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The Blind Prophet, the first of my six Invisible War novels tracing the struggle between angels and demons from creation to history’s end, is scheduled for release April 7th. I’d like to send a FREE copy to registered users of Demondope on March 15th.

For those currently registered

Just send your name and address (including screen name) to ancient1@nc.rr.com. (To preserve your anonimity, I won’t keep these after addressing your book). 

For those not yet registered

You can still qualify for a free book if you register prior to March 7th. But please don’t put it off.  

The Flesh (1)

The second in of the enemies against which Christians are to wage spiritual warfare is “the flesh.” While “the world” is sin’s expression embedded in the patterns and pressures exerted by those around us, “the flesh” is internal, embedded in our very nature as fallen human beings. In encountering the flesh we find that we’re at war, not with an external enemy, but with ourselves.

The Hebrew term basar

The two Hebrew terms translated flesh are basar and se’er. The latter occurs only sixteen times in the OT, and is has no special theological significance. It is often rendered “kin,” it’s meaning in our expression, “my own flesh and blood.”

Basar is found 273 time in the OT. When used to indicate something essential about human beings, the word does have theological significance.
  
Among the many meanings of basar are the following:  the physical body (as in Ge 40:19; Nu. 19:7), the self (as in Ps 16:9-10), all living creatures (as in Gen 6:12; Ps 145:21) and intimate interpersonal and family  relationships (as in Gen. 2:23-24; 29:14).

The view of humanity suggested by basar

“Flesh,” “heart” (leb), and “soul” (nephesh) are key biblical words affirming something about the nature of humankind. We should not take them to indicate that we human beings are made up of three or more separate parts, such as soul, spirit, and flesh. In fact, the OT generally understands human beings as undivided wholes. So what the OT does with terms like basar is to look at persons from particular perspectives. To view a human being from the perspective of flesh means that we try to understand ourselves in view of our mortality. This perspective calls us to look at human beings as those who, with us, live out their present life in the material universe.

Given this perspective, the statement that a man and a woman in marriage become “one flesh” (Ge. 2:24) affirms far more that sexual union. That act of joining is a symbol of the fact that the married couple are called by God to live in this world as those who share every blessing and tragedy that life in the world may have for them.

While “flesh,” as I noted, focuses our attention on human beings a persons who live in the physical universe and who are a part of it, it also draws attention to human frailty. Because we are flesh, we are mortal, weak, and frail. In his mercy, God “remembers that they are but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return” (Ps. 78:39). The notion that the flesh is the root and source of sin is not found in the OT. In fact, Ezekiel’s report of God’s promise to give Israel a “heart of flesh” (Eze. 36:26) is a promise that God will make his people responsive to him. Here flesh is a positive thing, standing in contrast to an unheeding “heart of stone.”

The OT’s emphasis in the its use of the word “flesh” is on our frailty as creatures. This line of teaching shows us that we must not rest our hope on that which is essentially so frail. Jeremiah records the Lord’s words: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord” (17:15). The prophet adds, “But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him” (v.7). This realization of the essential frailty of man can bring us comfort when we are threatened by . As the psalmist reminds, us, “In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man [basar] do to me?” (Ps 56:4).

The Greek sarx and its meanings

Sarx, with sarkinos and sarkikoi (both translated “fleshly”), can be found many more times in the original Greek than is found in modern versions like the NIV. The reason for this is that the translators of such a version are willing to accept responsibility for communicating the meaning of the word in its context in the English rendering. This is complex for a word like sarx, which has so many possible translations. For instance, the eleven occurrences of sarkikos (fleshly) are translated “carnal” nine times and “fleshly” two times in the KJV, but in the NIV they are variously translated “unspiritual” (Ro 7:14), “material” (Ro 15:27; 1 Cor 9:11), worldly (1 Co 3:1,3; 2 Co 1:12; 10:4), “mere men” (1 Co 3:4), “ancestry” (Heb 7:16), and “sinful [desires]” (1 Pe 2:11).

