Casting out Satan

I agree totally with the premis that Christians CANNOT be possessed. Possessed means totally taken over,ordered and controlled by demons.

However, we can have a demon inside us!

But you don't believe that DHK and I can't convince you, so I won't bother. I remember having this conversation with you in the past!!

Peace,

Tam

 

Eph 6-16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Selah

Tam

 

If the fiery darts were not there, we would not need the armour!!

selah,

Tam

 

It is pretty easy to argue that God has more power than Satan and that God can protect you from Satan such that the command to "resist the Devil" will get the "result" specified "And he will flee from you".

But when it comes to the rubber meeting the road it is a bit more difficult.

#1. God also said He gave the church power to heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons.

Try doing any of that sometime. It does not always happen with the snap of a finger and I doubt that most of us have seen all of that in our lifetime.

#2. There are a lot of threads here and on the Calvinist/Arminian board area discussing what it means to be a Christian "saved".

A. -- If you can lose that salvation (and many say you can) then saying that the Devil can not possess a Christian must also specifiy that the person has not lost their salvation.

B. -- IF salvation can be "retro-deleted" as in the case of 5 PT Calvinists that hold to the Biblical teaching of Perseverance AND to the tradition of OSAS -- then saying that someone is a Christian must be "tempered" by the future when it is observed 10 years from now that they in fact "fail to persevere".

C. -- If the person is disguised as those in Matt 7 who are themselves not aware that they are not saved until the day of judgment -- then they would be "claiming" sainthood while being possessed and arguing all the while that demon possession CAN happen to a saint.

D. -- One must distinguish between the demonic harrassment of the saints (the roaring lion oppressing them as he oppressed Christ in the wilderness or in Gethsemane for example) - and outright demon posession like we see in the case of the two men of Gadarra.

So simply saying "Satan can not take possession of a born-again believer" does not reduce to the simplification that we would all hope, yet it still holds a significant promise for us.

In Christ,

Bob

 

Having a demon inside a person means the person is possessed. Every instance in the Bible where the demon possessed person is freed, the demon is cast out of the person. There is no biblical evidence for a believer being possessed/controlled by a demon, or having one in them. The Greek word for "demonize" means to be controlled and possessed by a demon because every time this word is used, it gives an instance of someone being possessed.

Some bad spiritual warfare teachings have tried to make a distinction between demonize and demon-possessed, but this distinction does NOT exist in the NT at all.

We sin, of course, and Satan tempts believers. But when we sin, it's because we choose to, not because we have a demon inside us.

 

Thats O.K. go ahead and keep your beliefs on demons.

It is not up to me to change your mind. That job belongs to the Holy Ghost.

God Bless,

Tam

 

People who worry about demons and such who I personally know tend to also make excuses for their own personal failings and lack of success.

 

It has been my experience that when people start making derogatory remarks about other people, they are showing their ignorance, because they don't know what to say about the subject at hand.

By the way, I noticed that you mentioned "people you know " personally on another thread with the same type of remarks, and all I can say is, perhaps you know them because they are more like you!!!

Tam

 

Being a tad judgemental, aren't you billwald?

Kinda makes me glad that I'm not one of those that you "personally know"!

 

How many demons have you even recognized, and how many have you personally cast out?

 

billwald , I know you are getting some flack on this, perhaps some of us misunderstood what you were trying to say.
I have known some that have fallen under satan's influence , sure they make their excuses only because they may not know how to escape satan's snare . We should encourage these people and do what we can do help or find help and rely on God's power to save that person. Satan is already defeated but that won't stop him from making our lives more miserable.