A controversial pastor from Nashville, Tennessee is reportedly fighting demonic influences brought by occult resources such as "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" through a "burning service" on Wednesday.
Church Leaders reported that Mount Juliet's Global Vision Bible Church Pastor Greg Locke has urged congregants to bring on Wednesday books and materials related to witchcraft so that these could be burned. This is in line with the series of sermons Locke has been giving on deliverance.
Locke was in constant limelight during the height of the pandemic last year due to his outspoken opposition to COVID-19 mandates. This brought him to be suspended in Twitter that led to a lawsuit that he claimed is the platform's way of "silencing our voices," especially that of Christians.
Locke's sermon on deliverance is said to be similarly controversial since he compared autism with demonic possession. His January 30 sermon, on the other hand, asked congregants to "stop allowing demonic influences into your home." The "burning service" is said to be one way of doing this.
"As I mentioned during my Sunday sermon, we will be having a massive BURNING at the end of our Wednesday night message this week. We will be in our continued series on DELIVERANCE FROM DEMONS. We have stuff coming in from all over that we will be burning. We are not playing games, " Locke announced in Facebook on Tuesday.
"We're not playing games. Witchcraft and accursed things must go. If you think we're crazy, then scroll on. We're exposing the Kingdom of Darkness for what it is. It's time for people to be delivered," he added citing the Bible's Acts 19.
Locke identified healing crystals, Ouija boards, spell books, tarot cards, "anything tied to the Masonic Lodge," and books and movies such as "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" to accursed things. The practice of burning witchcraft items may have dated to the 17th century tradition where women identified as witches were burnt at the stake as capital punishment. This was first practiced in Babylonia and later adopted in North America, Britannica said.
Locke revealed that he is expecting a group of protesters to attend Wednesday's service to "break out their witchcraft and open their Ouija boards while we celebrate." As such, he intends to "pray over them."
A day after explaining the scheduled event on Wednesday, Locke disclosed in Facebook that his post was deleted by the platform due to a complaint made by a certain "Dreamstime LLC." Locke called out the censorship as "crazy" and "nonsense," citing that people are being "rattled" by what he intends to do.
"This is Global Vision and we don't do things like the church down the road or the one you grew up in. We can't unsee the miracles that are happening around us. It's time to break covenant with the Devil and grow in the Lord."
Locke then posted the "Demonic Showdown" in a series of livestreams in Facebook on Wednesday that was met by opposition, having a total of 29,000 comments and more than 7,000 shares as of writing. One netizen, Pamela Harmon Haney, called out Locke for presenting Masons as evil people.
"My Daddy, my husband, my father in law were Masons! You have NO idea the GREAT things they do in the name of our Holy Spirit!" Haney said.
The "burning service" on Wednesday was not the first time Locke did so especially in line with torching books. He previously burned the book, "The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American," of atheist lawyer Andrew Seidel who sent Locke a copy. Locke found it "ridiculous" since Seidel claimed the United States was not built by the Founders as a Christian country.