Sarx thus is a complex concept. It caries all the OT meanings of basar into the NT. In the NT, too, sarx can indicate literal flesh (1 Co 15:39), the physical body (Gal. 4:13), a human being (Ro 3:20; 1 Co 7:28), and family relationship (Ro 4:1; 9:3; 1 Co 10:18).

The most significant uses of sarx in the NT are found in Paul’s epistles. Here a number of passages expand implications of the OT view of human nature as expressed in basar. According to Paul, human  nature is not just frail and weak; human nature is also twisted and tangled. Human perspectives, human understanding, and human efforts are actually hostile to the perspective, understanding and plan of God We are morally inadequate, and we are driven toward rebellion.

The view of humanity expressed by sarx
Ancient philosophers and popular psychology contrast the flesh with the spiritual part of human nature. The NT, however, makes no such comparison. Instead the NT uses sarx to denote human nature apart from God. The contrasts drawn are between human powers, perspectives and abilities and the powers, perspectives and abilities of God, most importantly his ability to to enable people to do his will. The whole of human nature, not merely a “part of human beings, is in view when Scripture uses “flesh” in a moral or theological sense to make statements about human nature.

Sarx sees human beings in isolation from God. Essentially, when human beings are cut off from the Lord, they are morally inadequate (Ro 6:19; 7:7-11,15-20; 8:3). To live according to the flesh (kata sarx) is completely different from living accord to God’s Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26; Ro 8:4-13).

Apart from God, humanity is characterized by a complex web of thoughts, desires, values and actions that are in opposition to God’s intended pattern for us.

Several extended passages in Paul’s letter explore the nature and meaning for “the flesh.”

Romans 7:4-25. Exploring his own struggle with sin, Paul faced his moral inadequacy. The law of God is spiritual, but Paul was sarkikos (characterized by the flesh), and thus trapped in sin. Paul realized that “nothing good” lived in him, that is, in his “flesh” (sarx, ‘in my sinful nature”). Trapped by his moral frailty, Paul cannot live the righteous life that is revealed in God’s law, even though he acknowledges its beauty.

Galatians 5:16-26. Sarx is translated “sinful nature” five times in the NIV reading of this passage. Paul here describes the flesh as energized and motivated by desires that find expression in a number of actions, ranging from sexual immorality to jealousy and fits of rage. In contrast, believers are called on to “live by the Spirit.” God himself is the source of transformed desires that motivate a new life. What’s more, he is also the source of power for such a life. When we keep in step with the Spirit rather than the flesh, God will fill us and our actions with love, joy, peace, and the other fruit of the Spirit.

1 Co 3:1-4.  Sarkikos, “fleshly,” occurs four times in these verses. It is descriptive of the behavior of the Christians at Corinth. Their bickering and factions show that despite their relationship with Jesus, the Corinthians were acting as “mere men.” This outlook was human, rather than being shaped by God’s perspective on the issues they found to important.

Romans 8:3-14 explores God’s remedy for the limitations and sins of the flesh. That remedy is not found in the law. Law was unable two lift us to righteousness, because it was “weakened by our sinful nature (sarx)(v.3). So God through Christ provided the Holy Spirit to believers. Now we have the possibility of being controlled by the Spirit, not by the flesh. It is the Spirit whose life-giving power raised Jesus from the dead. It is the Spirit who can bring us life and power despite our mortality.

If we choose to rely on the Spirit and if we commit ourselves to his control, we will experience a resurrection kind of life–now. The limits imposed by our fleshly human nature will no longer constrain us, and we will be freed from the mastery of the flesh.

Next, At war with the flesh

Demon Descriptions

Demons aren’t described in the Old Testament. But ancient Mesopotamian tablets draw vivid and horrible pictures of supernatural creatures that tormented humankind. In the following excerpt from The Blind Prophet I include one of these ancient descriptions.
    Zaki, the blind prophet, has been transported to a city state existing about 1800 B.C. to observe. He’s in an ancient school for scribes, watching the ummia, the headmaster, Ishmi-Lim. Zaki watches which the king’s baru, his chief diviner, seeks an audience. As the baru enters Zaki is shocked to see a demon riding on the baru’s back.  

