No such thing as demon possession?!?

 It's frustrating looking up the meaning of the Greek word "daimonizomai", because sooner or later everyone falls back on "possessed by demons".  What frustrates me is the word "possessed".  If we remove that word from the "religious" context, it always means "owned".  

    I think everyone agrees that a demon can't "own" a human being.  In fact, this whole idea of "possession" is, I believe, pagan rather than Christian in origin.  In many pagan rituals, the "god" being invoked is said to "possess" either the priest, the shaman or the sacrifice, who begins to "manifest" (ie levitate, change in appearance, behave like a wild animal, reveal secrets, etc.).  Since they are liars anyway, it's foolish to accept their terms except to refute them.

    I know there are people who venerate the King James Version, and I have no arguments until they start to idolize it.  In fact, that (truly excellent) translation has many issues/problems.  For instance, it depends too much on Latin translations rather than the original Hebrew and Greek.  That's where we get erroneous words like, "Lucifer", "Jehovah" and even "Calvary".  While subsequent translations corrected the word "devils" (there's only one), they continued to use the word "possessed".  And, I'm sorry to say this, but scholars don't often have much in the way of PRACTICAL experience.  In 1611, Europe was still emerging from "the Dark Ages", and even the Church of England still had a lot of pagan overtones.  

    We all agree that "possess" is a synonym for "own", until we're in church.  Then, suddenly, the word means "inside".  

    So now we have the question that is guaranteed to generate more heat than light: Can a demon ever be "inside" a Christian?

    Since I believe in tripartite humans (spirit, soul and body: Gen 2:7 & 1 Thes. 5:23), that would open a possibility.  First we can all agree that demons could never enter a human spirit.  In the unsaved, the spirit is dead, so who'd want it?  In the saved, that's where the Holy Spirit is resident, and there would be neither room nor welcome for them there.  

    The "soul" ("nephesh" in Hebrew; "psuche" in Greek, mistranslated in most modern versions as "being") might be another story.  As I understand it, the soul consists of three areas: mind, emotions and will.  If the Holy Spirit really indwelt or filled these areas, Christians would never sin.  But any Christian who claims he never sins is lying, and calling the Holy Spirit who inspired the New Testament a liar (since most of it was written to Christians to correct error and reprove sinning.)  Likewise, the body: If the Holy Spirit indwelt or filled our physical bodies, we'd never get sick or old.  But in spite of the 'blab-it-and-grab-it" crowd, that's not the case.  I'm convinced God heals, but I've learned that He doesn't always heal, and we don't know why.  It's not always unconfessed sin and/or lack of faith.

    (NOTE: There are some in the Hebrew Roots movement and elsewhere that give a very different definition of "nephesh", and I won't argue with them until they insist it's the only understanding.) 

    So, there seems to be a possibility of demonic activity in humans in those areas, and possibly even in Christians.

    THAT'S where the heat comes in.  I often get emotional reactions and religious anathemas thrown at me for this one, and they most often stem from one source: fear.  

    But Christians have no business being afraid of, or impressed by, demons.  Jesus gave us authority over them in Luke 10:19.

    I learned that even Watchman Nee agrees with me in his book THE SPIRITUAL MAN, though he uses the unfortunate word "possess". 

    Derek Prince and Don Basham also took a lot of heat for their deliverance ministries (and I'm not endorsing everything they said or did by mentioning them). 

  I've learned from HKU (Hard Knocks University) that casting demons out of unsaved people isn't worth the time, though I often minister deliverance to people while leading them in prayer to receive Jesus Christ as Lord.  That usually defuses the whole argument AND takes care of any spiritual problems at the same time.    

    So, if you're still reading, thank you!  Wherever you stand on the "possession" issue, I hope we agree that JESUS gives us victory over the enemy!

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