For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived (Revelation 18:23 NKJV).

The Greek word translated as “sorcery” in the text above is pharmakeia, from which we get pharmaceutical and pharmacy. Because of this, many have interpreted this text to refer to modern pharmaceutical companies or modern chemicals in our environment. But such a view restricts the full meaning of what Revelation is telling us. We get a better understanding of the meaning from other translations:

• By your magic spell all the nations were led astray (NIV84, emphasis mine).
• Your merchants were the most powerful in all the world, and with your false magic you deceived all the peoples of the world! (GNT, emphasis mine).

The true intent of this message is to alert us to anything that casts a “spell” over the minds of people. Pharmakeia refers to the classic “witch’s brew,” the potions and formulas that were used to intoxicate and trigger hallucinations and out-of-body, dissociative, and dream-like experiences—for the purpose of capturing minds in a false belief system.

The spells of sorcerers are intended to capture minds with lies, falsehoods, distortions, fantasies, and myths for the purpose of getting individuals to surrender their God-given individuality to the control of the shaman, witchdoctor, priest, or any other modern-day sorcerer.

And while it is true that in the world today, various chemical compounds are being used to destroy minds, the modern-day sorcerer is not restricted to the use of such substances. If we focus only on chemical agents, we miss the larger landscape of attack and the other modes and methods of capturing minds through satanic “spells.”

It is the non-pharmaceutical methods that are much more pervasive today in capturing minds—these include:

Mind control—surrendering one’s mind to the control of another. Hypnosis would be a classic example of a surrendered mind. And while most do not engage in hypnosis, many people do surrender their minds to another in their relationships, in which, rather than thinking for themselves, they surrender their thinking to someone they value, attach to, look up to, and want approval from. The apostle Paul instructs us that on matters of conscience, every person is to be fully persuaded in their own mind (Romans 14:5). And Hebrews tells us that the mature develop by practice the ability to discern the right from the wrong (5:14). But in many religions, people are taught to surrender their thinking to the religious leaders, to believe because another person has told them so. This is a form of indoctrination and mind control, with varying degrees of external pressures differing from group to group. Cults bring extreme pressure and tactics to bear, other organizations less—but the key is to watch the methods. Does your organization practice the methods of truth, presented in love, while leaving you free, seeking not to tell you want to think but empowering you to think for yourself or does it indoctrinate into its orthodoxy and expel those who ask honest questions?

Eastern meditation which often approximates group hypnosis, teaches a mental emptying, relaxation, and avoidance of problem resolution by substituting an imaginary state of enlightenment while actively choosing to stop the mind from contemplating truth and resolving issues. It is a grand deception that can transiently improve how one feels while simultaneously undermining discernment skills and worsening the condition of one’s soul. For more on the differences between biblical and Eastern meditation, including method, philosophy, impact on brain, and ultimately salvation see our Meditation Guide. 

Propaganda—all forms of misinformation, media control, filtered information, and shaped, crafted, and manipulated messaging designed to seduce minds into believing things that would not be believed if the full facts, evidences, and truths were presented. This is perhaps the most powerful form of modern-day sorcery, practiced through AI and other forms of modern technology that tracks people, their buying patterns, travel, associations, social media posts, and online activities, all designed to create profiles on people and then shape what they see online—the advertising, the news headlines, and the stories. This is a grand form of sorcery seeking to capture minds in false narratives that are controlled by the “merchants of the earth.”

And the defense against propaganda on a societal level is free speech. When all speech is allowed to be spoken, the truth exposes the lies. But the modern-day sorcerer doesn’t want truth presented, thus will seek to cast a spell over people’s minds telling them that they must be protected from propaganda and misinformation. Therefore, they assert that to promote the truth they must censor speech to stop misinformation.[1] But what they are stopping is the truth that exposes their lies. Do you see how good these modern-day sorcerers are? Do you see how many minds are being captured by their lies?

