Wesleyans and Grudem (Satan and demons)

Some of my previous posts in this series include:
Miracles
Prayer
Angels

Chapter 20: Satan and Demons
Grudem is an interesting thinker in that he is a fundamentalist in thinking and yet sympathetic to the charismatic movement. That's an unusual combination.

Accordingly, the amount of detail this chapter covers is quite striking. Grudem has clearly thought about this topic a lot more than most Wesleyans do. In fact, he reminded me of a remark a friend once made about Roman Catholic theology. They have been around so long that they have thought about a lot of things that Wesleyans have not thought much about. They've developed some ideas that, to many of us, may seem a little weird.

In the same way, Grudem has asked questions about demonic activity that most Wesleyans have never even occurred to most Wesleyans.

1. As with angels, there is much in this chapter that Wesleyans either would agree with or would not really have an opinion on.

• Satan is a fallen angel, as are demons.
• Satan is the head of the demons.
• Satan and demons are opposed to God.
• The power of Satan and demons is limited and doesn't even come close to God's power.
• What the OT calls "gods," we would call demons. I would add that the earliest strata of the OT does not know yet about Satan. There are places in the early OT where God is said to cause something evil (e.g., 2 Sam. 24:1) where later passages indicate it was more precisely Satan (1 Chron. 21:1), with God's permission (see Job 1).
• Jesus exorcist ministry on earth was the binding of Satan, a sign of the inauguration of the kingdom of God. Satan's power is definitively over, even though he is still kicking.
• Demons are active in the world today.
• Not everything evil that happens comes from Satan and demons.
• Demons cannot make a Christian do something, but they can attack and try to influence them.
• Christians need not fear demons. Christians who are spiritually strong can rebuke demons when they know for certain they are dealing with one. Grudem is probably right that whatever Jude 8-10 is about, it is not about the kind of confrontation the seventy had with demons in Luke 10. It may refer to the kind of over-zealous demon seeking of some in the charismatic movement.

2. Weird things
There are a number of things in the chapter that may be right, but it really seems more or less to be speculation and charismatic tradition.

• Demons can't read our thoughts or know the future. Sure, why not. But we can imagine that they are smarter than Einstein. There are people who are so intuitive they can more or less see what's coming. You would imagine that angels and demons are smarter.
• Grudem questions some teachings in the charismatic church today. He finds no evidence for there being demons in certain territories or locations (421). He discourages questioning demons for information.
• Grudem questions language of demon possession. He apparently distinguishes that from "having" a demon (Matt. 11:8). I'm not sure I see the difference.
• I seriously doubt that demons are the main culprit behind someone who teaches false doctrine. Evil is not focused in belief but in the heart. We discern evil when we discern a heart of hatred, not when someone has crazy ideas.
• He gives some interesting advice: don't talk glibly about demons (431); focus on people oppressed, not on demons. Don't be overly curious about demons (432).

3. Exegetical issues

a. There are not many passages in the Bible about Satan and demons, and much of what is said had deep connections to Jewish apocalyptic thinking. The allusive nature of these comments make it dangerous for us to be very detailed about our thoughts on Satan and demons. It will inevitably be difficult for us to know where the cultural context of apocalyptic Judaism ends and distinctly Christian revelation begins.

Indeed, much of what Christians believe about Satan and demons seems as much a matter of Christian tradition after the New Testament as it does the Bible itself. So we must decide whether God continued to unpack revelation in this area after the Bible or whether this is simply an area in which we should only have some basic core beliefs like those mentioned above.

b. For example, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 simply were not about Satan in context. Satan is unknown in Isaiah or Ezekiel, and the context of these two chapters is obviously about evil kings at the time of these two prophets. Later interpreters read these passages in a "fuller sense" about Satan. That may be a legitimate "spiritual" way of reading these passages.

Perhaps that is legitimate. The problem is that the New Testament does not clearly endorse this reading. Luke 10:18 may allude to Isaiah 14 when Jesus says that he observed Satan fall from heaven like lightning. But the context of Luke 10 is not the fall of Satan before Adam. It is the exorcist ministry of Jesus' disciples. It either referred to what was happening in Jesus' own ministry or to what is now destined to happen.

c. Again, some of the key verses about the origins of demons come from very obscure verses in the Bible: 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6. Other possible verses to take into account are 1 Peter 3:19, Genesis 6:1-2, and Rev. 12:4. These are scarcely clear enough to build much in the way of essential Christian belief.

Grudem's hermeneutic, a fundamentalist hermeneutic, takes individual verses and harmonizes them into an overall system. By contrast, because individual verses are most likely to be ambiguous and to be based on historical context, biblical theology should focus on big principles and live with uncertainty about individual verses that do not seem to fit.

