From dragons to drugs to divination, the sermon covered a lot of ground. We only scratched the surface of the “deep weird” in the Bible. A few more examples:
— In Deut. 32:8, the nations (after Babel) are divided up according to the sons of God (LXX), presumably angelic and demonic beings (cf. Job 1:6). Nations and people groups had angelic and demonic mediators/princes. (This, as much as anything else, might explain why some pagan nations advanced much further than others — some nations received more angelic/demonic aid or harm than others.) These demons (fallen angels) are the gods of the nations and received worship from pagans (cf. Deut. 32:17; cf. Ex. 18:11, 1 Cor. 10:20). This is where the ancient religions and mythologies come from; the pagans were not worshipping the gods of the myths per se, but they were worshipping fallen celestial powers, associated with various territories. Daniel 10 gives an example of this territorial rule by the sons of God, mentioning celestial princes of Persia and Greece; Ezekiel 28 connects a celestial being (perhaps Satan himself) with rule of Tyre; Beelzebub, a Philistine deity aka as “lord of the flies” (2 Kings 1:2-3, Matthew 12:24), may be a regional demon over Philistia but is also apparently the “prince of demons” (Satan); etc. This is also why Hebrews 2:5 suggests the old world (old covenant world order) was subject to angels, but the new covenant world is subject to Christ. The principalities and powers are still active, but not in the way they once were — they no longer have authority to deceive the nations as they once did (Rev. 20).
— The OT mentions satyrs, unicorns, and Lilith (a night demoness). The old KJV preserved some of these in translation. Modern translations have often opted for terms more suited to contemporary sensibilities (e.g., the satyr becomes a “wild goat”), but these terms are still there in the original text and must be dealt with. There’s no question the false worldview of scientism, which makes empirical science the final authority, and materialism, which denies or downplays non-physical aspects of reality, have influenced the way these texts get translated and interpreted. See the book The Forgotten Heavens for a more detailed study.
— I mentioned references to ghosts in Scripture, especially the NT. It raises an interesting question: Did the disciples of Jesus believe in ghosts? If so, were the right to do so? The story in 1 Samuel at least raises the possibility, since they obviously would have been familiar with it. At the same time, there is no biblical evidence (and much to the contrary) that the spirits of the dead are allowed to roam the earth. The Bible describes the souls/spirits of the dead as departing from this world, and that’s probably where we should leave it. My guess is that if there are legitimate “ghost stories,” demons, rather than the spirits of the departed, are involved.
— In one of Joshua’s battles, the Lord made the sun stand still (whatever that means!) so Israel could get the victory.
— In the medieval cosmology, it was believed that God uses angelic powers to “run” the natural world. This was based at least in part on Psalm 104:4. If angels govern wind and fire, surely God uses them to control other aspects of the world. John Calvin gave a lengthy explanation of this in his commentary on Ezekiel 1. I blogged about it here. Further, in this cosmology, as C. S. Lewis pointed out, stars are not merely flaming balls of gas, but have angelic personalities associated with them (see Voyage of the Dawn Treader). I think the medievals were on to something important, even if they did not have all the details right.
There are other weird things about the ancient world that we cannot explain. There are countless examples but here are a couple I like to point out:
— In the region of ancient Philistia, there are ruins of an ancient city with three temples called Baalbek. These ruins have the largest stones ever cut and moved. They served as the foundation stones of the temple. The stones are a good distance from where they were quarried. Some of the stones are over 60 feet long, 20 feet wide, and weigh over 1500 tons! And yet the stones are perfectly cut and laid end to end with no seam between them. How did they get stones that large? How did they move them? Did they have the technology to do this? (Modern explanations try to come up with crude technological accounts, but they are unconvincing.) Did giants help? Did demons aid them? The structures even have smaller stones underneath the very large ones so the structures would be able to withstand earthquakes – an ingenious engineering marvel. To put the size of these stone in perspective, the stones at Stonehenge are about 40 tons – far smaller than 1500 tons. We simply have no idea how this was done and probably could not replicate it today. See Don Landis’ book The Genius of Ancient Man and The Secrets of Ancient Man for more. Also the book Giants by David Van Dorn.
