Why Teens Are Turning to Witchcraft Instead of Christ – Highlight Episode 376

Gen Z is increasingly exploring paganism, astrology, and spiritual experimentation as they search for meaning, identity, and purpose. Ray, E.Z., Mark, and Oscar discuss how these practices reflect a God-given hunger for transcendence, but only Christ offers lasting transformation, true healing, and real community. The guys emphasize that the church must respond with discernment, grounded in Scripture, and faithful discipleship to guide young people away from counterfeits and toward the hope, truth, and life found solely in Jesus. They warn that secular influences, social media, and popular culture often amplify curiosity in the supernatural while promoting shallow or false conversions, leaving many spiritually rudderless. The guys highlight the danger of allowing counterfeit spirituality and emotionalism to define worship, noting that practices centered on self rather than God can mislead believers. Ultimately, they remind listeners that Jesus is not one of many spiritual options but the singular way to life, and that true repentance and transformation come only from turning fully to Him.

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Learn more about the hosts of this podcast.
Ray Comfort
Emeal (“E.Z.”) Zwayne
Mark Spence
Oscar Navarro

Transcript

A Rudderless Generation

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I would say that we have a rudderless rudderless generation. And a rudderless generation can be blown about by every wind of doctrine. And we see the wind of doctrine mentioned in First Timothy 4, 1 to 2. Spirits of expressly in the latter days, some shall depart from the faith and begin listening to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, as the wizard would say. That's one of the signs of the end of the age that some shall depart from the faith. And that's why it's so uh tr tragic that uh the modern gospel produces so many who depart from the faith. They put their hand on the plough and they go back. They're Lot's wife, who look back. And the Bible says the latter end becomes worse than the first. The pig goes back to wallowing in the mire. And we know why a pig wallows in the mire. It's not because it's unclean, it's to cool its flesh. And when you have a false conversion, your sinful nature is not crucified with Christ. You still live after the flesh, and you have to go back to the world to cool your flesh. And scripture says that you'll be seduced into doctrines of devils or demons, which is what we see with this generation. A rudderless generation have no uh no rudder to direct them into the right path by the voice of the church.

Romans 1 And Thanklessness

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Yeah. Mark, do you see a Romans 1 dynamic at play in this? The suppressing of truth and unrighteousness.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, and you notice it it also says there in Romans 1 that they are a thankless people. And that's really what we have today. We we have a generation of people that are thankless. They don't know who to thank. And they've suppressed who they are to thank, and they end up thanking themselves for what they are able to create. Obviously, the more you um resist the truth, you harden your heart, you become stiff-necked, you quench the spirit, you push them into a corner, and you are seduced by the same voices that whispered through idols or whispering through horoscopes, uh, astrology, and tarot cards.

Pagan Trends And Spiritual Longing

SPEAKER_02 1:59

And I think what's happening with this new culture of an interest in these pagan rituals like ancestral worship and crystals and astrology is that something inside of them is telling them that materialism is not all there is, that there is something behind the physical, that there is something transcendent out there, and they're trying to grasp onto that. And so, in other words, I think this young generation has a longing for agency in a spiritual world, and they're just turning to the wrong mechanism. Of course, there's a longing for identity and belonging, like witchcraft, astrology, crystal shops. If you look deeply, they're offering community, they're offering a place to belong and to be known and to be named. But the gospel gives us the one who truly gives us identity and purpose. We can come to know the one whose name is written on our hearts. In other words, Gen Z wants to be a part of something bigger, and the gospel, through its promise of adoption, offers them not just affiliation, but but sonship, being a daughter of Christ. One more, the longing for healing from trauma and anxiety crystals, energy cleansing, manifestation journals. These are therapeutic tools for a generation with unprecedented anxiety. But the gospel tells us that the desire for healing is right. But healing is not found in managing spiritual energies. It's found in a savior who is entered into our suffering, who has suffered the worst of all, the wrath of God being poured out on him so that we would be forgiven and so that we could be promised healing from our wounds on the other side of eternity. Jesus doesn't offer you a technique, he offers you himself. So the point here is not just to laugh and mock at our pagan neighbors, but to look at their hearts to find the longing and to show them what they truly long for is what they were created for, and that is to worship a holy and great God.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

No, no, that's great. I like what you're saying, Oscar. Like we we do need to be careful in all these things. It's easy to just have a mocking spirit or attitude, but it's like, man, that's who we once were, maybe in another form, but we were once lost. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

There's a thirst, uh, I like the way you worded it. There, there's like a thirst for transcendence, right? There, there's a thirst for spirituality. And so there's a drifting, uh, uh, a gravitating, use that word, towards anything that's spiritual as long as it doesn't include repentance.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Yeah, good point.

