Exorcisms and Demons

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Tuesday Banter and Show Open

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. It is not Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday. Oh, no, it is Tuesday. Pastor Steve, welcome.

Tuesday guys here. Can you name the days of the week? Yes, Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday. Uh-huh. I know. I�m trying to think of what�s Wednesday.

Is it Wednesday, Miracle Lace? Si. And in German, it is Midwach or something, midweek? Midwach. Midrash. I don�t remember. It�s midweek.

Okay. Yeah. Because that�s kind of a nice one. You know, it�s midweek. Oh, yeah, Wednesday. See, I still wanted to, you know, even at Shepherd�s Conference, I wanted to walk around with a shirt that said, �Guess what day it is.

It�s Tuesday.

It�s always Tuesday, Tuesday guys. Did you know, Pastor Steve, that Pope Francis� effect leads to exorcism boom? I was not aware of that. Oh, he�s actually got an effect name for him. I thought it was like a special effect for a minute.

Well, it makes him sound like some kind of celestial body or something, you know, like a comet or something.

I know. Well, from this UK newspaper dated 4 -14 -2015. Isn�t that an actor or something? Isn�t that Anthony Hopkins? That�s what it looks like. Excuse you. Sir Anthony. Oh, Sir Anthony. Excuse you. In between shows, we just recorded another one.

So in between shows, Steve said, �Did we get the nice one out of the way pretty much? Can we just go back to being ourselves The Pope Francis effect has been credited with encouraging a resurgence.

That would sound like, that�s a good name for a church, by the way, or a movement, don�t you think? The resurgence? Resurgence, yes. Yeah, that would be an excellent name. In faith among rank-and-file Catholics, but it has also had a more unexpected consequence, a boom in the demand for exorcisms.

Mm-hmm. No exorcisms, okay. The Argentinians, Pontiff�s fire and brimstone language and frequent references to the devil have helped propel belief in Beelzebub back into the mainstream of the Catholic Church where once it was an embarrassment.

Well, good for him.

I mean, that�s, I think that�s pleasing, right? The more people believe in Satan, I think it�s good that people believe in Satan because they, you know, they need to know that he�s real.

Steve, I�d like you to explain because it�s helpful for our listeners. Tell me about your exorcism training and I think that would benefit most people listening to NOCO Radio. Okay.

Well, I sat through, actually, I have no training. I cannot lie.

Okay, so. Well, in this article, it says Pope Francis talks about the devil all the time and that has certainly raised awareness about exorcisms, says Father Cesar Truque, a Mexican priest trained as an exorcist.

But all Latin Americans have the sensibility. For them, the existence of the devil was part of their faith.

I just want to say this, Satan is real. Satan is powerful, however, he is not equally powerful with God, we would learn that from Job, right? I mean, God gives him instruction and tells him what he may and may not do.

Jesus says of Peter, you know, Satan wanted to sift him like wheat, and what happens? You know, he doesn't get to, apparently, or maybe he does. But anyway, the point is, Satan is not in charge. Satan is not equal with God.

God is in charge and God wins in the end. And let me just say one more thing. Believers cannot be inhabited by Satan or any demon, for that matter. So, the idea of casting demons out of believers is absolute rubbish.

I have some inferences that I'd like to talk about. See? About the rubbish? But before I do, Father Truchy, 47, is the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Chur, a city in eastern Switzerland, and has claimed to have taken part in about 100 exorcisms.

Symptoms include obsessive behavior. I once treated a woman who combed her hair eight hours a day. That would be a symptom of having a demon possession, combing your hair all the time.

Okay. I mean, I think almost every high school boy might have that problem too, especially in the 70s. When I was growing up, they used to, I didn't, I was a rebel.

You know, I just kind of Well, you know, we had those little black combs, right? That you could fit in the back pocket. Everybody had one of those. And you know what we mainly used them for, Steve?

What were they made of, those black combs?

I don't know. Just horrendous black plastic.

