Blood In Salem
In the last essay we met William Morse who found a hog in his hall. That night was the start of horrors. His friends urged him to write down what he and his family were experiencing. And this he did. On the morning of December 8, while Morse’s wife was making the bed, five huge stones and bricks were thrown with great force against the house. Suddenly, the bedstead she was working on lifted off the floor. Part of the bed was thrown out of the window, then a brick and a piece of board were thrown in the window.
At another time, they were ready to eat dinner. The food was on the table, when a chair levitated and crashed down, knocking most of their food to the floor. At yet another meal, they had just started eating when ash from the fireplace was thrown onto their food. Then it went into their eyes and onto their heads in such an amount that they ran to the bedroom to hide. But there was no escape. Morse had left one of his shoes down below. It appeared in the bedroom filled with ash and hot coals and was thrown at them. Huddling in bed with their small grandson between them, a three pound stone was thrown onto the man’s stomach. When he shoved it onto the floor, it rose and was thrown on him again.
Over the weeks, the physical attacks on Morse, his wife and grandson grew even more violent. One night they were assaulted in bed with a sharp knitting needle. Morse was stabbed on his thigh and face until he was bloody. The attacks on the little boy were vicious. At one point, he was stabbed with needles and thrown from a chair almost into the fire. For him the manifestations grew worse and worse until he was having shrieking seizures. Predictably, Morse’s wife was accused of witchcraft, which she strongly denied. The attacks continued for several months until a strange sailor came to the house. He took the boy to his rooms for a day and the attacks stopped. What he did to the child is not recorded.
This is only one of many signed eye-witness accounts of supernatural assaults against both individuals and groups of the Puritan community. It would be easy to view these as primitive fantasies. But what have been called poltergeist attacks have terrified people for centuries. A modern explanation is that they are caused by young people and children who are filled with psychological angst. Supposedly, this creates psychokinetic energy which makes things crash in the house. How this could work, no one knows.
Here is an important question that points to a pattern. Why are children often victimized by evil, paranormal attacks? We will see this again when we talk about so-called Alien Abduction. Why are children so often the targets? Because Satan has a particular hatred for them. Listen to Jesus’ words in Luke 18:15-17: “And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them. But Jesus called for them, saying, ‘Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.’” Matthew 18:2-6 says this: “Jesus called a little child to him, and put the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And anyone who welcomes a little child on my behalf is welcoming me. But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
The strategy of Satan is clear. Destroy a person during their childhood in every way possible, from physical and mental abuse and the broken marriages of parents, to supernatural attacks, and the Powers of Darkness will own them forever. In this way, evil is passed down for generations.
The modern delusion is that no real supernatural phenomena were happening among the Puritans of New England. But to discount the eye-witness reports is both arrogant and naive. Was actual witchcraft going on? Personal admissions state that there was. Did the people who practiced witchcraft have what they considered supernatural experiences? Once again according to personal testimony, they did. Did they try to use the occult to damage others? I’m certain many of them made the attempt. But was all of that the cause of the vicious supernatural attacks that swept through the Puritan community?
Witchcraft was not the cause of that evil.
It was a result of the evil delusion that controlled Puritan minds. Due to that delusion, people were murdered who should not have died, whether they practiced witchcraft or not. It was not the place of Christians to commit such horror. They had no New Testament biblical right to do so, but that did not stop them.
Making it even worse was a strange hypocrisy. The people who were murdered for witchcraft were mostly poor and powerless. Witchcraft is defined as the exercise or invocation of supernatural powers to control people or events, typically involving sorcery or magic. But, shockingly, while their persecution was going on, there were leaders in the Puritan community who were practicing a form of occultism themselves that they called Christian Alchemy. This included John Winthrop, Jr, son of the Massachusetts governor who himself became the governor of Connecticut.
The practice of ceremonial magic and alchemy was considered perfectly acceptable for sophisticated, Christian gentlemen. Winthrop’s stated purpose in his experiments was both scientific and spiritual. He was a follower of British occultist, Dr. John Dee who spent a great deal of time in divination as well as many scientific pursuits.
