I have had relentless debates with self-proclaimed Christians about the question, Should Christians read/watch Harry Potter? In my mind, that is like asking if I should allow white magic to possess my soul. The irony, I have won only a few of those debates.
Nearly all “Christians” know the Harry Potter series. Most children, and adults alike, were swept up in the cult series through the fascination of the war between the good side of magic versus the black. Fighting evil with evil. Allow me to explain.
The worldwide phenomenon of Harry Potter has provided lost souls with a fictional world that provides an escape from the real evils dominating our culture. Harry, being an orphan, finds out he was, by birth, born a wizard on his eleventh birthday. The series takes readers/viewers on his journey as he learns to embrace magic as a part of his DNA. He quickly discovers two sides to the world of magic – the dark side and the white side. The entire series is packed with Harry fighting fantastic beasts of the darker world. While the persona of Harry seems to be an innocent portrait of child-like innocence, many spiritual implications abruptly influenced the youths' AUTHENTIC Christian worldview, which was the “norm” for children before the series.
Hindsight is always the best critic. Today, many Bible-teaching expository experts believe Harry’s magical abilities significantly differ from the power of God revealed in the Bible. Well-established theologians know that the Tree of Knowledge noted in Genesis speaks of its organic title – The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)
In Hebrew, there are three forms of power – life, good, and evil. As our Scriptures depict, “good” and “evil” are housed in the Tree of Knowledge. We discover the early Babylonian beliefs of white and black magic, white witches, and dark wizards. Wizards are male witches who practice casting spells (curses) by using powers from the underworld, the domain of the Tree of Knowledge. If the wizard is of the “good” side of the tree, they use spells to help others via a wand, a demonic replica of the staff of Moses. Through the wand, the powers are released from the underworld to the temporary world of humanity.
As we review the story of Pharaoh’s magicians turning their wands into snakes, Moses tosses his staff to the floor, which immediately transforms into a snake and devours the two serpents. This real-to-life story marks the ultimate battle between magic and the power of God. The battle remains the greatest trickery of modern culture.
Magic is the demonic power released from the Tree of Knowledge. God’s power is in the existence of Life from the Tree of Life. Life is Zoe, meaning light. Magic is keseth, to cover with darkness. In the New Testament, magic is mageuo, to practice sorcery. Sorcery is pharmakeia, the action of witchcraft. The sleight of hand that Satan used early on was to develop the cultural perception of the “good” side of the Tree of Knowledge into that of the Holy Spirit, which became the first noted sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Today, all those who have been duped into believing that all forms of “good” works, or magic actions, are from the Holy Spirit. If that were true, the soon-approaching Antichrist would physically represent the Spirit of God. Maybe that is Satan’s objective.
And the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. (Revelation 18:23)
I believe the deception hidden in the walls of Harry Potter, and droves of other fictional works, is what Satan used to shift the minds of our children and adults to worshiping a secondary power that focuses on using white magic to harness the darker side of evil. In reality, both the white and black sides are of the single tree of evil.
We live in a world of graven-imaged superheroes – Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, Wonder Woman, Deadpool, and Harry Potter. The only difference between Harry and Batman is Harry was one of the first to appeal to 11-year-old - children. This changed the world of superheroes entirely.
Today, children are more interested in fantasy Christianity, or not, than good old-fashioned Bible stories. They are learning to harness their gifts without realizing the demonic ideations behind them. They know more about trusting themselves than trusting Jesus that humans cannot see. Shifting children to believe in what they see or read versus having the faith of a child to believe in Jesus through an indwelling Life in Christ. Their mission is to learn to shake off the dark side of evil, being bullied, fit in, or fight off the sorrow of death. The crafty people behind the Harry Potter series worked relentlessly to develop unique characters for every reader or viewer. The bottom line is the series appeals to every soul struggling. So much for the Word of God, let alone the indwelling Life of Jesus, to accomplish this feat.
