New Warhorn Media post by Aaron Prelock:
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I can recall leading a Bible study one night with a group of students from various Asian background - specifically looking at Jesus casting out evil spirits. For them, this stuff (the demonic) was something they ‘got’ all too well.
On a related note, what does the Reformed tradition teach about things like exorcism?
I won’t pretend to speak on behalf of the whole Reformed tradition, but I will take a stab at an answer. Happy for others to chime in as well!
Exorcism would be similar to the individual use of the miraculous gifts (tongues, prophecy, and healing). If you look throughout scripture you don’t see massive outpourings of the supernatural on every page. Individuals being given power to exercise miraculous gifts seem largely focused around three particular people/events, Moses (and the giving of the Law), Elijah (and the inauguration of the prophetic age), and Jesus (the Incarnation and birth of the church). The outpourings of miraculous gifts in the book of Acts seem, again largely not exclusively, to be connected with the gospel being given to an ever widening circle of people, first Jews, then Samaritans, then gentiles, then those baptised by John.
If you look at the New Testament chronologically, you see less and less emphasis on the miraculous gifts the farther through the New Testament you go, and by extension, the more the gospel of Jesus is established as God’s means of drawing his people to himself in this age. To the point that later on Paul urges Timothy to take wine for his stomach rather than exhorting him to seek one who has the gift of healing, Paul praises God for healing Epaphroditus rather than simply healing him himself, and those to whom James writes are commanded to confess their sins to the elders, implying that either all elders have the gift of healing or healing in James means something other than the miraculous gift of healing.
I would consider exorcism similar to these other miraculous gifts. Given that there’s neither a New Testament office of exorcist nor New Testament instruction on exorcism, I would understand the New Testament to teach that exorcism was a gift limited to those who were apostles (and those under those apostles’ authority) and had divinely sanctioned and direct - on tap, if you will - use of the Spirit’s power to work miracles.
The question is then what to do with the accounts of demonic activity from other parts of the world. A Reformed Baptist friend of mine from Nigeria once told me about things he had seen, things that in his words, ‘I can’t explain.’ But, as he said next, ‘my theology determines my view of the world, not my experience.’ I certainly wouldn’t deny the accounts of demonic activity throughout the world, though I think there’s also plenty in the west that we ought to see as blatantly demonic. But I would make sure that our understanding of how to handle these - forgive me for the expression - often ‘weird and wonderful stories from far away’ fits with how scripture expects us to understand it. Not all African or Asian emphasis on the demonic is accurate, just as not all western disregard for the demonic is accurate.
This is painting with very broad brushstrokes, but it is what I understand to be true of Reformed doctrine as long as Reformed doctrine has existed as Reformed doctrine (some 500 years). Luther certainly had his bouts with the demonic (or what he understood to be so), but I don’t know of any place where he gives instruction on exorcism as such. That could just be my ignorance of the Lutheran tradition. Bullinger had nothing to say about exorcism in this particular sermon (Decades 4.9). Calvin and the Puritans held similar views to what I outlined above.
Now others here may disagree with my exegesis or my use of history. Happy to interact.
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I’ve never thought of exorcism as a gift, but I’ve also never heard of a layman exorcising (exercising, yes).
Demonic possession (like we see in the New Testament) is eradicated by the Gospel. Wherever the Gospel goes initially it seems to be met with demonic possession ‘proper.’ Where the Gospel takes root this goes away, certainly on an individual basis, but seemingly on a large scale. That’s why the strange occurrences we hear of are usually in un-evangelized countries, or in ‘dry lands’ where the Gospel takes little to no root.
However, unregenerate men are always vulnerable to evil spirits, so there can be, and certainly are, demon-possessed people in ‘Christian’ lands. Take for instance this account from Thomas Torrance during his first parish ministry in Alyth Scotland (1940-43), he would have been in his late 20’s at the time:
I must record another pastoral experience, which left me with a vivid recollection. I learned of a former deacon of the Barony Kirk who had for some reason quarreled with the minister and had become very bitter and hostile to the Faith. When I said I would visit him, I was urged not to do so, but of course I went. When I knocked at his door it was opened by his daughter who was half-blind and unkempt, and told her who I was and that I had come to visit her father. She told me he would not see me—he heard and shouted at me from within telling me to go away. But I insisted, and when I went in I found him lying on his bed, which was rather filthy—he was clearly very ill. When he knew who I was and why I had come he shouted fiercely at me, but I told him I was a messenger from the Lord and had come to read the Bible and pray with him. In spite of his foul-mouthed objections I began to read the 51st Psalm, but he kept shouting at me all the way through. When I had finished he told me that now I could go, but I said that I would now pray, at which he objected vehemently. I prayed for him and his daughter, and asked the Lord to forgive his sins. In spite of his attempts to stop me I kept on and prayed through the 51st Psalm applying it directly to him, and at length he grew quiet. When I opened my eyes, he was quite calm, an entirely different person. I realized that it was a kind of exorcism, and now the poor man was restored to his right mind, and at peace with God. When I went away to the war, I asked my brother-in-law, Kenneth MacKenzie, who had come to take services in Alyth for a few weeks before he left as a missionary for Central Africa, to visit the old man, which he did and found him quite changed as I related. He had not long to live and died soon afterwards. What impressed me was the wonderful power of the Word of God, which I read in that ancient Psalm, and the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. The congregation soon knew what had happened, and welcomed my pastoral visits even more than before. That was an unusual incident and an extreme case, but it reminded me of what happened in the mission field when my father prayed and spoke to people, which sometimes provoked bitter, even demonic, opposition, but when again and again the grace of the Lord Jesus triumphed over opposition and when even the most hostile were saved.
