Do You Really Believe In demons?

Comedian Bill Cosby has recently been in the news, because of alleged rape allegations.

"As Mark Whitaker’s recent Cosby biography makes clear, the man has his demons. He had affairs while on the road and there have been bumps in his long marriage to his wife, Camille."

When I read that article I wondered how literally Mark Whitaker means for us to take the phrase "the man has his demons." It is quite common actually. Australian columnist Tim Boyle writes of tennis player Andy Murray,

'To care for Andy the performer, you have to first look past his manifest demons on the court, his tireless and inexplicable companies."

This is, after all, merely a way of talking, is it not? It is symbolic in nature. It refers to strange and inexplicable actions and lifestyles, not actual influence by real, but unseen spirits.

Very few Americans believe in any way that demons and Satan are real. In a 2009 nationwide survey of adults' spiritual beliefs conducted by the Barna Group four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan "is not a living being but a symbol of evil. An additional two out of ten (19%) said they "agree somewhat with that perspective. Only a minority of Christians believe that Satan is real (26%).  And, for that matter, most Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force, either.

It appears that we Americans have come a long way from the New Testament view of life. From the perspective of the Gospel writers and the letters of the Apostles demons are everywhere. Before Jesus began his public ministry, after 40 days of fasting, we read of his struggle with the Prince of Darkness himself:

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. - Matt. 4:1-11 ESV

As his ministry began, Jesus set up his headquarters in Capernaum, a fishing village on the shore of the inland sea of Galilee. As was his custom, he went to the synagogue there on the Sabbath. The people were impressed. He taught them "as one who had authority, and not as the scribes" - Mark 1:22.  But one among them was definitely not impressed. As soon as Jesus started teaching he leaped to his feet and began shouting at Jesus,

"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God." - Mark 1:24 ESV

Evidently the members of that synagogue had been putting up with this guy for some time. I'm guessing they didn't know what to do with him or how to shut him up. Mark records, however, that Jesus saw at once that what was happening was more than a man out of control. He addressed the demon within, rather than the man himself.

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. - Mark 1:25-26 ESV

Unclean spirit? What's that? In nearly a hundred times the Bible speaks of unclean things. In particular Moses wrote about (1) certain foods, (2) contact with human or certain animal dead bodies, and (3) various bodily conditions and diseases. The concept pointed to how sin pervades this material world and prevents one from being completely and totally committed to God—the idea included in the command,

"You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine." - Lev 20:26 ESV

Jesus' encounter with the man possessed by an unclean spirit and his successful resistance of the devil himself is a stark reminder that there are indeed unseen spiritual forces at work in our midst and often in the dark corners of our hearts. They oppose all that Jesus' teaches and does. And they are hard at work to lead us to adopt their views and ways. We all are therefore strongly advised to be prepared for such encounters, as the Apostle Paul wrote,

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. - Eph 6:12-13 ESV

The Road Less Traveled

I promised to speak about demon possession. Permit me to focus on one question in particular. Can a person ever be possessed by a fallen angel, a demon? What is the Biblical teaching on this matter and how does one go about dealing with it?

As noted in my previous post the New Testament also recounts many instances of demonic possession, mainly in the synoptic Gospel accounts of Jesus' ministry. Jesus encounters persons possessed by demons who have take them captive and who cause physical and mental affliction. For example consider the story of two demonized men in the country of the Gadarenes.

And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, "What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" 

Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, saying, "If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs." 

And he said to them, "Go." 

So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. - Mat 8:28-34 ESV

Here we see the Lord exercising total power over  demons by driving them out and into a herd of unclean pigs. Such an exorcism was a sign that the Kingdom of God had come (Matt. 12:22-23). Jesus has come to rescue us all from the dominion of darkness and has brought us into the Kingdom of God's Son (Col. 1:13). 

The devil made me do it 

That was then, but what about demonic possession today? Does it still happen? A Texas jury found that Andrea Yates was insane when she drowned her five children in a bathtub five years ago. A friend asked if this is an example of demonic possession? Is insanity the modern day example of demon possession?

To answer his important query I turn to a famous and oft cited nineteenth century biography of a German Lutheran pastor. The story is recorded in the landmark biography of Pastor Christoph Blumhard (1805-1880),  The Awakening: One Man's Battle With Darkness by Friedrich Bluendel. This free e-book was published by www.Plough.com and the Bruderhoff Communities of the U.K. The book is introduced as follows: 

When Blumhardt, a 19th-century pastor from the Black Forest, agreed to counsel a tormented woman in his parish, all hell broke loose—literally. But that was only the beginning of the drama that ensued. Zuendel's account, available here in English for the first time, provides a rare glimpse into how the eternal fight between the forces of good and evil plays itself out in the lives of the most ordinary men and women. More than that, it reminds us that those forces still surround us today, whether we are awake to them or not.

Blumhardt served as pastor of a Lutheran church in Moettlingen, a parish at the northern end of the Black Forest, numbering 874 souls and encompassing two villages. The youngest of three orphaned girls, Gottlieben Dittus, had many demons cast out from her through the prayerful ministrations of Pastor Blumhardt. So wondrous and awesome were these events that Pastor Blumhardt was immediately catapulted to nationwide notoriety. People by the hundreds flocked to him for healing. When criticized for using his pastoral office as an instrument for healing, Blumhardt replied,

"According to the New Testament, God wants to offer his gifts through human instruments. The gospel is to be proclaimed by servants of God, ambassadors for Christ, and these messengers are to bear spiritual gifts and powers for the church. That is why the apostles were endowed with exceptional power, both to preach and to heal.

"Christianity knows absolutely nothing of this anymore. Hence all the despair in face of misery, and the devious means many try. Hence, too, the plight medical science finds itself in: it is expected to replace by its skills what the servants of the gospel ought to provide, but have long ago forfeited. In this case, medical science is to be commended for having labored far more faithfully than the servants of the gospel, in spite of the unbelief it professes as a body" (p. 117).

What about today?

Most modern psychiatrists would mock at such an approach to insanity as primitive, simplistic and thoroughly unscientific. To be sure, not all mental illness is caused by demonic possession. However, toward the end of the twentieth century along came a psychiatrist by the name of M. Scott Peck to publish his now famous book, The Road Less Traveled (1978). I commend that book and others by the same author to you as well. Peck draws from his own practice of psychiatry to point out that not every aberrant behavior can be explained as simply another form of mental illness.

Peck says medical scientists and the churches have not been talking together as much as we might about such things as spontaneous remissions of cancer and psychic healings. The attitude of many in the medical professions is that miracle cures are nonexistent. Too many Christians feel the same way, suggesting that such things only happened back in the days of the early church. Peck says he and many other physicians have now changed their minds. Miracles do happen. He also emphasizes that demonic possession is real.

In later writings, Peck documents his own work with truly evil people and the exorcising of demons. See People of the Lie (1998) and Glimpses of the Devil : A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption (2005).

Why should we Christians be surprised by this? That is, after all, what our Bible says. Why do we Christians doubt it, whether it has to do with the healing of the body or the casting out of demons? There is a whole lot more to this world than we thought we knew about. To deny this is to fail to unify all knowledge and experience into our current understanding of human life and activity.

Here is where I stop. I am not intimate with the Andrea Yates case. I have personally had but limited experience with exorcisms. But is there still such a thing as demon possession? Yes indeed. And does Jesus still cast them out? Oh yes! And, further, do miracles of healing still happen? Most certainly! But at the same time shall we throw away all that modern medicine brings? By no means. Let us rather make sure we get into that dialog Peck points to and travel together down that road less traveled.