Pokemon

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Dec 16, 2012
1,483
114
63
#1
Ok so Pokémon Go has exploded. It's all over the news, facebook, YouTube... everywhere. 15% of all android users in the usa had it downloaded on launch day. People seem to love Pokémon as kids and adults, playing it on GameBoy, collected the trading cards, downloading the Pokémon Go app and have playing it to lvl 6 over the last few days. I just read this article and it's eye opening to put it mildly. I'll leave it to you to read below. It's a testimony and some spiritual information for better informed and prayerful decision making.



Article:
----- -----
As a missionary working with the Yanomamö, I am constantly reminded that when it comes to spiritual matters, I am not the expert.
Bautista was an ex-witchdoctor. He accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ many years ago when my parents first started working with his tribe back in the early 1950s. Although still a young man when they arrived to his village, he was a witchdoctor of considerable fame.

He had already attained to the highest level known as “ijiluwalewä, or “child-eater,”because he could attack other villages in the spirit world stealing the souls of a child there, causing the child to die. These souls were given to the many cannibal spirits who were his accomplices in this “murder.”

The soul would then be eaten by these demon cannibal spirits. Although having attained the highest he could go, by his own admission, he was being overwhelmed by the bondage he was under even before he heard about the saving power of the gospel, so once he clearly understood that Christ was the only way to be freed from this bondage, he accepted Christ’s claim on his life and his life has never been the same.

One of the times I was reminded of his expertise in spiritual matters was a couple of years ago. We had been in the jungle many long weeks with no mail from home when the plane landed bringing us a package. I was excited as I took it home. “Look Hon, a package from the one of our churches!”

I gave her the package and she opened it up; she, as excited as I was. Enclosed was a book.

Now that in itself was a big enough disappointment because I wanted some “real mail” but when I saw the cover, I was even more disappointed, it was a book on the pokeman cartoon characters. I am old school on cartoons (Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and their friends) and really don’t get into any of the new ones, especially ones that look as ugly as these did. Then we noticed there was also a letter enclosed with the book and we read it together.

“Dear Mike,” it said, and went on to tell how the church was having a discussion about pokemon, with the church divided about this “toy.” So they were sending this book of all the pokeman characters to me asking me to have Bautista look at it and see what he thought about the characters.
Well, that was more interesting than just having a book of ugly cartoons for the boys, but to be honest, this was pretty low priority for me. We are extremely busy in the jungle and I did not see any sense in this book. But one day while I was talking with Bautista, Keila remembered the book and ran upstairs to get it. She handed the book to me.

Opening the book at random, showing him a picture I asked. “What do you think of this?” He looked at it, and said, “Oh, I know this one.” He suddenly had my attention!

He went on, “Oh, this is a nasty little demon. It is always underfoot, bites, scratches, screeches and what not.” I looked at the page, and on the list of attributes, the book said, “bites, scratches, screeches, claws…” and I forget what else, but it was as if Bautista was reading the page, and he does not read or speak one word of English. He made a believer out of me.

I figured that the first one could have been just a lucky guess, so I flipped the page to another picture and asked him about that one. Again, he told me exactly what it’s attributes were. He did that over and over.

There were some he did not recognize, and he said. “There are so many demons, it is impossible for any one person to know them all.”
This was huge! I ran upstairs and got our youngest son, who did happen to like the pokeman cartoons (his aunt sent him VHS tapes of them). When he got downstairs, I had Bautista flip through the book again, explaining to my son what he knew about these ugly little pictures.

Well, he made a believer out of Stephen! He went back upstairs and came back down with his prized tape and while we watched, destroyed it. Bautista looked on with curiosity, not really understanding what Stephen had just done. I quickly brought him up to speed and thanked him for helping to open our eyes.

Bautista added, “Tell the people from your churches, that if there are things that make them feel uncomfortable, it is probably not good. God’s Spirit will speak to them about what is right and wrong.”

----- -----
http://erikadawson.com/is-pokemon-safe-children-christian-perspective/
 
U

Ugly

Guest
#2
Yeah, we've already had at least one 'pokemon is demonic, here's the proof' thread.
 
W

wwjd_kilden

Guest
#3
What about teletubbies? I think they are far scarier.
 

azlightsout

Senior Member
Apr 20, 2016
2,151
57
48
#4
Pokemon was never my thing - im not even sure what the craze is all about
 
Dec 16, 2012
1,483
114
63
#5
Pokemon was never my thing - im not even sure what the craze is all about
May the post and corresponding article educate and inspire all who come to read and understand it from start to finish, may it make a change in their heart and conduct in line with the will of Jesus.
 

Joidevivre

Senior Member
Jul 15, 2014
3,838
271
83
#6
I see it as one more distraction the enemy puts in our hands to take us away from meditation on scriptures and praying/listening to God. Yet to Christians, this game would not nearly be as interesting or exciting as spending time finding new revelations in His word. If they would do it.
 

azlightsout

Senior Member
Apr 20, 2016
2,151
57
48
#7
I see it as one more distraction the enemy puts in our hands to take us away from meditation on scriptures and praying/listening to God. Yet to Christians, this game would not nearly be as interesting or exciting as spending time finding new revelations in His word. If they would do it.
Pretty much - walking around like a zombie with a phone in your hand tring to find ghosts ? at least that's my assumption ?
 
