“The only thing more foolish than counseling a demon is casting out a psychological problem”: Five decades of insight into dealing with the demonic, Part I: Introduction (Ron Klaus)

Preface

What you are about to read needs twice as many words written as warning and caution. As John Climacus (c. 579-649) wrote,

Sometimes what serves as a medicine for one is poison for another;

And sometimes something given to one and the same person at a suitable time serves as a medicine, but at the wrong time it is a poison.

This quote comes from Step 26 of the Ladder of Divine Ascent in the chapter entitled: On Discernment. That is to say, Trinitarian discernment—The Holy Spirit bringing down the Risen Life of Jesus into the fallen structures of our mind “through much tribulation” (Acts 14:22)—must be operative for us to discern whether we’re actually trying to “counsel a demon or cast out a psychological problem.”

And as Abba Anthony made clear 4 centuries earlier in his 12th saying (the spiritual mentor of Athanasius who brought him into his desert community when he fled in latter of his exiles during the Nicene controversies),

12. Some brothers came to find Abba Anthony to tell him about the visions they were having, and to find out from him if they were true or if they came from the demons. They had a donkey which died on the way.

When they reached the place where the old man was, he said to them before they could ask him anything, "How was is that the little donkey died on the way here?"

They said, "How do you know about that, Father?"

And he told them, "The demons shewed me what happened."

So they said, "That was what we came to question you about, for fear we were being deceived, for we have visions which often turn out to be true."

Thus the old man convinced them, by the example of the donkey, that their visions came from the demons.

There are many, many more examples we could offer from the lives of the saints regarding the false discernment “from the demons” and the true discernment that comes through humble obedience to Christ with “much tribulation.” Here, we might even look to William Still, 52 years pastor of Gilcomston South Church of Scotland, Aberdeen, who would regularly discern the spirits oppressing his parishioners such that he could tell them why they came into his office before they even spoke.

And we could present many, many examples from Holy Scripture from the Old Testament (I Ki 13:11-24, I Ki 14:1-6, I Ki 22:4-28, II Ki 1:1-4-8, Jer 42, Num 22:22-35, Gen 20:2-8, etc.) and the New (Gal 1:6-10, Acts 21:9-14—one believer prophesying to an Apostle about what the “Holy Spirit” had revealed to him which makes the Apostle weep and breaks his heart but which he ultimately rejects—Acts 23:10-13, Mt 1:18-25, Mt 2:12, etc.) regarding the call to true wisdom that requires discerning the spirits through love in obedience.

But this you yourself must seek to discern before God in community. And we can only attempt here to present categories for you based on the wisdom drawn from experience and filtered down through the Scriptures in the Church.

And with that, we present the synthesis of Ron Klaus, former professor of chemical engineering and head of the physics department at UPenn…turned inner-city Philly pastor and confidant of James Montgomery Boice of Tenth Pres in Philadelphia…and later a key developer of of global redemptive communities…whose wife, Carolyn Klaus, is the author of Prescription for Hope, an absolutely fascinating and insightful book that documents her Spirit-led journey to found Esperanza (in our view the best picture of a medical clinic system that is vitally integrated with vital Christian faith in the country).

As always, much more could be said, but we present as the final preparatory remark a series of lectures that we have offered on the section of our site, From Conformation to Transformation—The Passage into Hypermodernity, which were given in December of 2019:

• Session 1. Carolyn Klaus: Community and the Founding of Esperanza Health Center

• Session 1: Q&A

• Session 2. Ron Klaus: Community and the Kingdom of God, part I

• Session 3. Ron Klaus: Community and the Kingdom of God, part II

• Session 4, Ron Klaus: Community and the Kingdom of God, part III

We present here the first installment of Dr. Klaus with the second and third parts to follow. And to make you all aware, Dr. Klaus will soon have this published at which time we will replace the below sections with a link to each section of his work. The Greek and Hebrew words in addition to the comments offered in brackets as well as the words in italics are our addition and are not a part of the original work. yet have been approved by Dr. Klaus for our audience.

