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Evil,
Satan, Demons and the Gospel
Monday, August 19, 2013 Jeff Lampl
Monday, August 19, 2013 Jeff Lampl
"As
for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of
the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient."
Ephesians 2:1-2 (NIV)
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of
the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient."
Ephesians 2:1-2 (NIV)
My Junior High nephew emails questions to me about God. His most recent question dealt with evil, demons, possession, exorcism and demonic powers occupying physical spaces. Following is my response to him.
“First
of all I do believe that there exists an evil force in the world that goes
beyond human beings’ sinfulness.
What exactly this evil power in the world is and how it got there is
hotly debated, but the basic thing is that it is there.
It exists.
It appears to be some kind of a supernatural force out to destroy
everything that is good.
The bible calls this force a variety of things including Satan and the
Devil. It
is important to remember that this evil power is not a power that is equal to
God. Instead
God is over all things including this evil power but for reasons we cannot fully
understand, God allows this evil power some degree of freedom to carry out its
evil.
So,
now what about
your question. This
evil power appears to have many forms including what the bible calls demons,
which are local forces of evil that can influence people to do bad things and
can even make evil things look good and natural.
People can become directed by evil and can be” taken over” by these
evil powers which sort of take control of the mind by means of evil’s twisted
logic and reasoning.
Each of us can be deceived.
Remember that that those who are deceived don’t know it which is why we
need the bible and the church so that we have sources of God’s wisdom coming
from outside of ourselves.
So we all must be careful.
This is what the TV series “Breaking Bad” is about.
So
it is possible that an evil power (demons) can rule a person’s mind.
I’m not sure whether or not it is correct to call that “possession”
or what. But
I do believe that these evil powers can be so powerful that a person can be
completely controlled by evil that they can’t see that they are controlled and
they can be so controlled that they can’t escape.
Therefore I have come to the conclusion that exorcisms do happen on
relatively rare occasions and that they occur through tremendous faith and
prayer by those doing the praying and counseling.
Another way of putting this is that it is God removing the evil power
over the person and the those who pray and give biblical information to the
affected person are simply relying on God to do the work of exorcism.
I a great book on this is by M Scott Peck and it is called People of the
Lie.
Can
a demon possess a house or a room?
My short answer is that I don’t know.
Part of me is skeptical about that because the powers of evil can only
exist because good exists.
Evil cannot exist on its own, whereas good does exist on its own, just
God exists on his own but satan cannot exist without God.
Therefore evil, satan, the devil, demons, are parasites.
They can only exist as the feed off good.
Can that happen with inanimate things like a room or a house?
Some think they can inhabit buildings.
Some think they can’t.
One thing I’m certain of is that we do know about the power of God in
Jesus. We do
know that His death forgave all sin, and that his resurrection “one upped”
the power of evil.
Evil can’t win in the end.
Sometimes
the forces of evil, satan and the devil, are referred to as the powers of
darkness. So,
what do you do when you’re in the dark?
You turn on the light!
Jesus is called the light of the world.
I think the best way to fight the powers of darkness, to avoid the
influence of the evil one, is to always, always, always head to toward the
light, which means always be in the process of getting to know Jesus better by
reading the Bible, , following him as a well as you can, talking and listening
to him daily (prayer), and being an active part of his Body which is the church.
Two
really great prayer that the apostle Paul prayed for us are found in Ephesians
1:15-23 and 3:14-21”
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
Jeff, I think your dialogue was right on. Job gives us a birds eye view of how evil is in submission to God. Not understanding why God allows evil to not only exist, but to "coexist" with us is a huge question. I often think that its strange that he made man and placed him in the garden on Earth where Lucifer (evil) had his domain. It just says to me there are reasons and we need to trust. He didn't leave us defenseless but empowered.
ReplyDeleteFear is the devil's grasp. Let us remember that Jesus "has overcome". Let us walk in the knowledge that someday we, the saints 'will be judging angels"! As for evil occupation-to keep it short, I was in a situation where I had to stay in a house of someone I loved that was ill. I felt the evil in this house and physically was clued into what had given it invitation. But, there was a Bible, open that had been continuously read. That night I had to stay there by myself. Feeling the evil but filled with the Spirit and believing His power at work in us, emboldened, I prayed aloud, as I "reclaimed this place for God". I immediately felt His peace and the presence was gone. This was confirmed by my husband 3 weeks later when he returned for me. He had felt the presence and the absence as well.
We have freewill, but if we don't use it to choose good, the choice is made for us by default and that choice will not be good.
We are heirs in Christ, a royal priesthood, blessed and confirmed in Christ. In Him we do not fear. Through Him we move and have our being. Through Him we are strengthened, empowered, loved beyond comprehension and have only eternal good to look forward to!