Alchemy was not just an early form of chemistry. It was the search for the so-called philosopher’s stone. Why? Because it was believed that it could turn base metals into gold. So one motivation was greed. But there was much more. The stone was also metaphorical and spiritual. Deeply rooted within alchemy was the goal of the spiritual transformation and empowerment of the alchemist. The search for the philosopher’s stone was also the search for an elixir that would confer immortality. But for a true Christian, spiritual transformation and immortality cannot be found through alchemical ceremonies. It is based on the work of Jesus Christ in your life as you absolutely surrender to Him and are filled with His Spirit. So-called Christian alchemy was just another form of syncretism, the joining of two irreconcilable philosophies.
John Winthrop, Jr. was also interested in Rosicrucianism. That is the occult philosophy that venerates the rose and the cross as symbols of Christ’s Resurrection and redemption through which adepts, performing mysterious ceremonies, receive supernatural powers. More occult syncretism. The Puritans, who were so concerned about witchcraft, were happy to overlook the occultism of their powerful leaders because they claimed it was Christian. Also because there were economic benefits from the scientific discoveries that were made. Once more, the end justified the means.
Little wonder that things did not go well for the Puritans in the decades preceding the Salem Witch Trials. Their ministers and government magistrates worked so closely there was little difference between church and state. Together, they searched out, then tried and convicted people accused of witchcraft. But why this passion?
From 1675 – 1678, the Puritans fought a war with native tribes that was so devastating it has gone down in history as the bloodiest war of the colonial period. It is called King Philip’s War. In a little over a year, 12 towns were destroyed and many more were seriously damaged by native warriors. In the Puritan community one tenth of all the men available for military service were killed. They won that war, but the cost was horrible on both sides. The Puritans grew to hate the native people with a terrible virulence and wreaked vengeance on them. Entire tribes were destroyed or left landless. Hundreds were executed and enslaved. When your Christian community is based on a delusion, how do you explain such horror? In your delusion, you dig your grave even deeper.
Puritan thinking went like this. God has established us in this land. He gave it to us. We are His chosen Kingdom on earth, the New Jerusalem. That’s where the name Salem comes from. Shalom, peace. If we have experienced horrific war and loss, it isn’t because we have disobeyed Jesus and our entire view of a Christian’s purpose in the world has been corrupted. It isn’t because our greed for free land has provoked native tribes to hate us and take us to war. It isn’t because we choose scapegoats among the poor and weak. It isn’t because some of our leaders are practicing occultists. It’s because Satan has infiltrated our holy community and weakened us. His hidden servants are wreaking havoc. We must find and destroy them before we can experience God’s blessing again. And so began the search for scapegoats that led to the horror of the trials and all that has followed since.
The truth is that not long after Winthrop had first established the colony, his entire plan started going south. People came to live among them who didn’t obey their rules or agree with their theology. Such people were ostracized without hope or forgiveness. Here is a deadly pattern that springs straight from the disobedience of Christian syncretism with governmental power. Why did the Puritans commit all of their evil acts? Because they wanted to protect themselves from evil. What happens when you do evil to save yourself from evil? More and more evil overwhelms you. What the Puritans did to stop Satanic attacks brought more Satanic attacks upon them. And many of those attacks were supernatural.
Almost from the very start of the Puritan colony in Massachusetts, fear took absolute control. Fear of witches, fear of heretics, fear of native tribes. When people who claim to be Christians live in disobedience, fear will be the result. First John 4:18 says this: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” So, if perfect love casts out fear, should we not say that the opposite is also true? Perfect fear casts out love. And fear goes hand-in-hand with hate. Welcome to 21st century American Christianity.
Caught in the trap of their delusions, many Puritans had supernatural experiences that exponentially increased their fear. How do you choke a family with terror? Attack their children. Cotton Mather, the sadly infamous Puritan pastor, who was in so many ways a good man, wrote a long report of what he termed cases of witchcraft and possession.