_____________________________________

   As the chief diviner slumped on a bench, all the energy seemed to drain out of him. After a moment, he looked up and forced himself to speak.
   “Last night, before I went to bed, I read the king’s fortune as I do every night. I poured oil into the bowl of water on my lap, and watched its movements. I couldn’t believe what I saw. The oil refused to spread out on the water! Ishmi-Lim, this is the worst of all omens. It means the king will die, and that our city will die with him.
   “I got another bowl of water and more oil. And the same thing happened again. I needn’t tell you that I couldn’t sleep. I paced the halls, worrying. I consulted the Surpu and that Maqlu for some spell to ward off the king’s fate. But there was none. Then I must have fallen asleep, or into a trance, because I saw a vision. The demon Lamashtu appeared to me. I saw her, Ishmi-Lim! I saw all her ugliness.”
   At this Ishmi-Lim sat down suddenly. Lamashtu was one of the most evil of the demons recorded on his tablets, and he’d often see the amulets bearing her image that pregnant women wore in the hopes the sight of her own ugliness would drive Lamashtu away. The words describing her came to Ishmi-Lim’s mind, and as Zaki followed his thoughts, he saw the demon riding the chief diviner mockingly change form to match the words.

   She comes up from the swamp,
   is fierce, terrible, forceful, destructive, powerful;
   she is a goddess, is awe-inspiring.
   Her feet are those of an eagle, her hands mean decay,
   Her fingernails are long, her armpits rank and unshaven.
   The daughter of Anu counts the pregnant women daily,
   follows on the heels of those about to give birth.
   She counts their months, marks their days on the wall.
   Against those just giving birth she casts a spell:
   “Bring me your sons, let me nurse them.”
   She loves to drink bubbling human blood,
   eats flesh not to be eaten, picks bones not to be picked.

Zaki watched the demon take on the appearance of Lamashtu, through underneath Zaki could still see a shadow of the demon’s true form. He’s enjoying this, Zaki realized. No, more than that. He’s feeding on the poor man’s terror!
  
   “Then,” the chief diviner said, “Lamashtu spoke to me.” Zaki was aware that Ishmi-Lim was now beginning to feel the same horror and fear that radiated from his visitor. “I’m sorry, ummia. I’m so sorry,” the chief diviner repeated.
   Both fascinated and fearful, Ishmi-Lim urged his visitor, “Go on, man. Go on! What did Lamashtu say?”
   “Lamashtu told me . . .” and the visitor hesitated again. “Lamashtu told me that she had been cheated when your grandson Napir-Assu was born. She had chosen him, but he was born prematurely, when she was away. Lamashtu says she wants Napir-Assu now, and that only if you will sacrifice him to her will she reveal how to save the king and the city.”

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   You can read the rest of the story after April 7th, when The Blind Prophet will be on Amazon and in bookstores, But, if you’re a registered visitor to demondope I’ll send you a  FREE copy of the book in the middle of March! Details will follow in early Ma.ch

The World (5)

The world is seeking constantly to squeeze us into it’s mold. And the world has allies. The patterns ingrained in the kosmos, that is, in human cultures, resonates with native tendencies. Cravings, passionate desires for what we see, and pride in what have and do, well up in response to cues in our environment.

God’s Spirit however is seeking to transform us. God seeks to nurture a new set of values and attitudes, a new perspective that will enable us to respond in godly ways to those same cues in our environment. And the Spirit too has allies. Allies that we can call God’s tools for the renewal of our minds (nous, perspective).

We all know what those tools are. But most of us don’t focus on making them available to the Spirit. In fact, many if not most Christians today seem intent on setting those tools aside.

