This is a tough book to get a copy of since Human Life International stopped publishing it.
It didn't take much research into his ministry to see that his penchant for exorcism was going to be his undoing. One of the points made in Hollywood's current fling with exorcism "The Rite" is that in the end Anthony Hopkin's character succumbs to his adversary. This is not a Hollywood fiction. It is not ordination which protects a given priest exorcist from being overcome, it is his integrity. Integrity is critical because it is the best indicator we have about the strength of any given person's personal ego boundaries. If oppression and possession is about anything, it's about the strength of one's personal ego boundaries. All one need do is read Euteneuer's personal statement and compare it with Human Life International's statement to see that Euteneuer has some ego strength issues which have led directly to boundary issues. Priesthood does not, in the end, strengthen insecure egos nor provide magically conditioned ego boundaries. Abuse is always lurking in the shadows when insecurity is cloaked with spiritual authority.
Occasionally when participating in workshops I'm asked if I believe in demon possession. The answer is always a qualified one. Disassociative Personality Disorder certainly exists. Regression hypnosis certainly works for some patients with OCD. Medical tests done on channelers show demonstrable differences in basic biological functions when the channeled personality is present and dominant. i have seen personalities change dramatically when people have encountered areas considered haunted. I've seen many examples of the placebo effect and spiritual healing which can not be accounted for by Newtonian physics or current biological or psychological paradigms. All of this leads me to believe there is more going on in our reality than we might want to credence. The idea of possession, or attachment disorder as it's known in some psychiatric circles, is a legitimate area of inquiry as far as I'm concerned. I do not however, think for one moment that the Catholic paradigm is correct. Certainly not the paradigm that Euteneuer himself subscribed to and wrote about in his book "Exorcism and the Church Militant".
He has consistently blamed oppression or possession on occult practices and maintained that permission must be given by the person before demonic influence can enter a person's life. First off, were he alive, Job would certainly disagree. Satan had his way with Job and it wasn't because Job invited it by playing around with a Ouija board. In my own limited experience, every single case I have seen that might have qualified, save one, involved people who had experienced early childhood sexual abuse. I don't find this surprising since early childhood abuse is frequently seen in Disassociate Identity Disorder. Children do not give permission to be abused and sexually assaulted. That Eutenueur never makes this connection leads me to believe he violated protocol by not working consistently with mental health professionals. "Prayer helpers" are not mental health professionals.
I'm sometimes at a loss to understand what the fascination is with possession and exorcism--well on one level. These are as occult in conceptualization as any New Age or pagan occult practice. Hollywood certainly gets this which is why we get an exorcism movie every three or four years. That Catholic leadership seems perfectly willing to go down the same road, and that the New Apostolic Reformation types are basing an entire version of Christianity on these concepts is quite frankly very alarming. This stuff is not a game and it can be hugely damaging for individuals whose ego boundaries are, for what ever reason, not particularly solid.
I wonder if Fr. Euteneuer thinks he should add a few more chapters to his opus on exorcism after the last six months or so. He should if he's really doing any serious therapy along with his 'religious' exercises. It may be that while religious artifacts will get a negative response in some situations, a lack of integrity generates it's own response in the therapist or exorcist, and that can be very negative as well. Notice it's not lack of faith, it's lack of integrity. Sometimes I think Faith without integrity is too often a good definition of religion, but that's just me. I'm willing to bet that too many of Euteneuer's exorcisms were conducted on people who would have been far better off with antipsychotics. But then hey, they don't make hollywood movies around priests who hand out meds. Not macho enough I guess.
The link provided for Bilgrimage is not for Bilgrimage.
ReplyDeletePeople can find the link to Bilgrimage in the sidebar.
Thanks for catching that Butterfly. The link is now fixed.
ReplyDeleteLack of integrity?
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to say. Colleen, you have obviously skirted the sexual issue that is raised on Bilgrimage. I may be crude and perhaps a bit out of line but...
I came across this other blog post when checking Fr. Exorcist:
He appears to have been removed from some of his positions of responsibility when he confessed:
" My violations of chastity were limited to one person only, an adult woman;
The violations of chastity happened due to human weakness but did not involve the sexual act;...
