By Elias Ayala (MDiv & M.A.T.)
Christian apologetics is the defense of the faith. While it is often associated popularly with defending the faith against atheists and other skeptics, it also involves interaction with false religious systems. This can include Mormonism, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others. However, in this article I want to focus on the topic of Wicca. Wicca is a religious belief system centered upon gods, goddesses, and the worship of nature. It is very much an earth-based religion and its proponents engage in the attempt to manipulate nature to gain power, prestige or whatever the particular Wiccan desires. Wiccans also follow an elaborate calendar system and participate in multiple festivals related to their particular beliefs and practices. Wicca also adheres to the existence of a supreme divine power known as the “One” or the “All”. Wicca is pantheistic in its worldview outlook and as such teaches that there is divinity within all living things.
Contrary to popular opinion, Wiccans are not equivalent to Satanists. In fact, Wiccans deny outright the existence of the Devil as conceived of in the Bible. However, they do acknowledge the existence of gods and goddesses which were themselves birthed so to speak from the supreme divine power of the “One” or “All”. Wiccans are also relativists in their outlook and acknowledge that there are multiple paths to truths about God. However, we need to be careful not to equivocate with regards to the term God. The Wiccan idea of the divine is nothing like the Christian conception. With regards to morals, Wiccans are relativists in this regard as well and believe that there does not exist absolute morals, or objective morality as it is also called. On the Wiccan perspective there is also the belief in reincarnation. Our present lives were preceded by past lives and will be followed by future lives until the spirit reaches a point where it can merge with the male and female balance, creator/creatrix entity (God & Goddess).
Wicca is connected to occultic practices and is therefore condemned in scripture as being an abominable practice. It is inappropriate and sinful for Christians to engage in any such practices related to and connected with witchcraft and the like. While on the worldview level, Wicca is without any objective foundation and has within it serious internal problems, its practice is widespread and influential, and as such requires a Christian response. With this in mind however, we need to always remember that ultimately we “do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). We are not warring against the person persay, but we are engaging with people who are influenced by the powers of darkness. Because this is the nature of the apologetic situation, intellectual arguments are not the end-all be-all. The apologist must be prayed up, filled with the Holy Spirit and armed with a thorough knowledge of the Word of God, and in the same way we pray that God opens the hearts and minds of all that we engage with, we do the same with the Wiccan. They too are made in the image of God.
Nevertheless, how are we to approach the Wiccan apologetically? We can approach them in a similar fashion that we would approach anyone else within an apologetic context: Ask questions! Asking questions is a simple technique that both helps you gather basic information as well as provide an opportunity for you to identify any weaknesses in the person’s position. For instance, on a Wiccan perspective which is at its base, pantheistic and ultimately impersonal, how does the Wiccan know that the gods and goddesses actually exist? If there is no revelation from a personal All-Knowing God, how can someone trust that they are interpreting the world in the proper way? If the Wiccan acknowledges the existence of the supernatural, how do they know that they are not being deceived by malevolent spirits? It is not as though the Wiccan has scripture like the Christian does that comes from the mouth of an All-Knowing, Absolute and Personal God who reveals. The Wiccan has no foundations for knowing the truth of what they are believing and practicing.
If the Wiccan turns around and asks the Christian: Well, how do you know your bible is true? We can respond: The same way that you know your mother’s middle name. How would someone know their mother’s middle name? Well, their mother would have to reveal it to them. It is a similar case with the Christian: We know the Bible is true because a Personal God has revealed it. The Wiccan worldview cannot even in principle have this since on pantheism, the “All” or “One” is impersonal and hence incapable of anything remotely similar to Christianity which is a religion based on the fact that a Personal God has revealed himself both in the Old and New Testament, and has confirmed his Word by raising Jesus from the dead. Contrasting Wicca with Christianity is a great way to transition into the gospel message.
