Contract on Children Part 1

The first part of this series revealed the many facets of Satan's war on children and childhood. In the second part, we looked at his strategies -abuse, neglect, abortion, parents' lust for material possessions and rejection of children - and the history of destructive hatred aimed at children.

The crucial questions remain: Why? - Why is Satan waging all-out war against children? Revelation 12:1-6 gives the prophetic insight that the great dragon seeks to destroy children from the moment of birth. Today, even the womb is not safe from his attack.

The answers lie buried at the roots of ancient occult practices, with the worship of the demon god, Moloch. Some details of this article may not be suitable for your children.

If you are a child or a young teenager, please allow your parents to read this article first and to decide how much of it they want you to read.

Root Of Destruction

Most Christians are only vaguely familiar with the name Moloch. When reading through the Bible, you will sometimes come across a weird verse like, "They caused their children to be passed through the fire to Moloch." (Jer. 32:35)

Research reveals amazingly little about this false god of the Ammonites. But we do know for certain that the worship practices and the lifestyle of these heathen people was such a hideous abomination to God and such a detestable perversion, that God ordered the Israelites to utterly destroy the Ammonites in the conquest of Canaan. (In fact, anyone who thinks God was merciless in this judgment needs to read on about the cruelty of the Ammonites!)

So, though the god Moloch has kept himself intriguingly hidden, we can learn a great deal about his spirit by looking at the lives of the pagan people who worshipped him. For "by their fruits you shall know them." (Matt. 7:20)

In G. K. Chesterton's book The Everlasting Man he gives a clear picture of the pagan world before the birth of Christ and leading up to the kind of civilization that Jesus was born into. Briefly, Chesterton describes two kinds of paganism which existed in those days.

Two Faces Of Paganism

The first we might call an "Easter Bunny" kind of paganism. You know, at Easter time - the time when all men should be celebrating the resurrection - the world wants to sing songs about bunnies and bonnets. This is what we call "happy paganism." It's not concerned with fact, but with feelings. At its very best, paganism of this variety is an attempt to describe the supernatural through the imagination. Santa Claus, Rudolph, and the Tooth Fairy are more modern examples of this in our own culture.

In the ancient civilizations that Chesterton describes, especially Rome, there were an awful lot of "nice" pagan gods. The Romans had household gods for everything. They had gods of the floor, the door, the roof, and even a god of the drain! For example, there was Bacchus, the god of wine and parties. Now, people didn't seriously think there was a fat guy up in heaven with grapes. He was more the stuff of imagination.

This sort of paganism can be summed up in the term "mythology." There was a good deal of nonsense in it - and everyone seems to have understood it was nonsense! It wasn't important what god was worshipped - the act of worship itself was the whole thing. People knew worship itself was somehow important, so they developed an endless variety of rites and superstitions to try to satisfy this urge in their hearts.

Civilized people do this today. But sophisticated, civilized people can also get pulled into the second form of paganism, a far more dangerous devotion than common superstition.

In fact, Chesterton says that simple, "happy paganism" became locked in a struggle with a much darker force. Here is where we encounter the worship and the spirit of Moloch.

Who Is the King Of Tyre

Tyre and Sidon were twin cities that became very powerful and founded a colony - a town the Romans called Carthage, or New Town. We didn't know Carthage's religion until archaeologists uncovered its ruins. The Bible has many references to the area of Tyre and Sidon. Interestingly, the Old Testament refers to a person called the King of Tyre. He seems to be more than human, and some Bible scholars believe this is a reference to Satan himself, for we know that demonic princes and kings have seats of government in key places. (Eph. 6:12)

Now Carthage was a sort of showplace for Tyre and Sidon. It was their hustling, go-getting, mercantile "jewel," because their empire was built on travel and money. And the empire earned lots of money because they sold, amongst other things, Tyrian purple, which was unique in all the world and very, very high-priced. Ships from trading nations came from everywhere with money to buy this eye-pleasing shellfish dye. So, people of Carthage could boast, "You can't wash your hands in the sea without the permission of New Town." This was the center of commerce in the time leading up to Jesus' birth.

