Harry Potter = Witchcraft?

I just spent like 12 pages owning somebody about this subject. Harry Potter is hardly occult. I studied the occult for a long time, Harry Potter is simply an entertaining read at best.

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Amen

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"We have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. . . I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio."

Jourdon Anderson, ex-slave, in response to his fomer master asking him to return

Being an student of "the occult" does little to make you a good witness as to what Biblical sorcery is, no more than killing someone makes you able to finely divide the Law on what constitutes murder. (Is the person "under the ban"? Was the murder in retaliation of another homicide?..and so on). Picking up an axe does not impart this knowledge; the Spirit and the Word does. Scripture, not experience, is the definitive word. I don't believe "Wicca" is an all-inclusive definition of witchcraft either. A shark is a fish but not all fish are sharks. And as LadyL has pointed out, we are called to be separate from the things of this world.

Is HP "real" sorcery? No more than the killing in Hamburger Hill or Saving Private Ryan is murder (foregoing the murder vs justifiable homicide debate). It's fake, to be sure. And as it has been pointed out, it would be extremely difficult to completely separate ourselves from all those things. I mean, come on, our days of the week are all named after pagan gods (whose names we were told to "not even let them be found on our lips"), as are our months, our cities, and the cars we drive.

All the same (even in entertainment), there's a boundary between being in the world and glorying in the world. It would be hard to completely get away from all mention of witchcraft in our society. HP is definitely over the line though as far as "magic" goes - that's what the entire series is about. So the debate (as far as I can tell) really comes down to whether the actions in HP bare any likeness or similitude to what was at one time known as witchcraft. If so, then the series should absolutely be avoided, just as a series based on a band of kids who learn to murder others should be avoided as glorifying murder. To me the debate is ridiculous. It's a debate over synonyms. "Is magic sorcery?"

Supernatural power which allows miraculous signs and wonders...sounds a lot like what the angels who saved Lot did, a lot like what the apostles were able to do with the help of the Holy Ghost, and an awful lot like what Simon Magus did when he tried to proclaim himself as a "great one". We know that we aren't given the power of angels. We know that (depending on whether you're a dispensationalist or not) the Holy Ghost does not grant the same gifts to us as it did the apostles. But we also know that pretenders like Simon Magus are as old as the world itself. If these miraculous signs are from God, then that's one thing. But unless the characters of HP are claiming to be apostalic heroes, then I have much more than just a theological problem with them.

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In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. -John 1:3

This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and that life is in his son. He who has the son has life; he who does not have the son does not have life. -1 John 5:11

If Harry Potter is evil so should pretending because we are NOT doing magic we are just pretending it is possible or imagining what would happen if we did. In relation, acting would then be evil as well. So it is evil for a child to pretend to be something he is not. Thus, children and actors are evil.

but that's coming from a fantasy author. =)

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A tad obvious to point out, but for several hundred years (and possibly still, within fringe groups) the theatre and anything having to do with it was in fact considered to be of the devil by various groups, some having quite a bit of power at the time. By the time of the Enlightenment most of that resistance had evaporated, but some Holiness-based groups still viewed it that way into the 1900s.

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Well the greek word for an actor is a hypocrite. And Jesus said not to be like one.

BTW while those facts are true, I'm not saying that acting is a sin.

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"We have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. . . I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio."

Jourdon Anderson, ex-slave, in response to his fomer master asking him to return

Depends on what you're acting out, doesn't it? If:

1.witchcraft is a sin, AND
2.magic is witchcraft, THEN

Magic is the same as witchcraft and therefore is a sin, (regardless of whether or not your movies are involved).

Christ said even imagining adultery was still considered adultery. If:

1. Adultery is a sin, AND
2. Fantacising about adultery is a sin, THEN
3. it stands to reason that fantacising about any sin is a sin. (It's idolatry, actually.)

Therefore;

If witchcraft is condemned:

"Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divinination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist, or who consults the dead." Deut 18:10

And witchcraft is magic:

Main Entry: witch - craft
Pronunciation: \'wich-kraft\
Function: noun
Date: Before 12th century
1a: the use of magic or sorcery

witchcraft - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

And, if dreaming of sin is a sin:

"You have heard it said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." -Matt 5:27

Then how is dreaming or fantacising about witchcraft (which by definition is "the use of magic" not sin?

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In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. -John 1:3

This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and that life is in his son. He who has the son has life; he who does not have the son does not have life. -1 John 5:11

Just to drive home the Biblical definition of witchcraft:

Witchcraft: 3785 in Hebrew
: magic - translated as sorcery, witchcraft
: from 3784

3784: kashaph
: a primitive root, meaning to whisper a spell, to enchant or practice magic.
: translated as sorcerer, witch

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In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. -John 1:3

This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and that life is in his son. He who has the son has life; he who does not have the son does not have life. -1 John 5:11

Go Go Gryffindor!!!!!

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Martin Luther King Jr.

Magic and witchcraft are not the same though. So your intial premise is false.

__________________
"We have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. . . I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio."

Jourdon Anderson, ex-slave, in response to his fomer master asking him to return