I receive a great deal of forwarded e-mails from well intentioned people, requesting me to forward to my friends and not to break the chain with predictions of dire consequences, if I do and don’t forward the material. Some of these forwards have gone so far as to question my beliefs, if I don’t act immediately or send it to a certain number of people, by a certain time. I am just waiting for the one that tells me if I don’t forward this e-mail, I am going to die immediately, go to hell and burn forever! I have always thought this sort of thing was no more than amusing and people were just promoting their own agendas by faithfully forwarding. I did not take it seriously.
Some of this forwarded material is political or addressing some social issue. These I have found to be more informative and helpful than annoying. However, the ones that contain obvious religious implication with dogmatic statements give me cause for concern. I did not think people really believed that by continuously forwarding these messages, they were effecting some supernatural change in their own lives or the lives of someone else. After taking a look at my inbox over a period of 30 days, I found that over 1/3rd of my e-mails were forwards of this nature. I know that some of these well intentioned people are Christians or they belong to some religious group, (non-Christian) whose primary belief is in a deity of some sort. While this discourse is specifically directed to Christians; the group of believers I belong to; it is no less intended for all other people who receive and forward as well.
Stevie Wonder had a very popular song in the 1960’s entitled Superstitions! Some of its lyrics proclaimed the very profound observation, “When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer! Superstition’s not the way!” I imagine he wrote this song after taking note of our superstitious beliefs and ignorant practices. The practices of superstition and its rituals, have ingrained themselves so deep into our lives, that we take little notice of them, unless someone calls them to our attention. We laugh about them and try to convince ourselves that they are harmless acts. However, in our true thoughts, they have much more significance and we continue to do them. As a Christian, can you believe in Jesus Christ and the power of black cats to bring you bad luck, too? Do you wear a cross about your neck and carry a rabbit foot or lucky charms also? Can you believe in the healing power of the Holy Spirit and the power of breaking a mirror and causing 7 years of bad luck?
Are Christians trying to serve two masters? Outwardly professing belief in God, but paying homage to the gods of superstition also! How it is that we Christians have become so hypocritical in our professed beliefs? Speaking with our mouths, what our hearts and mind don’t truly believe? Making outward shows of godliness in public, but practicing superstitious rituals in our everyday lives? How can we say that we believe in God Almighty, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit! Yet we are afraid to walk under a ladder; allow a black cat to cross our paths; split a pole while walking; step on a crack in the sidewalk; break a mirror or see a bride in her wedding dress before the wedding. We are fearful of the dreaded “Bad Luck.” We really appear foolish when we believe that inanimate objects, animals and rituals have some supernatural power over us and can affect our future lives.
Let’s examine some of these popular common superstitions and their origins. Perhaps we can discover enough truth discard our superstitious beliefs and return back to believing totally in God.
Most of our modern day superstitious beliefs have their origin in the customs of primitive peoples in the early history of mankind.. Man’s greatest attempt has always been to influence his fate or obtain the favor of the Gods. He created rituals, amulets and charms for the express purpose of influencing the Gods and warding off so called “Bad luck” or attracting so called “Good luck”. Because of our immature and primitive thinking, when “Bad things” happen, we attribute them to the providence of “Bad luck.” We believe we experience “Bad Karma” for something we did previously or God’s anger and wrath with us because we fell short of His set of laws. We committed some sin! When “good things” happen to us, we attribute them to the providence of “Good luck” or God’s favor and reward for some presumed “good deed” or as reward for our “righteous” living.
Numerous books have been written in an attempt to explain “Why bad things happen to Good People,” The explanations run the gamut from God’s displeasure with an individual, to the devils efforts to afflict mankind. Is there a definitive answer? In this regard, consider two aspects…..inevitability and decisions! To my knowledge and understanding, bad things happen to us as a result of these two things. Bad things are either caused by the decisions and behaviors of people, including ourselves; or they occur from “inevitable natural causes”. If you live long enough, something bad is going to occur in your life. It is an inevitable result of being a human and living on this planet. It is no great mystery!
People get in the way of natural phenomena! God is not pointing an arbitrary finger and causing storms, floods, tornados and earthquakes to kill people. These are “natural events” occurring as some of the element in His creation of the earth. These Acts of nature, erroneously called “Acts of God”, are “totally indifferent” to people, places or things period! The acts of nature that befall us all are like the rain. “It falls upon the good and the bad alike, without hatred or preference”. Nature acts and we either enjoy or suffer as a result of nature’s actions.
God is not pointing an arbitrary finger and causing traumas and tragedies in the circumstances of our lives either! Bad things do occur. People get hurt, either physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, or in any number of ways from “bad things”. However, when bad things happen to us, it is not an indication that God is angry with us. God is perfect! God loves us! In perfect love there is no anger. There are only the blessings from His Grace! We need to remember, God is not impulsive, unpredictable, or fluctuating. He is constant and perfect in all His ways. God will not and does not intervene in the self-willed decisions of His people, either to ‘cause’ or ‘prevent’ the tragedies of mortal life!
