Good morning bible readers, am writing this in response to the question above.
There is no doubt that today’s society is becoming more and more enamored with things pertaining to the supernatural realm. People are intrigued by stories of psychic phenomena, thrilled by stories of spirits caught on film, and the notions of “things-that-go-bump-in-the-night” are less frightening and more accepted as part of the world in which we live.
The subject matter and the theatrics of such things have brought some confusion among professing Christians, and have raised questions and concerns within the true church in the area of demon possession. Many have wondered about the status of believers in relation to such claims. Can a Christian be demon-possessed? An overview study of this question from a Biblical perspective will assuredly tell us the answer is No.
A look at accounts of persons in the Bible being possessed by a devil or demon gives us some helpful insights into the matter. To start off with, it is always an unbeliever that is the possessed individual. No where in the Old or New Testament is there even one clear, uncontested example of a true believer who is demon possessed. There are only four out of the total fifteen examples that could even remotely lead to the conclusion that a Christian can be indwelt by evil spirits. We will briefly look at these four examples.
The first three examples pertain to Saul, the first king of Israel, in 1 Samuel. If we assume that Saul was a believer, it would appear that he was not demon possessed, as some would argue. Consider the following passages: 1 Samuel 16:14-15 tells us that Saul was terrorized by a “spirit of the Lord.” Verse 16 says that the spirit was “on” him. In verse 23, it “came to” Saul, and it “came mightily upon” him in ch.18, verse 10. Finally, in chapter 19, verse 9 it again states that the evil spirit was “on” him. 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. There is Old Testament language usage that does indicate indwelling, such as when the Spirit of God enters Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2:2 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 13:10-17 Verse 11 tells us that she had a sickness for eighteen years that caused her to be bent double and not stand up straight. Clearly this woman was sick because of the “spirit” that indwelled her (verse 11) which was identified as “Satan” in verse 16. To bolster their argument, advocates of Christian possession cite that she was undoubtedly a believer because of the title given to her, “a daughter of Abraham.” This, they would say, clenches the argument that a believer can be demon possessed. 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. Take for example the story of Zachaeus in Luke 19:9 NASB. “And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.’” Here the title “a son of Abraham” is used of Zachaeus prior to salvation. To use the titles “son of Abraham” and “daughter of Abraham” simply describes ethnicity. In other words, these descriptive titles speak of their Jewish heritage. The people Jesus” came to save . . . from their sins” (Matt. 1:21) Clearly, Zachaeus was called “a son of Abraham” before he was saved, not afterward. Therefore, we can confidently conclude that the sick woman was not a believer while experiencing this satanically induced illness.
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