TRINITYSPEAKS

Defeating the Occult: Spiritual Warfare a Taboo Subject? (Part 3) By Michael Gryboski

20 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment

by mjdmom01 in The Christian Post

“How had I found myself in a cheap horror movie?” wrote Bill Scott in the first pages of his book The Day Satan Called. The sense of disbelief in Scott’s tone of voice is one that is common for someone brought up in mainstream American society.

Scott is not alone in his conclusion that stories of demon possession, the occult, and overall “spiritual warfare” are largely rejected as fantasy in popular culture.

Dr. Karl Payne, chaplain for the Seattle Seahawks, recently wrote a book on the subject titled Spiritual Warfare: Christians, Demonization, and Deliverance.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Payne noted the contrast in belief in demon possession both in regards to countries and in regards to denominations.

“In developing countries demons are typically feared and appeased. In industrialized countries demons are usually ridiculed, ignored or entertained as a curiosity,” noted Payne.

Both Scott and Payne believe that Christian schools, especially the evangelical Protestant ones they were educated in, do not provide a good educationon this issue.

“Our churches have not adequately dealt with the issue of spiritual warfare. I am receiving emails on a regular basis from Scotland to the United States and the theme is, our churches do not talk about the battle we are in spiritually,” Scott told CP.

“So why is it we don’t spend time in our churches getting to know the enemy, how he works and how to win the battle? Honestly, it’s time to leave our comfort zone and get ready for battle.”

Payne wrote in his book Spiritual Warfare that neither of the evangelical institutions he attended in the 1970s had “remotely pretended or attempted to prepare students to recognize, distinguish, or contend with the realities of spiritual warfare.”

“Discussions I’ve had since then with alumni of other evangelical Bible schools and seminaries have consistently confirmed that my experience was the norm,” wrote Payne.

While Payne and Scott consider the lack of preparation for dealing with demonic possession and the occult to be harmful, others find it to be a step in the right direction.

Roy Speckhardt, executive director for the American Humanist Association, told The Christian Post that he supports the trend of American seminaries not addressing spiritual warfare.

“We see this as a positive trend in American religion today. It shows that even the faithful can no longer believe such superstitions,” said Speckhardt.

Regarding demonic possession, Speckhardt and the AHA “find insufficient grounds for belief and recognize the whole idea to be both unscientific.”

“These sorts of claims are nothing new and have always been unconvincing.”

As for the strange behaviors of those who appear to be possessed, Speckhardt believes these to be more of a medical matter rather than a supernatural one.

“[T]he next time you need medical attention, thank your doctor for choosing scientific treatments instead of simply uttering magic words over you to cast out your demons,” said Speckhardt.

As someone who claims to have treated many people suffering from demon possession, Payne does not believe all physical or psychological problems come from a demonic source.

“On a number of occasions, I’ve referred individuals to clinical counselors or medical doctors when I’ve sensed that their problems weren’t spiritual in nature,” wrote Payne.

“I don’t believe there is a demon under every rock and we need to be very careful not to assume someone is being controlled by a demon,” Scott agreed.

Scott explained that in addition to demons, Roxanne, a demon possessed woman who claimed to be part of a witch coven, probably also had Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder).

“I have heard the argument before and there is some truth to it. Many are challenged with mental illness. I have seen those who have multiple personalities,” said Scott.

However, Scott added that “Mental illness doesn’t leave a person’s body and begin to turn lights on and off, open and close doors, move objects within the home…”

“I am not saying Roxanne was exempt from some mental illness but it was very evident that demons were using her in a massive way.”

Even though in America, seminarians and secularists alike tend to dismiss discussion on the issue of demonic possession and the occult, books written by John Ramirez, Bill Scott, and Karl Payne may bring about conversation on these taboo topics.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/defeating-the-occult-spiritual-warfare-a-taboo-subject-part-3-62350/

Defeating the Occult: Confronting Demon Possession, Hauntings (Part 2) By Michael Gryboski

20 Nov 2011 1 Comment

by mjdmom01 in The Christian Post

It was the week before Halloween, 1988. Bill Scott was an announcer working at a major Christian radio broadcaster when he received a call from someone claiming that a coven of Satanist witches was after her.

Scott initially thought it was a prank, but the events of that morning would lead him into a dark world of demon possession, hauntings at his home, and witchcraft.

So begins the book The Day Satan Called, released in October, which is a written account of these events by Scott.

“I was very fearful to write the book,” said Scott in an interview with The Christian Post, admitting how unbelievable his experiences were.

“Now that the book is out I am amazed at how many people believe what I have shared and even have shared their own experiences. It’s like the book has given them permission to tell their story as well.”

The caller that fateful day was a 30-something woman known as Roxanne, who claimed to be a high priestess for a violent witch coven. She was the one making the calls to the station and it was she who seemed to bring this great evil wherever she went. Upon her visit to the radio station, it became apparent to those at the station that she was possessed.

After Scott and several of his coworkers appeared to prevail in driving out her demons, he offered to let Roxanne stay with him and his wife until she could get her life back together.

