According to a survey conducted in 2022 by Rotten Tomatoes, the scariest movie of all time will be 52 years old this year. Released in 1973, The Exorcist tells the story of two Roman Catholic priests trying to exorcise a demon out of a 12-year-old girl.
When it was released in theaters, there were reports of people throwing up and others fainting while watching the show. At times people became so distraught that they had to be taken to a hospital, resulting in some theaters arranging for standby ambulances during showings. The movie was based on a book of the same name that in part was based on a real-life exorcism of a teenage boy widely reported in 1949.
But a lot has changed in the past 50 years.
Perhaps the most compelling evidence for this is seen in TikTok’s hashtag #witchtok composed of over 7.7 million posts that for the most part promote the occult and witchcraft. In this section you can find videos on creating and casting hexes and spells, tarot readings, potions. and performing a host of other occultic rites and practices.
As of the October 2024, the videos in this exclusive section of TikTok had been viewed over 42 billion times.
But what is perhaps most shocking is that this represents nearly a 400% increase from the 11 billion views that the section had in 2021 according to an article in the Financial Times entitled, WitchTok: how the occult became big online.
Interest is also on the rise on other social media platforms such as Instagram where those promoting witchcraft have hundreds of thousands of followers.
We also see satanism being popularized in the entertainment industry. In 2023, articles, both secular and otherwise, cited complaints that the 2023 Grammy Awards were little more than a “Tribute to Satan” based on the performance of Sam Smith and Kim Petras.
We are witnessing a subtle spiritual shift taking place in society. As the media, secularism and atheism try to strip any remnants of Christianity from our culture, it is being replaced.
In a recent article for Charisma News James Lasher writes about this growing trend and its implications for believers.
“I think media has done a good job of pushing something to the point where it’s now normalized,” said Jenny Weaver, a former witch and now Christian leader in her interview with Lasher. “We have shows as early as day care age promoting witchcraft and sorcery—’It’s OK boys and girls, say these spelling words with us.’ And it’s so ABC, preschool witchcraft, that it gets into the hearts and the minds of people, including the people in church.”
Christians need to wake up to what is happening.
“As believers, we must take a stand. Witchcraft is not harmless entertainment or a tool for self-discovery—it is a gateway to spiritual destruction,” writes Lasher. ‘The apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:12, ‘For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’”
OpentheWord.org 
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