...a second woman [apparently] came forward to say that Father had engaged in sexual activity with her — not intercourse, but close to it — while he was performing some type of exorcism prayer(s).
See also: Jezebel: The Exorcist Anti-Birth Control Priest's Sex Scandal
http://jezebel.com/5750118/
This link also includes the video of Hannity getting chewed out for not being a good enough Catholic.
Ok, so I know I'm bringing the conversation down below belt level.
Mea Culpa
p2p
What a bride the church is... If I made such a confession to Mrs. p2p she'd kill me in spite of Canada's ban on the death penalty. Or at least she'd put a serious dent in my skull.
Father Exorcist sounds like he is right out of a medieval horror show. Too bad stuff like that went on back then. It goes on and on. How gross and pathetic. A fine example of the fruits of the clerical system itself, that forever seems to look the other way for scapegoats to blame, and as well, a laity groomed for essentially nothing but abuse of every type. It's awful.
ReplyDeleteWhen a group has a clerical leadership structure lead by authoritarians that are constantly in a defensive mode, it is expected that there may be several people who misbehave because they can. This structure of leadership with its mandatory celibacy requirement that Richard Sipe's research shows to be total hypocrisy becomes rife with little tyrants that do things because they believe that they can and have very little or no consequences. The more opaque the leadership, the more people with schizoid and sociopathic personality disorders that it shields and promotes! It is a real shame and is bringing down so much that might be good about the church. It is interesting when one compares the nuns leadership in the CHA vs the bishops. Integrity vs feelings of omnipotence. These men have deep axis 2 psychiatric disease and do not belong in leadership positions! Axis 2 personality disorders are infinitely more harmful to society than axis I psychosis. Like for pedophiliac, no anti psychotic drug will help. These are the men that are being selected to preform the leadership functions of the Church. These are the men that believe in exorcism of others but do not understand their own serious disease but see their position in the Church as a God given right. This all spells more trouble for ages!
ReplyDelete"Axis 2 personality disorders are infinitely more harmful to society than axis I psychosis."
ReplyDeleteExcellent point Dennis. This has certainly been true for the Church. It would take a real revamping of the priesthood and clerical system to make it unpalatable for certain personality disorders. This might be one legitimate reason to high light when it comes to reform in the Church. Whatever else the seminary system might be attempting to screen out, personality disorders seem to be making it through the screen.
I confess p2p, I purposely skirted the skirt issues. I thought Bill had gone over those issues sufficiently.
ReplyDeleteWhat has personally bothered me about this guy is the exorcism ministry. When one starts in that particular mind field, one better have more than holy water and prayer helpers---like enough sense to rule out psychiatric issues, and personal boundaries strong enough to keep out unwanted 'viruses'.
I think Fr. Euteneuer has been brought down by his own ego and self-righteousness. What scares me is the authoritarian mindset that manifests itself in right-wing Protestantism and Catholicism, and their associated political movements. Dennis, you are right to point out the prevalence of petty tyrants within the current clerical structure. Sadly, some people feel they need to be directed by such petty tyrants.
ReplyDeleteOne other comment, it is indeed disturbing that Euteneuer did not bring in a psychiatrist or someone with psychotherapeutic training and experience. I have to say that I think for people with the medical and therapeutic training, working with an exorcist might have been akin to having a doctor cast one's horoscope to determine the best medical treatment for one's illness.
ReplyDelete@khughes,
ReplyDeleteI think the approach was deliberately designed for him to get his jollies. I think this sicko believed the devil likes to hide in bras and panties. What other excuse would a priest have to look there? Not misogyny, do you think? Maybe I misunderstood, the exorcism treatment includes massagyny.
p2p
The second comment by khughes1963 held weight for many decades, but no longer.
ReplyDeleteThe theologians have had their sphere of influence; the psychotherapist and medical folks have held on to their sphere of influence.
The implication that these spheres of influence are vinegar and oil, thus bound to separate has been true in the past, but is no longer the case.
M. Scott Peck was known for his earlier works "The Road Less Traveled". His fiction work I have not read, but all nonfiction he has produced, I have perused.