Introduction

In the preface to his famous satirical work, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis writes,

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.1 (ix),2

He is exhorting us constantly to be aware of the devil’s work but not to become so obsessed with it that we fall into a magical outlook on life that is somewhat divorced from reality.

The Bible contains over 300 references to demons and their work. Beginning in the third century, the conformational vow contained the sentence,

I renounce Satan and all his work and ways, and surrender myself to You, O triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in belief, obedience, and the earnest resolution to remain faithful to You until my end. Amen.3

In the Lutheran Church, the clasped hand during the rite of a person’s confirmation is “a pledge of his promise that he renounces the Devil and all his works, and all his way; that he will cling to the doctrines of The Bible”4

Before people are baptized in the Episcopal Church, for example, they are asked:

“Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?”5

However, despite the many references in the Bible and the mention of renunciation of the devil in historic churches, he is hardly mentioned in the present life of Jesus-following assemblies. But if Jesus cast out (ekbállō) demons from people, why do we think that they are not at work even in our more sophisticated modern era? However, many modern followers of Jesus and even their leaders are not prepared to deal with this dimension. If they are ever confronted with a demonized person they have no categories with which to deal with him or her. They have either constructed a pre-encounter theology that either denies their parishioner’s torments or else claims that demonic oppression is simply not possible for a follower of Jesus.

The question for us, however, is:

Is this truly the case?

This is an especially important questions precisely because Jesus’ followers are the only people on earth who are in a position to confront and cast out demonic powers that afflict His people. Not being prepared to do so is either negligent or else living in denial. There are a multitude of cases in which there is convincing evidence of genuine demonic oppression [see here, for just one overwhelmingly convincing witness from our network].

It is ironic that Western churches, by and large, are unprepared to deal with the demonic while belief in demonic possession is widespread in the United States today. Polls conducted in recent decades by Gallup and the data firm YouGov suggest that roughly half of Americans believe demonic possession is real. The percentage who believe in the devil is even higher, and in fact, has been growing. Gallup polls show that the number rose from 55 percent in 1990 to 70 percent in 2007... The inescapable question is: Why? Or rather: Why now?

“Why, in our modern age, are so many people turning to the Church for help in banishing incorporeal fiends from their body? And what does this resurgent interest tell us about the figurative demons tormenting contemporary society?

Carlos Eire, a historian at Yale specializing in the early modern period, says

“there’s always been a surge in interest in the occult and the demonic…and there’s always been a hunger for contact with the supernatural.”

Adam Jortner, an expert on American religious history at Auburn University, agreed.

“When the influence of the major institutional Churches is curbed,” he said, people “begin to look for their own answers.”

A Distressing but Illuminating Incident

Years ago, we were conducting a series of outdoor evangelistic events. We were working in a very poor and needy inner-city area, filled with drug trafficking and gang violence. A whole city block was closed off for us and a crowd had gathered. There were music, testimonies, and, finally, preaching.

A suburban youth group joined us as one of their mission projects. During one of the events, a young man in the audience began to exhibit demonic behavior. While I was preaching, he began screaming incoherently, fell to the ground, and was obviously out of control of himself.

We were working with a group that was experienced with such things. They jumped in quickly, carried him into the nearby home of one of our team members, prayed, commanded the demon to leave—which he did—and the young man returned to normal, in-control behavior. I hardly missed a beat in my talk and we finished the event without further incident. Despite the unexpected event, many people came forward expressing a willingness to begin a journey toward God.

I was not surprised that the young mission team that had joined us was quite confused and upset. Their leader was even beyond that. He seemed somewhat angry that we had brought his young people into such a scene. I spoke with their whole team both immediately after the event and also the next morning. I explained that we had never had something like that happen before. We were as surprised as they were. Also, after prayer and deliverance, the young man had recovered and was in his right mind. The young people seemed to understand but their leader remained not just bewildered but deeply upset.

I remember asking him, “What did you expect us to do? Here was someone who, whatever we may think, was deeply distraught. But after prayer, he seemed to come back to his right mind. What is it that bothers you?” But he wouldn’t be consoled. The next day we found that the entire team had abruptly left without any explanation or closure.

