From Darkness to Light

I DO BELIEVE DEMONS EXIST

Written by Jim Guffey

March 6, 2008

“Matthew also says the demoniacs were “exceedingly fierce.” That means they were violent. Mark 5 says that people had tried to bind them with chains, but those demoniacs broke them with their tremendous strength. Such strength was demonstrated to me when the demon-possessed woman I spoke with flipped over a steel desk with only two fingers.”

Do I believe demons exist? That’s a good question. Unfortunately, the answer is a little complicated. I believe angels exist but I’ve never seen one. I believe God exists but I’ve never seen Him. Let’s just say I believe in the veracity of the Bible so if the Bible says demons exist then I believe it. I can’t really put my finger on a demon to show you the correctness of their existence but I believe it.

Anyway, that’s what I used to think until a few weeks ago when a most extraordinary thing happened to me that changed my mind or perhaps solidified in my mind the truth of that paragraph. I now firmly believe in the existence of demons, their abilities including the possession of the personality and person, and what I consider to be a need exceedingly great that is being ignored by the church today.

Many of you reading this will be skeptical but interested, learned at least to the extent that you have listened to what the church says but slightly open-minded enough to consider what I’m about to lay before you. Others are close minded and simply will read this for the interesting story that is presented herein. Those of you in this latter category will be expecting wild and exaggerated claims for possible sensational reactions from people walking in their own theology. Whichever the case let’s start with the opening paragraph above.

The writer of this paragraph claims he was present when a woman, demon possessed (or so he says) flipped over a desk with just two fingers. Quite extraordinary. If you are like me you probably think this story might have some basis in fact but it’s probably exaggerated. You have seen enough flimflam on TV to be able to discount quite rapidly the veracity of such a story. That is unless someone you trusted was telling you the story in the first person. In this case, the author of this opening paragraph is none other than John MacArthur. For those of you who don’t know John MacArthur here’s a little background from Wikipedia:

The son of a Jack MacArthur (an accomplished preacher in his own right), John MacArthur was an athlete and attended Bob Jones University before transferring to Los Angeles Pacific College (now Azusa Pacific University). He later obtained his Masters of Divinity from Biola University’s Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada. He graduated with honors. From 1964 to 1966 he served as an associate pastor at Calvary Bible Church, Burbank, California, and 1966 to 1969 as a faculty representative for Talbot Theological Seminary, La Mirada, California. Then in 1969, he became the third pastor in the then-short history of the nondenominational Grace Community Church.

In 1985, MacArthur became president of The Master’s College (formerly Los Angeles Baptist College), an accredited, four-year, liberal arts Christian college, and in 1986, founded The Master’s Seminary. His daily radio program, Grace to You is broadcast throughout much of the world. He is the author of over 75 books, notably his MacArthur Commentary Series and the MacArthur Study Bible

If you want to read his paper subtitled “Jesus’ Power over the Supernatural” which is where this paragraph came from you can click on the link below.

http://www.biblebb.com/files/mac/sg2261.htm

Read further descriptions from John MacArthur regarding his confrontation with a demon possessed girl (I believe it is the same person referred to above):

“I remember when this girl kicked me until my shins bled and this voice kept screaming out of her, “Get him out of here, not him, not him, anybody but him…,” screaming at me, so I know that the demons know whose side I’m on. And if they could take over, they would. I know they would. They’d do the same with anybody who is in a position of spiritual leadership. They want to stop the kingdom.”

You know, I mean, I’ve tried to cast demons out of people when I was younger and foolish, now I’m old and foolish, but, I tried to do that and they wouldn’t go anywhere. I mean, I remember Jerry Mitchell and I, we had a girl there and she had all kinds of demons and they kept talking and yelling, and we tried sending those demons everywhere. We sent them to the pit, to Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, we sent them to the desert, we sent them everywhere and they didn’t go! They didn’t go anywhere. We had absolutely no authority over demons. We are not apostles, we can’t heal the sick and we can’t tell the demons what to do. And the fact of the matter is we really don’t need to do that because the only reason a person would be under that kind of demonic influence would be if they had, by virtue of sin in their life, given access to that. It’s as simple as James says, “Resist the devil and he will flee!”

To read his answers to questions about demon possession you can click on these three links:

http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/85-1-12.htm

http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/2002SC-01.htm

http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/70-3-1.htm

So we have a mainstream conservative theologian, well respected in the Christian community who has had at least one experience with a person that he says was demon possessed. To sum up John MacArthur’s beliefs one could say he does believe that people can be demon possessed and even goes so far as to say “I think demons can get in Christians and mess them up if they give them place; if they give them opportunity for that.” But then he follows that up with, “But I think the solution to that is not exorcism. The solution to that is obedience. Confession of sin. I have said to people, which is worse? To have a demon fouling up your life or to be disobedient? People will always say, “Oh, to have a demon!”. I say no it’s the same thing, because the solution is the same! Confess you sin, turn from it and walk as you ought to walk.