On the surface, it might appear that with all the wealth and influence of Carthage, children became a mere inconvenience. But there is far more than that behind the Moloch worship that developed in this "jewel" of the Mediterranean.

How did Carthage adopt the worship of Moloch? We don't know for sure, but historical archeology tells us what happened during the horrible sacrificial rites this god demanded. The hideous idol of Moloch apparently had a man's body with the head of an ox. Its arms and hands extended out in front. In the idol's lap was a fire that heated a metal plate. The priest would take a child, given by its parents, and lay it across the outstretched aims of the idol. The child was bound so it could not wiggle away. Other priests played music and beat drums very loudly while everybody cheered frantically - all to drown out the screams of the terrified child. Then the priest manipulated the arms of the idol until the child was over the plate - which was now white-hot. Then he would release the idol's arms so the child would drop to a horrifying fiery death.

Now, Moloch is one of the oldest names for the ancient deities associated with human sacrifice, nature worship, and fertility. Others were Baal, Asherali, and Ashtoreth. As with Moloch, it is difficult to find too much recorded about them in ancient texts. One reason is censorship. Early archaeologists who came across their sites of worship were shocked and horrified by their discoveries. They found entire cemeteries full of babies that had obviously been sacrificed in some kind of ritual murder. Some archaeologists would not even report the details of sights they found in professional journals. Some even wrote in scholar's Latin because they felt it was so pornographic and so ugly. That is why you so rarely found detailed descriptions of the secret worship of Moloch, Baal, Ashtoreth, and Asherah.

Why Worship What Is Evil?

What we know without question is that the worship of the followers of these deities like Asherah and Ashtoreth focused on sexual reproduction. The "sacred" groves were places where sexual immorality was carried out for the purpose of worship. It was a very attractive sort of religion for people in love with money and power. You went to the groves for sex and food, you danced in the grass nude, you had an orgy, and you made it religious. Then later you sacrificed your children because, supposedly, these gods of nature had given them to you - and now they wanted them back.

While reading about these rituals, what type of people do you think were taking part? People with bones through their noses? Clubs and animals skins? No. We're talking about a highly advanced civilization - the one that ruled the world at that time. We're not talking about primitive people. We're talking about highly intelligent and well-to-do men and women.

For an equivalent in our day, imagine a group of Silicon Valley executives - high-tech types who own state-of-the-art computers, expensive clothes, and live in condos or high-rises. Imagine them meeting Sundays at 11:00 a.m. (and on special holidays!) to watch a baby being slowly roasted alive.

Here's what one scholar says: "Night seems to have been the special time for these awful burnings... the whole scene, visible from the walls by the glow of the furnace and the flames, formed such an ideal of transcendent horror, that the name of the valley became Gehenna, the usual word for hell."

Yes, that is where the word Gehenna - the New Testament word for hell - came from. The place where demon worshippers sacrificed children in fire.

Why in the world would civilized people of any age do that? How could they take their own children (not even an enemy's children) and deliberately murder them for a god?

This is the second type of paganism, a frightful force that still rules today in the lives of people to whom power and possessions mean everything.

The voice behind these terrible acts says this: "You have everything. Now if you want real power you must tap in to the supernatural world." And how do you get the attention of that world?

The answer is simple and deadly. You turn to the demonic - to spirits who will take on any job for you, no matter how dirty. As Chesterton said, you prove to them that you mean business if they will do business. And to get to the heart of this dark power, you must go against nature - against God's creative life-force, His rapture over an expanding, alive, creation.

Ask a young mother cuddling her newborn why she doesn't simply kill her baby, and she will be shocked and horrified. She'd probably blurt out, "How could you even ask such a thing? It isn't even natural!"

That's the key to understanding today's assault on children. It isn't natural - it is unnatural. It is beyond indecent or inhuman. It is alien. And that is what Moloch was like - like worshipping something from another world.