Yeah, black plastic, kind of a rubberized kind of thing sometimes. Well, if you took an old double mint gum inner wrapper

And you put it up there and you could Like made it into a little Y.

Fake harmonica. Well, no, not only that, but you could make it into a little Y, that is the tin foil. Oh, yeah. Okay. And then put that bottom of the Y into the comb, and then the top of the Y, those two pieces into the electrical outlet.

You could blow a fuse, but not be electrocuted because you'd have the rubber comb.

You used to do some weird stuff, man. I was like, I used to think, boy, I was a big rebel and a troublemaker. I had nothing on you, bro.

So what about this, Steve? This is getting to the serious part. Some people are mentally ill and do not need exorcism, but others do, and there are some classic signs. People who speak in ancient tongues, for instance.

Other people have supernatural strength in their state of possession. It might take four men to hold down a slightly built woman. In some cases, people are able to levitate. This is what this Father Trukey says.

Levitate. Yes. Yeah, I'd like to see that. So let's just ask the general question, generic question. If you saw someone with mental illness, would you automatically say, that's demon possession or vice versa?

Negative. Okay. So when I meet someone who has got OCD and they're combing their hair eight hours a day, what kind of advice would you give them if it's not going to be, get thee behind me. Stop it. Stop it.

By the way, I'm sure most of our listeners have already watched it, but you need to go to youtube .com. And after watching several hundred of the NoCo videos, pull up Bob Newhart, stop, and you will enjoy five minutes of your life.

Stop it. Yes. But in all seriousness, Steve, if you meet someone in Los Angeles and the world will look at them as crazy, remember the guy that used to walk backwards down the middle of the street in Santa Monica, on Santa Monica Boulevard, and you see him at the 7-Eleven.

I never said to myself, that person's demon possessed. What would you say when you see those people?

Well, I remember the first time it happened to me, I was riding a bus to USC and I had a

The first time you walked backwards down the street?

No. The first time I saw somebody doing something crazy. I was 18 and I got off the bus and I was waiting for another bus and all of a sudden this woman is like, I thought she was yelling at me, but, and she was just using all kinds of profanity and everything and I just thought, well, what did I do?

And then I look at her and I realize everybody's just walking by her and ignoring her because this is what she does. You know, she had really, really some odd form of Tourette's syndrome and would just stand there, you know, profaning all day long.

So yeah, what did I think? I didn't think she was demon possessed. I just thought, okay, this woman is just out of her mind.

Steve, I tell this to my kids when I see folks like that. I never say, look at that person's demon possessed. I don't say they've got some disorder or syndrome, although they might, but I say, in my mind, I think this is what's happened, Romans 1.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. So to look at the chapter earlier in Romans 1, they know there's a God, they see his divine attributes to some degree in creation, they don't honor him and they don't give thanks to him, and then it's like the dimmer switch of their mind.

At God's sovereign decision, because sometimes it never happens to people, sometimes it happens right away, he just dims their mind and off they go. And so, I think that's the end result of a lifestyle of sin and giving God a stiff arm.

Pete. Taking drugs, all kinds of things, I mean, you know, people used to, well, they still do crazy things. I can't believe the things that people will put in their bodies. They have no idea what these things are going to do, you know, whether it's the bath salts thing that they're smoking now or whatever.

But I saw kids, you know, again, on the bus going to USC, sniffing glue and stuff like, you know, airplane glue. And I'm like, who would do such a thing? I don't, I don't understand. But when you do that kind of thing, there are going to be effects.

You can't damage your brain and then just think there's, nothing's going to happen.

How to Respond to Suspected Demon Possession

Pete Steve, lots of times on No Compromise Radio, we've talked about demon possession, oppression, those types of occurrences. If you really knew someone was demon possessed and you were sitting down talking to them or scurrying behind your desk talking to them, what would you do?

What would be your strategy if somebody here thinks someone's demon possessed, somebody here on the radio waves is what I mean? What's your advice to them?

