Keywords: demonic , lived religion , canonization process , sin , malediction , punishment miracle , spirit in forest , spirit in water , Italy , Scandinavia. Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service.
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To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us. All Rights Reserved. OSO version 0. University Press Scholarship Online. To the extent that exorcisms "work," it is due to the power of suggestion and psychology: If you believe you're possessed and that an exorcism will cure you , then it just might.
The word exorcism derives from the Greek word for oath, "exousia. Lewis explains in his book "Satanism Today: An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore, and Popular Culture," "To exorcise thus means something along the lines of placing the possessing spirit under oath — invoking a higher authority to compel the spirit — rather than an actual 'casting out.
The Vatican first issued official guidelines on exorcism in , and revised them in According to the U. Conference of Catholic Bishops, signs of demonic possession include superhuman strength, aversion to holy water, and the ability to speak in unknown languages.
Other potential signs of demonic possession include spitting, cursing, and "excessive masturbation. Typically those viewed as "possessed" were merely afflicted by some mental condition unknown or untreated. In addition, exorcism is not the desired treatment. If the victim is truly possessed by demons, determined by authorities of the Church, then, and only then, may an exorcism occur.
If we assume that Saul was a believer, it would appear that he was not demon possessed, as some would argue. If Saul was a believer, we can conclude that these phrases only suggest that the evil spirit never existed within Saul, but rather it tormented him externally. So if Saul was demon possessed, then the Hebrew language in all of the instances pertaining to him would have been sufficient to say so if that was the case.
The fourth example that some use to justify Christian possession can be found in the sad story of the sick woman in Luke NASB. Verse 11 tells us that she had a sickness for eighteen years that caused her to be bent double and not stand up straight. If this lady was a believer then clearly we would have to conclude that believers can be indwelt by evil spirits. However, this phrase does not mean she was a believer. In other words, these descriptive titles speak of their Jewish heritage.
Therefore, we can confidently conclude that the sick woman was not a believer while experiencing this satanically induced illness. Also of note is the fact that the very act of casting out a demon from a person is found exclusively in the New Testament, and was used by our Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles, and also the seventy disciples sent out in Luke NASB, for a strictly evangelical purpose.
These acts verified the authority of Christ as the Son of God, and also the apostles as the ones chosen by Christ to start the Church age. Especially noteworthy is their absence in the pastoral epistles.
This silence actually speaks volumes, as there apparently was no concern from the early church, nor are there any detailed histories, of any Christian ever being demon-possessed.
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