A similar instance, but different outcome, is found in Calvin’s life:
Calvin’s statements on Satan and on the activities of the demons are a model for all theologians to follow. His masterly treatment of the subject in his Institutes is always faithful to Scripture. He himself witnessed what he regarded as a definite example of demon-possession, and he tells of this in one of his letters. The man lived on the Ager Tugurium and Calvin described him as ‘a wicked, worthless creature, known all his life long as a drunken, dissipated blasphemer’, who came to a tragic end. But the Reformer was distressed by the fact that many members of the Council of Geneva ‘were making a jest of the whole affair’. In the face of continuing scepticism Calvin cried, ‘If you believe that there is a devil, you have here a manifest instance of his power. Those who believe not in God deserve to be blind in the midst of light.’ Immediately after the strange and fearful end of this man, Calvin preached on the matter to the Council. ‘I went indeed so far as to say that, during these two days, I should have preferred death twenty times over, having seen those unfeeling countenances, could I have them witness the judgments of God. The ungodliness of our people was more than ever discovered by this affair. Few only agreed with us. I know not if even one really believed us from the heart.’
Calvin’s demonology avoided the acceptance of popular superstitions which appeared in Luther’s, while their basic attitudes to demon-possession were alike related to the teaching of God’s Word. Exorcism at baptism, as practised by Rome, Calvin forbade. Instead he emphasized the need to be clad in the whole armour of God in the conflict with demonic forces, prayer and faith being all-important. He was deeply conscious of the hosts of wickedness arrayed against Christians, and saw them committed to an irreconcilable struggle. It is clear from his commentaries that Calvin believed in demon-possession as a present reality. Rejecting the error that ‘every man is attacked by his own particular devil’, Calvin says, ‘On the contrary, Scripture plainly declares that, just as it pleases God, one devil is sometimes sent to punish a whole nation, and at other times many devils are permitted to punish one man… There is the greater necessity for keeping diligent watch, lest so great a multitude of enemies should take us by surprise.’ – from Frederick Leahy’s Satan Cast Out, a really good, short book.
As bad as demonic possession is, it is not the only tool in Satan’s workshop. I’ve often thought the devil uses the horror of demon possession to give false security to the rest of his victims who make up the vast majority. A red herring so to speak, though not for the one possessed.
The other tools he uses are far subtler (Screwtape Letters). I’ve been going through Thomas Brook’s Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, and the odd thing about it is that each device of Satan he lists really just sounds like plain old sin. Doesn’t seem to have any ‘demonic’ ring to it. Which just goes to prove the point above––red herring. Think about the context of these words from the apostle, and not just the last phrase: ‘so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his [Satan’s] schemes.’ (2 Cor 2.11)
But many of us are ignorant of his schemes.
The number one area of demonic activity today? Pornography
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Matt, @aaron.prelock
Thanks for your feedback, appreciated. I agree with you (Matt) that The Screwtape Letters is a much better introduction to this than, say, Frank Peretti.
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Hey, ‘The Door to the Dragon’s Throat’ gave me some of the best nightmares of my young school days.
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One other thought. Aaron, you made an important point:
Medieval Christianity looked at the devils as something to be mocked. While this wasn’t a good response, it also wasn’t totally wrong. Is it Chesterton or Lewis who says the one thing Satan can’t take is being laughed at? I think Luther also took a similar approach. Hence some of the portrayal of Satan and demons in ridiculous form that we have in our culture down to this day. And yet scripture gives us nothing humorous in its teaching on Satanic forces.
Too many Christians are flippant towards Satan, and do not ‘respect’ our adversary. Scripture speaks very differently: But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (Jude 9)
We are to resist the devil (Js 4.7), and call on the Lord to rebuke him. (Zech. 3)
Maybe there’s a Luther-way to laugh at Satan, but I’m doubtful. There’s only ever been one Martin Luther.
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