Harry Potter finds acceptance in teaching its followers how to have “good” moral character while emphasizing friendship. Some researchers believe this focus shifted the world into the demonic reality of friendship first, Christianity second, or not at all. However, this is not the most dangerous aspect of the series.
Voldemort, Harry’s worst enemy, ultimately consumed by the dark side of evil, finds victory in trusting in himself to resist temptation, lean on his friends, and trust in the magical powers that possess his body. While the more educated “Christian” cult followers view this as an example of God defeating Satan, the conclusive plot of the series teaches children/adults to place their confidence in their self-life. While our Lord works relentlessly to destroy the self-life to advance the indwelling Life of Jesus, Harry falls short. Minimally living off the deceptive ideation of “self” and its powers wins the war with Voldemort – evil.
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the Spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20-24)
This is not rocket science. God works to place the self-life on the Cross for death (Romans 6:6). Satan knows that process secures redeeming salvation. Once the self-life is crucified with Christ, the battle of fighting evil, white or black, is in the hands and actions of releasing the power of God’s staff, the Holy Spirit, Jesus’s Spirit, from inside the believer.
Here is the argument I hear from many parents.
Though the movie does have a secular worldview, it addresses evil, and these are things our children will encounter. Instead of keeping our children hidden from such things, exposing them to them is good.
Ok, that is like telling our children to study the Satanic Bible to learn the ways and measures of Satan. It is no wonder why the Satanists successfully establish after-school meetings in our public schools. This deceptive ideology works, particularly with children. I will be so bold to say that it is highly probable that the Harry Potter series was the springboard the Satanists used to get into our schools. Not all Satanist look like red dragons with blood dripping out of the corner of their mouths. Most are very kind, propagating empowering children to fight the good fight against evil.
Furthermore, take a snapshot of our present culture. You will find a world deluding our children into the results of white magic – wokism, gender neutrality, sexual identification, and a host of other self-life ideologies. All are a result of media overload.
The primary message of the Potter series is to advance the Wiccan culture, a modern Pagan religion – an occultist stream of Western esotericism (only to be understood by a small group of cultists). While many “Christians” step into this cow pie without much knowledge, I am not one of them. The spells, wands, witches, and wizards in any series can be fascinating. None can hold up to the regenerative Word of God. If God calls them all deeds of the flesh, we might want to consider such warnings. If you, like most who defend the Potter series, this passage might mean nothing to you.
And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger. (2 Chronicles 33:6)
Through wand or witch, anyone who attempts to steal the minds of our children enrages me. Righteous anger. Since the lion’s share of dedicated viewers and readers are adults without children, most are clueless about Satan’s child trafficking through his clever schemes through the awe of magic.
The masses protect their demons. Is that too blunt? Come live in my world. As a cross-cultural historian, I deal with depraved self-proclaimed “Christians” daily. Their kind faces smile at you while they reach for a knife to stab Jesus in the back. But yet, they think they are doing Jesus a favor by integrating magic into Biblical theology and refusing to warn our children of the dangers of the deeds of the flesh.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
Now it is your turn. Who will join me in saving the children? Magic isn’t as innocent as it appears. It is all consuming and evil. It can steal the children from inheriting eternal Life in Jesus Christ. Count on it. I will close with a true-to-life quote from a hurting soul once obsessed with the Harry Potter series.
Through the Harry Potter series, it began having a grip on me. Then all the times I was warned about the series by some of my family & friends - it finally hit me. Harry Potter was a way for the enemy to begin his entry into my spiritual life and make me doubt my Heavenly Father.
Christ, Culture, and Creator. Compassion in Action. Helping members of the body of Christ to experience, mature in, and effectively communicate the message of identification with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension in the believer's various spheres of influence.
What an interesting and revealing commentary. I must be one of the only people I know that has never watched that or read the books. There was something about it that was off. I remembered that we are to flee from those things and avoid them. I do believe you are right about their impact on our children. It grieves me and sends me to prayer often, that the children be delivered from this evil that parades in the facade of good.