The Closing Of The American MInd...

"The wicked are too proud to seek God. They seem to think that God is dead" (Ps. 10:4, NLT).


Allan Bloom wrote a book by the same title, decrying the fact that profs nowadays teach that truth is relative--this is a completely useless proposition and has no truth value: relative to what or to whom? Is that premise only relative? Postmodernism arose out of the aftermath of modernism when scholars thought science had all the answers, now they are part of the problem (WMD), among other things--scientists have problems too!


Postmodernism is then a skeptical mood that has an anti-worldview worldview! They see no metanarrative (having a disdain for them), as they refer to it as--they have a hermeneutic of suspicion. They are doubtful as to whether any universal/absolute truth exists, and, if it does, whether we can know it: nothing exists; if it does, we can not know it; if we can know it, we cannot communicate it; if we can communicate it, we cannot understand it (according to David Noebel's estimation). I've heard that one prof told freshmen that they can know nothing for certain; one student asked if he was sure; he was certain! Student beware of this new governing epistemology that is highly irrational and anti-intellectual, as I shall expound.


The reason they deny worldviews is because they deny we can see anything from God's point of view or viewpoint, and they are suspicious of God too. They deny objectivity or a God's-eye view. If there is no God, it follows that truth is also up for grabs! But they dodge the no-truth bullet and see truth as a short-term contract. There is, therefore, no reliable truth and no one can judge your truth or what you believe--your claims have no power over another. It is possible that we refer to truth because it exists? You may have heard the common claim that someone says: that may be true for you, but not for me; they are confusing something: it may work for you and what works isn't necessarily true, though what's true does work!


To Postmodernists there is no Truth with a capital T, while Jesus claimed to be the personification or embodiment of absolute truth: "I am the Truth!" But these skeptics don't want to let a Divine Foot in the door, because then they would have to admit to absolute truth; they go hand in hand! Truth not only exists but God has made a revelation of it and we can know it; we have only rebelled from it! Shirley Maclaine said "you aren't in a position to know what's true for another." But Postmodernism patron saint is Friedrich Nietzsche, who said that God is dead! But God refuses to die and is alive today while Nietzsche is dead. What he meant in saying God is dead is that they have killed Him and that He was no longer necessary to explain reality or even no longer relative!


We see Postmodernism in SCOTUS as they see the U.S. Constitution as a living document open to be interpreted by today's understanding and not what the framers intended. Therefore it may have multiple meanings and changes in meaning to suit the times (polysemy). Just like a Shakespearean play may imply something different that he never intended when performed today. Confucius said, "When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom." Truth is not open to many interpretations and is absolute and universal, not variable and personal.



All knowledge begins in faith, it's been postulated, and Augustine said that he believes in order to understand: faith precedes reason and all knowledge is based on some premise he cannot prove and must accept by faith. All absolute truth begins with God as premise and starting point of reference just like Proverbs 1:7, says, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...." If we deny God, we have no basis of knowing anything metaphysical for certain. There are only four ways to know something: faith, revelation, reason, experience or observation!


We all have to start believing something we cannot prove, even in mathematics and science! We never could've known for sure of God's existence had He not taken the initiative and revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ, who entered history and changed it in the process. Socrates said that to gain knowledge, we must admit our ignorance! You will never find the truth unless you're willing to admit you could be wrong and are willing to go where the evidence leads, having an open mind.


This explains why we have modern skeptics like Pontius Pilate, who asked what truth was because people assume they know it all and aren't willing to go where it may lead. Truth conflicts with their principles and ethics or morality, not intellect; no truth equals no virtue, according to Socrates! Postmodernism is a sign of moral rebellion and of stubborn hearts who conveniently deny any Supreme Being declaring Truth with a capital T, that they have to submit to and obey and be accountable to!


There is danger and threat from within the church as some theologians and pastors become taken in by this philosophy and don't think we have "arrived at the truth of the gospel" yet, but everything is still up for grabs and personal interpretation. The church has taken hundreds of years to arrive at its doctrines, and we are to profit from this, not start over each generation, as if it's all up for grabs all over again--deja vu! This is the ultimate result and consequence when man leaves God out of the reckoning or the equation of reason!