— There is evidence that by the time of David , the Phoenicians were crossing the Atlantic in ships. Indeed, widespread travel and interaction among different people groups was probably far more common in the ancient world than we realize. Many people doubt the authenticity of the Los Lunas stone in New Mexico, but at least some scholars hold that the inscription of the 10 commandments in Hebrew on this stone dates from roughly 950BC. See Barry Fell’s book America BC for more info. Gary North also talks about this a bit in his book Sinai Strategy.
— A very good case can be made that Plato and Aristotle were familiar with the writings of Moses. The church fathers certainly believed this, and it was assumed that Plato’s doctrine of the forms was derivative of Moses’ tabernacle (an earthly copy of the heavenly original). See Leithart’s “Did Plato Red Moses?” for supporting evidence.
— Plato claimed he was led by a daimon/demon, supposedly a kind of intermediating being between the divine and the human, a kind of lesser deity, to help humans navigate life and make wise decisions. In some places, Plato relates the daimons to the gods; they can deliver messages from the gods to humans and exert divine influence on humans. The Greeks recognized there were both good and bad daimons, but if we understand that demons stand behind the Greek gods, it puts the daimons in a different light.
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As I said in the sermon, when the witch calls up Samuel from the ancient world, it’s probably the only successful seance in history. Now, we need to be careful here: On the one hand, if all witchcraft was just hucksterism and deception, it would not probably not be a capital crime under Torah. The warnings about witchcraft in the Bible are there precisely because it really is dangerous. But it’s dangerous not because necromancy works but because it opens the door to the demonic. Necromancers do not normally contact the dead but they do contact demons — and often, these demons apparently impersonate the dead. The witch/necromancer may be in on the deception, but the deception is actually the work of demons.
Revelation 1 tells us Jesus has the keys to death and Hades. I do no think necromancers have a key to unlock Sheol or Hades — only Jesus. So necromancers do not actually have access to Sheol (much less heaven). But the desire to contact the dead is itself illegitmate and idolatrous. It’s trying to seize a power over death that God has not granted us.
So, yes, there was at least one successful seance in history. But I doubt there have been any others.
On the other hand, some go so far as to say Samuel must not have really appeared in 1 Samuel 28 – this too must have been a demonic deception. It’s not Samuel, but a demon. I’ve even someone suggest the witch was a ventriloquist. I think that’s mistaken for several reasons, including:
— The chapter opens with a reminder that Samuel has already died. This seems like unnecessary repetition unless it is there to make the point that Samuel is about to speak from the grave – an unheard of and unprecedented event. he’s really dead, and he really did appear to the witch and to Saul.
— The witch’s surprise seems to be due to the fact that this seance was different than others she had performed. This one actually worked to call up not just a demon from the deep, but the prophet of God. Unlike other cases, apparently, Samuel was not under her control.
— Samuel is referred to as Samuel throughout the account. This is also true in the short summary of this story in 1 Chronicles 10. There is no indication in the text that a demon has disguised himself as Samuel. Further, everything Samuel says is true, including his prophecy of the Saul’s impending death. Samuel’s ghost actually gives godly counsel and reminders of truths Samuel had already spoken – not what we’d expect if this was a demon.
ADDENDUM FROM DISCUSSION OF THIS ON X: I don’t think I ever claimed she was afraid of Samuel – but there does seem to some surprise in what she sees when Samuel comes up from the underworld. The fear is in realizing Saul is her client, simultaneous with realizing this is really is Samuel’s ghost. She puts 2 and 2 together….I think Samuel coming up is what tips her off to the fact that she is dealing with Saul in disguise and that’s why she immediately asks for assurances from him that this has not been a sting operation, that she won’t be put to death, etc.
My guess is that since she was a witch, she was used to interacting with dark spirits. Obviously, it’s mostly conjecture since we aren’t anything about her outside this story. My hunch is the meal she invites Saul to immediately afterwards is a kind of counterfeit “last supper” for Saul. It’s not just the witch being hospitable; they are sealing a covenant with one another. It’s probably a meal like Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 10:21, eating and drinking with demons. Saul’s descent into apostasy is complete.