Dec 16, 2012
1,483
114
63
#8
Pretty much - walking around like a zombie with a phone in your hand tring to find ghosts ? at least that's my assumption ?
I want to swap those things with bibles. Way more beneficial for themselves, society and the world at large, from now, to eternity.
 
Apr 9, 2014
39
1
6
#10
It is just a game :/ and they are not "demons" they are monsters, just like "Monsters inc" or those cute critters and horses Disney shows. When I was little, my mom got her hands on everything I loved and just tossed it away claiming it was "demonic" and bad. MY comic books were all thrown away as well as my Harry Potter books. Heck, even my Disney princesses toys were thrown out.

Now let me tell ya. Did that even achieve anything? Far from helping me grow to be a woman that doesnt commit any sins, it only made me so angry at my mom that we fight a lot. It didnt change me in a positive way but it made me regret and feel that ive missed so much in life.

I don`t get it why religious people have to demonize everything. Ive even seen some Hello Kitty and Spongebob material being demonized too...

People, they are toys. Please stop trying to find the evil in everything and start enjoying life a little bit.

Sorry if this was harsh, I just kinda had enough. Its my very own personal opinion sorry if it bothered anyone.
 
T

Tintin

Guest
#11
Ok so Pokémon Go has exploded. It's all over the news, facebook, YouTube... everywhere. 15% of all android users in the usa had it downloaded on launch day. People seem to love Pokémon as kids and adults, playing it on GameBoy, collected the trading cards, downloading the Pokémon Go app and have playing it to lvl 6 over the last few days. I just read this article and it's eye opening to put it mildly. I'll leave it to you to read below. It's a testimony and some spiritual information for better informed and prayerful decision making.



Article:
----- -----
As a missionary working with the Yanomamö, I am constantly reminded that when it comes to spiritual matters, I am not the expert.
Bautista was an ex-witchdoctor. He accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ many years ago when my parents first started working with his tribe back in the early 1950s. Although still a young man when they arrived to his village, he was a witchdoctor of considerable fame.

He had already attained to the highest level known as “ijiluwalewä, or “child-eater,”because he could attack other villages in the spirit world stealing the souls of a child there, causing the child to die. These souls were given to the many cannibal spirits who were his accomplices in this “murder.”

The soul would then be eaten by these demon cannibal spirits. Although having attained the highest he could go, by his own admission, he was being overwhelmed by the bondage he was under even before he heard about the saving power of the gospel, so once he clearly understood that Christ was the only way to be freed from this bondage, he accepted Christ’s claim on his life and his life has never been the same.

One of the times I was reminded of his expertise in spiritual matters was a couple of years ago. We had been in the jungle many long weeks with no mail from home when the plane landed bringing us a package. I was excited as I took it home. “Look Hon, a package from the one of our churches!”

I gave her the package and she opened it up; she, as excited as I was. Enclosed was a book.

Now that in itself was a big enough disappointment because I wanted some “real mail” but when I saw the cover, I was even more disappointed, it was a book on the pokeman cartoon characters. I am old school on cartoons (Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and their friends) and really don’t get into any of the new ones, especially ones that look as ugly as these did. Then we noticed there was also a letter enclosed with the book and we read it together.

“Dear Mike,” it said, and went on to tell how the church was having a discussion about pokemon, with the church divided about this “toy.” So they were sending this book of all the pokeman characters to me asking me to have Bautista look at it and see what he thought about the characters.
Well, that was more interesting than just having a book of ugly cartoons for the boys, but to be honest, this was pretty low priority for me. We are extremely busy in the jungle and I did not see any sense in this book. But one day while I was talking with Bautista, Keila remembered the book and ran upstairs to get it. She handed the book to me.

Opening the book at random, showing him a picture I asked. “What do you think of this?” He looked at it, and said, “Oh, I know this one.” He suddenly had my attention!

He went on, “Oh, this is a nasty little demon. It is always underfoot, bites, scratches, screeches and what not.” I looked at the page, and on the list of attributes, the book said, “bites, scratches, screeches, claws…” and I forget what else, but it was as if Bautista was reading the page, and he does not read or speak one word of English. He made a believer out of me.

I figured that the first one could have been just a lucky guess, so I flipped the page to another picture and asked him about that one. Again, he told me exactly what it’s attributes were. He did that over and over.

There were some he did not recognize, and he said. “There are so many demons, it is impossible for any one person to know them all.”
This was huge! I ran upstairs and got our youngest son, who did happen to like the pokeman cartoons (his aunt sent him VHS tapes of them). When he got downstairs, I had Bautista flip through the book again, explaining to my son what he knew about these ugly little pictures.

Well, he made a believer out of Stephen! He went back upstairs and came back down with his prized tape and while we watched, destroyed it. Bautista looked on with curiosity, not really understanding what Stephen had just done. I quickly brought him up to speed and thanked him for helping to open our eyes.