In sum, per David Noebel, Postmodernism is theologically atheist, philosophically skeptical, ethically relative, biologically evolutionist, psychologically materialist, politically leftist, and legally pragmatic. This is why it's the primary threat to Christianity and absolute, universal truth as we know it and has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ's person.


["They traded the truth of God for a lie" (Romans 1:25, NLT). "...because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them" (2 Thessalonians 1:10, NLT). Unbelievers are those who reject the truth, according to Romans 2:8!] Raise the war cry: there's a Truth War that we cannot afford to lose by default; we must not make any concessions to evil. Soli Deo Gloria!

The Postmodern Theological Threat

"Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?"  (1 Cor. 14:8, HCSB).
"...[I]n the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth"  (1 Tim. 3:15, NKJV).


Postmodernism has not only infiltrated ("crept in unawares") our institutions of higher learning among elitist types but now clerics are being infected with its heresies.  Their goal is to completely revamp, retool, and rework the church with their distorted concept of "truth."  Postmodern Christianity, aka the "post-conservative" or the "Emerging Church movement," is gaining converts--if you can call them that.  This avant-garde wave of pseudo-evangelism is not so much against churches per se, as against the authority of churches, and especially the established Church, especially Romanism. They firmly believe in keeping faith privatized as much as possible--the jury is still out on whether they are truly evangelical and spread the Word, or if they are just leaches and proselytizers on other existing churches and believers.

This philosophy insists truth is relative, incommunicable, unknowable, subjective, and certainly not universal or absolute.  They extend this to theology in saying that no pastor can be certain of his teachings and rightly present them as dogma or in a dogmatic way, but must leave room for disagreement and personal interpretation. They must admit they could be wrong; it's just true for them, and that's just their interpretation!

Typical Postmodern inquires:  Why not sing ballads from The Beatles, such as "All You Need Is Love?"  Why does the pastor get to preach and the churchgoers don't?  Shouldn't church be democratic and not exclusive, but as inclusive as possible, open to all faiths?  Isn't all truth relative?   What does this passage mean to you, as opposed to what is meant?  (When you do surgery to the Bible's text and eliminate propositional truth you can believe anything and become subject to no one's authority, wisdom, or guidance.) They are not against God, just anyone person telling them what to believe about Him.  Consequently, they resent authority (which they see as leading to controversy, which is always to be avoided), and authority figures, but all in the name of collegiality and getting along singing "Kumbaya".

You might hear them as if they have come full circle in the Protestant mainstream church saying:  "I don't believe in the inspiration of Scripture anymore!"  They way they now "follow Jesus" is by the teaching of the church!  This is a reversion to pre-Reformation days when the Roman Church held absolute power and authority over all dogma and the parishioners were bound by church dogma and faith itself was even defined as a simple agreement with church dogma.  It was the Reformers who set us free from this authority and gave us the right to interpret the Bible ourselves; however, with this privilege comes the responsibility to interpret it correctly, as 2 Tim. 2:15, NKJV, declares "... rightly dividing the Word of truth."  We are no longer slaves to the church's interpretation and dogma, and that is meant to mean that churches are now autonomous and compete with each other for the truth--competition meant to keep them honest.

What else do they believe, or not believe in Postmodernism?  They believe that if something works for you it is true for you--truth is personal or subjective and we must find our own truths--relativism.  What the logical conclusion is that we will have churches teaching such heresies as there is no hell to shun because some people prefer not to believe in it and it doesn't work for them.  Some Christians prefer not to see God as the Judge, but only as a doting, indulgent Father that is a genie.  Interpreting the Word no longer depends upon learning and the science of hermeneutics, but of sharing ignorance and Christians deciding what they believe the Bible means and what it means to them, not what the author meant.  This is all the result of believers being ignorant of basic doctrine and not knowing what they believe or being learned in how to arrive at truth objectively.

We don't go to Bible study to become dependent on the teacher, but to arrive at a point of maturity, possibly being able to start one ourselves, by virtue of learning how to learn and study.  We cannot kiss twenty centuries of scholarship goodbye because of some newfangled philosophy of uncertainty and hermeneutic of skepticism and doubt.  Postmodernists deny that we have arrived at an orthodox gospel yet, or that we know the truth at all as a group, but must keep the door open and challenging.  It is dangerous to posit that someone else's truth has no power over you.  