That particular story will never cease to fascinate me…
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A lot more can be said about the connection between the practice of witchcraft and the use of illicit drugs (particularly psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs). Probably the most famous witch in the Bible is not the witch at Endor but Jezebel (cf. 2 Kings 9:22). I give more information here and here.
People who use these kinds of drugs do not merely have physical, chemical, or psychological experiences. They have demonic experiences. People who get high (across various cultures, with diverse backgrounds) report having eerily similar experiences and visions. This is not what you’d expect if the experience of getting “high” was just a matter of psychology or brain chemistry. These drugs tap into a dark and demonic, but definitely objective, reality. The witchcraft (drugs) work, which is exactly why such harsh penalties are attached to their use in Torah and why its taken so seriously in the NT. Some of these drugs are known to cause schizophrenia, which often seems to have a demonic component.
This is (at least part of) the reason why the libertarian view of drugs is so dangerous. We cannot take a “live and let live” approach to psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs. As changes in our culture attest, these drugs open a Pandora’s Box of demonic activity. We summoned up the demons…and they answered the call.
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In the sermon, I made some Genesis 3 connections: Just as Adam obeyed the voice of a woman, took forbidden food, and communed with Satan, so Saul obeys the voice of a woman, takes forbidden food, and communes with a demon. Here’s a further connection: “Endor” means “spring of dwelling” or “spring of life,” which suggests an Edenic environment.
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In the sermon, I said that Saul had obeyed Torah in driving the mediums and sorcerers out of the land. But he not quite obeyed. The law says, “Do not suffer a witch to live.” Saul exiled the witches but did not execute them. We can debate whether or not this was a faithful application of Torah to the situation (Numbers 35 seems to suggest murder is the only time the death penalty is absolutely required; we see exile as a substitute punishment for the capital crime of sodomy elsewhere). Whatever the case with the degree of Saul’s obedience earlier in his reign, leaving this witch alive led to his final downfall.
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C. S. Lewis warned about “materialist magicians” — people who don’t beleive in God but do believe in demons. There is really no better way to describe what secularism has become. There are two extremes we must avoid when dealing with these subjects. This is how Lewis describes it in the Screwtape Letters:
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”
Of course, what Satan loves even more than a materialist or a magician is a materialist magician. And so consider that in many Western secular nations today, the same people who disbelieve in God or Jesus’ resurrection because of “science” are deeply interested in the occult, astrology, ghosts, etc. Again, here is Lewis in Screwtape:
“I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. Of course this has not always been so. We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and sceptics. At least, not yet. I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy. The “Life Force”, the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work — the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits” — then the end of the war will be in sight. But in the meantime we must obey our orders. I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that “devils” are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.”
Here is another (real life) example:
“Ghosts, or at least belief in them, have been around for centuries but they have now found a particularly strong following in highly secular modern countries like Norway, places that are otherwise in the vanguard of what was once seen as Europe’s inexorable, science-led march away from superstition and religion.”
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Modern day witchcraft shows up in all kinds of ways. One of the clearest examples is transgenderism, which is a kind of sexual alchemy. Androgyny and transgenderism have always been manifestations of demonic idolatry. It’s no different today. Transgenderism involves the illicit use of chemicals, bodily/genital mutilation, etc. — all as expressions of personal autonomy and self-creation. Likewise, the use of “they/them” pronouns suggests something deeply demonic (cf. Mark 5:9).
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Why does the witch say she saw “elohim” coming out of the earth in 1 Samuel 28:13? This is the word for God, but it can also be used of civil rulers and other authorities, which is probably how it should be understood here (cf. Psalm 82, Ex. 22:28).
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Saul turns to mediums because he has been cut off from God’s Word. Think of all the ways people seek guidance today: horoscopes, fortune tellers, tarot cards, etc. If we rely on the Word of God, we do not need to turn to these demonic sources for guidance.
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Saul’s house will get basically the same treatment as Eli’s house back in 1 Samuel 3-4. All of these “house topplings” can be seen as the outworking and fulfillment of Hannah’s song in chapter 2.