Another well respected theologian, Hank Hanegraaff weighs in on what he believes concerning modern day possession and exorcism (deliverance) in the transcript below of a radio interview:

The Covering:
Gods Plan to Protect You From Evil

Further Discussion Between
Hank Hanegraaff and Lee Strobel

L.S.: Talk about the covering — God’s plan to protect you from evil and to give you supernatural protection in this invisible war. Do you think that most Christians really live as if they’re involved in an invisible war?

H.H.: No, I think most people probably don’t need the full armor of God because they’re not engaged in the invisible war. Most people don’t stand for truth and righteousness, so they’re perfectly “protected” by putting on Saran Wrap. They don’t even recognize that there’s a war going on…

H.H.: I’m asking people to make a paradigm shift from seeing spiritual warfare from an exorcism and deliverance motif to seeing spiritual warfare from the perspective of spiritual disciplines and discipleship. Ultimately, we are called to engage in a war, but we want to make sure we’re in the right war, and the way we win the war is not through deliverance. I mean, that’s what the pop culture tells us: “You have the demon of lust? Well, let’s exorcise that demon. Let’s give you a quick-fix solution to a long-term problem.” In The Covering I’m demonstrating that there are no quick fixes, that it’s not about exorcising demons; it’s about exercising spiritual disciplines.

L.S.: That’s very important. You’re seeking to initiate a shift from a deliverance motif to a discipleship motif, and that shift makes all the biblical teachings on spiritual warfare suddenly fall into place and make sense.

H.H.: We’ve become cultural imitators rather than cultural initiators. All too often we derive our views on spiritual warfare from the popular culture, rather than Scripture.

L.S.: What is popular culture telling us about spiritual warfare?

H.H.: The basic idea is that spiritual warfare is physical. So we see levitation episodes, we see green slime, we have demons scrawling messages on fogged-up mirrors, we have demons biting Christian leaders. In contrast, biblical spiritual warfare always revolves around the battle for the mind. Ultimately, Satan’s greatest achievement is not to possess our bodies — it is our righteousness he covets most. While he cannot bite us or cause us to levitate, he can tempt us to cheat, steal, and lie. Satan sits on our shoulder, as it were, and whispers into our ear. The whisper cannot be discerned with the physical ear; it can, however, penetrate the ear of the mind. Thus, it’s about mind-to-mind communication.

You can read the interview by clicking the link below:

http://www.equip.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2714057/k.B0DA/DC665.htm

In another review on his website by one of his assistants there appear these quotes about the writer of a book called Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist’s Personal Accounts of

Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption by M. Scott Peck:

Second, Peck repeatedly acknowledges his own ignorance and status as a “baby Christian” (11, 38, 60) at the time of the first exorcism even though he was in charge of the procedure. He even grants his poor theological understanding at that time (38, 41), relying on another team member to quote the Bible, communicate theological truths, and correct Peck’s theology “several times” (49, 60). In many sections he describes himself with phrases such as “with the little I knew of demonology” (21), “I knew nothing about the matter [of deliverance]” (23), “I was just as bewildered” (26), “this is a whole new world for me” (27), “we didn’t have the foggiest idea of what we were doing” (45, 46), and “we were so ignorant” (106). A true case of demonic possession is no time for a novice believer suddenly to take on a role that requires spiritual maturity.

Again to read the book review click the link below:

http://www.equip.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2805429/k.B3F1/JAE123.htm

So here we have a second well respected opinion. While I could find no evidence that Hank Hanegraaff had an actual encounter with a person he suspected to be possessed he does acknowledge that people can be possessed though he denies that Christians can. They apparently believe that there is some need for exorcism or deliverance today based on the sentence “A true case of demonic possession is no time for a novice believer suddenly to take on a role that requires spiritual maturity. Hank goes on to say “In The Covering I’m demonstrating that there are no quick fixes, that it’s not about exorcising demons; it’s about exercising spiritual disciplines.”

To correlate these findings, both of these men believe in the existence of demons and in the possibility of possession by these demons of persons. Hank believes Christians cannot be possessed but John believes they can, at least to some extent. John believes that deliverance from or exorcism of demons is a thing of the past only for the apostles while Hank’s camp appears to believe there are some cases applicable to the current day. Both John and Hank agree that obedience and spiritual discipline are what’s needed in most cases, including demon possessed people.

So there you have it. Two well respected men of God, theologians well-educated and schooled in the Bible and their respective views. What do you think and why do you think it?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 6:40 am and is filed under Possession and Oppression. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.