Pragmatism is about what's practical and what works, not what's true, just as the usefulness of an idea is tested by results, not truth, which we don't have the right to ascertain for another, according to Postmodernists.  That's why they may say:  That doctrine doesn't work for me, so, therefore, it's invalid.  Go for whatever works for you, rather than be a seeker of the truth.  But Jesus came to bear witness of the truth, and those of the truth will listen to Him (cf. John 18:37)!  Many things that are not true work: illicit drugs, such as cannabis; yoga; TM; hypnotism; astrology; channeling; crystals; Ouija boards; karma; and even reincarnation. These methodologies do work for some and give them purpose and meaning in life, but they are not true.  The point of Christianity is that it is not true because it works--and it does work--but that it works because it's true!    Viva la difference! 

Postmodernist Christians have denied the power of the living, abiding Word, the very foundation of our orthodoxy--scholarship of our church history, and even the inerrancy and infallibility of the Word, opening it up to misinterpretation and any stand for dogmatism of any doctrine as being in vain.  They claim to be evangelical, but believe that, if they convert atheists to theists, they are converts! The ultimate truth is said to be unknowable (cf. John 8:32 which says that "you shall know the truth"), and we cannot boast of having arrived at orthodoxy or even the gospel yet.  There is an underlying contempt for all certainty, and truth is said to be ambiguous at best, even unworthy of debate--all controversy is inherently evil.  They deny the basic premise of Scripture that God alone delimits and defines the Truth, and it's not subject to or open to debate but is absolute, universal, and eternal.

To conclude: Christians are to love the truth, seek the truth, know the truth, and desire to live it in out in love by consequence. Nonbelievers "reject the truth" and refuse to "love the truth so to be saved" (cf. Rom. 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:10).  We need Christians who will "contend earnestly for the faith (cf. Jude 3, NKJV) and recognize heresy creeping in by virtue of having a foundation in the truth.  The best witness a Postmodernist believer can utter is that they think Jesus "has worked for them." Buddhists say this of Buddha.  Caveat:  refusing to acknowledge, defend, and consequently know the truth is a sort of unbelief.  A word to the wise:  Never forget that there's eternal, knowable, universal, absolute, objective Truth with a capital T.    Soli Deo Gloria!

Are Ethics Universal?

OLD TESTAMENT ETHICS:  "And don't say, 'Now I can pay them back for what they've done to me!  I'll get even with them!'" (Prov. 24:29, NLT).
"Do not hold good from those who deserve it when it's in our power to help them" (Prov. 3:27, NLT).  "... As you have done to Israel, so it will be done to you.   All our evil deeds will fall back on your own heads"  (Obadiah 15, NLT).
JESUS' SUMMATION:  "... 'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important:   'Love your neighbor as yourself''" (Matt. 22:37-39, NLT).  "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets"  (Matt. 7:12, ESV). 
PAUL:  "For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Gal. 5:14, NLT).   "Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God's law" (Rom. 13:10, NLT).  "Let love be genuine.  abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good" (Rom. 12:9, ESV).  "Don't be defeated by evil, but defeat evil with good" (Rom. 12:21, CEV).  "Avoid every kind of evil" (1 Thess. 5:22, CEV). 
Scriptural Caveat:  "What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet bitter" (Isa. 5:20, NLT).

"If I am interested in reality, I must know what God is really like."--Plato
"No society has been able to maintain a "moral life without the aid of religion."--Will Durant
Morality is merely the expression of self-interest.--Karl Marx (paraphrased) 
"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."--John Adams

Postmodernism wants to eradicate all traces of universal ethics or morals and make them personal, variable, subjective, and dependent.  This goes counter to what Immanuel Kant postulated that an act is ethical if the results were favorable by everyone doing it.  Just ask yourself the one question:  What if everyone did it?  One can point to the absurd example of the case of why we might know homosexuality is evil because if everyone was homosexual, society would fail to propagate and thrive after one generation!