Scripture

We all would affirm the importance of the Bible in shaping our beliefs and our standards. Scripture is that, and more. Paul reminds Timothy that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16,17). Scripture is one of the two primary means God uses for our transformation, and has the potential to train us in righteousness. And most Christians tragically settle for sermons, Sunday school classes, and devotional writings (or, at worst, two of the three!).

A vast chasm exists between the transforming impact of Scripture accessed directly, and the impact of second hand servings of Bible served up in sermons, classes and devotionals. Even the best of preaching and is no substitute for the reading of Scripture.

But let’s be clear about something. In encouraging the reading of Scripture I’m not talking about reading a few verses or “a chapter a day and then we pray.” For the kind of renewing of our minds that brings transformation we need to saturate ourselves in God’s Word; to read and reread until God’s perspective begin to sink in.

The best way to do this is to read a book of the Bible at one sitting . . . and then to reread the same book again and again. Whether the book we begin with is Romans (a longer book) or Titus (much shorter), as we saturate ourselves in that book fresh insights will burst in on us and the Holy Spirit will take the Word we’re making available to him and accelerate our transformation.

Don’t misunderstand. God has spoken to me and to you through sermons. I trust he speaks through the classes I teach and the books I write. But none of these ways of communicating truth has the transforming potential of saturating oneself in Scripture by repeated, daily reading of a book of the Bible at a sitting.

It would be nice to recommend a shortcut that could produce a renewed mind. But I know of none. And if we’re to live in this world and truly not be of it, if we’re to reach our potential as Jesus’ followers, immersion in Scripture is an essential.

One anothering

The second tool used by the Spirit to effect our transformation is “one another” relationships with fellow believers. There are several reasons for this, foremost that We each need examples whose responses to the world’s pressures provides model an “in” not “of” lifestyle. Paul urged young Timothy to pay attention to his life as well as to his teaching (1 Timothy 4:16), to “set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity” (4:12). Paul was careful to maintain this balance himself, and so could write to the Philippians “whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me–put it into practice” (4:9). The example that Paul set was as essential as the teaching he provided to help others put God’s truth into practice.

Writing to the Thessalonians Paul provides a fascinating picture of the kind of personal relationship he developed with new Christians. He recalls,

    We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with your not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8).

Now, the point isn’t that we should expect this kind of loving, life-sharing relationship with members of the staffs of our churches. The point is that it is only in the context of loving, life-sharing relationships that we can model transformed lives for each other.

Close, long-term, and life-sharing relationships is the second tool for transformation that the Holy Spirit uses to renew our perspectives and shape us for a life that is “in” but not “of” the world.

If you want to understand more about what life-sharing relationships entail, I suggest that you undertake a simply Bible study. Get a concordance and look up the phrase, “one another.” Go to each passage, and see what each says about one-anothering kinds of relationships. Then check to see if there is anyone in your life with whom you have such a relationship. If there is, praise God for it. If there isn’t, pray for the Lord to bring such a person into your life, and keep alert for him or her. Or, better yet, for them. Being part of a small group of believers who share their lives with each other is a powerful stimulus to transformation.

In the World

We all live in the world. And the kosmos, the present social order, has been fashioned by fallen human beings to appeal to our fallen natures. The old within us responds to its cues with surging cravings, all too human desires and a misplaced pride in what we have and do.
God’s intent isn’t to take us out of this world, but to make us fit to live in it as resident aliens, who owe our allegiance to him and who life truly different lives. God’s intent is that we might be “of” his kingdom, and respond to the pressures placed on us by the world in new and different ways–ways that reflect God’s values and attitudes rather than fallen man’s.

So on conversion God sets about transforming us. Some of us are further down the path of transformation than others. Some true believers are almost indistinguishable from the people of the world. Some are so different that those around us can see Christ shine through our lives.

If we truly want to be transformed, there are two steps we can take to speed up the process. We can immerse ourselves in the Word of God. And we can develop close, life-sharing relationships with other believers. God the Holy Spirit will use his Word and others to give us victory of the World.

Next study: the Flesh (1)

Troble Right Here in River City!

