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Aug 16, 2023 · Demonic possession is the occurrence of someone who has been partially or fully possessed by an evil spirit, either willfully or in ignorance. According to Gospel Coalition: “Demon possession” is a term frequently used to translate the Greek term daimonizomai in the New Testament.
- Jack Ashcraft
- Cannot Control Themselves. A person who is under the control of a demon cannot control themselves. The evil spirit is able to speak through their lips or can make them mute as it so desires.
- New Personality. Demon-possession means that a new personality is introduced to that person - the victim becomes a different person. The Gadarene demoniac acted and spoke as one who was controlled by another personality.
- Different Voice. Sometimes those who are demon-possessed speak with a different voice. On one occasion, when Jesus asked the name of the demon, the demon spoke through the man and said
- Supernatural Knowledge. In one incident, the demons speaking through a man, immediately recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, "What have You to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
- Actual possession? Bearing in mind that nearly half the population believes that possession is a real thing, intellectual humility dictates that we at least entertain the possibility that demons and devils really exist and that they can inhabit the bodies of people and take control.
- Trance, dissociation, and ritual enactment. As with Catholic exorcism, spirit possession is a component of religious and other cultural rituals throughout the world, ranging from seances and the practice of “speaking in tongues” in the U.S. to the voodoo of Haiti and the sanghyang of Indonesia.
- Mass hysteria. It has long been recognized that outbreaks of group behavior attributed to demonic possession or witchcraft—manifested through fits, convulsions, and various vocal utterances—can be explained by the phenomenon of “mass hysteria,” “mass psychogenic illness,” or “mass sociogenic illness.”
- Psychosis and delusion. It’s not unusual for people with psychotic disorders to have the delusional belief that the devil or demons possess them. While such a belief can be thought of as an example of psychosis in itself, the late Harvard psychologist Brendan Maher proposed that delusional beliefs are merely reasonable explanations for “anomalous experiences.”
A person can be possessed by many demons and each one can cause one or more symptoms to be present. The Bible teaches that apparently the most common signs of demon possession are some type of ongoing illness and/or some type of super human strength.
May 25, 2016 · The Adversary, as you might imagine, is the demonic presence. If you are possessed, you are likely to experience a very unsettling reaction to the exorcist’s prayer.
Mar 7, 2013 · Most religions claim that humans can be possessed by demonic spirits (the Bible, for example, recounts six instances of Jesus casting out demons), and offer exorcisms to remedy this threat.
6 days ago · The Roots of Evil: Historical Origins and Religious Contexts. The concept of demonic behavior is as old as human civilization itself. Ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets describe malevolent spirits causing havoc in people’s lives. The Egyptians had their own pantheon of demons, including the fearsome Ammit, the “Devourer of the Dead.”.