Considering that our decisions and actions can be intentional or unintentional; personal or impersonal; bad things caused by human behavior can be very complicated. However, in none of these cases are “bad things” caused by God. Bad things caused by people are the product of “our independent will”. God created you and me with free will prerogatives. We make the choices to do or not do a particular thing. He will not interfere with our decisions of any sort; after giving us the right to make our own decisions, from our own free will. Even though, He knows we just may make a decision that is contrary to our own good of His will! Wow! You mean God has that kind of trust in us? Yes, He does! The tragedies and traumas in our lives are caused by the “willful decisions and actions of people, period! However, you should remember also, that God reserves the right to convert our self made “bad things and tragedies” into something for “Greater Good, Meaning and Value!” AND HE DOES DO THIS!
The superstitious practices and beliefs that we continue to follow, will only lead us away from God and totally believing and depending on Him and His power. If we recognize our error and rely totally on Christ, then we will have the faith and strength to let go of these primitive, superstitious beliefs. We will no longer give power and authority over ourselves to charms, amulets, spells, rituals, fetishes, spiritualist, chance and magic. We will stop believing in myths and folklore, no matter how many people attest to it or swear by it. It is all illusion, mysticism, deception and lies. They are devised to compromise your belief in God Almighty.
No matter how beautifully written, inspiring, encouraging and uplifting these forward messages are, that is just what they are, no more! If you are inspired, encouraged and uplifted as a result of reading them, this is good! They have fulfilled their purpose. There is no power in them other than that!
However, when the creators of these messages throw in the requirements of : “you must forward this immediately to X number of people”; “If you don’t forward this, you don’t love God”; “So n’ So didn’t forward this on and they had a terrible accident”; “If you forward to 5 people, you will receive 1 blessing; If you forward to 15 people you will receive 5 blessings, and so on”; “If you forward this by a certain time or date, something good will happen to you or you will receive a large monetary blessing”--- then these messages enter the realms of ignorance and superstition. These are not examples of people living by faith and trust in God. These are people living in the fear of uncertainty, compromising their faith; believing in mystical powers and gambling on fate and chance.
Are these types of forwards just harmless messages of inspiration? Or are they reinforcement of superstitious beliefs and practices that we should have discarded, once Christ filled our lives??
Some Superstitions & Bad Luck Omens are:
§ Black Cats Black cats have long been believed to be a supernatural omen since the witch hunts of the middle ages when cats were thought to be connected to evil. Since then, it is considered bad luck if a black cat crosses your path.
§ Broken Mirrors An ancient myth our ancestors believed was that the image in a mirror is our actual soul. A broken mirror represented the soul being astray from your body. To break the spell of misfortune, you must wait seven hours (one for each year of bad luck) before picking up the broken pieces, and bury them outside in the moonlight.
§ Ladders In the days before the gallows, criminals were hung from the top rung of a ladder and their spirits were believed to linger underneath. Common folklore has it to be bad luck to walk beneath an open ladder and pass through the triangle of evil ghosts and spirits.
§ Owls If an owl looks in your window or if you seeing one in the daylight bad luck and death will come to you.
§ Salt At one time salt was a rare commodity and thought to have magical powers. It was unfortunate to spill salt and said to foretell family disarray and death. To ward off bad luck, throw a pinch over your shoulder and all will be well.
§ Sparrows Sparrows are thought to carry the souls of the dead and it is believed to bring bad luck if you kill one.
§ Unlucky Number #13 The fear of the number 13 is still common today, and avoided in many different ways. Some buildings still do not have an official 13th floor and many people avoid driving or going anywhere on Friday the 13th.
Some Superstitions & Good Luck Omens are:
§ Horseshoes To bring good luck, the horseshoe must be lost by a horse and be found by you, with the open end facing your way. You must hang it over the door with the open end up, so the good fortune doesn't spill out… Another origin of the 'lucky horseshoe' is the belief that they ward off witches. Witches, it was once believed, were opposed to horses, which is why they rode brooms and pitchforks instead. By placing a horseshoe over a door, the witch would be reluctant to enter.
§ Four Leaf Clover Clover is believed to protect humans and animals from evil spells and is thought to be good luck to find a four leaf clover, particularly for the Irish.
§ Rabbit's Foot These lucky charms are thought to ward off bad luck and bring good luck. You must carry the rabbit's foot on a chain around your neck, or in your left back pocket. The older it gets, the more good luck it brings. It wasn’t too lucky for the rabbit!
§ Wishbones Two people are to pull apart a dried breastbone of a turkey or chicken and the one who is left with the longer end will have their wish come true.
Your brother, In His Service
Min. Douglas Daniels
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