What do Russia and Italy have in common? Growing problems with demonic activity. The 100 priests who signed up for a Vatican-sanction course on exorcism a few years ago reflect a growing trend reported in the LA Times. In Italy the number of official Catholic exorcists, now at over 400, are swamped by an avalanche of requests for help from people who believe they are demon possessed. There’s a similar flood of complaints of demonization in Russia.

More cases seem to be surfacing here in the US as well. Last December high school students in one Mississippi town became convinced that a classmate was demon possessed. The girl spoke in a deep voice, in other languages, and revealed unknown facts about her fellow-students’ pasts. She also made predictions about how some of them would die. A number of teens left the school, and some refused to return. Other students were so sure an evil spirit possessed the girl they brought Bibles to school and held prayer meetings.

The World (4)

It’s been some time since I’ve posted to the “spiritual warfare” series — not since January 22nd, to be exact. Too much has been happening on the “gotta get this done first” front. Sorry about that. So, a quick review.

Spiritual warfare

Spiritual warfare is generally viewed as the believer’s struggle against pressures that deter us from fully following Jesus. These pressures come from the world, the flesh, and the devil. While these sources overlap to some extent, I’m treating each of them separately in these studies. So far I’ve posted three studies on “the world.” This is the fourth, and we begin with a brief review of what we’ve seen so far.

What is “the world”?

The relevant term in Greek is kosmos, which has the basic meaning or “order” or “arrangement.” In Scripture, when used theologically, kosmos refers to the order or arrangement that fallen human nature stamps on man’s cultures; an arrangement that Satan uses in ruling (influencing, controlling) this fallen world. The characteristics of this world order are expressed in 1 John 2:15-16:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world.

“The cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does” sums up both the nature and the appeal of the kosmos. Human cultures are organized in accord with “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does.’ And because human society is organized in this way, the world has a great appeal to humans who are by nature characterized by cravings, desires, and pride in what they have and do.

Where is the Christian Vis a vie the world?

Every human born enters a culture that is shaped to appeal to his or her fallen nature. And every human comes with a fallen nature (Ephesians 2: ). Like two puzzle pieces, the world and the fallen human being are a perfect fit for each other. The world’s values and attitudes resonate with sinful man’s cravings, desires, and pride in what one has and does.

But when a person becomes a Christian God provides him or her with a new nature; a nature that no longer fits the world. Scripture uses various images to portray this, contrasting light with darkness, the old with the new, an old cloak with a new one, etc. But the analogy most to the point portrays the believer as being transferred from the Kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of the Son God loves (Colossians 1:13-14). The believer’s citizenship is now in heaven’s kingdom, not in the dominion ruled by Satan (the world).

There are several implications of this transfer. We explored some of them in an earlier study. The Christian may still live “in” the world, and be subject to all the pressures the world exerts to squeeze us into the mold of its values, attitudes and behaviors. But the believer is no longer “of” the world. We’re resident aliens, living in a land not our own.

The source of tension

Before we were converted our sinful nature was a perfect fit with the world. With conversion we were given a new nature, and that nature which was “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24), is at odds with the world. The new nature is a perfect fit for the Kingdom of God over which Jesus rules today.

The problem is that the new nature doesn’t replace the old. The two now exist side by side. Even as the new self God has created gravitates toward God’s will, the old nature with which we were born feels the pull of the world. Those cravings to which the world appeals attract us, while the Holy Spirit urges us to make choices that reflect our position as citizens of Christ’s kingdom.

In our second study of the world we looked at Christ’s depiction in the Beatitudes of the values and attitudes that characterize his kingdom and its citizens. In their opposites we saw clearly the nature of the world and its citizens. The problem is that most of us are like immigrants. We’ve lived all our lives in one culture. And then we move to another, vastly different culture. The old habits of thought and behavior are deeply ingrained; so deeply that we respond to cues in the environment almost automatically and without conscious evaluation. But the new culture isn’t like our old one, and we have to struggle to learn how to respond in new ways to the old cues. We have to learn how to be good citizens of Jesus’ kingdom. 

