Sorcery Most Searched Bible Word

Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
Sorcery is one of the most searched Bible Words of 2021. But first a Covid Update and Christopher Luxon.
Monday 6th December 2021

Covid Update
Vaccinations: 88% of the total eligible population nationwide (aged 12 and over) now fully vaccinated, with 94% first dose. Māori first dose (84%); second dose (71%)
Active cases 7,442. Hospitalisations 77, ICU 7. Deaths 44
(Source: COVID-19: Data and statistics)

Christopher Luxon

Things got a bit messy for a few days in the Opposition benches last week but not unsurprisingly Christopher Luxon emerged as the new leader, Nicola Willis as Deputy Leader and Simon Bridges as Finance Spokesperson. For in depth interviews check out Stuff political Editor, Luke Malpass here and Jack Tame on Q and A here.

POV. For democracy to work well you must have a strong opposition. In my view we haven’t had one since Labour became the Government 4 years ago. Now things are looking so much better. The Opposition's main role is to question the government of the day and hold them accountable to the public. This also helps to fix the mistakes of the party that is in Government (Ruling Party). The Opposition is equally responsible in upholding the best interests of the people of the country. It is widely agreed that when the ruling party have such a majority as we have currently with Labour, the role of the Opposition is even more critical. I think it is very important that we pray for all those in positions of authority as 1 Timothy 2 asks us to do.

Sorcery
According to Bible Gateway there have been nearly 3 million searches per day for the word ‘sorcery’. That is more than 2,000 per minute around the clock—being generated by tens of millions of people in more than 200 countries and territories in the last 12 months. Hold it! I just said 3m A DAY! What is that about? The increase in sorceries is related to heightened interest in the Greek word pharmakeia which, according to the Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament means “employment of drugs for any purpose; sorcery, magic, enchantment” as used in Galatians 5:20 (Source: Bible Gateway)

POV. This may be one explanation why the Christian Community world-wide has it seems a higher than average group of anti-vaxxers. To suggest that the Covid-19 Vaccine is tantamount to ‘witchcraft, magic, the use of spells and potions of magic, often involving drugs’ is problematic on many fronts. Questions like, Is this the case for all medications? Are Christian scientists doing research on new medicines in the laboratories of the world involved in witchcraft? What about Christian doctors who prescribe vaccines? With about the 85% of us Christians who are fully vaccinated, have we all been duped (tricked, deceived), has a spell been cast over us so that we can no longer can see the truth? Sadly, there is no doubt that these ideas have been around a long time but the massive resurgence in interest in present times has to be a huge worry.