The Last Rebellion - A Reflection on the Rise of Satanism

Satanists, though, at least most of them, claim that they do not actually worship Satan.  For them, Satan is a metaphor, a symbol, or a means of shocking the Christian public.  He represents the ultimate rebel who stood up to a tyrannical dictator, as they would put it.  They stand beneath his banner as a statement of rebellion against the Christian moral order.  Satan, of course, is real and the belief of Satanists in his regard has no impact on his reality.  He's there at their side whenever they name him or open themselves up to his involvement.

They also seek to use him and his imagery to destabilize Christian society through shock and spiritual disturbance.  They seek to acquire all the "religious rights" that our society will give them, pinning American Christians between our Faith and our laws where, in the name of our so-called "religious freedom," we end up letting them lead prayer at city council meetings, or we end prayer altogether in order to avoid them.  Finally, our laws even permit the public desecration of statues of Our Lady, not to mention Black Masses.

In the end, they are having an impact.  Their "religious symbolism" is allowed on public property next to Christian symbols.  In some instances, their push to have their own monuments on public property has led to the removal of Christian monuments.

Tied to all of this public activity in favor of their rights as a "religion" is their desire to appear on the scene and publicly perform their Satanic rituals.  Even if some of them state that they do not believe, they still create Satanic spectacles for all to see.  Their names and the names of their "temples" appear in the news, in print and video and audio.  We have begun to hear publicly, though still infrequently at the moment, the name of the Evil One.

Beneath the surface, in the hidden realms of the standard American's choices of technological entertainment, is an increase in occult, witchcraft, and Satanic themes, some explicit and some as manifestations of Satanic philosophy and morals, as will be described more below.  Even further beneath the surface, though springing up on occasion, is the fact that many people are beginning to turn to witchcraft as their religious preference.  Hollywood-focused websites freely chronicle this, and celebrities casually admit to it.

<< See Slaying Dragons article:  "Raging Witchcraft in the States" >>

Beckoning the Beast

With all of this comes a greater openness to Satan in the culture, even if it is a mere tolerance of his positive portrayal on television and in music.  Though it is only one story, there is the account of a woman who boarded an American Airlines flight with a "Hail Satan" t-shirt on.  The crew forced her to change her shirt or get off of the plane.  She eventually covered her shirt with a shirt given to her by her husband.  After this, she went public and the airline apologized.  The very fact that the Devil is being freely and passively, if not positively, named in public and in the common life of a technology-centered people is an extremely dangerous reality.  In the story about the "Hail Satan" shirt, according to the article, "Passersby often smile, chuckle or give her a thumbs-up when they see her choice in clothing."

Invoking someone's name summons their presence or legacy or philosophy and beliefs.  Satan, in this post-Christian society, is still recalled as being the terrible, proud, malicious enemy of God and man.  Perhaps the technique has been a multiple-staged approach.  One of the stages that preceded the current one was to make everyone think that demons are wild malicious spiritual monsters that no one can control.  Even in movies with exorcisms, the absolute power of Christ over demons is rarely ever properly portrayed.  If people are like I was before writing Slaying Dragons, there is a great fear in the minds of men when they think of the Devil.

However, what the new Satanic movement is doing is flipping that extreme view of demons to the opposite view, as they portray Satan as the role model, even if he is, according to them, merely metaphorical.  This simply takes the inordinate fear of the Evil One and disregards it as a fairy tale, and then presents Satan as a philanthropic figure who seeks man's liberation from unnecessary and totalitarian restraints.  There are no rules with Satan, so long as you respect others in a most basic manner.  "Do what thou wilt," they say.

This leaves the modern irreligious man caught between two extremes:  that of a dreadful and immobilizing fear of the devil on one side and the temptation and inclination to befriend him as a role model, or, as exorcists see in possession cases, even a father-figure.  The latter effort is starting young, as Satanists are teaching children as young as five to invoke demons through the publication of various children's books.

The New Humanism

Today, as we all so clearly see, it is the "in vogue" thing to "define yourself" however you wish.  It is not simply "in vogue" but practically pushed on people and forced on kids.  Satanism fits right in to this new anthropological system.  Satanism is not only a big supporter of abortion, but is also a great proponent of "LGBTQ" people, boasting that over half of their membership is of that disposition.  The Satanic Temple, for one (there are several different major groups), states that their approach to "LGBTQ" people is not to simply "tolerate" these people, but that they simply don't care about their sexual behavior.

