Month: June 2013

The evangelical church in America has become myopic. Success in building large, seemingly successful churches has resulted in an insular, know-it-all attitude among many Christian leaders. They understand little of the wider work of the Holy Spirit internationally and are obsessed with theological hair-splitting.  American Christianity is too often near-sighted and assumes the luxury of quibbling over issues like whether a Christian can have a demon. The answer is that Christian can be demonized, a fact known demonstrably in parts of the world where the church must constantly battle the forces of witchcraft, such as the nation of Bahamas.

Last week we held a conference at the largest deliverance church in that part of the word, Deliverance Tabernacle, founded by Pastor Mark Knowles. When people in the Islands need an exorcism, they know where to go – the Tabernacle. Because of his huge success in setting people free by God’s power, even the demons in the islands call him “God’s General.”  Where did he learn to cast out demons effectively? I was humbled to hear Pastor Knowles tell me, “Eighty percent of what I know, I learned from you. I bought more than 30 of your DVDs and watched them up to 10 hours a day. I like your formula. It helps me not get lost doing deliverance. Now I’m teaching other pastors to cast out demons like you do.”

One of those set free was a university law student named Aliah. Her powerful demons went back 500 generations to a curse starting with a rape by Spanish ancestors. The demon spoke Spanish, a language Aliah doesn’t know and never studied. Eventually, someone in the audience who speaks fluent Spanish came forward to interpret what the demon was saying. The interpreter helped Bob cast the demon to the “Inferno.”

Deliverance Tabernacle is a respected, fast-growing church in the Bahamas. Thousands come from all across the 700-island nation to seek Pastor Knowles’ help. He eagerly agreed with Bob to establish an Atlantic-Caribbean campus of our International School of Exorcism®. There is no stigma to casting out demons at the Tabernacle and no fear of what people might say about the ministry of deliverance. While America has settled into a myopic, cozy kind of Christianity that no longer hungers for the miraculous of God, the rest of the world is spiritually passing us by.

It had to finally come to this. What will the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) people do about this one? Add another letter, S for “sexless” and make it LGBTS? According to a report by the Christian Institute, a man in Australia claims he is neither a man nor a woman. Norrie May-Welby was born a man but then had a sex change operation to become a woman. That didn’t make “her” happy so “she” decided to be none-of-the-above. She wanted to be sexless. What’s even stranger is that the state of New South Wales actually agreed to alter her birth certificate to “not specified.” She still wasn’t happy. Now the New South Wales Supreme Court has ruled that her birth certificate can read “sexless.” In other words, residents of that part of Australia do not have to legally say what they are sexually. Australian passports can now identify the holder as male, female, or “indeterminate.”

Stop laughing. It’s not really funny. In England the government plans to drop mention of a person’s sexual status, all in the name of “transsexual equality.” And such strained political correctness is taken seriously enough that 99.9 % of the population bends its will to an almost unidentifiable portion of the population. And if you haven’t heard, a couple in Canada claim to have raised a baby that to them is without gender, not calling their child a boy or a girl, keeping the genitals a secret. Maybe they should also hold off declaring that the child is human. He might turn out to be a puppy or a platypus.

It’s time someone says, “Whoa Nellie,” to the sexual absurdities of our culture. What started out as a concern for discrimination based on gender identification and sexual orientation has become a hodge-podge of sexual exploration without boundaries. People may be entitled to do as they wish in a free society, but must that society go to such tortured lengths to cooperate with and give approbation to an absurdity such as “sexless?” The debate of human identity is quickly moving beyond what’s moral to what’s downright silly. Is it too much to ask that we harken back to the simple statement of Scripture that “male and female created He them” (Genesis 1:27)?

The 40+ crowd remembers him well, the serial killer that terrorized California in the mid-80s – Richard Ramirez, the so-called “night stalker.” (The name came from a Rolling Stones’ song that described a nighttime marauder, much like Ramirez.) He started by murdering a pair of sisters in the San Gabriel Valley area. Those who survived his mayhem described him with long hair and a demonic smile. In addition to dispatching his victims, he raped, sodomized, slit throats and mutilated. He gouged out the eyes of one woman. He used lipstick to paint a pentagram on another victim. He shot one woman’s fiancé and made her swear allegiance to Satan. When caught, he appeared in court flashing pentagrams inked on his palms, flashing his hands to the cameras. “Hail Satan,” he shouted in the courtroom.

This past week Ramirez, he died in a prison hospital bed. He never made it to the gas chamber. Several news accounts said he died “peaceably.” I doubt that. If by that description they are comparing his death to the violent end it might have been, I suppose that’s “peaceful.” But as the demons came to usher him to Hell, I doubt it was anything like a calm exit of life.

For those too young to remember, I recall vividly how the media mocked his claims of devil worship. Most journalists thought him more of a Charles-Manson wannabe. They couldn’t accept that the evil of Ramirez was stoked by Satan. He was passed off as a mentally disturbed malcontent, which he was; but the cruelty of his crimes indicates more than the acts of an insane menace. For a time, the devil did inspire his mayhem. It’s tragic that he spent more than 20 years on death row, when he should have long ago have been executed for his crimes. This lack of swift justice coddles criminals and makes more devil-inspired killers like Ramirez, think that they won’t have to pay for their deeds with their lives, at least not any time soon. As the mass killings of Aurora and Newton remind us, satanically inspired crimes haven’t gone away. The murderers just kill more people quicker, and with the same Satanic inspiration.

Yesterday I reported on the Clergy Project, a web site dedicated to pastors who are phonies in the pulpit, preaching the gospel but privately acting as atheists. The march toward greater visibility for unbelief in our society has taken another step with the plan to establish a 1-800 hotline for those questioning their faith. It’s headed by a group that claims to help Christians get over their religion, as if those who turn their backs on God are like alcoholics or druggies in need of rehab. The purpose for the hotline is to “offer doubters an anonymous place to ask difficult questions and find communities of like-minded nonbelievers.