What is particularly difficult in relation to these sorts of verses is how deeply entrenched they seem to be in an apocalyptic Jewish worldview. The New Testament only skirts the edges of this paradigm. If we read passages like those again from the perspective of Jewish apocalyptic, we would read Genesis 6 as angels having sex with human women, for that is how 1 Enoch reads this text.

This Jewish background literature gnaws at a person the more you know it. It suggests that Grudem's reading requires a person to treat 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude as if they weren't written at the time and place that they were. Once again, we end up endorsing Grudem's theology of where Satan and demons come from but probably revealing that he does not get that belief from the Bible but from early Christian tradition, which is okay.

d. My personal hunch is that we should take the millennium in Revelation 20 symbolically. No other part of Scripture suggests there will be 1000 years between Jesus' return and the final judgment. And we shouldn't base a doctrine on something that only appears once in Scripture. It's not, however, something to die for. We'll know when it happens.

e. Given how much of the ancient Jewish worldview is involved in NT imagery about Satan and demons, we should probably be cautious in our application. For example, not all instances of epilepsy are demon-possession. It is quite possible that some events that would have been identified as exorcisms in the ancient world would today be identified as schizophrenia or other psychological conditions.

Let me be clear here. I am not suggesting that all instances can be explained as mental disorders. Similarly, I am not discounting any of Jesus' healings. But we are dealing with real people here, and love demands that we be very careful in this area. If medication works, then we should medicate rather than presume a demon is involved. I have no doubt that heinous things have been done by both well-intentioned and less than well-intentioned Christians in this area.

5. In summary, Satan and demons exist. They remain a strong influence for evil in the world, but their power is nothing compared to God's. Jesus has struck the definitive death blow, even if they will not be finally dis-empowered until Jesus returns.

Jesus' Exorcist Ministry 9

... continued from yesterday.
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Nevertheless, we do find Jewish literature that located demonic forces in the lowest "heaven," the lowest sky immediately above the earth.  This situation is arguably presumed by the New Testament, even though the New Testament does not explicitly spell it out.  A writing called the Testament of Levi divides the skies into three "heavens" (cf. 2 Cor. 12:2). The lowest heaven or lowest sky is the place where evil spirits live.

Whenever these evil spirits came into power, Jesus' exorcist ministry indicated their dethronement from control over the earth. Jesus puts it this way: "If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Luke 11:20). By casting out demons, Jesus was signaling the arrival of the kingdom of God over the earth. God's rule over the earth was thus not just political. It was for Jesus perhaps even more centrally spiritual.

Jesus was dethroning the "ruler of the kingdom of the air" (Eph. 2:2), Satan. Jesus was driving out the "prince of the world" (John 12:31). His exorcist ministry meant that Satan was being dislodged from his rule in the sky (Luke 10:18).

Jesus' enemies of course had a different interpretation. They suggested Jesus cast out demons because he was empowered by the prince of demons, Beelzebub (Mark 3:22). His response, of course, is that things don't work that way. Satan doesn't fight Satan. In order to plunder Satan's house, you would have to bind him first. So, once again, each demon Jesus' cast out was an indication of the end of evil's power over the earth.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell of a time just before Jesus' ministry when he was tempted by the Devil in the wilderness. This tempting took place between his baptism and the beginning of his preaching. Matthew and Luke tell of three specific temptations. One is for Jesus to use supernatural power to turn stones into bread. Another is for Jesus to use the angels, the company jet, to save him from a random act of throwing himself from the top of the temple. The most significant, though, is when Satan tempts Jesus to switch his loyalty to him and away from God.

Jesus thus begins his earthly preaching with a clear sense of focus and loyalty to God. He goes on, not to serve the ruler of this world but to cast out the servants of the prince of the lower atmosphere. In this area perhaps more than any other, Jesus began to bring the rule of God to earth in his ministry.

Evil clearly continues to be a powerful force in the world today. As Christians, we believe that the power of evil has been defeated, but that the full manifestation of that defeat is not yet apparent. The gospels leave us with an optimism, that no matter how bleak the forces of evil may look, evil does not get the final word. We must not despair. We must not acquiesce. We must go on casting out demons in faith that evil's back is broken. It's defeat only needs to be played out.

Addiction 7

continued from yesterday
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What did Jesus' exorcist ministry mean? For one thing, it certainly fit well with his overall mission to "proclaim freedom for the prisoners... to set the oppressed free" (Luke 4:18). It fit with Jesus' mission to include all of Israel in the coming kingdom, not merely the privileged and "normal" of society. The good news was not just for their equivalent of the employed, middle class today.