The incident was distressing for all of us. I was preaching and thankful our support team intervened and provided a successful deliverance and successful event. But I realized that many Jesus-followers have no categories through which to account for such events. They seem to be in denial that such things still happen today. Or maybe, they only happen in undeveloped countries. They make sure they never encounter such things here.

However, that position raises some questions. Do we believe that demons are active today? And if not, what happened that made them agree not to afflict people anymore, at least not in the ways described in the New Testament? Even if such affliction is rare, do we believe they still sometimes affect people seriously?

In view of the many incidents reported in the Bible, what is our understanding of the work of demonic beings? How should we counter them? What kinds of interventions might be appropriate? How do we help such afflicted people? How should we prepare ourselves and what practical action steps should we be ready to take should we encounter possible demonic oppression? Christianity Today magazine published an extensive article on this issue, complete with a blow-by-blow description of one practitioner’s experience of how exorcisms can be handled. The article includes many other useful resources.

Incidents from Jesus’ Life

The Demonized Man in the Synagogue

Early in his ministry, in the Capernaum synagogue, there was a demonized man (“a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon” [πνεῦμα δαιμονίου ἀκαθάρτου]) who disrupted the service by crying out, demanding that Jesus would leave (Luke 4:33-37, Mk 1:21-28). Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, who came out, throwing the man to the ground as he left. This, understandably, amazed the crowd. It is a fair presumption that the man was a full-fledged member of the Jewish community. If we argue, then, that the man was taken hold of by “a spirit of an unclean demon” because he was “unsaved,” we may also then have to say that so was everyone else in the synagogue. In some cases, we are given indications as to the etiology of one’s demonization; in other cases, not. In this case, there is absolutely nothing notable mentioned to distinguish him from everyone else present.

At Peter’s home

In another incident that follows directly after the above exorcism (Matthew 8:14-17, Mark 1:29-34, Luke 4:38-40), Jesus comes to Peter’s home as his mother-in-law lay in bed “sick with a fever” (v. 30). He healed her and news of his presence spread through the village (v. 32-33). In the evening both sick and demonized people gathered at the door and he healed the sick and dismissed the evil spirits (v. 34). It is more than likely that among those freed from demon harassment were members of the local synagogue since they must have heard through her natural, relational network about Jesus’ presence and the cures he wrought.

The Woman with the Bent Spine

On a certain Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in a synagogue (Luke 13:10-17) in which there was a woman a syndrome of a bent spine (literally, “a spirit of weakness” [πνεῦμα ἔχουσα ἀσθενείας]) which caused her to be unable to straighten up into a normal posture. Jesus noticed her and discerned that she was “crippled by a spirit for eighteen years” (v. 16). He intervened and healed her. Notably, she was also in the synagogue. Not anyone was allowed to attend. Later, when an increasing number of Gentiles, called God-fearers, were admitted, they were seated in a separate section, toward the back. Jesus spoke of her as a “daughter of Abraham,” which term was reserved for full-fledged members of the Jewish covenant community. This is confirmed in Paul’s sermon in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:26). He addresses both “fellow Israelites,” i.e., descendants of Abraham, as well as “those” among them who “feared God” (οἱ ἐν ὑμῖν φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν).

The religious leaders were upset, charging Jesus with breaking the Sabbath (v. 14), even though what he did could hardly be considered work. He exposed their duplicity, which—and this is instructive—did not bring them to repentance (metanoia), but rather incited their anger and fury. The ordinary people, however (or, we might say, those responding to the Word in faith, rather than using it for their own ends), responded to Jesus’ healing by rejoicing in this demonstration of God’s power (v. 17).

The point to be made here is, first, that this was a physical malady caused by a demonic spirit. Second, she was a member of the Jewish community and, therefore, a member of God’s community.