Ethics with a capital E can be found if one has the presupposition that Christ is the Great Exemplar and showed us the way:  To follow Christ or do what He would do is the highest ethic attainable.  No one has ever surpassed his ethics or moral principles or fully lived up to them:  Muhammad, for instance, was a flawed man; Muslims give him superlative status as their example in ethics.

The Sermon on the Mount, or Jesus at His best, is the summation of our ethic, the gist of which is the Golden Rule:  Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you!  This principle raised the bar to make ethics a positive thing, not merely avoiding bad things, like the so-called Brazen Rule, saying that you should do unto others as they do unto you--tit for tat!  Americans believe firmly in this so-called principle.   Rabbi Hillel was asked to sum up ethics and he said it was merely not doing to others what you don't want to be done to you!  Confucius called this "reciprocity" and urged us to live by its principle.  Many today who live by the law of the jungle in this dog-eat-dog world where the survival of the fittest rules, engage in the so-called Iron Rule of doing unto others before they do unto you:  This actually can be interpreted as "might is right," the rule of authority setting standards.

If ethics are only relative, and Dostoevsky said that if there is no God all things are permissible, there is no reason to pursue absolute, universal standards of conduct, but they vary by culture and are relative to time, situation, and people concerned--make up your own system!  Immanuel Kant said that without God ethics are meaningless and cannot be predicated.  This is why denying God brings the ultimate conclusion that there is no universal standard or code of honor to live by.  But we all know that there is a sense of fair play and justice inherent to man that he is cognizant of.  We don't make up rules as we go along, and morality and ethics are not thought of, but are discovered, rather than invented by man; e.g., the rules of a game are not arising out of nowhere, but fairness was always there to be discovered.  We all appeal to some higher standard of right and wrong as the final arbiter.

Christianity is not a system of ethics, a list of dos and don'ts, but knowing God and applying that knowledge to the mundane life of the real world.  Ethics is what is required of all, whether Christian or not, and is necessary for all law and order and decent society.  Christians have raised the bar and made Christ the standard.  Even pagan scholars admire His moral principles and ascribe flawlessness to His character; even the crassest heretics have not accused him of being a sinner!  Of the known 52 virtues, all of them are mentioned in the Bible, while no other faith even comes close to this standard!  This high ethical standard of the Bible is one proof of its inspiration.

Right practice or orthopraxy is the logical conclusion of our right belief or orthodoxy, and we must apply what we learn to the real world.  The Greek philosophers said that ethics and truth are correlated and interdependent.  We believe in being truthful because we have faith in a God of truth; the Decalogue merely shows our duty to God and what is man's dilemma in this pursuit.   The whole question of "How should we then live" can only be adequately answered with God in the picture.

If you believe anything goes, because the ends justify the means or whatever is expedient or pragmatic is justified, or even pursuing the greatest good for the greatest number, you will be able to justify just about any evil in the world.  Hitler was very good at just pursuing what worked and what was practical without regard to a universal norm.  Natural law convicted the Nazis at Nuremberg, which relied on the fact that we should just know better and have a built-in conscience to be sensitive to universal norms or transcendent law, making us all responsible for our choices and conduct.

Morals are as sure as the law of gravity and must be obeyed or we suffer the consequences.  If you believe we are to be held accountable for our actions and that there are absolute right and wrong, this faith comes from God and entails His existence.  Your ethics cannot rise above your own ideals or standards: Muslims see Muhammad as superlative, yet he had many personal flaws, like being a thief and warrior out to steal, kill, and pillage for the purpose of gaining converts by force and for their wealth.  Islam is called the religion of the sword, and for good reason--they force people to convert and kill you for not believing, the very opposite of martyrdom, where one is killed for believing in a religion.  Politicians often listen to the voice of the people and think that the voice of the people is the voice of God; on the other hand, it's often the voice of the devil!  We don't vote on moral principles and they don't change or evolve with time; what was immoral in the day of Moses is still a crime and wrong today--we aren't just more enlightened and see things in a modern light.