Being transformed

In our third study I pointed out that Paul contrasts being squeezed into the world’s mold with being transformed by the renewing of our minds. The word here is nous, which implies a new mindset, a different perspective. “Mind” is not intellect, not intelligence, not information. “Mind” here indicates a shift within of the values and attitudes, the perspective, with which we approach daily life. “Mind,” nous, evaluates the situations in which we find ourselves and indicates how we are to respond.

This capacity needs to be “renewed” so that we’ll be able to discern and practice the will of God, which Paul reminds us is “good, pleasing and perfect” (Ro. 12:2). This kind of discernment is possible because of the presence in the believer of the Holy Spirit. But the renewal of our minds is an ongoing process that depends largely on our relationship to two resources God has provided for his people.

In our next study I’ll examine these two resources and how we are to use them. But to end this study, its helpful to look at passage that reminds us of how the world works . . . and how deceptive it can be.

Perspective from James

The book of James is a handbook of uniquely practical advice on how to live in the world without being of it. James constantly points out how we humans tend to respond, and then contrasts how Christians are to respond. In one passage he takes a look at what happens when two or more people “want something.”

The “something” here can be anything: a promotion at work, a solo in the choir, a new house, recognition for our accomplishments, election to an office, whatever. Wanting your “something,” James points out, leads to conflict with others.

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but cannot have what you want” (James 4:1,2). 

This clearly is the world’s way. You want something. So you go after it. But others have the same desire, and they want it too. You both want it desperately (covet it), so soon you fight over it, quarreling over the object of your desire like two dogs growling at each other over a bone. The world’s response to the “something” we want is to go after it. And if we don’t get it, to fight over it. Thus we come in conflict with others who want the same thing, and our mutual hostility leads to fights and quarrels.

So James goes on. “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2b).

Christ rules in this kingdom of which we’re now a part. Rather than go after what we want, the renewed mind tells us to step back, acknowledge our dependence on the Lord, and ask him for it. Thus dependence on God diffuses conflict with others, as we’re no longer competing, fighting for what we want. Our perspective has changed, and we rely on God to provide.

But James goes on.

“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you might spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3).

The problem lies with the reason for wanting the “something” in the first place! Was this a desire generated by the old nature, to feed the old nature? The “somethings” that we want are neutral in and of themselves. There’s nothing wrong with a promotion. There’s nothing inherently sinful about a new house, or wrong about singing a solo or getting recognition for excellence. The “wrong” is the motives. . . that when we get what we want we use it to feed the cravings of our sin nature, the lust of our eyes, or the boasting of what we have and do.

Transformation must go deep

If we’re to successfully wage spiritual warfare with the world, that transformation of our minds must go deep. It’s not enough to stop fighting for what we want. It’s not enough to rely on God rather than on ourselves. It’s not enough to express that reliance in prayer. It’s not even enough to examine our motives. We need a transformation of the nature of our desires themselves, so that we want what God wants, not to satisfy our needs, or our wants, but to glorify Him.

Next: tools for transformation

A real life exorcism

The WorldNetDaily posted the following report of a “real-life case of demon possession last year. I briefly mentioned the event in an earlier post, but I thought you’d find the longer description interesting, particularly as the events described mirror those in many reports of exorcisms in the literature.

An American woman who levitated, demonstrated paranormal psychic powers and spoke foreign languages unknown to her was clearly demon possessed, according to a board-certified psychiatrist and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical college.
   The unnamed woman, with a long history of involvement with Satanic groups, was observed by a team of priests, deacons, several lay assistants, psychiatrists, nuns, some of whom also had medical and psychiatric training, levitating six inches off the ground while objects flew off shelves in the same room, according to Dr. Richard E. Gallagher, who documented the case in the February issue of the New Oxford Review. “Periodically, in our presence, Julia would go into a trance state of a recurring nature,” Gallagher writes. “Mentally troubled individuals often ‘dissociate,’ but Julia’s trances were accompanied by an unusual phenomenon. Out of her mouth would come various threats, taunts, and scatological language, phrases like ‘Leave her alone, you idiot,’ ‘She’s ours,’ ‘Leave, you imbecile priest,’ or just ‘Leave.’ The tone of this voice differed markedly from Julia’s own, and it varied, sometimes sounding guttural and vaguely masculine, at other points high pitched. Most of her comments during these ‘trances,’ or at the subsequent exorcisms, displayed a marked contempt for anything religious or sacred.”