He comes from the psychotherapist view of disease, and after decades of dealing with dilemmas that were unexplainable, he realized the separation of fields was not helpful to one group of diseased...the evil.
From his Homepage on what I consider his finest book (a study of Human Evil) comes this information:
People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983).
Dr. Peck utilizes the integration of the deepest insights of psychiatry and religion to probe the essence of human evil. People who are evil attack others rather than facing their own failures. Peck demonstrates the havoc these "People of the Lie" work in the lives of those around them. He presents, from cases encountered in his psychiatric practice, unforgettably vivid incidents of evil in everyday life. This book offers a strikingly original approach to the age-old problem of human evil.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peck was so convinced these two, ordinarily far flung fields needed cojoined, when it comes to diagnosis and treatment of evil, he found religion himself, and attended exorcisms.
This was a natural outflow from the above book...covering decades of psychotherapy work, and specific cases.
That led to his final work:
Glimpses of the Devil : A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption (Free Press, January 4, 2005)
Dr. Peck explores the subject of possession in this book. He reviews two clinical cases that he believes demonstrated true possession.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOTH books are a must read for individuals in psychotherapy work, and theologians as well.
Peck skillfully notes the need to bring these fields together to understand, and diagnose a cure, for human evil. He does this by reflecting on true and specific cases in the books above.
Peck has shaken the vinegar and oil to no longer gravitate apart, when it come to DSM-IV needing to add Evil and Theology, to diagnose, what has often been undiagnosable---the possessed among us.
Read his Bio and scoot around the links within this one:
http://www.mscottpeck.com/html/biography.html
With respect to "People of the Lie", whether you are in theology or psychiatry, or neither, you will recognize folks in YOUR life through these readings.
Another take on this sordid affair:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/maureen-fiedler/the-latest-casualty-of-th_b_818751.html
"And, it's important to note: priestly celibacy is not dogma. It is simply a disciplinary practice, and could be changed literally with a flick of the papal pen.
So, why wait? I know the powers-that-be in the Vatican are comfortable with current arrangements, but it would seem that the needs of ministry and the availability of the Eucharist [only priests can consecrate the Eucharist in the Catholic tradition] should trump everything else.
For the life of me, I can't figure out what's taking them so long."
Simply follow the money anonymous!
ReplyDeleteMarried priests have spouse and children. This creates a need for estate planning. When a priest dies, a FAMILY is left behind.
Vatican finances must provide for such, multitudes of such.
Celibacy allows every tithe to be retained for Vatican uses.
Of course, when Jesus Christ established His Church, the disciples had married men, among their group.
St. Paul specifically wrote on this topic in 1 Corinthians.
Please note verse 5, giving the RIGHT to take a wife:
1 Corinthians 9
Paul’s Rights as an Apostle
1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4 Don’t we have the right to food and drink? 5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? 6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cephas is Peter, the "first" Pope.
It pays to walk on water.
You get a wife!
No Pope has repeated that moment since.....well, the walking on water part!
But from the point of view of Jesus Christ, a wife is an excellent idea.
But the church does not take cues from Christ. In my youth, I never saw a parading of the Gospels at Mass beginning and ending.
Why should the faithful bother reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, when the church parades those around and allows only the priest to read them?
The Bible is technically read in full every three years, at Mass.
But it is done in such a convoluted read, that it is nearly incomprehensible, and easily misunderstood out of context.
Christ is happy with marriage.
Singles do not bother Him either.
But Solomon noted TABTO.
That is the notion that Two Are Better Than One.
Of course, in the days of the apostles (married), we had a neat little way of providing:
"See how they love one another" and all needs were met by believers.
I have little doubt Christ will re-establish marriage among his priest followers, for He already did once before.
Ask an Apostle.
Colleen, this is really helpful. I had thought of doing something directly on the exorcism thing, but shied away from it, since I feel far from expert. What you say makes a world of sense, out of your background as both a therapist and someone who has worked with shamanistic practices in native spirituality.
ReplyDeleteI don't discount the possibility that exorcism can work or may be needed (rarely), and I can see rituals like it having a place in the kind of states you describe, which may open up doors inside people that we'd want to label "other" or "possessed." Again, I see this as a rare option, though, and one that should be preceded by every attempt to deal with problems at a therapeutic level.