An Intensely Demonized Man

By way of contrast, there is the story of Jesus’ encounter with a highly demonized man (Mark 5:6-17; Luke 8:26-39). That is to say, there were a large number of demons afflicting him (a “legion” [Mk 5:9, Lk 8:30]1, 2). Jesus responded by driving them out into a herd of pigs (“two thousand” in number) that “rushed violently” over a precipice into the sea, destroying (or more literally, “choking”) themselves (pnigó [ἐπνίγοντο], Mk 5:11-13). And it should be noted here that the owners of the flock were not ecstatic at the miraculous healing of the demonized man. They were, in fact, “afraid” (ἐφοβήθησαν, Mk 5:15) to the degree that they “began to plead with Him to depart from their region” (Mk 5:16-17). That is to say, their fear, rooted in their witnessing something they had never seen, led them to banish the Messiah.

One further note: This man was a Gerasene, which is to say that he was from one of the ten Gentile cities in that area. That meant he was a Gentile, not under the Jewish covenant.

What seems to be clear from each of these incidents is that certain levels of demonic oppression can be merely psychological. Others can cause physical problems. They can affect both covenanted and uncovenanted people. And they can vary in their degree.

Questions These Incidents Raise

These incidents from Jesus’ life raise important questions. The first three incidents happened in the context of God-following Jews. The woman is called a “daughter of Abraham.” They were believers in all that God had revealed up to that time. That raises the further question: can a follower of Jesus be demonized?

If so, how is that possible? What does that mean? How can we help them to be delivered? It seems clear from each of these events that a certain level of demonic oppression was possible in the lives of people who were in a relationship with God.

The View from Above

It would seem that we need a more nuanced answer to the question of who can be demonized and what that might mean. To close in on the answer, we have to be aware of and reconcile two points of view about how God and heaven view the results of the work of Jesus. The view from heaven is most dramatically put before us in Paul’s prison letters.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (θριαμβεύσας αὐτοὺς ἐν αὐτῷ, Col 2:13-15).

The idea of Jesus’ death on the cross as an atonement is well-known among his followers. It represents a decisive victory over Satan and his evil kingdom. The last verse refers to an ancient custom whereby when a foreign army was conquered, they were first completely disarmed so they could no longer rise in rebellion. Then all the captives were paraded before the cheering crowds in Rome. This was a public spectacle. What Paul is saying is that Jesus’ death and resurrection also meant complete defeat, disarming, and humiliation of his demonic opponents. This victory represented Jesus’ exaltation, which Paul describes in superlative terms.

 Because of Jesus’ great victory, God’s power was...

exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church [the “ekklēsía”—the assemblies of Jesus’ followers], which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way (Eph 1:20-23).

It is not only that Messiah Jesus was exalted to the highest imaginable place in the entire cosmos; but his followers share in his honors because they are his body.

And God raised us up with [Messiah Jesus] and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6-7).

Though Jesus’ followers are still rooted to the earth, on a spiritual level they are already sharing in Jesus' rule from heaven in that they are the agents of his kingdom here on earth. This pushes his work forward but also earns the reluctant praise of all demonic powers.

His intent was that now, through the church [ekklēsía], the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms (Eph 3:10).

That is, they know that the cross and Jesus’ resurrection mean that they have been defeated. Their major enemy, death, has been overthrown. The eternal kingdom of God has come down to earth and all hope of demonic domination has been ended.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet”  (1 Cor 15:25-27).

This is a quotation from Psalm 8:6, in which David affirms humanity’s rule over the earth. Paul assigns that reign to Messiah Jesus, whose death and resurrection has made him “the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom 8:29).

The View from Below

On the earthly level, what we see is that followers of Jesus don’t look nearly as glorious. To some degree, they are still self-centered, sinful creatures.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us (I Jn 1:8-10).

If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other (Gal 5:15).

In view of this, how shall we understand our present situation? It is that all those who put their trust in Jesus Messiah have been brought under the New Covenant, as Jesus said at his last meal with his disciples.

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you (Luke 22:20).

A covenantal relationship implies obedience to the king who is the superior party to it. The New Covenant is what holds both security and promise for us.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure (1 John 3:1-3).

The hope is that by learning to yield ourselves to God, he will so change us that we will be conformed to the image of his son to such a degree that we become recognized as his own image-bearers (Rom 8:29). Such yielding, however, requires an obedience to Jesus.