Identity, Belonging, And Adoption

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Right? Um, one person worded like this: astrology gives meaning without surrender, terror gives guidance without holiness, and manifestation offers control without a king, right? But only Christ gives life, only Christ gives truth, only Christ gives meaning to these things that we are experiencing on the daily. We we hunger and thirst for a transcendent understanding to what is happening around us. And only the Christian can make sense to it because we seek after repentance, not just spirituality. We're spiritual beings. And as spiritual beings, we try to fill that hole of spirituality with something, and this is why the world is throwing, vomiting, everything up before you. And unfortunately, uh the young generation especially is willing to swallow that uh regurgitation of whatever it is if it's not dealing with God.

Healing, Suffering, And True Hope

SPEAKER_01 5:45

I I think the the reason that so many are flocking to the dark side is because the devil tempts us with that which our sinful nature desires. You look at the works of the flesh. Galatians 5. Now, the works of the flesh are evident: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, and then sorcery is in there. And um drunkenness, revelings, and such the like. The key is to understand that sorcery is among the works of the flesh. That's the that's the attraction. Now, I think there's one thing that God created that just blows me away that so illustrates the power of sin, and that's the Venus. No, the Venus flytrap. Thanks, Mark. No, Venus flytrap. I mean, just think about it. It's just it's just it looks like a bear trap, but it looks like a trap. But the fly goes in there, he he he's attracted by a seductive odor. And he's got 20 seconds after his body touches two little hairs, very sensitive hairs, he's got 20 seconds to make his mind up. Am I gonna stay here or get out of it? If he doesn't leave, real quick, that comes down, it comes down slowly and holds, and then it crushes. Oh, that's amazing. And then there is a lunch for the Venus flytrap. And that's what sinner's like. It's got an odor, it attracts us in adultery, fornication, learnedness, drunkenness, all those things appeal to the sinful flesh. There's an odor that attracts us, and if we stay, if we don't listen to the voice of our conscience when those hairs are triggered, uh, we're gonna be trapped to the by the devil, swallowed by death, and end up in hell. So witchcraft and all these things we're talking about offers a religion with no moral restraint, which is what you brought up. And that's why it's so attractive. And that's why so many people you say to them, Are you a spiritual person? They'll say, Yeah, I am a spiritual person. Spiritual is true. That's cool to say that. Yeah, it's got a lace that's very um, you know, trendy.

Meaning Without Surrender

Note: This timestamp is invalid and should be ignored

SPEAKER_03 7:40

So, yeah, and then look, the most important thing is what does scripture say, right? So Leviticus 19, 31, give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits, do not seek after them to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. I love the fact that he highlights defilement because there is a defilement of soul and spirit and and mind. And then and back in those days too, in a lot of those practices, it was body too. You had, you know, prost temple prostitutes, you had, you know, sexual uh elements that were intermingled with pagan pagan worship, you know. And you know, and then uh of course you've got uh you know Isaiah 8, 19 to 20, uh, where he says, he's not and when and when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God? I love that. Like, should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? And uh so you know, so many passages that that deal with this issue. Um, Isaac Jeremiah 10, 2, thus says the Lord, do not learn the ways of the Gentiles, do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. Like he's saying, basically, you're you're being you're being lured into allowing your lives to be affected and impacted by superstition. But that has a demonic element, but that's what a lot of it is. And and the hope that we have in the Lord, I love Psalm, oh I'm sorry, Acts 19, 18 and 20. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all, and they counted up the value of them, and it totaled 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. And I love that. I mean, that's what happened when the when the word was preached, when the gospel was given clearly. It led to not just transformation and conversion, but it led to visible repentance. Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast. Friends, we value your time. So we've created a bite-sized version of our podcast for listeners who want to get equipped without the jokes and fellowship. Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday where we dive deeper into the topic. Until then, you can watch the full podcast episode available now on livingwaters.tv.