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The entire story of 1 Samuel 28 can be seen as an outworking of 1 Samuel 15, especially 15:23: Saul’s apostasy is finally complete; Samuel had prophesied his sin would go unchecked and lead to divination/witchcraft; Saul tore Samuel’s robe in chapter 15, and Samuel is recognized by his robe in chapter 28; Saul tore the prophet’s robe in chapter 15, but divested himself of his own robe in chapter 28. The story arc of Saul’s life is almost complete – and it stands as a warning to us all. It’s not enough to make a good start; only he who stands firm and perseveres to the end will be saved.
I have addressed the topic of apostasy from an exegetical and theological viewpoint in my essay on apostasy in the book The Federal Vision.
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In the sermon, I mentioned that fear emerges as a theme of the chapter, but much more can be said. Saul was chosen as king because the people wanted someone to fight their battles. Instead of fighting the enemies of Israel, he ending up fighting his own personal enemy and Israel’s best warrior (David). But more than that, when it actually comes time to fight the Philistines in a definitive battle, he is terrified (v. 5). True courage comes from the Spirit, and Saul is bereft of the Spirit, so he becomes a coward. Courage is a fruit of faith, but Saul has long since given in to unbelief. But Saul is not the only full of fear in this chapter. The witch becomes scared when Samuel appears — not only because she is now face to face with a man of God, but because she realizes that her client is none other than Saul (v. 12). Saul tries to reassure her (v. 13), but Saul himself expresses his fear when he begins to converse with the ghost (v. 15). Of course, Saul’s goes from afraid to exceedingly afraid when he hears of his impending death (v. 20-21) — so afraid he goes prostrate like a dead man. All of this part of a larger narrative arc in Saul’s life. He gave into fear a long time ago, and his fears have continued to grow. Fear and anxiety always mushroom into other sins, and so it was in Saul’s case. Saul’s fears became evident during his threefold fall in chapters 13-15. Saul was afraid of Goliath, along with the rest of his men (17:11); after David killed Goliath, Saul feared David, both his strength and his rise in acclaim (18:12, 29). And soon the loop of Saul’s fears will close, as he will die on the battlefield against the Philistines in a cowardly way. A fearful king will never lead a successful battle campaign, and this proved to be true in Saul’s case.
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The name Saul means “asked” and we’ve already seen many puns on his name earlier in this book. Here, those puns re-emerge. Saul was the “asked for” one. But now when he “asks” (“sauls”) the Lord, he gets no answer. Saul has become a living question mark, a man who gets no answers. (HT: Leithart).
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The Lord has spoken to Saul one last time through Samuel. But whose voice will he listen to? He chooses to listen to the voice of the witch rather than the voice of Samuel/God. Saul was given one last chance to repent before death; instead, he dined with a witch.
Saul finds out he has only hours to live and instead of a “deathbed” repentance, he doubles down on rebellion. He decides to commune with demons rather than turn back to the Lord. The strength Saul got from the witch’s feast was not enough to bring him victory. Instead, it confirmed his death sentence.
Saul was controlled by his fears and his fears destroyed him.
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An example of Saul’s hard-heartedness and refusal to repent: In 28:15, he blames God for not speaking to him instead of taking responsibility for all the ways he has cut himself off from the Word of the Lord. “God has departed from and does not answer me.” Of course not. Saul has rejected God’s Word and then blames God for not giving him a word.
But before we look down on Saul too much, we consider how we can do the same thing. We do things our own way, rather than God’s way, and then instead of taking responsibility for the disastrous results, we blame God and ask him to get us out of the mess we have created for ourselves. We refuse to hear and study God’s Word, then wonder why we lack wisdom to make good decisions. We refuse the fellowship of the church then wonder why we are lonely. We reject God’s design for sex and marriage and children, then wonder why he hasn’t provided a spouse and family. We are lazy and undisciplined, then wonder why God does not provide for us better. And so on. We can be our own worst enemies.
Saul makes himself into God’s enemy, then wonders why God opposes him. Saul silences God then wonder why God does not speak. Saul kills the priests then complains about not having the ephod and Urim to consult God’s will. He drives away the prophets then wonders why there is no prophet in his court. And so on.
Saul committed spiritual suicide long before he killed himself on the field of battle.
