Doorways of Fantasy and Games
"Casting down imaginations... and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." — 2 Corinthians 10:5
Why Games Are Different
Occultic role-playing fantasy games are not merely entertainment with objectionable themes. They are a training mechanism, and the mechanism is the one identified in the lesson on visualization.
Here is how they work.
A game leader plans the overall outline. The game is an adventure in which many battles are fought against various beings, each with defined abilities and characteristics, documented in thick manuals with pictures and detail.
The players are supposed to visualize the action of the game in their minds.
And here is the crucial part: the better they become at "seeing" the action — and therefore at anticipating the moves of the beings and the other players — the more advanced they become in the game.
The game rewards, systematically, the very skill that opens the door.
What Players Do Not Know at First
What people do not realize is that the beings are real, and the deities they serve are real.
What they believe they are visualizing in their minds, they are in fact beginning to see in the spirit world. The better they get at seeing the game, the more in tune they are with the spirit world. Imagination is the stepping stone.
All who play feel the strange fascination and power of these games. Few realize what a trap they are.
How many young people who were once active and enthusiastic believers have lost all interest in the Lord as a result?
The more advanced manuals detail spells, incantations, and ritual writing that is genuinely used in occult practice.
Diagnostic Questions
If you are trying to help someone involved, these questions establish where they actually are.
"Can you see the game?" If they are skilled at seeing it, contact with the spirit world has been established.
"Have you ever called on your deity for help in the game?" If they have, they have called upon a demonic entity for help.
"What is your relationship with your deity?" The degree of their obedience to it reveals the degree of bondage.
Consider a sixteen-year-old, newly a Christian, who admitted to a high rank in such a game but denied all knowledge of demons. Asked why he did not simply leave his group and lead his own, he answered repeatedly: "Because I'm not qualified." Pressed — this is a free country, nothing is stopping you — he could give no other answer.
Eventually he admitted he would anger his deity and lose power. And that a friend who had disobeyed the rules had died by suicide within a month.
He was obeying something he feared. When it was named plainly — your powers come from demon spirits, and your deity is a demon that rules every part of your life, not just the game — he broke, and admitted he wanted to be free but did not know how.
Look at the Life, Not the Game
Here is the key for anyone counseling someone in this: the more they are in contact and in bondage, the more their life outside the game is governed by the rules of the game.
Most players do not know anything about demons. They know only the power of the entities within the game — and they quickly discover those powers are effective outside it too. They often refer to the spirit world as the third or fourth dimension.
You will need to explain to them what Scripture says about those dimensions and the powers in them.
Point to Ponder
The game systematically rewards the exact skill that opens the door. That is not an accident of design.
Verse to Remember
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God." — 2 Corinthians 10:5
Question to Consider
Is there someone in my household whose life outside a game is governed by the rules of the game?
Today's Practice
If you have been involved: confess it and close the doorway. Renounce every deity you called upon by name, and every power you sought or received. Then destroy the materials — manuals, dice, figures, notes, characters.
"Father, I confess my involvement in ______ and my calling upon ______ for help. I renounce that entity and every power I received. Forgive me, cleanse me, and close that doorway forever with the blood of Jesus Christ. In His name I command everything that gained access through it to leave me now and never return."
If someone in your household is involved, do not simply confiscate. That approach fails and produces lasting resentment.
Instead, follow the counsel given for exactly this situation: bind what is binding them, then sit down and talk. Look at the manuals with them. Study the game enough to understand it, so you can show them from Scripture why it is wrong. Ask the diagnostic questions above and listen to the answers.
Then, having done all that, destroy the materials — together where possible.
Prayer
Father, I have watched young people I love lose all interest in You and I could not explain why.
Show me what is in my house. Give me the discernment to see it and the patience not to snatch at it.
Where I have been involved myself, I confess it. I renounce every entity I called upon and every power I sought. Close that doorway forever with the blood of Your Son.
And for those still inside it — bind what binds them. Free their minds so they can hear. Give me the words, the patience to sit and learn about something I find distasteful, and the wisdom to show them the truth rather than merely forbid them.
Cast down every imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
"Because I'm not qualified." He was obeying something he feared, and he could not say why.