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Marine spirits?

Michie

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What does the Bible teach about different types of demons like Marine Spirits? In this video, Pastor Nelson answers the question: What are marine spirits? 3 minutes and 17 seconds.

I’ve heard of spirits over certain areas and cities before but marine spirits? It seems to be a big topic among African pastors.

Has anyone heard of this before? Seems a bit off to me. Like a mixture of cultural aspects mixed with Christian belief. I’m just curious.
 

AlexB23

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What does the Bible teach about different types of demons like Marine Spirits? In this video, Pastor Nelson answers the question: What are marine spirits? 3 minutes and 17 seconds.

I’ve heard of spirits over certain areas and cities before but marine spirits? It seems to be a big topic among African pastors.

Has anyone heard of this before? Seems a bit off to me. Like a mixture of cultural aspects mixed with Christian belief. I’m just curious.
This might go better in Controversial Theology forum. This Aquaman mermaid stuff seems a little off, and not biblical.

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Michie

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Thank you for asking to move it. :)
The reason I’m posting is I am noticing a trend in certain sectors of Christianity that seem to be interested in certain earth elements, and their supposed benefits. Same with the stars, etc. The marine spirit seems to tie in with that.

It reminds me of Mexican Catholics that incorporate St. Muerte into Catholicisms and Haitians that incorporate voodoo into Catholicism. I know converts in India tend to have a hard time letting go of certain Gods. It seems that we are not doing a good job in making clear that none of that is needed. Nor was it ever.

It seems African Protestantism is suffering the same problem. Some prayers sound like curses, etc.
 
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AlexB23

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The reason I’m posting is I am noticing a trend in certain sectors of Christianity that seem to be interested in certain earth elements, and their supposed benefits. Same with the stars, etc. The marine spirit seems to tie in with that.

It reminds me of Mexican Catholics that incorporate St. Muerte into Catholicisms and Haitians that incorporate voodoo into Catholicism. I know converts in India tend to have a hard time letting go of certain Gods. It seems that we are not doing a good job in making clear that none of that is needed anymore. Nor was it ever.

It seems African Protestantism is suffering the same problem.
Agreed. As a Christian, I do not incorporate any new age or worldly elements into my practice. Yes, this trend will sadly continue to grow, as the world becomes more misguided by societal influences.
 
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Michie

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Agreed. As a Christian, I do not incorporate any new age or worldly elements into my practice. Yes, this trend will sadly continue to grow, as the world becomes more misguided by societal influences.
It seems to be seeping into certain American Protestant Churches for sure.
 
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Michie

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It is seeping into all churches, though at different rates.
I think what really gets to me is the mindset, whether they realize it it not is like casting spells, curses. That is not of the Christian Spirit.
 
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AlexB23

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I think what really gets to me is the mindset, whether they realize it it not is like casting spells, curses. That is not of the Christian Spirit.
Agreed. Well, there is nothing we can do about this moral and theological decline, except avoid churches that include secular ideologies.
 
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Michie

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Agreed. Well, there is nothing we can do about this moral and theological decline, except avoid churches that include secular ideologies.
Or occultic, prosperity influences.
 
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RandyPNW

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What does the Bible teach about different types of demons like Marine Spirits? In this video, Pastor Nelson answers the question: What are marine spirits? 3 minutes and 17 seconds.

I’ve heard of spirits over certain areas and cities before but marine spirits? It seems to be a big topic among African pastors.

Has anyone heard of this before? Seems a bit off to me. Like a mixture of cultural aspects mixed with Christian belief. I’m just curious.
Well yes, more than 30 years ago it was sort of a fad in the Pentecostal Christian world to identify demons by name, discovering what areas they were over, and then claiming power over them--almost as if we were laying a strategy to defeat the Devil.

How vain!!! We are not supposed to be going looking for them. That's why they are mentioned sparingly in the Scriptures and why, in the Law, Israel was told to stay far, far away from occultism.

We have power over Satan, when we are walking in the will of God. The gifts we use are from the Lord, and do not reflect our supposed "superiority" over the angels. We just need to be about our Father's business. If demons get in the way, be open to hear the Lord tell you what to do. It may involve a command, a shout, or maybe a silent prayer. Just follow your conscience, and leave pride miles away from it. :)

Just my advice. Take care....
 
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Michie

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Yep, that as well. In other words, people are listening to everything but the Gospel sadly
Well they try to cherry pick and insert it into their desires. But who can blame them when there are those out there teaching these things.
 
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BobRyan

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"The Message" is not a Bible translation into English. It is a paraphrase. The idea behind it appears to be something like "Write something that could lead people to want to read an actual Bible translation at some point"
 
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JSRG

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What does the Bible teach about different types of demons like Marine Spirits? In this video, Pastor Nelson answers the question: What are marine spirits? 3 minutes and 17 seconds.

I’ve heard of spirits over certain areas and cities before but marine spirits? It seems to be a big topic among African pastors.

Has anyone heard of this before? Seems a bit off to me. Like a mixture of cultural aspects mixed with Christian belief. I’m just curious.
I've actually heard of this before. It's almost entirely limited to African Christianity, or at least I haven't heard it asserted by anyone who didn't live in Africa or grew up there. Obviously one can find beliefs in similar sorts of demonic activity in other circles, particularly the charismatic or prentecostal ones (pentecostalism and charismatic Christianity is very popular in Africa, incidentally), but specific belief in marine spirits seem to be exclusively African in origin.

It appears to me to be a sort of negative syncretism. Now, normally when we think of syncretism, we think of some kind of attempt to combine Christianity with traditional beliefs, like maybe some way to worship the Christian God while also following Vishnu. But negative syncretism, for lack of a better term, is when you assert the prior belief was true... but was demonic. Water spirits were a thing in various traditional African religions, so this basically asserts that they're actually real (thereby retaining the traditional belief), but they're demons. And so the marine spirits are out to possess people or do any other sorts of bad things. Particularly extreme versions even refer to them having an underwater kingdom in which they actually invent or even manufacture products designed to lead people into sin.
 
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