The subject would have no recollection of speaking these phrases upon recovering from the trance-like state. According to Gallagher, “Sometimes object around her would fly off the shelves, the rare phenomenon of psychokinesis known to parapsychologists,” reports Gallagher. “Julia was also in possession of knowledge of acts and occurrences beyond any possibility of their natural acquisition. “She commonly reported information about the relatives, household composition, family deaths and illnesses, etc., of members of our team, without ever having observed or been informed about them,” he said. “As an example, she knew the personality and precise manner of death (ie., the exact type of cancer) of a relative of a team member that no one could conceivably have guessed. She once spoke about the strange behavior of some inexplicably frenzied animals beyond her direct observation. Though residing in another city, she commented, ‘So those cats really went berserk last night, didn’t they?’ the morning after two cats in a team member’s house uncharacteristically had violently attacked each other at about 2 a.m.
   Julia request a Roman Catholic exorcism ritual, convinced from the beginning of her consultations that she was under demonic attack. “The exorcism began on a warm day in June,” Gallagher recollects. “Despite the weather, the room where the rite was being conducted grew distinctly cold. Later, however, as the entity in Julia began to spout vitriol and make strange noises, members of the team felt themselves profusely sweating due to a stifling emanation of heat. The participants all said they found the heat unbearable.
  “Julia at first had gone into a quiet trance-like state. After the prayers and invocations of the Roman Ritual had been going on for a while, however, multiple voices and sounds came out of her. One set consisted of loud growls and animal-like noises, which seemed to the group impossible for any human to mimic. At one point, the voices spoke in foreign languages, including recognizable Latin and Spanish. (Julia herself only speaks
English, as she later verified to us.)
   “The voices were noticeably attacking in nature, and often insolent, blasphemous and highly scatological. They cursed and insulted the participants in the crudest way. They were frequently threatening–trying, it appeared, to fight back. ‘Leave her alone.’ ‘Stop, you whores’ (to the nuns), ‘You’ll be sorry,’ and the like.
   “Julia also exhibited enormous strength. Despite the religious sisters and three others holding her down with all their might, they struggled to restrain her. Remarkably, for about 30 minutes, she actually levitated about half a foot in the air.”
   The purpose of Gallagher’s paper, he says, is to “document a contemporary and clear-cut case of demonic possession.” He explains that even those who doubt such a phenomenon exists my find this case “rather persuasive.” “Possession is only one and not the most common type of demonic attack,” he concludes. “So-called ‘oppression’ or ‘infestation’ is less rare, though hardly frequent either, and sometimes more difficult to discern accurately.”

What might have been?

Was the Virginia Tech killer demon possessed?

A Judge approved an $11 million settlement for the 42 families of those killed or wounded in the massacre at Virginia Tech, holding the university responsible for delays in getting out warnings in a timely manner. But there’s an indication that the underlying cause may have been demonic. In May of 07, in an article not widely disseminated, the Washington Post reported that the mother of Seung Hui Choi brought her son to the One Mind Church in Woodbridge, Virginia, a Presbyterian congregation, asking for help to deliver her son from “demonic power.” The Pastor, the Rev. Dong Cheol Lee, reported that the mother came because she’d heard that the church was “helping other people like him,” whose problem “needed to be solved by spiritual power.” However Cho returned to college before any exorcism or other intervention could take place.

When there are clear signs of demonization, its a good idea not to put off trying to deal with it. See my brief study of “Extreme Demonization” in the archives.