 If you love me, keep my commands (John 14:15).

In this statement, Jesus is not talking about love in the emotional sense that we usually think of it as—not even agape love, the selfless love of giving ourselves to the one we are loving. He is talking about covenant love—Khesed (חֵסֵד) in the OT—the kind of loyalty and obedient submission to the king, out of grateful hearts, that is an appropriate and necessary response to his grace that brought us under his covenant and into the protection and blessing that this implies.

Even though the covenant is gracious, the challenge of such obedience seems daunting—until we read the next verse.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate (paraklétos) to help you and be with you forever (John 14:16).

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you (Rom 8:11).

This is one of the most hopeful benefits of the New Covenant. Because the past experience of the Old Covenant has taught us that in our own strength we cannot live up to our requirements of the covenant—be it the old or the new one—God has bent over backward and given us the Holy Spirit to live within us to empower us to fulfill the covenant’s expectations of us.

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer 31:31-34)

‘Thus says the Lord God: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.

For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God (Ezek 36:22-28).

It is true that through diligence we must learn to hear and then learn to submit to his overcoming power. That is what enables obedience. But he is already there waiting to be called on to direct and empower us as we live in covenant community with God and with the other followers he brings into our lives to encourage and strengthen us. But even with all this, there can still be failures. There is, however, always remediation offered for us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Lapses in Covenant Community and Vulnerability to Satanic Attack

However, there can be more serious lapses in covenantal faithfulness that can lead to vulnerability to a satanic attack. This happened to Israel under the Old Covenant. There is an illustrative incident in the reign of Rehoboam (Solomon’s son). There was a period in which he and the nation of Judah as a whole turned from God (2 Chronicles 12). As a result, they lost God’s protection and were attacked by the Egyptian king, Shishak. But because of the prophet Shemiah’s rebuke, Rehoboam and all of Judah repented. God, therefore, prevented Jerusalem’s destruction and allowed Rehoboam to remain as king, although under Shishak’s control.

Judah’s sin was not so great as to take him and his nation out from under God’s covenant, but their unfaithfulness resulted in a vulnerability that allowed an enemy attack and loss. This can be an illustration of how a demonic attack can affect a follower of Jesus. After describing some common sins, Paul warns that indulging in them can “give the devil a foothold” (τόπον, Eph 4:27). These may be momentary infractions or even some persistent ones. They may be remediated through confession, repentance, and trust in the restoring work of the Holy Spirit as we see in the above passage from 1 John 1.

Yet such lapses can be very serious as they can give our Enemy more influence; but they are not necessarily covenant-breaking. However, if continued and not remediated, they can lead to an even more serious situation. The author of Hebrews has these sobering words.

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance (Heb 6:4-6a).

This is a covenant-breaking situation. Being in covenant with God, whether the Old or the New, is similar to being in covenant with a spouse. There is also both obligation and security in the relationship. Being in a covenant does not imply perfection. It is possible to fall short of our obligations to love and serve one another. That does not break the covenant but it requires remediation through discussion, confession, repentance, forgiveness, and the restoration of the relationship. But it is also possible to so neglect it that the covenant can be broken—as it was with Israel. It is possible to turn so far away from God that we may take ourselves out from under God’s covenant as the author of Hebrews describes. That would also make such a person much more vulnerable to a deeper level of demonic attack.

In our view, this covenantal view of salvation provides both the security as well as the incentive for obedience and character development. We need both to have a healthy and growing spiritual way of life. But being in good standing under the New Covenant does not exempt us from satanic attack. Even when Israel was still in good standing under the Old Covenant, there was, nonetheless, an enemy attack.

Prescriptive and Descriptive Views of the Bible

I was meeting with a small group of pastors when one of them told me that he and some of his colleagues were going to evaluate the charismatic movement. This movement had renewed interest in supernatural spiritual gifts, especially healing. I told him that I had just received such a report myself from one of the denominational charismatic ministries. They had discussed both the theology and quite a few of their experiences of such healings. I offered to send him a copy. He politely demurred, saying that his group didn’t need it. All they needed to do was to study what the Bible said about it.

