Dr. Robert Sumner passed away in December 2016. The Biblical Evangelist newspaper is no longer being published and the ministry of Biblical Evangelism has ceased operation.

The remaining inventory of his books and gospel tracts was transferred to The Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles and may be ordered here.

Harry Potter And The Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick
Richard Abanes

Since the Harry Potter books (4 have been published; 3 more are in the hopper), written by J[oanne] K[athleen] Rowling, a British divorcee, are so popular with children and have set all kinds of publication records (due, in part, to the pre-publication hype of its publisher), the question asked on this book’s cover is most pertinent: “Harmless Fantasy or Dangerous Fascination?” The discerning reader will not proceed in this volume very far before he has come to an overwhelming conclusion that Harry is anything but a harmless fantasy and that these are books no Christian parent (or any other kind, for that matter) should permit his or her child to read.

Yet one cannot help but marvel in amazement at those in the evangelical camp who have been bragging on them (Screwtape would be dancing with glee, if he were other than a figment of Lewis’ imagination). By way of example, Alan Jacobs, a Wheaton College professor; Chuck Colson, the Prison Fellowship founder and a gentleman usually on top of social issues; Christianity Today, the magazine Billy Graham helped found to offset the liberalism of the Christian Century, will do for starters. One religious leader (we are tempted to say “idiot,” but that wouldn’t be nice), Don Compier of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (Episcopalian), bragging on Harry, had the audacity (make that blasphemy) to say the fictional powers Harry displays are analogous to the “divine gift bestowed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.” May God have mercy on those promoting these soul-damaging books.

Who is Harry Potter? He is a fictional orphan whose parents were murdered by “the most powerful of all dark sorcerers,” Voldemort. His mother Lily was a witch, his father James a wizard, and Harry was born a witch with magical powers. The evil Voldemort tried to murder the lad when he disposed of the parents, but Harry survived with nothing but a scar on his forehead – part of his fame as being the only one known to have survived an attack by this powerful wicked being. The Potter book series is built around young Harry’s “wizard in training” at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Abanes has done his homework. Every statement – I’m tempted to say every thought – is carefully documented (endnotes, not footnotes, but in this kind of book it doesn’t matter). He has divided his material into two main divisions. Part One is “The World of Harry Potter” and here the author carefully examines the four books that have been released to date, giving two chapters each to each book. The first chapter in each is a brief summary of that book and the second is what he calls “a closer look.” Part Two, dealing more with Satan and the occult, is titled “Out of the Darkness.” There are two chapters each in this section under the themes: “the enduring battle,” “beyond fantasy,” and “lessons learned.” Here, among other things, the author answers the feeble arguments used by some Christians in defense of the Potter phenomenon and also, in what must be considered a very valuable and important chapter, contrasts the Potter books with other popular fantasy volumes like The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The major difference is that the Lewis and Tolkien works are clearly mythopoetic while the Rowling works are presented as part of our real world.

The Satanism in the Potter books – and all other areas of witchcraft becoming so popular today – is basically hedonism, as Abanes points out. Those worshiping Satan are actually worshiping an image of their own self. You might say that Harry Potter is the ultimate in self-esteem for kids. They do what they want, they get what they want, and there is no one to stop them.

To sum up the Potter books, we quote from an associate professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary, Dr. Douglas Groothuis, who says in this book’s Foreword: “…the Potter series is steeped in a thinly disguised occultism; it favors morally flawed, egocentric characters who lie with impunity, practice occultic techniques, use profanity and refuse to repent; and it frequently depicts gratuitous violence.” And these books are recommended for children “6 years and up!” The whole series is probably in your public library in the “kiddies” section. Worse yet, they may be a part of your child’s public school’s required reading. You had better check on it.

The sad thing about it all is that the Potter books are only the tip of an iceberg of books coming off the presses by the millions today that are featuring – and glorying – in the occult and Satanism. Many of them are directly aimed at the youth of America and the world. And, we ruefully add, not only in literature but in movies and television. Just by way of example, have you heard about the popular television programs, “Sabrina: The Teenage Witch,” and “Buffy: The Vampire Slayer”? Abanes tells us that in addition to these programs watched avidly by our youth, usually in prime time, Buffy has 71,000 websites devoted to her on the Internet and Sabrina another 15,000. Is anyone alarmed at what is taking place or any longer in doubt about what causes tragedies such as Columbine?

Horizon Books

Camp Hill, PA

14 Chapters

275 Pages

$11.99, Paper