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God has given us his Word, the Scriptures. This is all the special/supernatural revelation we need. To go to a witch or medium for special revelations is a rejection of God’s Word. But God’s Word is enough.
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It’s ironic that Saul and the witch are both obviously disregarding the voice of the Lord, but they obey one another’s voices in this story. The whole account is shot through with multiple layers of irony.
It’s interesting that Saul sought a word from the Lord (however disingenuously), and when the Lord does not speak, he turns to the witch. But the Lord actually does speak to him through Samuel when he is called up from the realm of the dead. Saul got the revelation from the Lord he was seeking earlier. The Lord did not speak through a dream, the Urim, or a living prophet. But when he consulted the witch for Satanic divination, he finally got his word from the Lord — just not the kind of word he wanted to hear.
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In the sermon, I pointed out how the author has deliberately constructed this part of 1 Samuel so we cannot help but make a comparison and contrast between David and Saul. Their stories are basically running along side by side. We will see this develop more fully in the weeks to come. But for now consider one more contrast between these two royal figures:
On two occasions, David was urged by his men to kill Saul (or for him to allow them to kill Saul). But he did not listen to them; instead he restrained them, even as he restrained himself. David refuses to be persuaded to do what is wrong and persuades those under him to do what is right. Here, Saul refuses the witch’s supper at first, but then is persuaded to partake of the demonic dinner by his men who are with him (28:23). David led his men in righteousness; Saul follows his men into unrighteousness.
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In the sermon, I called the meal a counterfeit Passover and pointed out several lines of evidence for that connection. But that means we can also see it as a counterfeit Last Supper/Lord’s Supper. It would not be stretching the text to view Saul’s meal with the witch as a covenant-making meal. Saul is entering into a pact with the devil. He dines at the table with an agent of Satan. He shares a meal with a representative of the demonic realm. (Note that in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul believed in the “real presence” of demons at idolatrous meals. This is one of those meals — and so we should assume Satan was really and truly present in feast in some way. It was communion with demons.)
But whereas Jesus gave the kingdom to his disciples at his last supper (cf. Luke 22:28-30), here Saul is losing a kingdom. Perhaps that’s why wine is conspicuously absent from the meal. There is nothing to celebrate here.
It could be Saul thought dining with the witch would not only give him physical strength (as he breaks his fast), but some kind of supernatural strength as well — just in time for the battle. Of course, that proved to not work. As Saul rose up from the table to go face the Philistines, he suffered exactly the fate Samuel had prophesied — he would meet the Angel of Death and go to the realm of the dead.
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As I said in the sermon, I do not think v. 29 means Saul was saved. Sheol – the realm of the dead – had a paradise side (aka Abraham’s bosom) and a side of torment (cf. Luke 16:19ff). Saul says nothing specific about which side of Sheol Saul and his sons will end up in, but I see no reason to think Saul was saved (though undoubtedly Jonathan was).
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At the close of the sermon, I sought to connect this story with the gospel. Like all of Scripture, this story points us to Jesus, but it does so in a roundabout way.
When Saul sought out the necromancer/witch, he wanted to hear from Samuel. That might seem like a good desire, but it’s not since Samuel is dead. Once upon time, Saul and Samuel had been close. Saul had been like a son to Samuel. Samuel was greatly grieved by Saul’s falling away. Now, when it is too late, Saul has decided he wants to hear from Samuel again.
In a sense, Saul was seeking help from a departed loved one. And it’s easy to see how this could be a temptation for anyone who has lost a loved one, especially one whose wisdom we once appreciated. While Saul quit listening to Samuel long ago, in a moment of great crisis, he is desperate to hear from Samuel again. Of course, he ends up doing so in an illicit way, and it results not in deliverance but in disaster.
You might wish you could hear from a departed loved one too — especially if you relied on their wisdom while they lived. But Scripture is clear: you don’t need a word from the dead. You need a word from One who is risen from the dead. The dead do not have any messages for us. We are forbidden from attempting to contact them. We often have to wrestle through the grief of losing a loved one, acknowledging that we will not see them again until we depart from the land of the living ourselves – and we will not be fully reunited until the last day at the resurrection.