Here is one example of a spell cast over minds by modern-day sorcerers, and the predictable destruction that follows is so easy to see if one understands the Bible and design law. The Bible teaches that the carnal heart is alien to God and does not submit to God’s law or will (Romans 8:7). This means that unconverted people do not love God and others more than self, and, therefore, they will act selfishly and exploit others. This means that the unconverted will commit crimes against others. Thus, as a means of minimizing human exploitation, not as a means of salvation, the Bible teaches that God has permitted governments of the world to implement imposed law to restrain the harm the unconverted will do to others (Romans 13). Thus, we can predict that if police presence is reduced in a community where people are not surrendered to Jesus, crime will increase. Further, if we eliminate disciplinary consequences from being implemented upon those who do commit crimes—such things as no bail, dismissing charges, refusing to arrest criminals, and refusing to prosecute those who are arrested—then crime will increase. And since 2020, with the defund the police movement, elimination of bail, and refusal to prosecute crimes (shoplifting, looting, rioting), crime has increased.[2] However, the modern-day sorcerers do not want people to see the truth; therefore, they lie, twist the data, and allege that crime is down, while in truth, crime is up. The goal of the sorcerer is to destroy; thus, they want to seduce people into believing that the police are the source of abuse and then get people to support the elimination or reduction of the police so that the criminals can do more harm and destroy the fabric of society. Sadly, far too many people have minds that are captured by the “spells” of these modern-day sorcerers.

 False religious narratives—one of the historical classics is false religions that capture minds into false belief systems, ultimately leading people to their own self-destruction. This method continues to be active and, in fact, will be integral to the rise of the beastly system of Revelation, with people frustrated, fearful, terrorized by events unfolding in the world, realizing they have been betrayed by the modern-day sorcerers—the merchants of the earth—they will turn toward “God” for supernatural deliverance. But the god they prefer is the false god, the beastly god, the rule-making god who is going to arise and use law and law enforcement to make things “right,” to do “justice” to punish the wrongdoers. But the “wrongdoers” this beastly system will seek to punish will not be criminals but those who disobey man-made rules to live in harmony with God’s design laws for health (we saw the prequal to this during COVID mandates). The vast majority of the world will have their minds captured by this false belief system.

Spiritualism in all its forms—whether communing with the dead (seances, Ouija boards, Tarot cards) or other forms of spiritualism, such as crystal balls, reading tea leaves, palm reading, astrology, or communing directly with demons—satanic occult worship or spiritualism that is dressed up in Christian language and given Christian labels—all of it has one common root: Spiritualism is the pursuit of knowledge without the investigation of evidence or the use of reason!

Spiritualism is the classic form of sorcery and is the practice of tricking people into surrendering their thinking, their mind, to nonsensical and fantastical experiences, which despite its claim to enlighten, to help one gain knowledge, actually damages critical reasoning abilities and enslaves people into the belief in the irrational, fantastical, and superstitious.

Seduced by Lies

What is the power of witches, sorcerers, warlocks, witchdoctors, and shamans?

It is the power to deceive and seduce minds into believing lies, to get people to surrender thinking, to believe things that are not true, that contradict reality, and thereby surrender their individuality to the control of the sorcerer. The classic sorcerers throughout history used a variety of methods, potions, signs, wonders, tricks, sleights-of-hand, sometimes working with demons (fallen angels) to perform apparent miracles—whereas modern-day sorcerers use technology, information manipulation, false narratives, propaganda, and intimidation to get people to believe their lies and surrender their minds.

But the goal of both the ancient and modern sorcerer is to seduce minds into believing things that are not true, to get people to suspend reasoning, and to surrender decision-making to some other power than a noble, God-inspired self-governance—the last fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:23).

Modern-day sorcerers will say things to replace reality with fiction, fantasy, make-believe in the minds of people. This includes things like “re-imagining” what families should be like—don’t consider families to be a husband and wife who love each other and have children—reimagine them to be something else. Or “re-imagine” male and female. Or “re-imagine” what it means to be healthy—eat genetically modified foods, junk foods, chemical additives in food, don’t exercise, and don’t work hard, and when you experience obesity, hypertension, or diabetes, just get on the right meds to be healthy. Or “re-imagine” how one advances and develops, not by hard work and application of one’s abilities to develop genuine skill and strength, but by the government giving away diplomas, promotions, and positions based on identity.

But what causes people to participate in activities that actually destroy their own mind, weaken their own body, and undermine their own liberties? Why would people choose to surrender their mind to others?

Fear and the desire for security.

Fear, terror, dread, guilt, shame, doubt, uncertainty, an existential sense of life spiraling out of control coupled with a desperate desire to feel safe, to have a sense of peace and well-being, to have predictability, to have security, leads people to choose actions that destroy their own minds and enslave themselves under the control of others.

Some, when faced with such distressing emotions, will seek the classic chemical pharmakeia to anesthetize their mind—alcohol and illegal drugs—in order to escape their emotional turmoil, while others will seek prescribed mind-numbing meds to take away the negative feelings.

Others will seek someone they identify as being a savior to them, a person who knows the answers, who can tell them what they must do, or merely what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3), and they will surrender their thinking to such individuals, whether a dominating and controlling spouse, cult leader, political figure, or religious organization. These domineering relationships allow the fearful person to function in the role of a child—feeling secure because another who functions in the parent role has taken the responsibility to think things through and determine what is best. All the fearful person has to do is “obey,” to follow the rules, and they will be “safe.” In this dysfunctional mode of avoiding anxiety, if something does go wrong, it won’t be their fault; it will be the fault of the one they have surrendered to and, thus, the responsibility of the parent figure to fix.

People whose minds are captured like this do not think, do not understand, do not comprehend the evidence and facts. In fact, they actively deny the most obvious evidences in order to maintain their false sense of security and avoid their own existential anxiety. The classic example is the codependent person who is in an abusive relationship. They avoid their own internal inadequacies, fears of making mistakes, sense of inferiority, fears of rejection and abandonment, etc., by surrendering their individuality to the controlling and abusive partner. And they actively deny the objective evidence of dysfunction, the abuse and injury perpetrated upon them, by making excuses for the abuse their partner perpetrates upon them—“He only gets this upset because he loves me,” etc.

This same dynamic happens across the landscape of society when people avoid their own internal fears, insecurities, inadequacies, and existential anxieties by surrendering their minds to others—often groups, ideologies, religions, and various political powers. And in so doing, they actively choose to cooperate with the very people who are destroying them.

Others will become overwhelmed with nihilism, hopelessness, and discouragement, and, sadly, if God’s truth and love are not brought to bear upon their lives, they will give in to despondency and self-destructive actions.

How the Remnant Responds

However, others will be motivated to wrestle through the emotions in harmony with God and His methods, seeking the truth and the design laws of God and, ultimately, they experience the restoration of the image of God within.

But this group is the minority, the remnant, the faithful few, the elect. This is who we want to be. This is what Come and Reason Ministries wants for you—for you to be a thinker, someone who has developed the ability to reason, think, and choose for yourself what is healthy because you understand how reality functions.

The only way to health and happiness is by the application of the truth, and that requires that every person think for themselves and be fully persuaded in their own minds. If you are miserable, fearful, anxious, distressed, or overwhelmed with negative feelings, do not look for some human or human organization to save you—instead, look to Jesus! Go to God’s Word, study for yourself, think for yourself, examine the evidence for yourself, understand how reality works for yourself, identify God’s design laws, and begin to live in harmony with them.

The elites of this world are not interested in your health and welfare—but Jesus Christ is. Go to Him, right now, and ask Him to lead you into all truth, for He has said,

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28–30 NKJV).

Jesus’ yoke is the yoke of love and truth. I invite you to reject all the sorceries being foisted upon the world today and surrender your mind to no other than Christ, for only in Him is there genuine peace for your soul.

[1]  https://www.foxnews.com/media/john-kerry-first-amendment-major-block-stopping-disinformation

[2] https://www.foxnews.com/media/crime-data-guru-frustrated-media-insisting-crime-down-under-biden-harris-huge-spike-our-cities