Angelic Conflict VI
Demon possession means that
the human body is taken over by a demon. But that doesn’t mean that the soul is
no longer there. That individual soul is still there with self-consciousness,
mentality, emotion, volition and conscience, but it is quiescent, it is not
active. That person can still exercise positive volition to the gospel if
somebody presents the gospel to him while they are demon possessed, and if they
respond positively then the demon will be evicted and they will be delivered
from that demon possession. Demon possession is defined as a demon taking up
residence and control over a person’s body.
Since demon possession is not
a natural phenomena it can’t be solved with medication, incantation, ritual or
religion. What we find often is that the liberals come along and they deny
supernatural events, deny the existence of a personal Satan and personal
demons, and so they say that this is just a way those people talked about
mental illness. That is completely false. The Bible recognises mental illness
as a separate category, distinct from demon possession.
There are three possible ways
by which a person can be delivered from demon possession. Matthew 12:22 NASB “Then a demon-possessed man {who
was} blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute
man spoke and saw.” This tells us that because of demon possession the man was
blind and could not speak. It was not blindness because of a physical factor.
The word for “healed” is the Greek verb iaomai
[i)aomai] a
general verb related to deliverance, to solving the problem. The fact that this
involved casting out the demon becomes clear in the next verse. [23] “All the
crowds were amazed, and were saying, ‘This man cannot be the Son of David, can
he?’” They were responding to this because they recognised that the Old
Testament taught that one of the signs of the Messiah would be physical healing
and deliverance. Jeremiah 33:6 is a messianic prophecy: “Behold, I will bring
to it [the nation] health and healing, and I will heal
them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth.” Another
passage that relates to this is Isaiah 35:5, 6 NASB “Then the eyes
of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf
will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters
will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah.” So the multitude in Matthew 12
are affirming that this must be the son of David. In contrast, the
religious leaders are going to dispute this.
Matthew 12:24 NASB “But when the Pharisees heard {this,}
they said, ‘This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul
the ruler of the demons’.” There we have the verb ekballo [e)kballw]; it is not the verb exorkozo
[e)corkizw] which is where we get the word “exorcism.” Exorcism
is not a sound spiritual practice and it was never practiced by Jesus and the
disciples, or later the apostles. They cast out demons, they did not exorcise
demons. The Pharisees were saying that Jesus cast out demons by the power of Beelzebul, a title for Satan at that time in Jewish
history. It would be true that Satan could intervene for the purpose of
distracting and confusing people.
A second way in which demon
possession is resolved is through direct divine intervention. This is what
happens in the case of the Gadarene demoniac in Mark
5:8. Jesus commanded the demon to depart and the demon departed. So there was
direct divine intervention during the time of Christ and also the apostles. The
apostles, according to 2 Corinthians 12, did signs and wonders just as Jesus
performed, and this was their credentials demonstrating that they were who they
claimed to be and that what they taught was from God. It was not the apostles
who were directly casting out the demons, they were doing it through a
delegated power from God and it was God who was the one who ejected the demons.
The third way by which a
demon is removed an individual is by faith alone in Christ alone, 1 Corinthians
3:16 NASB “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and {that} the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1st
John tells us in 4:4 NASB “…greater is He who is in you than he who
is in the world.” So at the instant of faith alone in Christ alone God the Holy
Spirit is going to create in us a human spirit, known as regeneration, and the
Holy Spirit takes up residence inside the body. At that point He sanctifies the
body and that means it is set apart as a temple of God. At that point God the Father and God the Son take up
residence in this new temple. Colossians 1:27 NASB “…Christ in you,
the hope of glory.” So if there
was any demon there before hand that demon is instantly ejected and cannot
return and take up a residence there. The first reason is the clear statement
of Scripture and the second reason is the silence of Scripture. There is one
legitimate argument from silence. A argument from
silence is trying to derive a conclusion when nothing is said about that. 2
Peter 1:3 NASB “seeing that His divine power has granted to us
everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him
who called us by His own glory and excellence.” This verse makes on of the
greatest claims for the sufficiency of Scripture anywhere in the New Testament.
God has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness, and the Greek
word here for godliness is eusebeia
[e)usebeia] which
relates to the spiritual life, exhibiting the character of God which is what we
call living the spiritual life. So this verse says that God has given to us
everything we need to know about life and the spiritual life. If we as
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ could be invaded by a demon, would this not
have something to do with our spiritual life? That would be the most horrible
thing any believer could possibly imagine. It would mean we would be invaded by
this evil force that would completely take over our body. That has something to
do with our spiritual life, doesn’t it? Yet the Bible says He claims to tell us
everything we need to know about the spiritual life. Now where in the epistles,
Romans through Jude, written to the church age believer to tell him how to live
in this dispensation, addressing every issue in life, is there any mention of a
believer being demon possessed. It is not there. The silence of Scripture is
deafening on this subject. The fact that the Scripture doesn’t even mention is
indicates that it is not an issue. If the Bible claims to tell us everything we
need to know about a subject and something isn’t mentioned, then we don’t need
to know about it because it is not relevant. Not only that, but in Romans
through Jude there is not even one mention of deliverance from demon
possession.
The problem is that we live
in an age where people want to base their theology on anecdotes and experiences
and not on exegesis of the Scriptures. The fact that we are neither warned or
told how to be delivered from demon possession tells us that it is not a
problem. All of the arguments we hear for demon possession are based on experience
and not simple exegesis of the Scripture.
What can demons do to men? They
can cause physical disease, e.g. Matthew 9:33; 17:18; Luke 4:35, 41.
How do people get involved in
demon possession? Through idolatry, false religions, because
it is the demons who underlie all false religions. Also mysticism, because
mysticism establishes a false authority—listening to some “inner voice,” and
who knows whose that inner voice could be? Necromancy,
calling up the dead, e.g. 1 Samuel 28.