228: Does Demon Possession Still Happen?

There are multiple occurrences in the Scriptures of people being possessed by demons or influenced by evil spirits and principalities. Recently, Kenny received an email from a regular listener saying that the listener’s pastor had made the claim that those Biblical narratives (the passages that speak of demon possessions) that the persons where not actually demon possessed, but rather they were actually mentally ill. In this episode, Kenny responds to this claim by examining a relatively well-known Biblical narrative where Jesus casts a demon out of a man (see Luke 8). Kenny also examines a few other passages, and he makes it clear that demon possession was real in the New Testament and still is real today. Kenny points to several pieces of evidence (both from the Bible as well as from his own personal life) that should lead us to conclude that demon possession does still happen today. Demon possession is real, but we ought not fear because the Spirit of God that lives inside of us is far more powerful than the evil spirits in the world (see 1 John 4:4). Demon possession is a rare occurrence, but even so, we still ought not “mess with” things related to demonic forces, principalities, or elements of the occult. The only Spirit we ought to be engaging with is the Spirit of God; we ought to continually trust in the power of God’s Holy Spirit and cultivate intimacy with the Lord.