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The Irish Druids vs. Saint Patrick
Episode #646
4-21-2019
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special Guest: Jennifer Wentzel
This is the continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #642.
The ancient Irish druids with their nature-worshiping, pagan ways were no match for the sovereign God of Saint Patrick. And there’s a lesson here for us!
Martha:
I’ll just say this much. One thing that has freshly impacted me about St. Patrick. He was kidnapped as a young British boy; he was on the beach and the Irish Druids came in and, and kidnapped him and took him to Ireland as a slave and he was given the role of taking care of sheep; half naked, half starving under extremely cold conditions, all alone, isolated as a slave.
And he prayed so much. He began to pray. He said he prayed six hundred prayers a day. That’s all he did was pray. He prayed all day long. And he began to completely transcend his situation. He was not cold. He did not get sick. He did not, he did not suffer the typical suffering. I’m sure it took a lot of prayer to get him to that place but he completely transcended that and eventually the miracle of God came to him and sent him back to England.
But the story didn’t end there. And I’ll let my pastor tell you the story. But the sovereignty of God – that is the story. The sovereignty of God took him back to Ireland. And my pastor’s premise on both Joseph and St. Patrick is love your enemies. And that, that obedience to love your enemies made both of them examples of Jesus, examples of God’s goodness through extreme suffering and His provision through extreme suffering. So St. Patrick changed the world and we are affected by his change and we don’t even know it.
My husband some years ago read a book, I never read it and I should have, how the Irish saved civilization and Dr. Schofield obviously had read that book because he could describe what St. Patrick did for humanity far past his life and his influence. There’s a pattern there in St. Patrick and in the life of Joseph that is a study for us all about being, about suffering, and transcending it to the heavens and being an influence for history. It’s just incredible.
I was telling Jennifer some of these things this morning and she began to tell me the history of the Irish and the Druids and I want her to share it because it’s, oh, my goodness, it’s unknown, really. And adds to the story such enormous sovereignty.
Jennifer:
I was, I was talking to Martha about the Druids and the Picts-P I C T S; I’ll just say the ancient Irish basically. And there has been such a successful whitewashing of, of that. Most people if they know anything about Druids they think of them as medieval hippies, really. You know, tree hugging, lived in the forest, that sort of thing.
And so we don’t have any concept that Ireland at that time was, was blood soaked. It was blood soaked from shore to shore, that whole island. The Druids were murderous, witchcraft wielding, sorcery spreading, human sacrifice, and, and cursing and they were the spiritual power of Ireland. That’s, that’s the deal. And it was an ancient and pagan and bloodthirsty worship; heinous. And, and I won’t go into details because that would make this podcast rated R! And I’m not even suggesting you necessarily go. It’s darkness. It is true darkness. And it was over that whole island.
And I said what is so amazing is that St. Patrick, a man born British, the ancient enemy of Ireland, who is now utterly associated with the Irish because they have such reverence for him who was their enemy. And he changed, I told Martha, he changed almost the character of the Irish in terms of how we view them. We don’t view them as blood-soaked monsters now, we don’t, you know! All of these traditions that we hold, you know, the Celtic cross, all these sorts of things; there is so much paganism back there, so much darkness.
And now they are known as the country who loved God so much that they went to war with each other over which way was the best way to love Him. That’s what we now associate with the Irish, which is Catholics versus Protestants, you know, not what was essentially a medieval, satanic occult religion over the whole entire island.
And that’s just, I mean that was one man verses an evil we can barely comprehend in its savagery. And that gives me such hope for where we are today. I told Martha and I’ve been thinking about it because I think it was the Spirit that gave me the words, the evil is no less today. We have just sanitized it! We don’t have filthy stone altars in a forest dripping with blood, you know. Ours is in hospitals rooms and covered by modern cleaning supplies. But we are no less at a place of, of great evil in the world. And yet it was no match for a sovereign God.
It was no match for a sovereign God wielded in a completely and totally surrendered and loving vessel named St. Patrick. Well, he was just named Patrick then, not saint (laughs). But one man, one man who, you know, was enslaved by a very dark and bloodthirsty people and he went back there and he would have been their enemy if he just walked into a pub, never mind that he was a former slave. He was British! They, those people have been at war for as long as they’ve landed on those islands, you know. For all we know it came from two brothers in a canoe that split in half right in the channel, you know. It’s that crazy. Genetically they might as well be the same peoples. So, you know, but he went in and as an enemy and I’m sure as a Brit he was not, would not have been taught to love the Irish any deeper especially after he came back. What the Lord must have done! What kind of love just completely obliterates that kind of generation’s deep enmity and goes out like a bomb, you know? It’s just incredible!
Martha:
That was Reverend Schofield’s point; one person changing the history of mankind. And it’s every… He said every one of us could be that influence for Christ.
Jennifer, I wanted to say that while you were at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem you… Tell about why; how you came to know all this.
Jennifer:
I was an English major and in my senior year I did an independent study with one of my favorite professors and it was on Irish literature. And I told Martha that the focus was largely James Joyce. Which is not surprising since he is the modern favorite son for Irish writers.
But this professor wanted me to have a better understanding of the history of Irish literature. So their mythology, their epic poetry, their earlier story telling, you know. Giving a basic understanding of their, the language. How it developed and, and, you know… All of our stories and how we talk and how we write and how we communicate with each other have a lot greater tie to, to the language that God has given us as a people than we think of.
And, so, yeah, so I started looking into that and, and researching it and I was one of those people that thought that Druids were just kind of like hippy-dippy forest folks, you know, that liked to wear robes and, “Wasn’t Stonehenge, didn’t Stonehenge have something to do with them?” (Laughing) I didn’t know and I can’t say that I really cared.
But it’s funny the things that, that God packs in and then brings back later to shed light on how utter His victory is. And, and, and that’s, that’s, you know, that’s what hasn’t left me.
Martha told us this story a few days ago and, and the Lord brought that back but all the knowledge of that darkness did was underscore how powerful was the Light when it came, you know? It was a, a neutron blast across that island which had been, you know… The British had called that “cursed island” for I don’t know for how long and I suppose in many ways it really was. I wonder how many curses, you know, the feet of St. Patrick dispelled literally just carrying Jesus Christ from rock to rock. I do wonder.
Martha:
What you’re saying to me, Jennifer, is that it, it doesn’t take but one person to change America. That’s what you are saying.
Jennifer:
Yes!
We are bloodthirsty! That’s the hope and I think that’s the hope of Dr. Schofield’s message, too, is: One. YOU!
The Irish Druids vs. Saint Patrick – Episode #646 – Shulamite Podcast
The ancient Irish druids with their nature-worshiping, pagan ways were no match for the sovereign God of St. Patrick. And there’s a lesson here for us! We overestimate the enemy and underestimate the power of God within the humble vessel of one who loves Him.
I am reminded the glorious Easter…that for this purpose Christ was revealed to destroy all the works of the evil one! This was in my heart as I journeyed home from the Eucharist this morning.
Bless you Michelle! Yes, yes and Amen!