“This book also contains a nice-size list of things not to do. Taking home a person who is or has been demon-possessed is one of them,” wrote Scott.

Over the next 18 months, demons within Roxanne would make their presence known and would not leave until after hours of intense prayers took place, Scott wrote.

In those days, everywhere Scott went, the Satanically-centered coven Roxanne said she was part of threatened to kill him, his wife, and Roxanne. Even during the time when Roxanne was away at a Christian help center for several weeks, the terrifying experiences continued at Scott’s home.

Scott wrote of constant phone calls, threats on his life, and even members of the coven appearing in spirit form in his bedroom late at night.

When asked by The Christian Post if Scott ever found definitive proof that this coven even existed, he admitted that he never received full confirmation.

“I didn’t have 100 percent verification that she was part of a coven. My wife and I have had this discussion many times. We both believe she was at some level,” said Scott.

“It seems odd that people would come looking for her if she wasn’t involved in a coven. During our 18 month journey with Roxanne, we met a few individuals in person and on the phone that were searching for her and very angry they couldn’t find her.”

Ultimately, despite the many problems that befell Scott, he remained stubborn. Even as demons came, sometimes in bodily form to his house, he fought back.

Scott talked about how unprepared he was to deal with the demons Roxanne had, and how as time passed, he learned through his experiences to achieve a level of success.

These efforts led to people around him asking for help when they encountered family or friends that appeared to be possessed. As Scott wrote, “at the time, I was a magnet for spiritual warfare.”

But the ultimate success came years later. By the end of her stay, Roxanne left with no apparent evidence that she had been cured of her demons. As Scott wrote about his experiences, he contacted Roxanne to ask permission to write about her story. When he did, talking to her years later, he heard good news.

“After a few seconds of small talk, Roxanne opened up to tell me where she was in life. She had been involved in a great church for nearly five years,” wrote Scott.

“She shared that her mental state was up and down, but the demons were gone.”

The Day Satan Called offers readers a disturbing account of what one man went through to help someone overcome demonic possession. All the while, that man himself doubted everything that was taking place.

“How had I found myself in a cheap horror movie?” wrote Scott early on in the book.

The issue of demonic possession and exorcisms can be tenuous as individuals who claim to have had experiences akin to Scott’s find themselves living in a largely skeptical society. Part three of this series will look at the controversy.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/defeating-the-occult-confronting-demon-possession-hauntings-part-2-62322/

Defeating the Occult: A Minister’s Former Descent Into Darkness (Part 1) By Mark Hensch

20 Nov 2011 2 Comments

by mjdmom01 in The Christian Post

The occult is an object of fascination for Christians as it brings home the fact that God – and the dark forces against Him – are not of this world.

In its broadest sense, the word “occult” contains the entire supernatural realm. Modern science has made man quick to scoff at magic and monsters, demons and the divine. All the same, many Christians can’t shake the feeling that good and evil are battling on Earth for their hearts and minds.

Few know this better than John Ramirez. The New York minister has fought for both God and Satan during the search for his soul. In his 2011 book Out of the Devil’s Cauldron: A Journey from Darkness to Light, Ramirez reveals he started off serving the wrong side.

“I was drawn to the power and authority that the Devil gives you over people,” Ramirez said. “I found that the more evil I acted, the more respect I earned from others. If they feared me, I could get more and more of what I wanted. People who knew me knew I was Satan’s son.”

Ramirez said his story began in the Bronx over two decades ago with a Caribbean cult known as Santeria. He said that African slaves shipped to the New World brought with them their faith in tribal spirits, and that such mysticism soon merged with Roman Catholicism. The resulting religious hodgepodge, he said, defined his youth growing up in a Puerto Rican family.

It was a tough childhood. Born to an absentee, alcoholic father and into severe poverty, Ramirez said Santeria enslaved him as it looked like an escape route. Delving deeper and deeper into the faith, he found that its reliance on saints and guardian spirits only trapped him more.

“The Devil can get you through identifying with your culture,” Ramirez said. “I felt like I was loved and valued as part of an important family by joining Santeria. The sad thing is that the Devil can never love you or me. We are created in the image of God, and that is utterly alien to him now.”

Dr. Karl I. Payne, the author of Spiritual Warfare: Christians, Demonization and Deliverance, said he’d encountered plenty of people like Ramirez who were drawn into the occult through tradition and culture. The writer was quick to point out, however, that supernatural forces could harm anyone who reached out to them regardless of their background.

“I would say that animalistic cultures provide more accessibility for demonization because they typically not only practice spiritism, they embrace it,” he said. “But an atheistic biochemist teaching at an Ivy League College is just as susceptible to demonization as an illiterate hunter or farmer living in a rain forest. The only thing demons fear is Christ.”

Payne said that emotions like fear and bitterness could leave people open to spiritual attack. Ramirez said he knows such feelings firsthand. The former Santeria high priest said he was often pressured by fear to do horrendous things.

“The demonic forces of the occult are so real you can touch them,” he said. “They produce a spirit of fear that grafts onto people’s hearts.”