"The character of Jesus has not only been the highest pattern of virtue but the strongest incentive to its practice," according to Irish historian and political philosopher W. E. H. Lecky, no Christian himself.  There could be no universal law without a universal Lawgiver!  Ethics "defines moral obligation as man's moral duty to God," according to Carl F. H. Henry. Ethics is no preference, but duty as creatures of God!  Living the good life is what ethics is about, and living up to our potential is our duty to God and man.  God is our guide and standard, and the present principle of pragmatism is evil, saying that the test of an idea is not its truthfulness, but its practicality and usefulness.  Scripture says that man knows right and wrong in his conscience and will be judged by that standard (cf. Rom. 2:15).  The one who knows the right thing to do, and fails to do it, sins (cf. James 4:17).

Unfortunately, moral relativism is prevalent today and people think we can all make up our own standards as we go along and they are justified as long as we make responsible choices and have good reasons to justify them.  We all have a sense of "ought" and even bemoan the fact there ought to be a law sometimes.  New Morality has infiltrated and many see ethics as the result of good motives:  if you mean well or have the motive of love--that's all that matters!  However, true morality is only when the motive, as well as the end, are justified.

Man can never live up to God's standards, given in the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, but this was never meant to be the solution, but only given to convince us we cannot keep it; the Christian life is impossible (without Christ!).  It is merely the whip driving us to the cross, and the mirror showing us what we are really made of, and a hammer (according to Martin Luther), smashing at our self-righteousness. No one has ever kept the Law of Moses except Christ, and he fulfilled it on our behalf to become our righteousness.  God demands perfection, and this is the standard, however, the direction is the test (cf. Matt. 5:48).

What is evident today is that man doesn't see himself in the image of God with the inherent duty to obey as Creator but as an animal.  Teach men they are animals; is it any wonder they act like them?  New Age goes to the extreme of creating your own system as you go along, and whatever feels right to you is your duty to God, others, and yourself. They proudly proclaimed in the Hippie counterculture: If it feels good, do it!  Today they proudly affirm that it works for them; that is what matters most.  But what is right for one person is right for all, and isn't individualized, but universal and applicable to all.   If there is not an objective basis for right and wrong, you would have to absolve Hitler of his crimes against humanity.  It's because we are in the image of God that so much is expected and we are not animals in heat-seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, but have a divine purpose for our existence: "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,"--The Westminster Shorter Catechism.

We begin with God and explain our duties, we don't begin with man and come up with independent ethics on our own--by voting on them or being forced into it--man is not the measure of all things, as Secular Humanists posit.  Christian standards have been found worth believing in and in living out, and real faith is expressed in right conduct as its fruit.  Could it be that man has a universal sense of morals because there is a universal Lawgiver who gave them?  God forbid that we begin with the premise that whatever is legal is ethical because the laws of land can be wrong and are fallible. Being legal doesn't make it right!

There's a higher law to answer to.  "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (cf. Prov. 1:7). Is it any wonder that today's ethics is merely about not getting caught and coming up with a justification for behavior, or just responsible decision making? This is why Johnny can't tell right and wrong and character doesn't count anymore!

Western Civilization or Christendom depends upon the Bible as the foundation for all Common Law and we must never lose sight of this heritage and duty to God, our fellow man, our nation, and ourselves. The logical conclusion of moral relativism, on the other hand, is that in the final result, the stronger force will win and might be right, as it was in Nazi Germany.

In such times we only pray for some God of justice to end the evil.  Their justification was in the belief that we are only animals, not children of God and in His image, and whatever was sanctioned in nature was equally moral for us, since we are not responsible to a higher ethic or calling than mere animals, who are not morally responsible or capable.   "They are people who lack all sense of right and wrong, and who have turned themselves over to doing whatever feels good..." (Eph. 4:19, CEV).  Soli Deo Gloria!

Doubting The Concept Of Truth

Pilate said to Jesus at His trial:  "What is truth?"  Of course, he didn't wait around for an answer! Jesus had said He came to bear witness of the truth and those of the truth would hear Him.  In those days, might was right and Rome deemed no truth as absolute or universal--it was an idea ahead of its time.  Today's skeptics mimic Pilate and scoff at the very idea that something could be true for everyone all the time everywhere (universally true)!  In today's postmodern culture "truth is a short-term project" and New Age adherents just say whatever feels like the truth to you is the truth.  Gandhi said truth is God, and God is truth on the other end of the spectrum.  Without God, no truth can be established and everything is conjecture and speculation.

