Ask Pastor Mike Live

Mike Fabarez: Wilson T has chatted on the chat here and he asks, "What's your view of demon possession in the modern age? How do you differentiate it from different psychological issues?" Wilson, thanks for watching on YouTube. Demon possession is a phrase we like to use and it has shown up in different English translations, but I like the word itself in the Greek New Testament that helps me say it maybe a little bit more accurately.

The Greek word in the New Testament when we're dealing with someone who is doing weird things—maybe the Gerasene demoniac who's living among the tombs, he's in the cemetery cutting himself, he's naked, and he's antisocial—the word used for these people in the Scripture is *daimonizomai*. *Daimonizomai* is the Greek word and it's made up of three component parts. One is the fact that it has the word demon in it, so there's a demon involved; that's the noun part of this word. There's a causal stem, -iz-, and then a passive component to it.

The most literal translation that some people think of when they're in the Bible—if you've got an old translation, it might say "demon-possessed"—is really demon-caused passivity. Of course, we see that played out in the narratives when Jesus is talking to a demon, but it's the voice of a person. We even see there's more than one demon, like when Jesus addresses the one who is called Legion. He says, "Legion is our name, because we are many." Jesus knows there's a demon that is doing something through that human being who is now passive.

If you say, "What's your name?" he doesn't say, "My name's Tim." No, "My name is Legion, for we are many." This demon is now causing passivity in the person and is expressing the demonic will of this group of demons through that individual. Just like we see in the Gerasene demoniac who's living among the tombs, here is a man who, if he had his will like every other human being, would like to live in a nice, comfortable house. He'd probably want a nice three-bedroom home in Galilee.

Instead, he's living in the tombs. He'd like to wear a nice robe or a nice outfit, put a nice shirt on. Instead, he's running around naked. He'd like to cherish his own flesh, which is what we do as it says in the book of Ephesians. That's just a natural thing we do; we take care of ourselves, we put on deodorant, we wash our armpits, we clean ourselves in the shower every day. Instead, he's living in dirt and filth and he's cutting himself with stones. That is the demon having his way with a person.

Wilson, you asked the question about my take on it. Do demons still have a kind of sway over certain individuals to do his will through an individual? I'm going to say, yes, I think so. I think that's still going on, although in Christ's ministry is when we saw a huge rash of expressions of really serious demon expressions in individuals. We had a lot of demon-caused passivity in the Gospels. Why? Because God was bringing the champion, His own Son, to the earth to accomplish redemption.

Satan only wants to kill, steal, and destroy, as John 10 says. He's out there trying to blind the minds of the unbelieving and he's now holding nothing back to oppose Christ. They're running up to Him and causing Jesus all kinds of trouble. We see still some residual parts of that demon possession, or demon-caused passivity—demonization, let's just use the word itself and transliterate it—still residual in the Book of Acts. I think we see and should expect that we see more of this going on in Christ's ministry and in the Book of Acts as the church is getting established.

Yet, when I look at people that are doing Satan's will, I think that's still happening all over the place. It's happening in the church. Let me give you one passage here in 2 Timothy 2:26. We're speaking here of Paul telling the pastor of the church at Ephesus, Timothy, that he's got opponents in his church. These are members of the church, highly committed participants in the church. It says they need to come to repentance. They're opposing you, Timothy, and you're doing the right thing, preaching the right things.

We want God to grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been captured by him to do his will. That is a great phrase expressing *daimonizomai*: being passively used as a tool of Satan to do what he wants. Here's what Satan wants: churches to be divided, churches to have the pastor being picked on and opposed by people for things that don't really matter or making up stuff about the pastor.

In this case, Paul is saying, "Timothy, you need to pray that God would give these people repentance and free them from being used by the enemy." Here's the question you're asking, Wilson, in a sense: does Satan still use people to do his will? Even late in the New Testament—2 Timothy is the last letter that Paul wrote as we're starting to near the end of the first century—he's still saying it may not be by someone's head spinning around like in *The Exorcist*, but here's what it is: there are people in your church doing the will of the enemy.

In that sense, yes, I think there's plenty of what you call demon possession in the modern age, but you're probably thinking of the extreme examples. I lived in downtown Chicago for a while before it got gentrified on the north side. I'm telling you, I saw people there—more than I saw in downtown Long Beach. I grew up not far from that and often spend time down there; both my parents worked in downtown Long Beach and we had our own share of what the cops would call "the crazies" down there.

In fact, these are people with a lot of self-harm, a lot of vitriol coming out of their mouths. I remember when I got to downtown Chicago and living there in the '80s, I thought, "There are a lot of people that are just ranting and screaming." You say, "Is that psychological issues?" Obviously, there can be a physiological component, but we need to say what's cause and what's effect. Sometimes physiological issues can certainly be the cause of problems. You could get hit in a car accident and your brain is malfunctioning, or you could be born with some malfunction and your personality now is antisocial.

I understand and some are, but some are not. You've got a perfectly healthy person that all of a sudden now does things that open themselves up to evil in certain ways that now they're doing things they wouldn't otherwise do. Think about young people cutting themselves. When I started to hear about that—of course, I didn't grow up in a time where that was popular, but it's certainly popular now—you get some beautiful young teenage girl that's in her closet cutting herself with razor blades. That's Satan's work.

I'm going to say that's *daimonizomai*. That's demon-caused passivity. You're doing something that no one should ever do. We should nourish and cherish our own flesh; that's what we're designed and programmed to do, but you're now doing things that you're not programmed to do, but what Satan is strategizing to do. For extreme cases, I think it's "both and." Wilson, I'll just say there are some people with physiological physical issues that are causing them to do crazy things.

Then there are people doing crazy things, just to use that term loosely, like living in the tombs, cutting themselves, self-harm, whatever it might be, including suicide. I'd say Satan is certainly having his way to do what he wants to do through them. That's a nuanced answer, I understand, Wilson, but thanks for watching on YouTube. I hope that helps. If you've got a follow-up, you've got your keyboard, so let us know what you think. We've got questions here; if you've got a question for me, we've got plenty of show left, so give me a call: 877-913-5357.