What seems most significant, as you say, is the issue of ego-strength and integrity. Start meddling with these matters when your own ego is intruding and your integrity isn't rock-solid, and it seems to me you're setting yourself up for a big fall--as Euteneuer did.
I think what frustrates me most of all in many ways about this story is exactly what you say at the start of your posting: it's so predictable. It was easy to see this coming.
And it's frustrating that all the people who should have seen it coming and had some authority to stop it before it inflicted harm apparently didn't do anything. I just don't get how we as a church have come to this point in this period after Vatican II.
This post is Spiritual Warfare, while Exorcism is an act of tossing out demons, in the possessed among us.
ReplyDeleteSpiritual Warfare peaks in the Bible in Ephesians 6:10-20.
Indeed, the section is called "The Armor of God", for you need these to battle the demonic.
The church allows priests to battle satan.
Christ provides the Armor of God for ALL believers. Five items are defensive items; only one is an offensive tool.
That is the sword of the Spirit, which is in fact, the Word of God.
Facing satan in the desert, Christ repeately knocked satan away....with scriptures, the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
At one point, satan attempts the same, by quoting part of Psalm 91.
Read that Psalm every day out loud; it is pure protection.
The hallmarks of spiritual warfare are in all of our lives: confusion, deception, lies, darkness, oppresion, depression.
That is NOT to say these items are solely from satan; many other sources of these exist.
But the Father of All Lies is satan, and when you see these items, the portals to hell are not far away.
The church gives authority to do battle, to priests and heirarchy, hence Fr. E.
But Christ has provided the Armor to all believers, for once you believe in Jesus Christ, the Light of the World exists within you.
YOU are His temple.
The authority for ALL believers to battle satan is in Luke 10.
17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
19 I HAVE GIVEN YOU AUTHORITY to trample on snakes and scorpions and to OVERCOME ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY; NOTHING WILL HARM YOU.
20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have HIDDEN THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND LEARNED, and REVEALED THEM TO LITTLE CHILDREN. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
22 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
23 Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
(CAPS are my emphasis)
Believers have full authority from Christ to do spiritual warfare.
Few do so.
When is the last time you heard a sermon or homily on the topic?
Never.
Or you would put on the Armor of God and leave it on,.... to protect YOU, and to wage war with satan, to protect others.
It is NOT confined to Fr. E. and company.
It is for believers.
A grand read of spiritual warfare in action is to read 2 Chronicles 20. No one reads that.
But Jehosophat is clearly and properly doing spiritual battle.
V12 "We don't know what to do, so we put our eyes on you".
Why?
The battle belongs to the Lord.
We won!
Keystone-I stand corrected about Scott Peck's experience. I have heard of "People of the Lie" and Peck's work with combining psychiatric and religious insights. From what I understood about Euteneuer's experience, Euteneuer did not use people trained in psychotherapy to assist him and I think it was a big mistake on his part. I also think he probably was willing to assume that all the problems he saw were automatically due to demons, rather than problems of the mind. It is rather like the saying that if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
ReplyDeleteAnn Rule had a rather accurate take on personality disorders in her book "Everything She Ever Wanted." Rule wrote that personality disorders were not curable, they were "tangled up forever in the brain's functioning" (this is a paraphrase.)
Kathy, I've heard a similar take on personality disorder given by a drug rep. He said in diseases like classic schizophrenia that knew certain parts of the brain were effected and they could try and target drugs to work on those areas, but personality disorders are like the marbling in meat, all kinds of areas in the brain lit up under stress. He doubted there would ever be an effective 'magic pill' to address personality disorders.
ReplyDeleteKeystone, I agree with a great deal of what you write. Scott Peck has some valuable insights in this field. I think we need far more interaction between the medical and spirtual fields in the whole area of mental health because both disciplines have concepts about consciousness which would be valuable for the other. Meditation for instance, has been very useful as a stress reducing coping strategy for a lot of people.
I would also add that there are differences in understanding amongst indenous practioners and the west which have added a great deal of insight into my own understanding of this phenomenon.