Ramirez’s book claims that he participated in rituals including cutting and burning Santeria symbols into his flesh, summoning spirits and drinking animal blood. At one point, he said, he even sold his soul in a ceremony that cost him $3,500.

“I didn’t see the occult’s true colors until it was too late to turn back,” Ramirez said. “It was like the mafia as they started me off with little errands and then got me hooked on bigger, more evil things.”

Roy Speckhardt, the executive director for the American Humanist Association, said such stories of spiritual warfare and demonic possession were outdated superstition. He urged those interested in the occult to explore it through the lens of science.

“Nobody has ever verified, by rigorous scientific observation and experimentation, the existence of any demon,” Speckhardt asserted. “Moreover, there’s a long history of myths and superstitions about demon possession that show they are the product of ignorance rather than knowledge. We’ve come a long way, and no good can come from turning back.”

Ramirez said those skeptical of his experiences are wrong to doubt the occult. The forces of Hell, he said, had personally invaded his life. He said he now rests easily knowing he is allied with Jesus Christ, the supernatural world’s supreme force.

“If I give false testimony, I have to give an account of that someday to God,” he said. “There’s nothing to prove besides the truth of Jesus Christ. If he can save me, he can save anybody.”

http://www.christianpost.com/news/defeating-the-occult-a-pastors-former-descent-into-darkness-part-1-62205/

Interview: John Eldredge on Jesus as the Beautiful Outlaw By Gabrielle Devenish

20 Nov 2011 1 Comment

by mjdmom01 in The Christian Post

He hangs out with riffraff, old tars and dirty fisherman, and dines with sinners and prostitutes. He likes to play pranks and shows up in unexpected places, and can often be seen fishing with the guys. He laughs in the face of authority and sweats blood. He’s the life of the party – he can turn water into wine – and yet feels so deeply that he weeps alone in secluded gardens. He has ventured into the darkest places, ridden on donkeys and touched the untouchable. He is the holiest man in the universe.

This is the Jesus that John Eldredge portrays in his new book, Beautiful Outlaw. It’s not quite the Jesus some imagine – all crisp white robes and pale, smooth skin, serious and pious. Eldredge’s Jesus is more like a wild child than a quiet, solemn introvert. He’s a Jesus you would want as your best friend.

“Reading the Gospels, without the personality of Jesus, is like watching television with the sound turned off,” Eldredge writes in the book.

The author, widely known for his popular book Wild at Heart and the ministry that grew out of it, again uncovers a different side of Jesus in his latest book.

“Something has crept into our assumptions about Jesus that makes it almost impossible to relate to him, not to mention love him,” Eldredge writes. “I think much of the creep has happened, ironically, as a result of our attempts to love and revere Christ. But crept in this notion has, and it has done great damage to our perceptions of him, our experience of him.”

“It’s the notion that Jesus was really ‘pretending’ when he presented himself as a man.”

Finding that humanity is the entire focus of Beautiful Outlaw.

“I really wrote the book out of a passion to get people to experience Jesus as he really is,” John Eldredge said in a telephone interview with The Christian Post on Friday.

Eldredge discussed his search for Christ, his family, religion and the book in an interview with The Christian Post. The following are excerpts from the interview.

CP: You present Jesus as playful, wild and emotional – a real man. The Jesus in your book is sort of an outlaw. How did you come to see Jesus in this light?

Eldredge: I tried my best to love the sanitized Jesus. But I looked at the natural world – the ocean, the storms – there’s a phenomenal richness and humanity in it. You learn a lot about an artist by the works they created. We learn that he’s not as two-dimensional and boring as the stained glass, sanitized Jesus we make him out to be. He’s rich, he’s beautiful, powerful, wild and deep.

CP: Did you always see Jesus this way? Did you first read the Bible in this way?

Eldredge: Not when I first came to know him. It was only after 20 years of being dunked in the religious culture that I got caught up in “religion.” I had no exposure to Christianity as a child. I was not raised in a Christian home. I became spiritually hungry in high school.

I wasn’t looking for religion; I was looking for a world view. It was like C.S. Lewis, I was “trying every other door.” I came to the truth by trying every other door.

I came to Christ through personal disaster. I was in trouble with the police; I was 19 and involved in the drug culture.

He (Christ) became real to me – I was experiencing a personal and real Jesus instead of religion.

CP: When you started to re-experience Jesus as “real,” how did it affect your walk?

Eldredge: When I saw this Jesus again – just the wonder. The wonder that I experienced when I saw his majesty, his humanity, his playfulness. I felt relief from the guilt that I felt from finding it hard to love a two-dimensional Jesus. I fell in love.

The thing that blows me away is that in 1 John, John, who was a close, personal friend of Jesus, says “We wrote the New Testament so you could get to know Jesus as intimately as us, as James, Peter and John.” Falling in love with God is the most important thing a person can do.

CP: When we begin to fall in love with Jesus, how does it affect people around us?

Eldredge: Just like sunshine. Just like sunshine affects others, when the life of Jesus invades your life, you become a loving person. The effect on others is amazing.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/interview-john-eldredge-on-jesus-as-the-beautiful-outlaw-62424/