are available for less than $0.10 each. With the phenomenal growth in witchcraft in this country, there are probably witches in your community who need this message of hope and freedom. There are also young people who need to be warned that the power offered by Satan is a lie and that his ultimate goal is to kill as many people as possible before they can hear of Christ’s offer of eternal life.