5/7/26

A couple weeks ago, I had a very interesting conversation with *Parker - a student at CSUF. If you haven't read it, feel free to read about our initial encounter here. Initially, he presented as a theistic satanist, as I can best collect, but over time it seems his position is ever changing. In our initial conversation, *Parker certainly described an abstract and fluid description of a higher power as he talked about the murder of innocent children being morally on the table and presented the icon of Baphomet which he wore largely on the back of his jacket. He spoke of strange things, such as not being able to see "the man behind me" as I was wearing sunglasses and he wasn't able to see my eyes. Along with other things in the conversation, it seemed quite evident that there was some sort of unclean spiritual involvement in *Parker and our conversation. He left the conversation acknowledging that I worship Jesus and then told me to look into "his guy", Baphomet - which he showed us on his jacket. Seems like a pretty clear statement about allegiance to occultic spirits and practices. However, our next conversation was very puzzling to me.

It had been a week or so since our first interaction, and I wasn't sure when I would next converse with *Parker as the semester was nearing its end. The team arrived on campus and began looking for a place to set up for our ministry that day. I had ordered a cup of coffee in the CSUF Library to further prepare this introvert for high levels of social interaction, so I headed to pick it up before rejoining with the team. I got my "super-manly Starbucks coffee"... and headed to join the team in the setup location they had chosen - taking a route I don't typically travel. As I made my way down the path, who did I find sitting alone on a bench but my friend from the previous week, *Parker. Taking the perfect opportunity given to me, I greeted him and began our second conversation.

"Hey, *Parker! What's up? I researched the image you asked me to look into in our last conversation and found some interesting things about it. I'd love to hear what the image means to you, as there seem to be a number of varying usages of it."

*Parker happily agreed to talk, and inquired about what I had read in my study of Baphomet. I told him of the debated origin, general occult usage, satanic temple usage, and edgy modern usage; but I asked him how he uses it - as he explicitly told me to look into the one that he serves, motioning to the image. At this point, it almost seemed like our previous conversation was foreign to *Parker as he almost described a completely different belief system. He told me that, growing up, he was raised to be afraid of the image of Baphomet and that it caused him fear for a number of years. In response to this, *Parker decided to wear the image as a sort of rebellion to the fear it held over him. This is in pretty explicit contradiction to what he had previously said, but the conversation continued even further.

As we interacted now, so distinctly different, I wondered if he was under some sort of spiritual force - either possession or other; so, I tried to provoke the potentially present unclean spirit by asserting the authority and lordship of Jesus in our conversation. A friend of ours, who actually happened to be on campus ministering with us that day, was saved out of the deep occult and had previously shared some of his experiences with spirits manifesting at the mention of Jesus' name. I had also heard this from a couple other people with ministry experience overseas, so I thought I'd try it out. I didn't notice any distinct changes at this, but I definitely was about to be surprised!

After *Parker had explicitly denied using Baphomet as a religious symbol (explicit contradiction with previous talk), I asked him what his religious beliefs were. Much to my surprise, he said, "Oh, yeah, I'm a Christian." Sure... That totally adds up... Now, certainly confused by *Parker, I asked him what it means to be a Christian according to him. As I look back, I don't recall any direct answer to this question ever being presented; however, *Parker began telling me that he's gone to religious services and youth groups with LDS people and said that they would exchange verses together. "Firstly," I told him, "I have some serious qualms with Mormonism, and it is not Christian, as much as they like to claim it, but I'm curious what you read with them?" He told me that they read the Bible, so I asked him if he reads the Bible often. He said that it's not regular, but that he always carries Bibles with him in his bag. At this point I'm so confused that this is the same Baphomet, baby-killing guy from before. Then, *Parker asked me if I wanted to exchange some verses with him right then. Surprised by his desire to do so, I happily accepted his invitation to "see how he reads the Bible."

He then did the old random page turn and point. "Super random" and almost always the middle! Because it was a NT, Psalms, and Proverbs pocket-Bible, that landed us in Acts 18. When he had initially said that we would share/exchange verses, I thought that this meant we would tell each other our favorite verses or something, but he wanted to read a whole section at random. So, we jumped into Acts 18 and started reading small sections at a time. After each reading, *Parker would look at me and ask questions about what we just read. His first question was, "Who is Paul?" "Great question!" I said, "Paul is an apostle of Jesus that was murdering Christians before being converted by a miraculous encounter with Jesus on his way to kill Christians." From here I told him an overview of Paul's life and missionary work, as the more we read, the more questions *Parker had about people, places, and events in the text. We went on reading and dialoguing through Acts 18 for a solid chunk of time before we had to diverge ways, but it ended with a happily received invitation to continue reading and discussing the Bible another time. We exchanged numbers and were on our ways! If God can redeem even my Starbucks purchase to use for His glory, then what can He not redeem?!

I left this conversation shocked and confused by the interaction as I couldn't tell where *Parker was at spiritually. One day he's making occultic associations, and the next he's claiming to have nothing with that and to be a Christian. Maybe we just got off on a significantly obscure wrong foot? I guess I will have a better idea once we talk some more? Or maybe not...

Maybe a week after the second interaction with *Parker, I saw him off studying by himself as we got settled in and set up. Once we got set up, I walked over to greet him and invite him to get some free coffee and donuts to eat while studying for finals, but he decided to just come over with me and talk instead of the donuts or coffee. Well, I'm not going to complain about that! Almost too easy!

He came over and, after setting his things down, began to talk with me. I can't remember precisely how our conversation started, but I certainly remember it being a trip! I'm not sure if it was mental fatigue from his studying or the residue marajania coming from his sweater, but the conversation following was out of this world.

You might be familiar with people who process the world more through emotions or reason, but *Parker's train of thought flowed on a different dimension's dime. He began asserting and assuming strange things that sounded like a cat ate a nice big relativistic breakfast, some New Age snacks, an eastern lunch, and then threw it up on my plate for dinner. Conversations like these are almost impossible to record and describe because they have literally nothing tying them to reality. There is no clear emotional or logical reasoning that beliefs are secured in. So, when he says that he "might run into himself from a past life as he goes about his day", he has absolutely nothing to answer when asked why he thinks that is true. It's an absolute swamp of splutter that I have no way of describing in justice.

We labored in conversation for what felt like a couple of hours, trying to get to the authority in his worldview. What is your method and authority when determining what is true and real? The hard part with the New Age mess is that they are a continually flowing river of relativity and they have no real source of truth or stability in anything they believe. Their source of truth is merely their own thoughts and feelings - not the most steadfast and trustworthy standard. So, any progress that I felt we made in our previous meeting was unfortunately cast aside at the devastatingly detached worldview *Parker presented. It also didn't help that, amidst the chaos of *Parker's own thoughts, other people ministering on campus decided to join the conversation on a whim. It's not that I don't want people to participate in conversations, but rather that, at times, it is very disruptive to have someone commandeer the train of thought so to speak when the captain is already driving off of the tracks.

After riding the bull of that conversation for quite some time, *Parker had to head out for a final and I got to try to make sense of what was said. I currently think the best explanation is at the feet of impure spiritual forces that he's likely made himself open to through various means.

Please pray for *Parker as I seek to continue engaging with him to read the Bible and try to get to the bottom of his current worldview. Pray against whatever spiritual forces are at work, and pray that I have the Spirit-given insight into how I should engage him and whatever impure thing he might be serving.