The biggest problem we have is that realistically speaking, what we know about the true scope of human consciousness wouldn't fill a thimble. We constantly use terms which have no real meaning as if they had real defined meaning. Terms like soul for instance. Catholic theology tends to see the soul as some totally dependent ephemeral thing we carry with us in some sort of suitcase. Indigenous elders see things quite differently. Soul is the animating force of physicality which both transcends and imbues material reality with it's life. It's a much more quantum and less dualistic concept. It's actually quite Trinitarian.
I note your thoughts on schizophrenia and multiple personality.
ReplyDeleteIn diagnosing the patient, BOTH complicate a solution of exorcism, and spiritual warfare, as they appear to mock one another, yet the former are physical manifestation, and the exorcism a spiritual manifestation.
DSM-IV does not even recognize evil, thus no pill can be prescribed for the possessed.
[Not to say that a chemical pill can oust a spiritual force, either. This is a clarion call for proper diagnosis only]
And possession itself is marked by varying degrees.
The apostles were astonished that Christ never had trouble outing the demonic. Indeed, many in that Biblical period, including diciples, failed to see Christ as Messiah. Only one group consistently recognised the Messiah as God.... the demonic.
"What are you going to do with US?", they asked.
[Note the plural; the apostles had great trouble with the "marbling" of spirits within. There is a connection to fasting, reducing the physical, and amplification of the spiritual to cure via resulting synergy.
The physical world (fasting) and spiritual world (prayer) are clearly combined.
With respect to the soul, it certainly separates us from the animal world. But a serial killer acts more animal than human. What became of that one's soul?
A significant portion of the three year ministry of Christ dealt with the demonic, and their enslavement of a soul. He freed such captives.
Given the large numbers Christ encountered, in such a short time frame, it would be reasonable to presume a significant large number of possessed exist now.
But the domains of evil and good are reinforced upon death of any.
Both heaven and hell grow in numbers daily, as obits are posted for bodies.
The error of the church today, indeed the fallacy of Euteneuer affair, is to think only church elders, priests, and the like, can perform exorcism. That is Biblically untrue. The authority to cast demons out of possessed is given to ALL believers in Jesus Christ.
Consequently, a Christian psychotherapist is probably the best bet for an individual in need of exorcism, not a priest!
The psychotherapist brings the medical field to the table, while the Christian power within the individual, along with fasting and prayer, allow a symbionic effort to yield great result.
The problem with evil, whether outed spiritually, or via psychotherapy, is that it now looks for a new residence. It is never demolished, just moved out, and away. It is like having to polish your dining room table every week; dust returns.
Our bodies have many orifices of entrance, and they can be counted.
Our souls also have many entrances for demonic entrance. These are called strongholds, and they are countless. Some entry portals are large, such as narcissism, or serial liars with no apparent reason to lie.
I would hope you expand on Spiritual Warfare, by examining the Armor of God, delineating each part of the armor, and how it works.
The world will be a better place to live when this is understood by more folks, and performed too.
Theology and psychotherapy must come together to alleviate the conditions in such patients, far better than prior cooperations.
There is a link that DSM-IV does not recognise.
For the most part, all individuals choose possession or freedom, in
their everyday choices Toward or AWAY from integrity, wholeness, and truth.
The church has usurped the authority of Christians to love one another spirtually, to lead TOWARD integrity, wholeness, and truth. Evil is thus fertilized to grow. only a few are fighting it.
Spiritual warfare is engaged by any and all believers in Christ.
It remains undone, for it is not taught in church, nor is Bible reading encouraged outside of Mass.
Folks who do so, engage in warfare daily, for they know their God given authority.
Satan is quite pleased with the contemporary church.
Keystone, I have a lot of trouble with the term "spiritual warfare." An online source traces the term to Evangelistic books in 1973. That's not a very long history in our 2000 year old church.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that we have power over demons, based on the word of Christ. I have great trouble with anyone who tells me they "know how to do it". It seems to usurp God's rights and power. It seems to me that, if there is some entity called Satan, it is definitely stronger than me. My only hope, says my Lord, rests in my Lord. Jesus is stronger than Satan. In this case, we are not warriors, we're the battlefield! Trust in God.
