Sid: Now my understanding of scripture is, the closer we get the return of the Messiah, and if you haven’t looked up lately we are getting close. The closer we get to the return of the Messiah the more false Messiahs, false religions, false cults and if there’s any expert around on this subject I have him on the phone right now. His name is Bob Larson; you’re probably familiar with him through his television show or his books. I’m speaking to him at his office in Phoenix his International Headquarters is in Denver, Colorado. Bob from the time that you started investigating false religions and cults and New Age groups, you say there’s been literally an explosion of the numbers explain.
Bob: Well, I’ve been looking at this phenomenon for 30 years. When I started investigating it even 20 – 25 years ago there were a few hundred groups to which people could turn for alternative religion explanations, but the smorgasbord of spirituality is exponentially increased over the last couple of decades and in the last decade. So that there are 1000’s upon 1000’s of variance of belief out there. The point that I try to make Sid is that today everybody wants to be spiritual; nobody wants to be a nothing. They all want to believe in something but they want to make it up on their own; they want a little bit of this a little bit of that and that’s what is so dangerous about the religious marketplace today.
Sid: You know I had a phone call, this was actually a number of years ago, and a friend of mine that I lead to the Lord and I have to tell you that most of the time when I lead someone to the Lord I don’t have an experience. I had an experience when I lead him to the Lord and was almost like God was so pleased there was such a high call of God on his life. And then I get a phone call from him and he said “Sid I’ve got the answer and because you helped me I’m going to help you. I have just got involved in the course on miracles and it’s so wonderful.”
Bob: (Laughing)
Sid: Well, I knew enough to know that it was a New Age ugly dark course no matter what they say.
Bob: Oh yes.
Sid: But I didn’t know the details. So I am so grateful that you came out with your book of “World Religions” a book of spirituality all the facts about 100’s of cults. I’m looking through the index of your book right now and I see a course on miracles. Now I have other books I must say that do what you did however none of the books are as thorough as yours and none of the books are as simple as yours. Did you do that on purpose making it so simple so that anyone could understand it?
Bob: Well, I really appreciate your kind comments; when we approach this said we wanted a USA Today style and grammatical form of communication. And the USA Today, which is the nation’s most popular and best read newspaper, aims at a certain reading level and it aims at a certain style that allows you to quickly digest it. So that’s what we try to do with this book so that anybody at any time could pick it up and in a few minutes have a fast answer to be able to respond to friends and love ones who get messed up in this stuff.
Sid: Well, let me ask you a question if I had had your book which I did not and my friend called and I could have grabbed your book off the shelf while I was talking to him and looked up course on miracles what would I have known about that just off the top of your head.
Bob: Well the first thing you would have known about it is that this book was given by demonic inspiration through spirit medium ship and automatic handwriting. So you would have known that there was a demonic source through this it’s not just somebody idea of religion that they wanted to invent. The second thing you would have known is that it’s very subtle in that it encompasses a lot of Christian belief’s practices, doctrines and ideas, but it twists them so it’s very deceptive it seems extremely warm and fuzzy but underneath it it’s deadly.
Sid: Let me ask you something even more important because if we don’t understand this will miss a lot of what the devil is up to. There is a catch phrase that you can’t turn on TV without seeing this catch phrase or seeing something illustrating it. It’s called “The New Age Movement.” Now many years ago over 30 years ago when I was Jewish and unsaved I was involved in what was called the occult, what is the difference, if there is, between the occult and the New Age Movement?
Bob: Nothing really except that the New Age Movement is sort of a public relations arm of the occult and it’s much more eclectic approach to it. It borrows from a lot of different traditions particularly eastern and mystical traditions. It is the same end result, it the same appeal to the ego for internal enlightenment and person spiritual development to find the god inside of all of us; but it’s much more deceptive. It’s not just out there it comes at you in the guise of religions development and the betterment of your spirituality and that’s what’s dangerous.