To get the attention of this alien spirit you vowed against your own humanity. You said to the waiting darkness: "I mean business, and I'll do the most horrible, unnatural, alien thing to prove my commitment." People didn't sacrifice their children out of ignorance. Actually, it was the opposite. They did it precisely because they knew it was unnatural and wrong.

The secret of satanic power was to direct you to go against nature -a reversal of all that God made alive and bright and human, all that was beautiful and good and normal. That was the heart of the destructive spirit of Moloch.

And so, likewise, the attack on children and childhood today is alien. And again, it is coming through people for whom money and information and power mean more than life. That is why Satanism, devil worship, and witchcraft are becoming a visible force in our world again today.

When Sin Abounds

You can see it in the news and media everywhere - Moloch rearing its ugly head again in our time. It is not true, of course, that every woman (or man) who chooses to abort a child, or that every adult who abuses one, is overtly seeking satanic power. But it is true that sin against these innocents are crimes against God.

Our families have become the victims of a spirit behind a culture that convinces civilized adults to sacrifice the lives of their children on the altars of convenience, luxury, and personal pleasure. Nature worship is back. Many of the same apparently intelligent people who fight for the lives of baby whales, seal pups, and fledgling bald eagles also demand the right to abort a human child. Who has blinded them to the shocking inconsistency in their thinking?

We are faced with a massive wave of both female and male prostitution - not unlike the temple prostitutes of the ancient deities we've named. And today whole industries take in billions of dollars on the systematic murder, torture, and perversion of our children. Now satanic and gothic metal music encourages kids to destroy the Church, "Worship The Beast," and glorify the devil - even to kill themselves or someone else. It has all come to a head with satanic practices for power even in junior high and high schools. And once again, like long, long ago, the ritual murder of babies, children, and teenagers.

What does all this say? Simply this: The ancient deities never died - they simply moved underground. And they have emerged again in our time.

Is it serious? Yes. The devil has no sense of humor. He hates God and he hates His creation. It is a real battle, and people really die in it. Is it new? Hardly. It has happened as we have seen in Biblical times. It happened briefly and less obviously in the 60s and 70s with Charles Manson, "Rosemary's Baby," with the Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil," and Arthur Brown's "God of Hellfire."

But every demonic outpouring was answered by an awesome wave of the Holy Spirit that resulted in hundreds of thousands of conversions and a fresh wave of life in the world. Then is this last onslaught significant? Yes, but in an unusual way.

What is this recent explosion of renewed occultic practice and all-out warfare on childhood? Nothing but a revelation of the true, ugly nature of the demonic world. As Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy." (Jn. 10:10) Satan's best work is done in secret (Jn. 3:19), but everything now has come into the light! What we are witnessing is deep darkness uncovered, the heart of hell revealed. And there is one important thing to understand about what we see.

Hell Is In Trouble

No one lays all their cards out on the table unless it is the end of the game. No country, no nation, no kingdom brings its ultimate weapons into service unless its back is against the wall. This frontal assault is not a sign of demonic power, but demonic desperation. It is not a sign of satanic strength, but growing weakness.

Hell is in trouble. It is bringing out all its last weapons because it knows something that many in the Church have not yet realized. The devil knows he only has a short time left. He's had to let the lid off his operation and it has happened in our time. The occult explosion and the war on children is a sign of the coming triumph of Christ.

"In the last days," God said, "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh." (Joel 2:28) We have seen the targeting of children and childhood. We have seen that the Dragon seeks to destroy the Child. But now we need to see our times through God's eyes. He is the Sovereign Lord; the "times are in His hands." (Ps. 31:15)

It is as if God looked down through history to the kind of world our time has become. He saw not only the destruction of children, but the rejection of the old, the war against women and the young, and the attack on the family. And He has not left us alone and desolate. "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him." (Is. 59:19 KJV)

"The promise is to you" says Scripture, "and to your children, and to all that are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:39) God's answer to a lost and broken generation is redemption - the renewal of love, purity, and trust in individuals - and a rebirth of the family where reborn parents and children begin to love each other. God's answer to the kingdom of darkness and hell is His revived Church, which always ushers in the Kingdom of God. He will bring about the restoration and redemption of the decayed and demonically-infested structures of our society - through His Church - by evangelism, spiritual warfare, and reformation.

There is a wind of supernatural change in the air, and in the darkness a great Light is dawning.

A Last Days Promise

It is as if God said of our time: "If no one will look after the children, then I will. I will be a Father to them and they will be My sons and My daughters." (See 2 Cor. 6:17-18) "If no one will care for those that cannot defend themselves, I will be for them a shield and a defense, the hope of the hopeless and a Father to the fatherless." (Ps. 33:18-20; 84:11; 68:5; 27:10) "In the last days I will pour out my Spirit of adoption on your sons and your daughters, the handmaids and the servants, your old men and your young men; and I will show the world what a real family looks like." (Rom. 8:15-16; Joel 2:28-29)

God has not lost hold of His poor world. Because of Jesus, one day it will be beautiful again - a world safe for children. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.... with righteousness shall He judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth....

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.... They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Is. 11:1-10)

Steps To Guard Your Child From Danger

These steps are general guidelines to teach your child carefulness in a Moloch society. Children from all kinds of back-grounds are being molested, kidnapped, raped, abused, and murdered. These rules may help save their lives.

Lead them to Christ early. Teach them what it means to love God and trust Him. The Holy Spirit is able to warn any believer with a clean conscience of the presence of evil. Scripture has much to say about discerning the intent and motives of others. Even children can often discern evil in a person when they are approached. "Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 18:10)
PRAY for your children daily. "The angel of the Lord encamps round about those that fear Him." (Ps. 34:7) As we have often stressed here, much of the war on childhood is genuinely demonic in origin. Some tragedies may even be prevented by earnest, specific prayer where Christian parents can hold their children before God for His protection and guardianship.
Be OBSERVANT. Teach them to note suspicious, unusual, or strange behavior in others. Bill Gothard advocates the teaching of character-quality-discernment based on topics from the book of Proverbs. Tell them how lost people look, think, speak, and behave. Here, the normalcy of a genuinely loving family will be a standard from which they can evaluate any deviations.

San Francisco Detective Dick Vance gives some basic rules for parents to teach their kids to help guard against sexual abuse or kidnap:

Rule 1: "Get permission from mommy and daddy whenever any grown-up wants to take your picture - even if it's fun-loving Uncle Bob."

Rule 2: "When any adult wants you to keep a secret from your mommy or daddy be sure to tell us about it."

Rule 3: "Never go along with any adult to help them find a lost dog or cat."

Rule 4: "Never go near a car with someone in it even if the person in the car asks for directions." Teach them never to accept gifts, candy, toys, money, or rides from strangers. They should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a stranger will NEVER be sent to pick them up from school, a store, or a movie. They should be told that if someone calls them from a car they should never get close enough to be snatched or pulled into the car.

Ruler 5: "Whenever an adult gives you something, be sure to tell mom and dad about it."

Rule 6: "Never enter someone's home without our permission."

Rule 7: "Never go with a man who shows you a badge and tells you he is a policeman unless he is wearing a uniform and is driving a marked police car." (A particularly cruel trap that molesters lay is to tell children there is an emergency such as mommy was rushed to a hospital and the child must go there immediately, the Arizona Republic reports.)

Resolve to NEVER hitchhike; a firm, unbreakable rule with NO exceptions.
Tape money into a shoe for an emergency phone call. Teach children to memorize their name, home address, and phone number, and how to use a dial and push-button phone.
Teach them not to boast about money, and that personal belongings are never worth risking physical harm. Small treasures are precious to young children. One of the best tactics a child can learn to escape an attack is yelling loudly to attract attention. But fighting back, running, or talking their way out of difficult situations are also useful tactics.
A child can be taught to cry out to the Lord in life-threatening situations. There have been instances where this has actually resulted in the offender stopping or fleeing. Although God has not promised that Christians will be immune to harm or danger, when that threat is demonic in origin, "the name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." (Prov. 18:10)