William James, the founder of pragmatism, believed you couldn't judge the truth of an idea, only its results.  Today people are just interested in what's practical or what works for them--or what's true for them ("That may be true for you, but not me!").  There is danger in this philosophy because many false ideas do seem to work and are deceptively practical:  TM and yoga seem to work for some and they believe they're true because they work.  Christianity is different:  It works because it's true; it's not true because it works.  Christ claimed to be the incarnation of the truth and the way itself and the problem is that it goes untried and not trusted because people are to results-oriented and look at stats or benefits versus risks or pros versus cons.  The point is that the truth does indeed work, the fault is that it goes untried due to so many false philosophies that are more alluring and enticing to the popular mindset and way of thinking.  As they say nowadays:  "It works for me!"

Truth is absolute and not relative as they teach nowadays because Jesus is the personification of it and said, "I am the truth...."  Therefore, we can know Him and also what is true.  Augustine said that all truth is God's truth or you may say, "All truth meets at the top." His motto was Credo ut intelligam or "I believe in order to understand."  He was saying that all knowledge begins in a step of faith. Faith is the essential ingredient to learning truth.  In order to know anything, you must assume something you cannot prove--everyone must take this leap of faith and do as Augustine said.

In order to know anything you must know something for sure, and since the only way to know something for sure is by divine revelation and what God tells us, only God knows anything for sure, but He has revealed it to us so we can.  The reason only God can know anything for sure is that He knows everything.  Skeptic philosophers say you must know everything to know anything!  Well, we do know something, and the reason we do is that God has told us.  If there was no God, all things would be up for grabs and you could know nothing for sure because everything would be relevant in a world without absolutes. Truth would then be irrelevant and unknowable, having nothing to start from.

Many statements can be true and the relationship between them is either valid or invalid, not true or false--conclusions are dependent upon the hypothesis.  But Scripture is unique in that Jesus called it truth:  "Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17).  The reason we have an explosion of knowledge today is that we know something (essentially the scientific method) and a way to find what is true.  In the last days, Daniel said that knowledge would increase.  What they say is that nature forms you, sin deforms you, school informs you, prison reforms you, but truth (Jesus) transforms you!  Jesus is in the business of changing lives and He said that we are sanctified by the truth in John 17:17. Believers are those who have a "love of the truth" according to 2 Thessalonians 2:10 while unbelievers are those who "reject the truth" (Rom. 2:8).

Jesus said that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free:  These famous words are often misquoted to think that education sets you free, but it is in reference to knowing the embodiment of truth itself, Jesus.  There were skeptics in antiquity as well as today who deny that you can know anything for certain:  One prof told his class on the first day:  "You can know nothing for certain."  One bright student quipped:  "Are you sure?"  He fell into the trap of logic and replied, "I'm certain!"  To say that truth is only relative is a statement without any truth value and only nonsensical as well as illogical.  What they really want to say is that only the truths regarding Christianity are relative and their secular humanistic philosophy is the only absolute truth.

When we say that all truth is God's truth it is because truth is what is consistent with God and His nature:  Truth is whatever God says it is! The whole cosmos is not chaos but like one vast mathematical equation (one astronomer asserts) run by intricate laws throughout according to nearly 50 constants such as gravity, the speed of light, the strong and weak nuclear forces, the charge of the electron, etc.  If there were no God there would be no governing authority by definition (God is the one sovereign or in control of all) and we most likely wouldn't see the uniformity of the universe to God's laws or the laws of nature as some call them.  What kind of God would be out of control, merely reigning but not ruling?

You cannot say that you know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth unless you are God--we see dimly only as God reveals to us and only know in part like Deut. 29:29 and 1 Cor. 13 say, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God...." And "For now we see in a mirror dimly...."  Men have a curious desire to delve into the unknown or what is called the occult but God has given us all we need to know in Scripture for every need we face.   Soli Deo Gloria!