Sid: Well you know in Christian circles I have a great number of Christian friends that are involved in, people they call it Therapeutic Touch, what is that exactly?
Bob: Therapeutic Touch is a form of spiritual healing and massage therapy and there are variations.
Sid: But people get massages and say “Oh that person must be praying for me” but they’re not it’s not the same as a Christian prayer.
Bob: Oh no not at all and of course some of the most dangerous forms such as Reiki are outright demonic and they involve the calling upon the infusion of and the distribution of energy. This energy is not defined but it supernatural and they claim all sorts of emotional and physical healings as a result of it. In fact you can’t get a nursing degree in America most institutions today unless you practice Therapeutic Touch. Now what people need to know is that Therapeutic Touch they don’t actually touch the body, and so some of the more advanced forms of massage therapy they’ll touch you some but the real energy work as they call it it’s not touching the body it’s moving the hands over the body to redistribute the energy and bring spiritual balance.
Sid: What about my friends that say “I don’t do the occult areas of yoga I just do it for the exercise and it’s been proven it’s good exercise;” what would you say to them?
Bob: It’s hard to give a short answer in that but let me point out a couple of things. With yoga specifically you’re dealing with a millennial old religious tradition that is steeped in the belief of spiritual enlightenment. It’s interesting just this morning I took my bicycle in for repair and I’m standing there waiting for him to put a new inner tube in my bike and here’s a shelf with all the biking trips you can make in this area. And right in the middle of this is this yoga brochure. So I picked it up, and now this is typical, the first several stages that they invite you to participate in are essentially physical in nature but right at the end they talk about spiritual development, enlightenment, and get in touch with your inner self. If a person just innocently walking in a bike shop doesn’t expect to get a message from the devil about spiritual enlightenment that we know opens people up to demonic forces.
Sid: And that’s basically my question “What if someone’s intent is honorable and they get involved in yoga because they want the exercise and they actually feel better with the way they breath and the way they bend their body excreta what is the consequence?
Bob: The devil does not care why you do what you do and your intent is absolutely irrelevant to the spiritual legal right that Satan is looking to claim over your life. So when you align yourself with a religious tradition and a system that is…
Sid: But the person will say “I have nothing to do with the religious tradition.”
Bob: Ah, but you do have something to do with it. Implied consent is enough for the devil to begin to attack and harass your life spiritually. And you give implied consent by affiliating with this system even though that’s not your intent it’s part of the system and you can’t make it extent from the system you can’t divorce it from the system. You want to divorce it from the system but it can’t be divorced from the system.
Sid: Let me ask you from a another perspective it is know, because a great deal of your ministry is setting captives free, or the deliverance ministry; have you ever prayed for people that have picked up demons from being involved in some of things we are talking about?
Bob: How many hours do you have Sid? (Laughing) I could tell all kinds of stories; let me tell you just a couple or maybe one now and maybe one another time. I was in a conference and I was talking about this very thing and a little lady at the back a sweet gal I think was about 20 -21 and she raised her hand… She said “Excuse me Mr. Larson” but she said “I’ve taken massage courses and they’ve had me do some of these things you don’t think the devils in me in anyway do you?” And I said “Well, let’s pray for you.” And so she came to the front and I said “Would you be willing to renounce all of this?” And she started to speak and her lips froze and it just petrified her and she said “I know I need to renounce this but the words will not come out of my mouth.” And the Lord spoke to me and said “Take a Bible and just put it on the back of her spine and touch of each of the seven chakras. Now the chakras are the psychic enlightenment and energy centers that you find in yoga and eastern religions. When I touch the back of her spine and I just began to move the Bible up the back of her spine she began to shake, she began to tremble, she began to cough, she began to have what we would call demonic manifestation; she began to choke. It really shook her because she realized that there was something deeper here. We prayed over her and as we did this she begin to realize what she’d gotten involved in and she got free from it through the renunciation of it. That’s just one story of many I could tell you.
Sid: Bob we’re out of time right now.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth