A Witch's Conversion to Christianity

Tom Sanguinet, 34, "got into witchcraft by being born," he said. "My mother was a Wiccan. She was a practitioner of Wicca... My grandmother taught me most of what I knew... Then later on, a prearranged minister or priest came to me and tutored me in the priesthood." Sanguinet's mother was Celtic. The Celts came from northern Europe and are the people to whom the tradition of Wicca can be traced. "My great-grandfather on her side was from Scotland, and her mother was from Wales." Sanguinet's father was Roman Catholic, although Sanguinet never was formally raised in the church. Wicca had an appeal, Sanguinet said, although it took a while for it to really take hold of him.

"During the Vietnam era, I lost touch with just about everything except the Eastern traditions through the martial arts... I got to power seeking and through seeking power I got back into the spiritual side of 'the craft.'" Wicca was not forced on him, Sanguinet said. "'Here's an old way and here's an old way and this is what the ancients used to do'... that's the way it was presented."

After returning to the United States after a stint in the Navy, Sanguinet eventually teamed up with Gavin Frost, a leader in the Church of Wicca. He and Frost worked in a boatyard owned by the Wiccan church. Sanguinet was one of a new breed of Wiccans, who were going public with the Wiccan "gospel." "I was very active and very public. I recruited at colleges by going out and speaking on things like ESP, advanced classes on parapsychology and paranormal activities and metaphysics." He also stuffed library books on witchcraft and the occult with little tracts which included a post office box where people could write for information on witchcraft. Any method was fair, Sanguinet said. "Go out and promise them the world -- that's all you were giving them."

Sanguinet felt no guilt about any deceit he used. "I was of the attitude that people who were not in it (Wicca) were less developed and were younger spirits, even to the point that if they died and came back and they were so hung up on something that you couldn't get them out of it -- like praising the Lord --if they died, you could have a chance to start over with them. Witches don't feel like death or murder or any of that is any less than progression." As evidenced by that quote, Sanguinet thought little of Christians. "My opinion was, 'put them to the sword, burn a church a day.'"

However, he eventually found himself in direct contact with this "lower form of spiritual life." Sanguinet was visiting the family of his girlfriend in July 1981. His girlfriend had five brothers and four sisters, all of whom were Christians. One of her brothers "sat down and talked to me for hours," Sanguinet said. "He wasn't witnessing Jesus. That's the problem. He didn't show me salvation. He didn't show me Jesus. He just compared theologies. I think he realized his mistake later.

"We went to this little church while we were down there on kind of a dare from their family because I just wanted to show them that I wasn't afraid to go to their church." It was a little church with a lay minister and about 35 people, Sanguinet said. "I went up after the meeting there to this little pastor and I told him 'Hi. I'm Tom Sanguinet and I'm with the Milners over there and I'm a witch.' He dropped his mike cord. "I made a swift kill on theology and left without giving him a chance to say anything. I stepped down off the pulpit there and this lady walked up and said, 'We're gonna pray for you,' and I said, 'Oh fine. Big deal.'"

One day in September 1981, Sanguinet and his girlfriend got "somewhat crossways" and she announced that she was leaving. Sanguinet was not worried, thinking he could bring her back whenever he wanted to. Sanguinet "put her on the bus" the next day, a Friday."That night, I just flat tried to kill myself. I had a business worth $42 million, I had a house, I had property, I had automobiles, I had an entourage. I had all the people and all the things and everything the world could give. But I realized I didn't have any peace." He failed in two attempts to shoot himself. "After that, I just went to bed," Sanguinet said.

On Monday, he returned to work at the boatyard that he and Frost ran. Things were going badly that day, Sanguinet said. "Gavin was blaming me and blaming the 'negative energies' flowing from me for everything going wrong in the boatyard that day... That made me a little more despondent so I went home at noon for lunch and that's when I really realized that this girl wasn't there because we always ate lunch together.

"I was just sitting there real despondent," Sanguinet said. He then got the urge to pray. "I did believe in God. I believed in the Godhead. I didn't want to go through the Lord of Darkness and the Goddess this time. I wanted to reach God. And I said, 'God, help me,' and I really meant it. "This little voice said, 'Try Jesus.'" Hearing a voice was nothing new to Sanguinet, who said he was used to conjuring spirits. "I told that spirit, 'Get out of here.' But this voice said, 'No really. Try Jesus. For peace.'" And I said, 'Okay. Jesus, help me. See there, it didn't work. Now beat it.'

"But the voice didn't go away. Instead, it said, 'You're a sorcerer. You're a magician. You're a witch. You know that anything you do, you've got to mean it.' "So I said, 'Okay. I'll try it. I really will because I'm not afraid to try anything.' "I said, 'Lord Jesus, I don't know you very well, and you probably don't want to know me, but if you can help me, come into my heart. "And praise the Lord, the light went on and I had peace. And nothing else mattered."

Sanguinet immediately went down to the boatyard and told Frost that he was leaving. "I hadn't picked up the Bible, but I knew in my heart I couldn't stay there because I couldn't fellowship with the school of Wicca anymore. I couldn't compromise the peace that I had in my heart. "I told Gavin right then and there, 'I intend to destroy the school of Wicca. I intend to tear it down.'" Sanguinet walked away from all his possessions, since they were all owned by the Church of Wicca.