As we saw in the previous chapter, Jesus did not come for the "healthy."  His primary audience was those who were not currently included. Certainly those possessed by demons were an extreme example of people who were completely outside. They so just how far the good news could go.

When we look at applying these values today, we in the Western world do not often run into the demon possessed. For some, it is because we do not have the eyes to see them.  For some, Satan has convinced us that it just doesn't happen any more. Yet even the Roman Catholic Church continues to have exorcists on hand.  While every possible medical diagnosis is explored before turning in this direction, there is a recognition of a point where such explanations are exhausted.

But there are others on the edges of society to whom we are to bring God's love. The mentally ill and those whose minds are deteriorating in their older years come to mind. Society has always found it easy to forget such people and even has put such individuals to death in the past. Jesus' care for those possessed shows us that he would not only have noticed these sorts of people, but he would have focused on them more than the "normal" person with a comfortable life.

There are also all sorts of addictions to which we humans are prone. Drugs, alcohol, smoking quickly come to mind. Our enslavement can be more subtle but just as destructive. Addiction to possessions and material things has probably destroyed just as many homes and families as drinking has, with individuals getting themselves into levels of debt that eventually destroy them. A whole generation of young boys is sabotaging itself in gaming, unable to leave the screen in front of them, and in the process throwing out the very education and livelihood necessary to live. Right now, the continued existence of sex trafficking has powerfully been brought to our attention.

Attention to how Jesus approached demon possession is instructive of how we might approach addiction and enslavement today. Jesus did not preach against demon-possession, as if the individual possessed had a choice not to be possessed. In the same way, it would be foolish for us to preach to an alcoholic that he or she needs to stop drinking. They can't. It is not in their power. It's foolish to preach against addiction. Instead, we should work for their deliverance.

The person who is addicted, like many people in a cycle of poverty, does not have the power in him or herself to change. I have heard stories from the 1800's and 1900's of people instantaneously freed from their addictions, stories of these "demons" instantaneously cast out. For whatever reason, it doesn't seem to happen so much that way any more. People seem healed much more these days by a process. I personally don't know why things might have changed, although I have heard some say it is because we no longer expect instantaneous deliverance.

The key points, though, seem to be these.  First, those enslaved to demons of various sorts cannot help themselves. If they are going to be delivered, it will take someone coming alongside them from the outside. Secondly, Jesus cares about them and wants to see them delivered, and we can be his agents of deliverance. Thirdly, the process of deliverance can differ from time to time and place to place, but we should be committed to it.

There are people with expertise in such things. We should not overestimate ourselves or our own abilities. God can work through anyone, but it would be senseless to let some messiah complex keep us from referring those in dire need to those with special knowledge and training. Human enslavement is pervasive and dire. Some have a special gift to minister to those who, more often than not, seem to return over and over to their chains. Yet we must always remember that Jesus died for them as well...

Exorcisms 6

... continued from here
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Another activity that Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us about Jesus doing is casting out demons, exorcism.  Not only did they bring Jesus the sick, but the demon possessed as well (e.g., Mark 1:32).  Interestingly, this is one aspect of Jesus' earthly ministry that John tells us nothing about, but it permeates the synoptic gospels.

Situations in the gospels where people are possessed by spirits are different from those where they are healed of sickness. In almost every case, the evil spirits speak and they are beings distinct from the person whose body they inhabit.  Jesus heals many people where no connection is made to an evil spirit, and most of the times where a demon is mentioned there is no clear physical sickness involved.

There are only a couple instances where we might wonder if something was described as demon possession that we might describe differently today.  For example, on one occasion Jesus heals a man who was mute (Matt. 9:32-33).  The demon does not speak. In another well known instance, a boy has symptoms that would make us think of epilepsy (Mark 9:17-20).  The boy has seizures and foams at the mouth.  Again, the demon does not speak.

The important point is that Jesus healed them more than their precise diagnosis.  Were there instances where the people Jesus healed were schizophrenic rather than truly demon possessed?  The reason I ask this question is because we know that there are people today who speak in voices who are mentally ill rather than demon possessed.  At the same time, Christians in the two-thirds world continue to report numerous incidents of demon possession where people act in ways that seem well beyond normal schizophrenia.

We do not have to pick one or the other.  We can believe both in schizophrenia and in demon possession.  But we must be very careful. Very few if any individuals reading this blog are qualified to make this sort of diagnosis.  Throughout history, numerous individuals have been put to death who were mentally ill rather than possessed.

We should exhaust every possible medical avenue before we conclude someone is possessed. We do not need to know exactly what is wrong with a person to pray for them, even to lay hands on them.  God knows the precise diagnosis, and it is the Spirit who does the healing or performs the exorcism. This issue should not be something that causes you to have doubts, nor should we ever hesitate to pray for someone no matter what their problem...