The Spook Show

The highlight of this Sunday was this special performance at Suntec City convention halls 601 – 603. It was a magic show titled ‘The Spook Show’, performed by Senior Pastor Lawrence Kong & his daughter Priscilla from Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC).

What’s unique about this magic show is that is performed by a church pastor! Some spectators would have wondered - Why in the world would a church pastor want to perform a magic show? Do Christians believe in magic?

Well, Pastor Lawrence’s intention is simple. He wanted to use his 25 years of experience in performing magic tricks, to prove to the audience that magic is not magic at all, even among the spirit mediums, chanters, witches, wizards & all. Of course, the spiritual realm is real. Yet not everyone who claims to tell the future or speak about some mystery should be trusted. In fact, they should not.

In short, not everything is as seemed. Pastor Lawrence shared that there was this man who did many years of study in the US & found that 90% of the occult practices are deceptions! As many as 20 million of such mediums attempt to con people into giving money, so as to communicate with the dead or seek what to do in his / her life. Even wishing wells are a source of deception to those who choose to believe in the futility of such superstition.

Pastor Lawrence shared that Satan attacks our physical body, our soul & our spirit. In each of these 3 aspects, with the help of his daughter, he demonstrated some of these ‘magic’; for example (i) spirit doctors - mediums who attempt to perform surgery on patients with their bare hands, drawing blood from the affected areas, (ii) levitation – ability to lift up the physical body of another human being & move it around, (iii) psychic power – ability to move, bend or change the shape of a solid object e.g. industrial spoon. It was truly amazing!

At the last part of the performance, Pastor Lawrence even acted out a scene where he summoned an arch-demon from hell & to make it reappear in a glass chamber. Of course, this was also acted by another member of the church. This arch-demon became unstoppable, until all this had to be stopped by calling upon the name of Jesus! I remember this scene because Pastor Lawrence later shared that he got the church to pray very strongly against these real demonic forces, even though he was just acting this out, to pose an illustration to the thousands of spectators. Thank God, there were no spiritual complications that resulted.

At the end of all these ‘magic’ acts, Pastor Lawrence concluded with a sermon to explain the importance of walking in the light as Christians & not to dabble with the spiritual unknowns. There could be consequences, as a result of such folly.

Before the show ended, Pastor Lawrence invited everyone to bow our heads & close our eyes, even if it is just a sign of respect to others who choose to respond after hearing God’s word. And this is the part that I like best – he asked every Christian to repeat the words of the sinner’s prayer out loud, so that the new-believers who decided to commit their life to Jesus would feel more comfortable & belonged in the family of believers! I found that a very good act of easing the discomfort & warm welcoming gesture to those new believers!

When he eventually asked all the new believers to come forward to be prayed for by the church, it brought a smile to my face to see groups of people going forward. At first I was hesitant, wondering if some of these people are the friends of those who just became a Christian. Then I realized – even if there was just ONE person who choose to come to Jesus, the angels in heaven will rejoice & we should too! It takes an act of faith, as well as courage for new believer to come forward & indeed, they need all the claps of encouraged from the rest of us.

All in all, it was a very good performance, with the right intention to convincing people not to believe in superstitions & witchcraft; but to come to Jesus!

I’m thankfully to God who allowed Rebecca’s colleague Yonglin to invite us for this evangelistic performance that is held yearly by FCBC. As Yonglin mentioned, it is true & good that Christians would also move into the media arena to take back what Satan has been trying so hard to corrupt, influence & deceive! I believe God is at work & will do a mighty work in bringing even more people back to Him! To God be the glory!