Pete. Well, I wouldn't try an exorcism, A. And B, I'd probably want to get some other people over there because if they're really demon possessed, there is a potential for trouble. I mean, I have no massive amount of expertise in dealing with people who are demon possessed, but I have dealt with people on PCP and other things and it can be difficult.

So, if somebody really is possessed, my guess is that they would not be feeling a lot of pain and they would appear to be, they would not be, but they would appear to be superhuman just because their bodies would not, they would not have the normal limitations.

They wouldn't be feeling pain. Nothing would really bother them. And so, I think we might be surprised how difficult it is to control somebody who is actually demon possessed.

Pete Mike and Steve here on No Compromise Radio. Steve, here's my strategy. Tell me if you like it. Pete. Call the police. That's what I do. Steve. While I do not know who is elect and who's non-elect, I just evangelize.

My desire is to evangelize everyone, not just to look for the elect people. In a similar fashion, not completely a one-to-one correspondence, but if I meet someone and I think they could be demon possessed or let's say they are demon possessed or they're on the verge of being demon possessed, I still think my status is, my strategy rather is to give them the gospel.

Don't you think that's what I should do is to give them the gospel? Because if they're saved, well, they need to have their mind right anyway. But if they're demon possessed, if God dwells them via the Holy Spirit, then out goes any demons that are in there.

Pete. See, that's so nice of you to say, think that way. My first thought would be, this person's probably going to kill me if I don't get some help here. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's a great strategy and certainly the Lord can use, you know, the gospel presentation to save that person right away and thereby expel any demons that were, you know, potentially in them.

I tend to think what people think is demon possession usually has its basis somewhere else, typically in narcotics or alcohol, so.

Pete. Well, Steve, we were going to talk about B .B. Orfield this show, but let's wait till next show. So, let's keep talking about demon possession for a little bit because I find it fascinating. There was a man that's recently said to me, I believe in supernatural warfare.

I said, oh, great, you know, so do I. Because I believe in demons. Pete. So don't I. Yeah, and while I think that there's a finite number of demons, would we say that's true? Steve True. Pete. Okay. There seemed to be more demonic activity when Jesus was on the earth.

They seem to be dealing more with people and trying to throw them in the fire and epileptic seizures and those kind of things. It seemed to be, you know, a heightened agitation while Jesus was on earth.

Do you think that's true? Steve True. Pete. Okay. And so, it's not like there are fewer demons in existence today, but I don't think there's as many on earth indwelling people as the Roman Catholic Church might think.

Steve I think that is definitely true.

Pete Okay. So, this guy said to me, I believe in spiritual warfare. Yes, so do I. So don't I. And he said, here's how I know it's true. I was in my room one day. Steve Because it lives in my heart. Pete Yeah.

See, it's pragmatism. Because this happened to me. How do I know things are true? Well, it's anecdotal evidence. Ad hoc, extemporia, extempori. Steve All those Latin terms. Pete Uh-huh. Ad fontes. Oh, no, that's not.

Steve Uh-oh, you're speaking in an Asian tongue. Pete Oh! And so, he said, the devil or one of his demons took a little car, a little, like a matchbox car that was across the room. This is a true story.

This was told to me. Steve Okay, yeah, so it must be true. Pete And he threw the matchbox car directly at me. And what I didn't know Steve So, wait a minute, there was nothing visible except for the matchbox car?

Pete Yep, come and zoom in straight at him. And by the way, this particular demon, you know, there's the demon of post-nasal drip. There's the demon of combing your hair too much time, too many times.

This is the demon of hurling like a Manny Ramirez fastball. Now, who's the pitcher?

Steve Manny Ramirez fastball. Pedro Martinez. Pete. That's what I meant. Pete. Who's Manny Ramirez? Steve Manny Ramirez is a left fielder for

Pete Oh, yeah, sorry. Who's the pitcher who used to close for the Yankees? It was really good. Steve Oh, um, uh...

Pete Roberto Clemente. Steve. No! Pete. No, I can't think of his name. I just, I loathe the Yankees so much.

