Don’t you hate it when this happens?

In Japan, an ancient stone said to contain an evil demon that’s been locked in for almost 1,000 years cracked open in March.

According to The U.S. Sun, legend has it that anyone who comes in contact with the rock will die. Which, sure, they will eventually pass away, but in terms of it happening because they touched the stone, the data — such as they are — don’t seem to support that.

Now the rock’s cracked, however, which could mean the demon’s wrath has been unleashed on all the earth. However, if you’re a Christian, you know something most others don’t: that whatever may have been in that stone, God has dominion over it.

(Here at The Western Journal, we cover the news from a Christian perspective, and we’ll always remind our audience that God will have the last word. If you support this message, consider subscribing.)

Some basics about the rock: It’s called the “killing stone,” or Sessho-seki. It’s a volcanic rock that, according to legend, contains the spirit of Tamomo-no-Mae, the “Nine-Tailed Fox.”

In the 12th century, CNN noted, the shape-shifting demon is said to have appeared in the guise of a beautiful woman to Emperor Toba — who ruled Japan from 1107 to 1123.

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Toba became ill, and a court astrologer determined that Tamamo-no-Mae was responsible. The temptress fled into the forest, but samurai came after her and shot her down with an arrow.

When she was shot, she turned into a rock — a rock that resides in present-day Nikko National Park, roughly 100 miles north of Tokyo.

So what happened to “release” Tamomo-no-Mae? According to CNN, experts speculate water that seeped into a crack in the rock could have caused it to break open by freezing and expanding in cold winters.


Whatever the case may be, this means that the world has yet another bad augury on its plate for 2022. At the very least, President Joe Biden isn’t said to have a wandering eye for temptresses, so he likely won’t befall the same fate as Emperor Toba. (Hunter Biden, on the other hand, could be more susceptible to the Nine-Tailed Fox’s wiles.)

The Sun reported that locals and social media users were pretty doom-struck by the news.

“I feel like I’ve seen something that shouldn’t be seen,” one recent visitor to the national park wrote on Twitter, the newspaper reported.

“Here I thought 2022 couldn’t get worse,” another noted, according to the Sun. “Now a furious Japanese spirit is freed from its ‘killing stone.’”

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Or perhaps it’s the other way around:

“My guess is the demon is going to look around at 2022 and want to go back into the rock for another millennium,” another Twitter user commented, according to the Sun.

Either way, it’s worth noting that God has full dominion over Tamomo-no-Mae.

Mark 1:34: “And healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.”

Luke 4:41: “And demons also came out of many, crying, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.”

Matthew 8:16: “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.”

Revelation 12:9: “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world — he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

There’s even a verse tailor-made for the occasion. Luke 13:32: “And he said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox, “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.”‘”

As entertaining as the Tamamo-no-Mae story may be, take no stock in whatever fearful bodements you might hear. Jesus is king.

Don’t believe me, though. Believe God’s divinely inspired Word.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.