One involved the pious family of a man named John Goodwin, who was a stone mason. He and his wife had six children. Four of them came under supernatural attack. It fell on them one or two at a time. I’m going to quote directly from Mather’s report: “Within a few weeks they were all four tortured everywhere in a manner so very grievous that it would have broken a heart of stone to see their agonies. Skillful physicians were consulted for their help and particularly our worthy friend, Dr. Thomas Oakes, who found himself so affronted by the distempers of the children that he concluded nothing but an hellish witchcraft could be the origin of these maladies.”
What was observed? While separated, having no contact with each other, the children were tormented by the same tortures in the same parts of their bodies at the same moments. These included agonizing pains and sprains on their necks, hands and backs. Sometimes they were rendered deaf, mute and blind and often all at once. Their tongues would be sucked down their throats, choking them. At other times they would be pulled out far down their chins. Their mouths were jerked open so wide that their jaws were dislocated. Then they would snap back together with terrible force. The same thing would happen to their shoulder blades, elbows and wrists.
I quote Mather again. “At times they would lie in a benumbed condition and be drawn together as those that are tied neck and heels. Presently they would be drawn backward to such a degree that it was feared the very skin of their bellies would have cracked. They would make the most piteous outcries that they were being cut with knives and struck with blows that they could not bear. Their necks would be broken so that their neck bone would seem dissolved to those who felt it. And yet on a sudden it would become so stiff that there was no stirring of their heads. Then their heads would be twisted almost around. And if at any time, main force obstructed a dangerous motion they would roar exceedingly.”
Does that sound like scenes from the film The Exorcist? This went on for weeks. The family requested a day of prayer at their house. Five ministers came to their home along with some devout people. This resulted in one of the children being delivered, but not the others. Did these pastors view this as a spiritual war which called for more prayer and fasting to see total deliverance? That’s what Jesus had warned was sometimes needed. When His disciples couldn’t cast out an evil spirit He told them in Mark 9:29. “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” Clearly, the Puritan pastors didn’t think this applied to their situation. Instead, they looked for someone to blame.
Their blame targeted a poor Irish, Roman Catholic woman, a neighbor of the family. She was dragged before the magistrates. The Puritans hated Irish Roman Catholics. The woman was heavily questioned under duress and her home was searched. Items were found that proved to them that she was a witch. And she admitted to occult practices. Was her admission true? We don’t know. But the very process, both in the home of the children and then going to the courts, showed a horrifying lack of Biblical understanding in men who were supposed to be Bible scholars. It showed their lack of love for anyone who did not agree with their beliefs, including a poor Irish Roman Catholic woman, who may have been a witch, but still was a woman whom Jesus Christ loved.
Listen to the pattern. When the spiritual authority of any Christian church is lost through conscious ignorance and disobedience to Scripture, into that vacuum Satan enters disguising himself as an angel of light and truth. No matter how spiritual and holy a church or individual leader may appear, no matter how much worldly success a church or leader may display, that church or leader is an evil, sucking chest wound in the Body of Christ. Isaiah 5:20-21 says this: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.…”
Here is a heartbreaking principle that is true for individuals, churches and nations: When the spiritual foundation of life is a delusion, increasingly wrong decisions will be made and justified based on that lie. Over time, and often it is a long time, these choices will increase in their destructive selfishness. But this will not be understood, because those making the choices will have blinded themselves to what they are doing and why. Evil delusions always feed self-pity, pride and fear.
At a certain point, Satan and his Powers of Darkness, who have planted and nurtured that delusion, sweep in for the kill. How does this happen? Almost imperceptibly, an evil line is crossed bringing ultimate consequences. At that point, the only hope, both individually and collectively, is radical repentance. Which means turning away, not only from making destructive choices, but also rejecting the delusion from which they have sprung. Tragically, that kind of repentance almost never happens. Pride and fear have been in control for so long, that people are blinded to their evil and what they must do to remove it. So down they go into a burning vortex.
In the aftermath, some people awaken from their delusion and there is great sorrow. That sorrow came upon the Puritans of New England, but it was too late. The murders had already been committed. We’ll examine all of that in Part Three.
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