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Matt 4:24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. NKJV

Yesterday I addressed the topic of biblical deliverance as found in Scripture, namely in the synoptic gospels.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke give clear indications regarding how demons responded to the presence of Christ, and the responsibility of the disciples to confront these evil beings. I pointed out that:

1. Demons make their presence known apart from the consciousness of the host.
2. Physical maladies are not the same as demonically induced behavior.

Today, I add to this appraisal of biblical deliverance the following observations:

1. Jesus spoke directly to demons as distinct entities, and they answered. He told them to be quiet, to leave, and not to return. Was Jesus deluded? Was he merely accommodating a primitive lack of understanding mental illness and thus went along with the ideas of the day? If so, He was misleading people and was a charlatan who misrepresented his mission.
2. If we cannot trust Christ to have accurately executed His encounters with evil entities, then how can we trust anything else that He said? Clearly, the disciples responded to His command to perform exorcisms as He did. If Christ was playing along with some metaphysical charade He is no one to be trusted regarding His claims to be the Son of God.

If some choose not to believe in demonic activity do they also believe that angels are mystical contrivances? Do the angelic instances of intervention in the Bible merely accommodate a primitive view of the cosmos, not to be taken seriously today? The answer to these rhetorical questions is obvious. Biblical deliverance was commonplace, frequent, and a significant part of Christ’s ministry.  It demonstrated his authority over Satan and provided a model for what He would later require of His disciples.

He wanted to kill more, and he planned to go to a populated area so he could do just that. He had already brutally shot to death his mother, father, and three siblings ages 2, 5, and 9. But Sunday, January 20, 2013, before he could carry out his entire murderous scheme, 15-year-old Nehemiah Griego got caught. He might have perpetrated more mayhem if he hadn’t inexplicably taken photos of his dead mother and emailed them to his girlfriend who called 911.

It all came down in a home just outside Albuquerque, NM. And here’s what’s really chilling. Nehemiah was a Christian. His father had been on the pastoral staff of a large local, Pentecostal church and currently served as a chaplain for a detention center. The dead father, once a gang member, had turned his life around, but he apparently couldn’t do the same for his son. I don’t know the senior pastor of Calvary, Skip Heitzig, but I’m sure that he and his staff are doing everything possible to cope with this tragedy. I’ve been to Calvary’s web site and they have every conceivable kind of program to reach every single kind of person, and that’s great. Their mega-church agenda is obviously designed with concern for a variety of issues that people face – women in despair, parenting skills, cool teen stuff, family life ministry, men’s identity quest, jail ministry, pro-life, etc. It’s impressive, except for one thing. No mention of deliverance. So whatever your issue, they offer help, and that is commendable. They have obviously committed enormous resources to reach every kind of need – except one. If you have demons, there doesn’t appear to be a deliverance ministry, at least not one they’ll openly tell you about.

In this time of crisis, our prayers go out to pastor Heitzig for wisdom and strength. But I have to ask a “what if” question. What if Nehemiah’s father, Greg Greigo, had demons left over from his gang-banging days and passed those on to his son? What if a generational curse was at the root of this horrible crime? Could that curse have been broken, and would five people would be alive today? It’s a hard question to ask at a time like this, but it has to be broached. What other explanation is there for a preacher’s kid murdering with such abandon. I don’t have all the answers, but I am willing to ask some tough questions. And by the way. Once again, we see that Christians can have demons. And those demons can push them to the edge of murder.

In an article published by foxnews.com, Dr. Keith Ablow, psychiatrist and Fox contributor, has spoken out on what he calls a “generation of deluded narcissists.” Ablow points to the face that today’s college youth think they are gifted and driven when, in fact, their test scores are going down and social media has turned them into psychologically sick children who are narcissistically challenged.  Ablow writes:

False pride can never be sustained. The bubble of narcissism is always at risk of bursting. That’s why young people are higher on drugs than ever, drunker than ever, smoking more, tattooed more, pierced more and having more and more and more sex, earlier and earlier and earlier, raising babies before they can do it well, because it makes them feel special, for a while. They’re doing anything to distract themselves from the fact that they feel empty inside and unworthy.

Wow and AMEN! And what does this generation get from its leaders? A President who has never held a meaningful job outside of government largess and has the gall to lecturer those who got rich because of real hard work. A congress that can’t give up its pork and won’t face the facts that we’re rapidly becoming a second rate nation economically. When an “entertainment” company like Apple has more money in the bank than the government, what does that say? (Yes, I have an iPhone, but it’s for functionality not games and social media.)

Too many youth have overdosed on egoist, inflated self-worth and need to be told that more Monster drinks and Facebook postings don’t automatically lead to success. And to fix this problem, Obama is now floating the idea of an executive order to take guns away from Americans.  I have a gun, and I’m in no danger of shooting up a theater. But the those like James Holmes,  who are infested with the narcissism that Ablow describes, are a danger to all of us, and not because they have an assault rifle. It’s because they are self-absorbed with first-person shooter games and inflated egos drive by demons. The answer is simple: a return to the work ethic, political leaders who lead us because they’ve proven by business success that they are qualified, and preachers who are willing to cast out the demons that infest this national, narcissistic obsession.