One of my favorite stories in the Bible is from Acts 19 where we are introduced to a demon-possessed man and the hapless seven sons of the Chief Rabbi named Sciva. It appears that these seven sons had previously witnessed a local Apostle successfully banish demons and cure the sick. Confident they had all the words right they attempted an ad hoc exorcism on a rather stubborn demon with this invocation:
<b><i>“In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.”</i></b>
Unimpressed, the demon answered:
<i><b>“Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”</i></b> and then proceeded to beat them bloody, strip them naked and throw them outside.
Obviously, the Seven Sons were outclassed and out over their skis.
When I was a young believer, I had people pray over me to “bind and rebuke in the name of Jesus” the “demon of lust” but sooner or later I always wound up naked and, on unfortunately rare occasions, naked with someone else. Now THAT was a stubborn demon. But when I was once again firmly in its -ahem- “grip” the blame fell squarely on my shoulders and not on the impotence of my elders’ prayer.
Now, I really don’t want to hear that the Seven Sons got their wording wrong – “They said <i>this</i>, but they should have said <i>that</i>.” I also don’t care to hear that the demon had some sort of infernal insight and he could pick out who was a real Christian and who was not – “Demons can see who is washed in the blood.”
So here are my questions:
Who are you?
Before you attempt to cast out any demons from me am I entitled to know who you are?
If you fail to convince me, is it my fault?
Or is it yours?
R&I – TP
son-of-sceva-attacks-priest.jpg (1935×1446) (istockphoto.com)
JoeM RN
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/