I know our early church fathers, and the mothers who served with them but lived out their faith without writing, would look askance on any pairing of Christianity with warfare. From the beginning, Jesus brought in the marginalized, the Samaritan faithless, the zealots, the great silent center, and more, all into one -- the body of Christ. Warfare implies domination over an enemy, while Jesus steps down to our level, God become flesh, to bring us up and together. That's not war, it's becoming family. Jesus was killed for that among other reasons.
Finally, this group does battle demons. Our hierarchy has promulgated a fear-based faith these days. These faithful people aren't going to stand idly by. Faith renders fear useless and powerless, emboldens merely humans to try to be of God, with God in compassion and mercy. God bless.
mjc, I want to emphasise a point you make in your comment. If you go back throught the NT and read the multiple passages in which Jesus deals with demons or spirits, he does it about as matter of factly as we take out the garbage. Which is probably exactly how he viewed it.
ReplyDeleteThe part I hate about the sudden fascination with demonology and exorcism is that it fuels a theology which empowers evil at the expense of the Good News. Spiritual warfare is not a war, it's an exercise in knowledge. Knowledge destroys the fear which disempowers the individual.
I see what is now going on in Egypt as this kind of 'spiritual warfare' in that secrecy and the elitist knowledge this implies, and which is used to keep the population virtually enslaved, is being attacked through massive demands for reform and transparency. This is going to keep happening all over the globe. There is a new kind of consciousness and with it an understanding of human rights, justice, and power distribution. This ain't gonna go backwards because it's most manifested in our youth, and unlike previous generations, these young generations are connected globally and they seem to know just how much power that actually gives them.
@mjc
ReplyDelete[space limits make this comment divided up; part 1 same comment]
Your quibble with "spiritual warfare" and the date of the term, need not be taken up with me, or the Internet;you must battle it out with St. Paul.
But before I escort you to your Bible, I must add that this contention of yours is most baffling to me:
"I have no doubt that WE have power over demons, based on the word of Christ. I have great trouble with anyone who tells me THEY "know how to do it".
(CAPS mine for emphasis)
In one breath, you accept there is authority over the demonic by "WE".
In the next breath, a single individual, or "THEY", are given your thumbs down at doing battle.
These are opposing thoughts!
You maintain the church is 2,000 years old; I maintain it goes back to the Garden of Eden, with the first created person.
Instead of buildings, the Body of Christ is a collection of believers in Him.
Father, Son, and Spirit always were, are, and will be, but the dimension of time is a created dimension.
"In the beginning...." delineates the formation of time.
God was around before that.
Man was not.
Heaven was also around before the dimension of time, staffed by angelic heirarchy. But God desired to staff it with a higher created being...man, in God's image.
To acquire the Image of God, one must meet Him, believe in Him,and become as He was and is. These are called believers, and will be the only ones to enter heaven eternally, when the dimension of time is finalized.
Spiritual warfare is troubling only to nonbelievers. These are the lukewarm folks Christ spits from His mouth.
Believers are in spiritual warfare every day they are a believer in Jesus Christ. Satan attacks the "God", within the image of man.
The Light of the World is most apparent to all demonic...for Jesus resides in believers.
Listen to St. Paul, not Bill Gates, to minimize your confusion
(a hallmark of satan, btw).
"For though WE live in the world, WE do not wage war as the world does.
THE WEAPONS WE FIGHT WITH are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
WE demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and WE take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
--- 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Who do you think "WE" are in this section.....believers in Jesus Christ. And what is the WAR, Paul speaks of?
Spiritual War!
And how is the war fought?
With divine power used to demolish strongholds!
What's a stronghold?
Simply sinful habits that humans have a tendency to get locked in, as if a wrestler pinned them to it.
In reality, they are slave to the sin, by pinning themself to it.
Satan urges these things upon us often (that is not to blame satan, he exaserbates our own evil tendencies).
The weapons? Ephesians 6:10-20.
No priest has told you of these, or you would not need him.
But God has told you in His Word.
Who do you follow?
The Church?