Pete Yeah, but he was, I actually think he was a professing believer, a tall, slender guy.

Steve Yeah, but he played for the Yankees, so Pete. So, he can't be saved.

Steve. Anyway Pete. There's no redemption for the Yankees. Steve. This demon, according to this man, hurled the matchbox cars and hit him right in the chest. So, it was a perfect bullseye. And so, that's why he knows there's supernatural things.

Pete. Well, that's one of the things that's true about demons is they never miss. They're just known as excellent marksmen. So

Steve. So, Ephesians, though, does tell us, doesn't it? Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. And then when it comes to the whole armor of God that you're supposed to put on so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, why doesn't it have anything here to Steve about understanding who's demon possessed and who's just oppressed and how to actually extract them with incense, Latin, and incantations?

Pete Well, and you know, to take it a step further, you just have to ask yourself, why didn't Paul, when he was writing to Timothy and Titus, knowing how central, you know, this was going to be to their ministries, how many demons they were going to have to cast out, why didn't he give them some instruction on that?

Steve. Well, maybe that wasn't instruction, but it was in this article, a week-long course, there'll be lectures by Catholic prelates on subjects such as occultism, black magic, and Satanism. Maybe it was that.

It was just a day early and a dollar short.

Pete. Now, ask me if I believe in black magic and in other words, that people actually do that, you know, and play with Ouija boards and sacrifice animals. The answer is yes. And how do I know that? Because I actually saw it when I was a police officer, you know, people sacrificing chickens if they were into Santeria and, you know, different things we would find in the mountains.

We had a detective who actually, she would like, can you just give me a memo on any weird thing you find? Because she would like to track down those people, so.

Pete Steve, along these same lines, let's talk to our listeners a little bit about the works of the flesh versus the works of demons slash Satan. In other words, for instance, the article says, priest at the conference blamed everything from pornography, television, and drug taking to greater interest in the occult for the rise in the number of demonic possessions.

And so, when we say, you know, flip Wilson like the devil made me buy this dress, what about the works of the flesh? Is it just easy to say, well, that was, you know, I'm into pornography? I mean, I personally am not.

But if someone were to say that, and that's a Satanic issue versus just I did it myself.

The Works of the Flesh and Personal Sin

Pete. Yeah, Galatians 5 says, verse 19, now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

So, you know, none of those things can you say a devil made me do it. That's just something that you sinfully do, you know, before the Holy Spirit is at work in you. In other words, before you're saved.

And isn't it interesting, Steve? In addition to that, you add James chapter 1, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own lust, our own desire. And so, I think we, if we take the biblical approach, own our sins, then there's hope.

Through repentance, there's hope. So instead of saying, this is a demon or Satan, by the way, if Satan really were going to be after you, what would that say about Satan's strategy? There's only one Satan, and he can't be omnipresent.

And so, instead of dwelling in Salt Lake City, he's like at your.

House and Pete. He'd have a really bad strategy. A really bad one, you know, because if you listen to people talk at church, and I don't mean our church, I just mean generically church, you know, it's the people who sit in the back row and are hardly ever there.

They're the ones who are having to fight Satan. You just go, well, why isn't he after the pastor? Why isn't he after the elders? Why isn't the deacon who's here, you know, 20 hours a week serving, why isn't he the guy who's undergoing these Satanic attacks?

Why is he going after you, the guy who doesn't give and the guy who doesn't serve and the guy who doesn't do anything? I'm confused.

Jared. Steve, what was that old joke where those boys in a country town was, they were criticizing another boy and they're like, hey, you know, you righteous boy, you know, if Satan were to show up now, who would he go after, us or you?

And the boy said, well, he'd go after me because he's got you already. Pete. Yeah, he already owns you guys. Jared. So how about with Job? I want to talk a little bit in the time we have left, Steve, about how God rules over Satan and God is sovereign over Satan.