"I had $5 in my pocket. So the Lord just sent people by. Just out of nowhere people just started coming by saying, 'Hey we heard you broke up with Frost. You gonna be leaving?' "Two days later, I had $1,600 in my pocket." Sanguinet left for his father's home in Texas with "my Bible, my pickup truck and my motorcycle."

Since then, Sanguinet has married and his wife is expecting a baby in late October.

A personal relationship with Jesus is the most important decision you could ever make in your life. It is unlike any other relationship. For if you go into eternity without this relationship, you will spend eternity apart from Him.

So, if you will allow me, I'd like to tell you how you can come into a personal relationship with Jesus.

First you need to recognize that . . .

God created you (Genesis 1:27). And He didn't just create you to exist all alone and apart from Him. He created you with a view to coming into a personal relationship with Him.

Remember, God had face-to-face encounters and fellowship with Adam and Eve, the first couple (Genesis 3:8-19). And just as God fellowshipped with them, so He desires to fellowship with you (1 John 1:5-7). God loves you (John 3:16). Never forget that fact.

The problem is . . .

Humanity Has a Sin Problem that Blocks a Relationship With God

When Adam and Eve chose to sin against God in the Garden of Eden, they catapulted the entire human race - to which they gave birth - into sin. Since the time of Adam and Eve, every human being has been born into the world with a propensity to sin.

The apostle Paul affirmed that "sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin" (Romans 5:12). Indeed, we are told that "through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners" (Romans 5:19). Ultimately this means that "death came through a man...in Adam all die" (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

Jesus often spoke of sin in metaphors that illustrate the havoc sin can wreak in one's life. He described sin as blindness (Matthew 23:16-26), sickness (Matthew 9:12), being enslaved in bondage (John 8:34), and living in darkness (John 8:12; 12:35-46). Moreover, Jesus taught that this is a universal condition and that all people are guilty before God (Luke 7:37-48).

Jesus also taught that both inner thoughts and external acts render a person guilty (Matthew 5:28). He taught that from within the human heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly (Mark 7:21-23). Moreover, He affirmed that God is fully aware of every person's sins, both external acts and inner thoughts; nothing escapes His notice (Matthew 22:18; Luke 6:8; John 4:17-19).

Of course, some people are more morally upright than others. But we all fall short of God's infinite standards (Romans 3:23). In a contest to see who can throw a rock to the moon, I am sure a muscular athlete would be able to throw the rock much further than I could. But all human beings ultimately fall short of the task. Similarly, all of us fall short of measuring up to God's perfect holy standards.

Though the sin problem is a serious one, God has graciously provided a solution:

God's absolute holiness demands that sin be punished. The good news of the gospel, however, is that Jesus has taken this punishment on Himself. God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to bear the penalty for our sins!

Jesus affirmed that it was for the very purpose of dying that He came into the world (John 12:27). Moreover, He perceived His death as being a sacrificial offering for the sins of humanity (Matthew 26:26-28). Jesus took His sacrificial mission with utmost seriousness, for He knew that without Him, humanity would certainly perish (Matthew 16:25; John 3:16) and spend eternity apart from God in a place of great suffering (Matthew 10:28; 11:23; 23:33; 25:41; Luke 16:22-28).

Jesus therefore described His mission this way: "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10); for "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:17).

But the benefits of Christ's death on the cross are not automatically applied to your life. God requires you to . . .

Believe in Jesus Christ

By His sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus took the sins of the entire world on Himself and made salvation available for everyone (1 John 2:2). But this salvation is not automatic. Only those who personally choose to believe in Christ are saved. This is the consistent testimony of the biblical Jesus. Listen to His words:

* "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

* "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40).

* "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies" (John 11:25).

Choosing not to believe in Jesus, by contrast, leads to eternal condemnation: "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son" (John 3:18).

When you believe in Christ the Savior, a wonderful thing happens. God forgives you of all your sins. All of them! He puts them completely out of His sight. Ponder for a few minutes the following verses, which speak of the forgiveness of those who have believed in Christ:

* "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace" (Ephesians 1:7).

* God said, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more" (Hebrews 10:17-18).

* "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit" (Psalm 32:1-2).

* "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:11-12).

Such forgiveness is wonderful indeed, for none of us can possibly work our way into heaven, or be good enough to warrant God's good favor. Because of what Jesus has done for us, we freely receive the gift of salvation. It is a gift provided solely through the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). And all of it is ours by simply believing in Jesus.

It is a highly dangerous thing to put off turning to Christ for salvation, for you do not know the day of your death. What if it happens this evening? "Death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart" (Ecclesiastes 7:2).

If God is speaking to your heart now, then now is your door of opportunity to believe. "Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near" (Isaiah 55:6).

Follow Me In Prayer

Would you like to place your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, thereby guaranteeing your eternal place in heaven along His side? If so, pray the following prayer with me.

Keep in mind that it's not the prayer itself that saves you. It is the faith in your heart that saves you. So, let the following prayer be a simple expression of the faith that is in your heart:

Welcome to God's Forever Family

If you've just become a Christian, I want to help you. I'd like to send you some free materials that will help you grow in your faith.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matt 11:28-30

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. John 8:36