The Recovering from Religion group is out to raise $30,000 to fund the hiring of 40 “counselors” to help talk people out of their faith. (If the organization applies to the IRS for tax-deductible status you can bet they won’t have to wait like Christian and patriot-Tea Party people have had to wait for approval.) The Recovering from Religion people would like us to know that they are performing a public service for those turning against God and thus risk alienating family. The phone counselors will offer an action plan to get out of church and connect with newfound atheist friends.

You’ve got to give the devil credit by being creative. He’s not slow to use whatever tools are available to promote his plans. Ironically the Apostle James (chapter 2, verse 19) reminds us, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble!” Demons know there is a God and the thought terrifies them. Considering all the demons I’ve dealt with, I’ve encountered many who are deceived into thinking they will win in the end. But I’ve never met a demon who doubted or argued against the existence of God.  And it’s these same demons who are behind this new effort of the Recovering from Religion hotline to Hell.

On the Clergy Project web site one atheist on the pastoral staff of an evangelical church says, “I live out my life as if there is no God.” Teresa MacBain, raised Southern Baptist by a preacher father and herself a former Methodist minister, declares that she still “ministers” to people because she “cares about them. ” MacBain is the executive director of Clergy Project and proudly declares her rejection of God and Christianity.  As might be expected, ultra-liberal MSNBC has promoted the Project with complimentary news stories.  CNN featured a non-critical portrayal of the movement on their – get this contradiction -“Faces of Faith” TV show.

While the Clergy Project tries to present a pleasant, kind face to apostasy, there is no need to play nice over this issue. The Apostle Paul warned Timothy, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1 NKJV).  That’s pretty plain. Whatever emotional or intellectual rationales may be given for those turning their backs on God, the Bible makes it plain that deceiving demons are behind the Clergy Project. Sure, many Christians, even pastors, have doubts from time to time, especially during crises and “dark nights of the soul.” But adamant and insistent denial of Christ and His truth, after once having embraced it, opens one up to demons.  To those atheists still in the pulpit, get out! And get delivered!

I hadn’t heard of the Clergy Project until I ran across it in an unrelated internet article. So I went to the web site, and I was in for a shock. I discovered that apostate preachers are not only coming out of the closet, but they’ve also got their own web site to celebrate their departure from faith (maybe they’ll get a call from President Obama as did NBA basketball player Jason Collins did when he came out gay.) I knew that there were some pastors who struggled with doubts from time to time, but that’s a huge step from preachers in active ministry who are actually atheists in disguise. Clergy Project is the place to reveal their true feelings and unbelief, while receiving affirmation as “they move beyond faith” (to quote the web site). Among the issues for which apostate preachers can find solace and support are: “Wresting with theological issues, living as a nonbeliever with religious spouses, finding a way out of the ministry.”

 What exactly is an exorcism? That question needs answering, since Father Gabrielle Amorth, top exorcist in the Catholic Church, recently claimed to have cast out over 160,000 demons while performing more than 80,000 exorcisms. When I’ve been asked by the press how many exorcisms I’ve done, my answer is “nearly 20,000 documented cases.” Obviously, Fr. Amorth in his 80s has been at this a lot longer than I have, but his claim raises interesting questions. I am a great admirer of Fr. Amorth. We have met personally at the Vatican, and he’s given me a private tour of his exorcism facilities. I am deeply impressed by the great work he has done, and I applaud his latest call for the Pope to allow all priests to perform exorcisms, whether or not they receive a Bishop’s approval, a lengthy process.

 Eighty thousand v. 20,0000. What’s the difference? Numbers really don’t matter. All that is really important is people getting help; but here’s where semantics come into play. Any time a Catholic priest reads from the Rituale Romanum, the Catholic prayer book of exorcism, and declares a demon to be gone, that priest is deemed to have performed an exorcism. (There are a few other requirements, but they are all ritual related.) By my definition, an exorcism requires the actual manifestation of the demon with verbal identification of the evil spirit’s name, function, and legal right. My designation also requires visible and audible manifestations associated with the demon’s presence and expulsion. Thus Fr. Amorth and others may have gone through a deliverance process and performed what they would consider an exorcism, which would not be an exorcism by my standards. Contrary, the Catholic Church wouldn’t necessarily consider what I do to be exorcism, only prayers of deliverance, since I’m not officially sanctioned by a Bishop. By their standards, if there is no Bishop’s approval, there is no right to declare an exorcism has been done, no matter what kind of demonic manifestations and supernatural confirmations may occur.

I’ve done far more than 20,000 exorcisms, if I were to include all prayers for deliverance, even those where a verbal manifestation did not occur. Also, in most exorcisms I cast out far more than one demon, as many as 5, 10, 20 or more at once. Multiply that by 20,000 and I have sent back to hell hundreds of thousands of demons, by God’s grace and power. I pray, and I’m sure Fr. Amorth agrees, that those who come after us will do even greater things for the Lord. Here’s the most important point: the tally of exorcisms and demons doesn’t matter. The emphasis should be on DOING SOMETHING to set the captives free. However, you total the numbers, Fr. Amorth and I have together cast out more demons than the rest of all priests and pastors combined. That IS the problem. Every priest and pastor should be an exorcist when needed, because exorcism is a command of Christ to his followers. If that were the case, we’d be discussing millions of demons expelled throughout Christianity and many more people walking in liberation, free from demonic torment. What Fr. Amorth and I do should be normal, ordinary and not extraordinary. It was that way in the First Century A.D., and should be again today..