Satan is alive, he's a created being who's fallen. He's evil, he's wicked, he's powerful, but God owns him, as it were. And Job, he didn't even know Satan was after him, did he? I mean, he didn't have purview into the heavenly realms.

Pete. Right, I mean, this all takes place in heaven, you know, I mean, where Satan appears to God and God says to him, have you considered my servant Job? And, you know, basically Satan says, you know what, I'll make him fall.

You know, give me permission. Let me go after him. And so, there's certainly an indication that God is sovereign even over Satan, right? I mean, that's what the Bible says. Satan does nothing outside of what God permits him to do, and actually, we could say ordains him to do.

So, the idea that somehow Satan is running amok, you know, just kind of willy-nilly going around and attacking people and God has no say in the matter, that would be false.

Job, Satan, and the Sovereignty of God

Pete Steve, when Job, because you got me thinking about Job now and Satan, and does Job fear God for no reason? Satan also said, have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has? So, is it okay to pray hedges about people?

Did Satan do that first? Hedge and deal?

Pete. I don't know, you know, I mean, did he have a hedge trimmer to take? I mean, I think it's fine to pray for protection of people. You know, we would like to have God's protection in whatever form that is, if it's just

Pete. Hedge row? Pete. Well, yeah. I mean, I don't know that God needs to dispatch angels necessarily to protect us. If he just decides that nothing's going to happen to me, then guess what? Nothing's going to happen to me.

I mean, he is sovereign after all. I mean, it's hard to overstate his sovereignty unless I make him the author of sin, but short of that, I think I have a hard time saying anything about the sovereignty of God that would be too far.

Pete. Could you ever say God is sovereign, but?

Would you ever say? Pete Well, yes, I could say it this way, God is sovereign, but man is responsible. I could say that. Pete You think it's more accurate, Steve? Pete I'd say and. But see, I could say but because people, and here's the reason I might say but, because I might say but because people just love to stress the responsibility of man so much that they don't even, you know, consider the two together.

So, I might say, you know. Pete But don't forget. Pete Yeah, that man is responsible too. So.

All right. All right. So, how about with demonic possession and exorcisms?

Pete. Well, there was a time where I actually thought maybe I should have done an exorcism, but I didn't. I probably told you about this where we had a man who was actually chewing on his own arm. I told you that?

Pete. You might have, but I thought it was like an auto zombie deal.

Pete. No, but you know, he was under psychotropic medication, so I'm sure that that probably played a part. But we had this man in the jail and I'd stuck him, he was acting bizarrely, and I'd put him in a day room and we'd gone upstairs to do our middle of the shift count.

And so, I'd separate him from everybody else and put him in a separate room to get away from the colloquial phrases. And so, we were up there counting upstairs and all of a sudden the phone rings and the sergeant says to me, he says, he says, that guy you put in the day room, yeah?

He's chewing on his own arm. So, we go running down the stairs and, you know, I mean, I just thought, come on, nobody's really chewing on their own arm. And it was like something out of one of those zombie movies.

He was, you know, taking little bites at his arm and he was bleeding and there's all this blood. And so, the guys I'm running with, they're both Christians and they're like, okay, I'll go low, you go high.

And they've you spraying with the OC and everything. And I said, no, let's not do that because I just thought this could be a big mess and there's gonna be OC spray and I'm gonna be sneezing or anything like that.

I just said, hey, you, and he looked at me, I pounded on the glass and he just stopped and he looked at me like really vacant stare and all of a sudden he's just like complying with everything I said.

I said, put your hands behind your back. So, he does and the two deputies are looking at me and I go, don't look at me, go handcuff that guy before he changes his mind. So, we wrapped this whole thing up, but I just said, okay, if there's ever been anybody I've ever dealt with who was demon possessed, who eats their own arm?

Who does that? Mike Abendroth here with Steve Cooley. I'm.

Gonna try not to eat my own arm. I was just announcing who I was. Excellent. You can write us at info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. And aren't you glad that God is sovereign over Satan,.

Sin, hell, and demons. And salvation. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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