Or Jesus Christ?
Satan has been to heaven and was tossed out. He cannot return.
Believers can.
Satan chooses to deny God as many "believers" as he can.
I also wish I had time to go into "pretensions" Paul discusses.
Pretense is established in exorcism, to demolish the demonic out of the individual. I digress.
continues....
Part 2
ReplyDeleteSatan most definitely IS stronger than you, or any other idividual.
He is stronger than Michael the Archangel (a surprise to catholics, for the Bible is convolutedly presented over three years, out of context).
"But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
--- Jude 1:9
None of the power is usurping God, they are weapons supplied by God, for our defense, and our offense, against satanic schemes to destroy us.
God creates; satan destroys,
Man is IN the cosmic battle, daily.
And some, present themself as leaders, teachers, disciples, to teach you of God. Many of those are deceivers, and friends to satan and the demonic. A stronghold has captured them, and they prefer the stronghold willingly, just as any addict prefers theirs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
True and False Disciples
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
--- Matthew 7:21-23
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Notice they call him "LORD".
Notice they did prophesy and drove out demons.
Notice Jesus Christ says to these "believers", GET AWAY FROM ME; I NEVER KNEW YOU.
There's a shocking moment coming up for many. Catholics, who insist they know the Lord, and are the One, True, Holy, and Catholic, and Apostolic Church ...of course, will find many in their group told:
"I never knew you", while simultaneously, Jews, Protestants, Chinese, African,and ALL believers around the Globe, will enter heaven.
The balance of all created humans will belong to satan.
That is why there is a spiritual warfare underway.
Lucifer was the leader of worship in heaven, (from Isaiah) and I often find in Christian churches today, that the folks in worship and music, are often leaders for satan. They make their presentations and are given accolades and applaus.
Soon, instead of worshipping God, they are grasping for the spotlight themself. Many quarrels occur in choirs over who does solo. Hello satan!
continues....
Part 3
ReplyDeleteTo conclude the church is 2,000 years old is foolish.
"Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away."
---Genesis 5:24
He waked with God on Earth every day, and God escorted Enoch home.
He did not die. He is IN heaven...you know, where believers go!
Last year, I stood on Mt. Nebo in Jordan, and looked across as Moses did, to the Promised Land and you can see Jerusalem.
JPII went there in 2000 and planted an olive tree.
In truth, it is supposed Moses died there, not permitted to enter the Promised Land.
Well, he died on that side of the water, true, but on Mt. Nebo, I think there is room for debate.
In the promise Land, I stood upon the Mount of Transfiguration.
I asked my sister if she knew who appeared from heaven, as Christ transfigured. She recalled Elijah, but went blank after that.
I told her the other to appear on this Mount....and the disciples present wanted to build an altar to them...was Moses!
He made it into the Israeli mountain anyway, eh?
Ephesians 6:10-20 deliniate all of the weapons we wage war with in spiritual warfare.
In another blog, I once itemized and explained each, and it is too lengthy to appear here (about 70 comments), but you can read it in the Bible yourself, or read what I wrote previously on a topic labelled "Weary Knights" on a blog, now largely defunct, called "Girl In a Glass House"
If Colleen want to go that route, I would be happy to patch my comments on the Weapons here, but you can read each weapon way down in comments here:
http://girlinaglasshouse.blogspot.com/2009/06/weary-knights.html
And for the record, any one who calls Him Lord, yet fails to wear the Armor of God, and do spiritual battle as a true believer, will one day hear Christ say to them:
"get away from Me; I NEVER knew you".
All hell will break loose that day!
And those who look askance at the junction of Christianity and warfare....are not Christians.
St. Paul's announcement was pretty early in the deal.
You have been misled in your belief of spiritual warfare, and exorcism as well.
Mouse--ergh, I mean Keystone. I was told to expect you back at the same time I was given a really intense vision of the Transfiguration. (This would have been on Friday.) So I knew the answer as to who was present on the Mount.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to list the spiritual armor as listed in Paul. It's an interesting list, but sometimes I think you take things too literally, which I know you think makes me fodder for flames.
Keystone, again, God bless you and keep you.
ReplyDelete