Bautista added, “Tell the people from your churches, that if there are things that make them feel uncomfortable, it is probably not good. God’s Spirit will speak to them about what is right and wrong.”

----- -----
http://erikadawson.com/is-pokemon-safe-children-christian-perspective/
I've read this tosh and others like it. It's complete nonsense. Worse, it's Christians lying to 'protect' people. So they're using white magic to combat something that's not even occult.
 

Dude653

Senior Member
Mar 19, 2011
12,312
1,039
113
#12
I can hit six Pokestops within a two-block radius. Since riding a bicycle works for hatching Pokemon Eggs, I just make the loop repeatedly until my pack gets full. It's great for exercise. Since we have multiple parkestops around the courthouse and post office, On Any Given evening you can go up there and see people out Pokemon hunting. It creates social interaction which is a good thing
 
T

Tintin

Guest
#13
Here's an actual interview with the creator of Pokemon. You know, from TIME magazine.

An excerpt:

TIME: You liked bugs?

Tajiri: They fascinated me. For one thing, they kind of moved funny. They were odd. Every time I found a new insect, it was mysterious to me. And the more I searched for insects, the more I found. If I put my hand in the river, I would get a crayfish. If there was a stick over a hole, it would create an air bubble and I'd find insects there. I usually took them home. As I gathered more and more, I'd learn about them, like how some would feed on one another. So I stopped bringing them home. But I liked coming up with new ideas. Like how to catch beetles...

TIME: So you were collecting Pokemon a long time ago! Did you make the insects fight against each other?

Tajiri: No, but sometimes they would eat each other.

TIME: Did you get the idea for Pokemon from these insects?

Tajiri: Yes. Places to catch insects are rare because of urbanization. Kids play inside their homes now, and a lot had forgotten about catching insects. So had I. When I was making games, something clicked and I decided to make a game with that concept. Everything I did as a kid is kind of rolled into one--that's what Pokemon is. Playing video games, watching TV, Ultraman with his capsule monsters--they all became ingredients for the game.


The Ultimate Game Freak - TIME
 
Dec 16, 2012
1,483
114
63
#14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW-l-CPC6QY&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=BRMinistries


Another inspirational story I’d encourage all to watch. May you all be inspired.


The bible isn't silent when it comes to Psychics. Hypnosis, Dream Eater, Telekenesis, Cosmic Power. Is it right to even pretend to summon these and utilise these powers?

Every Christian should have a conscience about this. No condemnation intended here, only information for each person prayerfully make their own decisions. Be led by the Spirit, if your conscience is clean, then don't be condemned. To me this article sits true.

The other aspects that don't sit well with my conscience is the Pychic Pokémon. Psychic, Telekenesis, Hypnosis - in real life are things that are no better than bringing up the dead. We have to bail on anything that teaches bad things. So its not just Pokémon, its all kinds of games.

Bill Schnoeblen, a former Freemason, Mormon, and Occult practitioner says;

"Like many video games, Pokémon is riddled with occult concepts. Concepts like "magical stones," teleportation, ghosts, all-seeing eye, psychic power and using spirits to achieve results in the real world are all givens in this game realm. All of this is contrary to scripture. The Pokémon games and comics, etc., teach what I have called a magic worldview that is completely opposed to the Bible.

The Magic Worldview is the idea, common to all occult belief systems, that there is not really any sovereign Deity over creation. Instead, creation is ruled by a series of occult laws. In a sense, the universe is like a cosmic vending machine. As long as you put in the right coin (ritual or spell) you automatically achieve the desired result."
 
Dec 16, 2012
1,483
114
63
#16
I see it as one more distraction the enemy puts in our hands to take us away from meditation on scriptures and praying/listening to God. Yet to Christians, this game would not nearly be as interesting or exciting as spending time finding new revelations in His word. If they would do it.
Absolutely. The contradictory comments to this in the thread are just deflection, excuses. A poor sense of existence when, if you call yourself a christian, what you describe is what we should all be investing our time into instead.
 

Pemican

Senior Member
Sep 27, 2014
954
234
43
#17
I have to say that I have always been disturbed by some of the stuff that comes out of Japan and the East. They have produced a lot of animated films that feature various spirits that control and influence the characters lives. Japan's population is only about 2% Christian, which means the rest are under some form of deception. When the truth is rejected, the void in the soul fills up with lies (doctrines of demons).
 

RickyZ

Senior Member
Sep 20, 2012
9,635
787
113
#18
I want to swap those things with bibles. Way more beneficial for themselves, society and the world at large, from now, to eternity.
Bible Go - you search for random Bible verses instead of Pokemons
 
W

wwjd_kilden

Guest
#19
Bible Go - you search for random Bible verses instead of Pokemons
Hey. That actually sounds cool. Maybe you should make (or talk someone into making) an app ?
 
W

wwjd_kilden

Guest
#20
Absolutely. The contradictory comments to this in the thread are just deflection, excuses. A poor sense of existence when, if you call yourself a christian, what you describe is what we should all be investing our time into instead.
It's a far cry from "People spend way too much time on Pokemon" (Which is probably true for many)
to "pokemons are demons that will possess video tapes" (Which sounds more like a well known horror movie)