His point of view reflects a prescriptive view of the Bible. This view holds that the Bible gives us a comprehensive guide to the way every circumstance in life should be handled. We should never use any methods that are not specifically taught there. This pastor’s group had already determined that the Bible taught that the supernatural gifts of the Spirit had ceased with the close of the canon. They, therefore, didn’t need to look at any other data. It seemed very clear to me what conclusion they would come to in their study. It would conform to what they had already decided.

One problem with this view is that it doesn’t allow us to examine unusual events that we encounter. This was the problem with the youth group that was helping us with outdoor evangelism. Its leader faced an occurrence that he had already ruled out as impossible. This view is also a problem when we encounter a true follower of Jesus who seems to be afflicted with a specific demonic influence or attack. To say that this cannot happen is to leave us without an explanation for when we encounter someone in this situation and have to decide how to deal with him or her.

Another possible view is a descriptive one. That is, that the Bible records the way its characters handled different situations, but their methods are not exhaustive. There may be other methods, not inconsistent with any biblical teaching, but which are not specifically mentioned as normative. It is legitimate for these to be used if the people using them are sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in a particular circumstance. Such a person is much more responsive to current data. Admittedly, it needs to be biblically interpreted, but there can be legitimately new methods and practices. The truth is that almost everyone takes a descriptive approach to some issues. There is nothing in the Bible about youth groups, men’s and women’s fellowships, Sunday School, or many other things common among Bible believers’ activities. These have been widely enough accepted so that they are acceptable despite the absence of a biblical prescription.

This issue is particularly important in dealing with practices associated with demonic activity. Some of the principles and methods that we learned are not specifically described in the Bible. Many people have discovered them somewhat ad hoc as the Spirit gave direction. It is in this spirit that we present some of them here. None of them should be considered to be on the level of inspired Scripture. There may even be differences between various people working in this area. We have tried to have a careful reliance on the Spirit’s guidance and are simply presenting things we have tentatively found helpful.

Can a Follower of Jesus be Demonized?

With the background above we are now in a position to address the question of whether a follower of Jesus can be demonized. We need to keep in mind what we mean by demonized, that is, afflicted, vexed, or oppressed, not possessed. The fact that Jesus dismissed demons from covenanted Jews suggests that followers can also be demonically oppressed. It is also the most reasonable explanation that many of us who do pastoral work have for what we have personally encountered in some of the people over whom we exercise spiritual care.

The issue is confused by a model that is commonly used to identify who is a follower of Jesus. Anyone who makes an initial commitment or “accepts Jesus” as a one-time event is taken to be a follower. This is where the previously described covenant model, offers a better understanding.

A true follower is living under the New Covenant. This involves not only an initial commitment but also a lifestyle of surrender and obedience to Jesus. Even though such people may not live perfectly, because of their covenantal relationship, they belong to or are possessed by Jesus Messiah. In that case, no demon can fully possess them. But he certainly can exert near total control over someone not under that covenant.

However, even a person under the New Covenant can be tormented by demonic influence. Ephesians 4:27 warns followers not to “give the devil a foothold,” as noted above. That can happen ifvfollowers continue to live in the kinds of sin that the surrounding passages describe. Habits of sin are not only destructive in their own right; they also open a person up to direct demonic influence. 

As we will see, there are also ways that such oppression can come to an innocent person. This makes it important to discern whether a person’s oppression comes from demonic influence. There are certain ordinary means for this to be made clear; but this is where the spiritual gift of “distinguishing between spirits” (διακρίσεις πνευμάτων, 1 Cor 12:10) is important. This gift is the ability to discern whether a person is under demonic oppression and, if so, the extent to which this is true. Interestingly, the complementary gift of exorcism is not mentioned in any of the New Testament’s gift lists. Perhaps this means that the harder problem is discernment. Once the degree of demonization is determined, it is more straightforward to deal with it.

Part II will examine the origin of the demonic as understood in the “world, the flesh and the devil” closing with the pathway to deliverance, which will be the focus of Part III.