But in the meantime, we have the presence of One who loves us perfectly, who is always with us, who speaks to us any time we want to hear from him in his Word — the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Word from God. He is our Wisdom. We do not seek forbidden guidance from the dead. We have something better. Someone better. We have Jesus. Every tomb is silent except for the one Jesus broke out of on Easter morning.
In Deuteronomy 18:11ff, God forbids his people from seeking guidance from mediums and diviners, from sorcerers and necromancers (like the witch at Endor). But then God goes on to say he will raise up a prophet like Moses, a new and greater Moses (18:18). God will speak to us through him. He is the One from whom we should seek guidance and wisdom. When Jesus is transfigured on the mount, the Father speaks from heaven and says, “Listen to him.” Do seek a word from the dead; seek a word from the One who conquered death.
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I slightly misspoke at one point in the sermon, at the 31 minute mark. I said that as Saul was visiting with the witch, and being reminded by the ghost of Samuel that he had failed to obey in utterly destroying the Amalekites (1 Samuel 28:18), David was defeating the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30). But that’s not quite right. The stories in chapters 28-30 are out of order by design so the actual chronology can be confusing. 1 Samuel 29 actually happens before 1 Samuel 28. David is already on his way back to Ziklag (cf. 29) by the time Saul meets with the witch (ch. 28); indeed, David has probably already gotten to Ziklag, found his wives and possessions taken, and gone in pursuit of the Amalekites by the time Saul is at Endor. Most commentaries point this out and explain it, so I will not go into detail (see Leithart, p. 145, Davis p. 152; on the geography of Saul’s trip to Endor, see McDurmon, p. 370). Saul met with the witch on the eve of the battle at Aphek; at the same time Saul is fighting the Philistines the next day, David is fighting the Amalekites (an enemy Saul should have already defeated, but failed to – once again, David is what Saul should have been and does what Saul should have done). In other words, 1 Samuel 30 and 31 are concurrent. David’s great victory is simultaneous with Saul’s defeat and death. David then return to Ziklag with plunder to share and not long afterward, news of Saul’s death reaches him (2 Samuel 1).
The point I made in the sermon holds true: the stories of Saul and David are laid side by side this way (slightly out of order) precisely so we will be drawn to compare them. They each have a dilemma – David is about to have his true loyalty exposed while he’s in the midst of the Philistine army; Saul is seeking a revelation God will not give him. But whereas David enquires of (“sauls”) the Lord, even using the ephod with the Urim (cf. 28:5 and 30:7), before going to battle with the Amalekites, Saul consults a sorceress. Those consultations probably happen at the same time, leading to two battles at the same time, with very different outcomes for each of the two men.
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Here’s a bit more bibliography, in addition to the resources already mentioned above:
Dinosaurs, Dragons, and the Bible by Brodie Hodge
The “Answers in Genesis” website has plenty of interesting and helpful resources on some weird things in the Bible (the Ark Encounter/Creation Museum in Kentucky is also a great place to visit, and has an excellent dragon exhibit)
The Haunted Cosmos book by Brian Sauve and Ben Garrett (I haven’t listened to much of the podcast, so I can’t vouch as much for it, but the book is a helpful overview on many topics that go far beyond the weird things in the Bible)
Through New Eyes by James Jordan (Jordan is an expert on the “deep weird” things of Scripture)
Unholy Spirits by Gary North, probably the best and most comprehensive study of weird phenomena I have read
The Return of the Dragon by Lewis Ungit – I did not read this book until after I preached the sermon, but it is an excellent, must-read work. Ungit shows the link between drugs and witchcraft in the OT and NT. Drugs can be used to create “spiritual experiences” – but what spirits are we interacting? He makes interesting links between drugs and the forbidden fruit Adam and his wofe eat in Genesis 3, as well as the Eucharist (“the pharmakeia of eternal life,” as a church father put it). Unglit also explores the impact of drugs on civilization, both ancient and modern. He examines (and explodes) the claims that psychedelics have personal and social benefits. He makes the same link I did in the sermon between drugs, murder of the innocents (human sacrifice, abortion, etc.), and Satan worship.
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