It is important to note that demonic possession is not the automatic explaination for unexplained behavior. Typically those viewed as "possessed" were merely afflicted by some mental condition unknown or untreated.
In addition, exorcism is not the desired treatment. Many Christians justified abstaining from the everyday aspects of ancient Roman life, from consuming meat to wearing makeup and jewelry, by arguing that such practices were demonic. Christian fascination with demons having sex with humans developed significantly in the medieval world. Historian Eleanor Janega , has recently shown that it was in the medieval period that beliefs about nocturnal demon sex — those echoed by Immanuel today — became common.
For example, the legendary magician Merlin , from the tales of King Arthur, was said to have been sired by an incubus, a male demon. For as long as Christians have worried about demons, they have also thought about how to protect themselves from them. The first biography of Jesus, the Gospel of Mark, written around A.
In one of the first scenes of the gospel, Jesus casts an unclean spirit out of a man in the synagogue at Capernaum. In one of his letters to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul argued that women could protect themselves from being raped by demons by wearing veils over their heads.
Christians also turned to ancient traditions of magic and magical objects, such as amulets , to help ward off spiritual dangers. In the wake of the Enlightenment, European Christians became deeply embroiled in debates about miracles, including those related to the existence and casting out of demons. For many, the emergence of modern science called such beliefs into question. In the late 19th century, Christians who sought to retain belief in demons and miracles found refuge in two separate but interconnected developments.
Dispensationalist theologians argued that the Bible was a book coded by God with a blueprint for human history, past, present and future.
Miracles were assigned to earlier dispensations and would only return as signs of the end of the world. For dispensationalists, the Bible prophesied that end of the world was near.
There may be no better explanation for some of the more heinous chapters in human history. Something more than human sin was involved in the practice of chattel slavery in the United States, in the dehumanizing punishment of the Soviet gulags, and in the frighteningly efficient mass murder of Nazi death camps.
Most of us, for instance, have had the experience of encountering an institution that is rather corrupt but noting that the individuals within the institution do not seem to be the corrupting factor.
In fact, the individuals involved often sense the distortion but feel powerless to change it. The whole is not merely the sum of its parts. Something bigger seems to be at work. Something bigger is at work. The powers Paul talks about are not merely individual demons making individual people do terrible things. He is looking at something more systemic, beyond both the emperor and the empire.
The spirits against whom we battle may be individual. But they may also be found in our ideologies, our institutions, or our political tribes.
In fact, the most devious powers at work today are probably not the ones that possess people, but the ones that animate and control power structures like governments, schools, or economies. It can gain us an audience, a revenue stream, and a lot of praise. But the call to follow Christ is a cruciform call from beginning to end. If we do not follow him on the road to the cross, we do not follow him. That means that if we are devoted to any way of ministry that is not the way of Christ, we are not just being foolish nor are we being sinful only; we are also being deceived and put to work by evil spirits.
What Goggin and Strobel warn about in ministry is possible for all of us. When our work environments are so cutthroat that we sense that we need to cut corners or trample on others to get to the top, we are not merely surviving a toxic job; we are being used by a spirit of greed.
When we create factions in our church devoted to preferences, we are not merely undermining unity; we are being used by a spirit of divisiveness.
When our devotion to our own nation results in xenophobia and racism, we are not being overly patriotic; we are being used by a power of hell.
All of this might sound like bad news. We do not overcome spirits through better techniques or wiser social strategy. We are not condemned for our forefathers' wickedness, but we do suffer for it.
Now in Christ, we have the authority to close every door to evil that was flung open in ignorance and sin Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament law, not abolish it Matthew , so Satan's legal application of Old Testament scriptures becomes one of his favorite ploys. Tool four: we must acknowledge and embrace the importance of what is called "deliverance ministry.
It will explain the strategies and pathways of darkness; the devil's doors of torment; and a tutorial on how to heal our lives and overcome all forces of evil. If you are a Christian interested in the coming revival, I highly recommend this book. Do you have a question or comment for Pastor Adrienne? Send your inquiries to: info adriennewgreene.
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