<<See Lifesitenews article: Mom breaks down describing effects of kindergarten transgender lesson on her 5-year-old>>

While this sort of acceptance is apparently comforting to people plagued by these disordered lifestyle choices, which, as the Satanists state, also include prostitution, it is actually quite revealing.  Satanists admit, here, that their purpose is not to offer a better life for their followers, but simply to encourage people to do whatever they want.  These Satanists are not stupid or unintelligent and they know the danger of these lifestyles.  For them to encourage their "members" to engage in such things fits right in with the one whom they invoke as their role model.  "Do what thou wilt," even if it leads to the emotional, psychological, and physical destruction of the individual - so sayeth the Satanists.  Exorcists see that demons often enter a person's life by taking advantage of the presence of sexual abuse and sexual wounds and have observed that Satanic cults always include some form of ritual sexual abuse.  These become a principal means for them to latch on or gain entry into a person's life.  The encouragement of sexually disordered lifestyles by Satanists is straight from the playbook of the one whom they say is merely a metaphorical rebel.

The Great Illusionist

With the world quickly jumping on board with, or being pressured to embrace, the normalization of same-sex behavior and associated lifestyles, as well as support for abortion and transgenderism, most of the world will soon see Satan as their advocate, if they support this new morality, or as their master, if they have cowardly submitted to it.  Further, they will begin to see the Church as their enemy, the sole remaining oppressive institution that dares to tell people what to do.  However, with immorality and paganism infecting the hierarchy of the Church herself, and many Catholics apparently indifferent to it, soon even the faithful, and anyone who is seeking the Church, will be consumed with bewilderment and will risk succumbing to disillusionment.

At that moment, or this moment, as the evidence is already mounting high, along comes Satan, who will have subtly and softly worked his way into the culture and presented himself as the advocate for true and just social change and absolute equality and autonomy.  At that point, who will want anything else?

For now, of course, their "god" hides, or willingly allows himself to be ignored and labeled a "metaphor" and "symbol."  And why shouldn't he?  They already do his will quite well on their own.  One day, he will casually strut onto the world scene and gather his lost goats who need their pied piper to lead them the rest of the way.

The more the world welcomes him, the more we must flatly reject him.  So now we must be more willing to say, in the world where we live, and against our own temptations:

Though it is proper to fear the Evil One if we have placed ourselves, through sin, under his dominion, it is time for us to stop fearing him as if he were more powerful than Our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is also time for us to stop fearing to name him when we must, in order to renounce him and turn others away from his influence.

<< Catholic Baptism includes the renunciation of Satan by name >>

It is also time for us to stop giving a soft friendship to Jesus Christ, and it is time for us to start freely naming Him with reverence, love, and devotion.

An Appeal to the "Goats"

To those who flirt with witchcraft, the occult, or Satanism, we must make it clear to them that they are pawns in the final game of the Lord of the World.  For the last many centuries, there have been a series of rebellions:  against reason, against faith, against truth, against God, against morality, against meaning, against everything.

Every rebellion has born its fruit and its followers have died with its poison in their veins.  This may truly be the Last Rebellion, for what further can man do to destroy himself and push God away than to turn to Satan and embrace his philosophy on life, love, and truth?

We must help these people see that this curiosity will lead them into a false sense of freedom and liberation, and that they will suffer not simply the same but a far worse fate than those who followed the bankrupt moral philosophies of the past.  For this new philosophy is one which has been devised by a malicious angelic person who will embrace you as his own and bind you to him in such a way that you will likely never recover or escape.

As exorcists have witnessed, when people make pacts or agreements with the devil, in exchange for some sense of power or false freedom, things often go well and happily in the beginning.  However, in every case, things change before long, and the relationship becomes abusive and demanding, and the devil, with his legal hold on the person at that point, pushes them almost irresistibly toward mortal sin and, in the end, death.

The Beast's Own Religion

In the midst of this reflection, I wonder if the surge and speedy spread of Satanism is now upon us in a similar way as it was for the recent spread and acceptance of what can be called "the new morality."  When the legal systems in countries throughout the world changed their laws to give permission and equality to this "new morality," proponents of this change openly remarked at the suddenness and speed with which the changes came.  With the modern embrace of homosexuality, transgenderism, and Satanism, has also come, very recently, a worldwide rise in blasphemous art, movies, and entertainment, as well as openly idolatrous inclinations.

One exorcist told me that he agreed that the final battle on this planet, during the reign of the Anti-Christ, could possibly be between the Church and Satanism, witchcraft, and occultic groups.

Acceptance of the "new morality" is quickly becoming a "mark of the beast," one which must be taken in order to be deemed "normal" and to be permitted to have rights and achieve success in this world.  Perhaps the logical next step is truly for the Beast's own religion to appear ... and so it has.

The Next Step

Educate yourself and your friends.  Help someone who dabbles in the occult, or is spiritually curious about these dark things, to learn the truth and the realities of the spiritual world. 

Order a copy of the highly-recommended spiritual warfare book:

Slaying Dragons: What Exorcists See & What We Should Know - Amazon.

Here is a great article about this helpful and practical book:

*Here's one final note - if you follow the links in this article, you will see that most of these stories are things that have happened just this year.*