The women’s restroom inside the Barnes & Noble at 66^th and Columbus is stationed near the back of the children’s books section, and when I came out of it during a recent visit, I encountered four to six 9-11 year olds sprawled out on the floor, engrossed in books about wizardry and magic. It turned out the whole aisle they were in was devoted to such Harry Potter-like fare.

Obviously children are very aware of the demonic activity that is all about us in the spirit world (existing beyond the four dimensions we live in).

Satan’s called the “god of this world” by the Bible because his main spirit influence over people is religion. He’s called the “prince of this world” for his influence in the political realms.

Our culture is headed for full-blown paganism and all pagan religions involve the worship of demons, or the disembodied spirits of fallen angels aligned with Satan.

Author Gail Riplinger, in her 1993 book, “New Age Bible Versions,” summarizes, “As part of his identity crisis Satan has historically hidden behind the name and identity facades of the heathen pantheon. Among the list of thousands of names he has used are the Hindu Kali and Shiva, as well as the Greek Hermes and Roman Hermas, Heosphorus, Phosphorus and Pan. The Apostle Paul peeks behind this pagan parade observing, ‘That which is offered in sacrifice to idols. . . they sacrifice to devils.” (I Cor. 10:19-20)

Hermes, for one, the son of Zeus and the goddess Maia, who was daughter of Atlas, was literally “the conductor of souls” who led spirits to the Underworld after death.

According to the 1997 book, “Titans and Olympians: Greek and Roman Myth,” Hermes’ role was to “act as messenger of the gods, helping to put their plans into action,” and literary references suggest he was originally a “Master of Animals, with dominion over wild beasts.”

Hermes, who replaced the god Hades in some myths, is portrayed as “highly sexed,” and it was through his mating with Aphrodite that they produced son Hermaphroditus. Pan, who was half-man, half-goat, is said by some myths to be another one of Hermes’ sons.

“Hermes’ opportunism combined with his reputation for cunning to earn him a reputation as a divine trickster,” informs the “Titans and Olympians” book. “He was credited with the invention of dice, and gamblers invoked his name when betting. He was also the patron of thieves. An unexpected piece of good luck was referred to as ‘a gift from Hermes’, just as a sudden silence would be explained with the remark that ‘Hermes must have entered the room.’

“Perhaps because ‘herms’ were often set up in the market-places, Hermes became a god of trade, and the Romans identified him with their deity of commerce, Mercury. For luck, merchants would sprinkle water from a spring sacred to him on their wares.”

Notice the superstition, which is the basic element running all through pagan religion.

“Many people are superstitious because all unsaved people are in touch with the spirit world connected with these demonic activities,” says my pastor, Richard Jordan (Shorewood Bible Church, Rolling Meadows, Ill.), in a study I have on tape.

Here in New York City, there are now all kinds of Americans following the ancient Oriental practice of feng shui for its promise of warding off evil spirits in high-rise buildings, restaurants, homes, office cubicles, backyard patios, on and on. It’s nothing but pure superstition.

“The wind chime hung outside the front door is believed to attract Chi but the Chinese also believe that the sound will frighten away any evil spirits to keep them from entering,” reads a promotional article on feng shui from a website by Interior Design Directory. “The same is true for being careful to always replace burned out light bulbs outside the front door. Again, it’s said that evil spirits are attracted to the dark. Bed placement is considered inauspicious if the foot is directly opposite the door because the Chinese carry the dead out feet first.

“Mirrors, as discussed in previous articles, are said to deflect evil and attract money. Superstition or not, feng shui minded residents avoid purchasing houses with master bedrooms that have adjoining bathrooms because it’s believed residents will suffer digestive problems.”

More and more people are also buying into the Buddhist/Hindu concept of karma in order to keep out of harm’s way and bring on good fortune.

There was a story I saved from 2004 in the New York Times about people who keep “worm bins” in their cramped city apartments as indoor composting piles. They provide for the lives of one to two thousand worms or more to help eat their garbage.

One woman, public relations executive who kept her worm bin on the terrace of her West Village condo, reasoned, “I had such guilt from using disposable diapers. I thought this would even out my karma with the landfills.”

Another newspaper article I saved in my files reveals the superstitious mindset of Sen. John Kerry during the last presidential election.

“He carries a charm given him by an indigenous Navajo leader during a visit to New Mexico; as well as a chestnut from a buckeye, state tree of Ohio, a key swing state,” reports the Associated Press in this 2004 story. “When a Native American chieftain hands me something and says if you carry this you're gonna be elected . . . Man, I carry that. I'm not taking any chances,’ Kerry told Knight Ridder newspapers. Of the prized chestnut, Kerry said: ‘It will be with me right on the Oval desk. It'll sit there, a little glass cover on it, to preserve it -- for good luck for the country.’ "

Interestingly enough, Kerry was raised Catholic and in the Catholic faith you’ll find all kinds of superstition brought on by the religion’s focus on rites and ceremonies, as well as the praying to and worshipping of dead saints, in order to obtain God’s attention and favor.

As my pastor points out, anybody who tells you that from some physical act you can get in touch with God, they're telling you God is physical and that just isn’t the case.

“The physical world is the creation and God, if He's the Creator, couldn't be a part of—He couldn't have made Himself,” explains Jordan. “He had to make something that's outside of Himself. So just logic tells you that God is outside of His creation, and yet when people tell you that with a physical rite or ceremony you can get in touch with God, and get into Christ and all, that's only superstition.”

When God wants to communicate with a person, He does it through His Words in His Book, not through physical phenomena.

“When you trust Christ, your heart believes—you have that inner man transaction—and that spiritual activity on the part of Believers is counterfeited by the Adversary in his counterfeit program to try to make a religious system out of it so people focus on the physical, because if you focus on the physical, you obscure the reality of the spiritual,” says Jordan.

In I Tim. 4:1, Paul warns, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”

He’s saying there are doctrines promoting the Lie Program of Satan just as there are doctrines promoting the truth of God's Word, and both these things work on a spiritual level.

“That's why the issue is your inner man and your heart's attitude, the thinking in your soul inside of you and the outward stuff coming as a response to what's inside of you,” says Jordan. “Jesus said, ‘Out of the heart are the issues of life.’
”If truth sets you free, error's going to bind you, make a slave out of you and put you in darkness. Just as the entrance of the Word gives light, the entrance of the Lie would give darkness.

“It's really as objective and real as that. It's not superstition; it's not hocus-pocus. It's not me going into the corner somewhere, asking God, 'Oh, God, go do something for me to prove you love me.'

“He already proved He loves us. Paul says in Romans 5:8, ‘God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ ”