One of the latest sensations to hit the Internet is called the "Charlie Charlie Challenge," where participants set up two pencils to take the shape of a cross and a piece of paper, then invoke the Mexican demon known as Charlie.
People would ask questions such as, "Charlie, are you here?" or "Can we play?" And if the apparatus mysteriously moves, then the challenge worked. But Dallas megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress called the game "detestable," and cannot stress enough that Christians should not be taking part in it.
He told the Christian Post, "The Bible is clear that Christians should run — not walk — away from any attempt to contact or harness demonic powers through games like Charlie, Charlie."
Jeffress cited the Bible verse Deuterenomy 18:10, which says "whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord."
"Any parent who takes the Word of God seriously will do whatever is necessary to keep his or her child away from games like these, which God has strictly forbidden," he added.
According to Jeffress, parents who see their children taking an interest in supernatural beings should choose to encourage their children to connect with Jesus instead, rather than demons.
"If a child shows an interest in games like this, parents — instead of panicking — should use this natural interest in the spiritual world to calmly share what God has said about the reality of the spirit world and how to make contact with God rather than Satan and his demons," he said.
Another pastor, Carl Gallups also told WPTF news radio that a lot of people are actually being fooled by the game since it is so easy to blow the two pencils on top of one another and make it move. People automatically assume that spirits are communicating with them when in fact the movement was just caused by air.
"I held my phone up to pretend like I was filming it and just started breathing a little heavy, but it's indiscernible to anybody around, and the pencil just moves so easily," he said.
