The year, 1971.
The speaker, Doctor Martyn Lloyd Jones.
The session, Questions and Answers on Healing and Demon Possession
The following question is posed:
While not denying that devil possession sometimes occurs,
are we not in danger of thinking that phenomena of this sort constitute the
chief attack by the Devil upon the church and the work of God, and are
forgetting that his main evil work is and always has been to make men (1) to
doubt and (2) to disobey God? May it not
be that dramatic phenomena like devil possession are the Devil’s own way of
distracting our attention from his main but much more subtle attack?
A good question? Many
would nod at the premise of the question, which almost answers itself does it not?
This audio should be listened to in its entirety, though the
question is posed in the 20th minute. The talk is entitled “Questions and Answers on Healing and Demon Possession”
For those who want to read the transcript of the answer, I reproduce it below:
Yes. That’s very typical
if I may say so. And I won’t say of
whom! But it is very typical! [laughter].
I’m almost enough of a higher critic to say who sponsored that question
originally, but I’m not going to speculate, I don’t believe in this.
Do you see what’s happening? Are we
not in danger? Well the answer to that
is, are we? Are you people finding
devils in everybody? I don’t think you
are. What this question is saying is
this. Now this has been very wrong in
this conference to call so much attention to devil possession. People will be forgetting the main work of
the Devil. And so, you see, you don’t
consider devil possession at all. And
you go on sending people who are devil-possessed into mental hospitals and they
get drug treatments and so on and they are no better, and sometimes worse, and
the problem goes on.
No, this is a very
ill-conceived question. I pointed out in
one of the previous sessions that there are people go to excess about this, as
we do with most matters. But, you see,
the answer to excess is not to do anything at all, which is what this question
is obviously suggesting. That we shouldn’t
talk about this. “There’s grave danger
here. Mustn’t do this, otherwise we’ll
be doing nothing else and the Devil’s going to get a great advantage.” No! I
think the Devil’s going to get a great advantage by bringing in
devil-possession en masse, and we are not going to face it or consider it
because of this kind of attitude. I
think this is very wrong indeed, it is not ‘either or’.
We all know the main business of the Devil. But does that mean that he doesn’t do this in
addition? Does it mean that he isn’t
doing this at this present time in a very particular manner? For the reason that I give. That the Christian influence is on the
wane. And in any case we know what
happens in other countries abroad. I
commend to the writer of this question that he or she or both [laughter] immediately
proceed to buy that booklet to which I referred by the Overseas Missionary
Fellowship, “Roaring Lion”. And there
they will discover the dangers that confront the missionary or the minister in
this country or indeed anybody – a doctor in particular – who is ignorant of
this matter of devil or demon possession.
I reject the whole implication of that.
I myself went out of my way to warn against running off,
people do, it doesn’t matter what thing is mentioned in the Christian realm,
somebody is always going to take it up and rush away with it and run it to an
excess and the result is the whole thing is ridiculed. No, no.
We must take a balanced view of these things and beware of this false antithesis,
this ‘either or’ which doesn’t apply here at all. The Devil does it in both ways, in all
ways. We are not ignorant of his
devices, and I feel that attention needs to be called today in this country
particularly to this aspect of which we haven’t seen much in the past, but
which we are seeing more and more at the present time.
This was followed up by another question, as follows:
The remaining questions are a group of four. I’m going to read all of them through quickly
because they are on the same theme so that the whole subject is covered.
One, can a Christian become demon possessed,
are there clear diagnostic signs to differentiate between demon possession and
various mental illnesses.
Two, could we
have advice regarding guiding rules to distinguish between the areas of mental
illness from demon possession.
Three, to
what extent may psychotic illness be in fact a sophisticated form of demon
possession or influence? How can a
doctor recognise the difference between mental illness and demon possession if
there is a difference and the final one which is in three parts,
What are the
basic clinical features of demon possession?
Are these fundamental features constant in different countries and cultures
although the expression naturally varies, two, what is its treatment and three,
what are the results of treatment?
I will not write the answer, but will leave you to listen to this one on the link indicated above.
To me, this is dynamite. Let me spell this out:
- Doctor Martyn Lloyd Jones was a medical Doctor before he was a preacher
- He is of the Reformed Evangelical part of the church and his main calling was expository preaching of the word
- He was one of the (arguably ‘the’) most respected evangelical leader of the 20th Century
Being in the rare position of being and experienced pastor
as well as a doctor, he has had many difficult cases referred to him. And he clearly states that he has frequently
had to deal with the demonic in his ministry.
Including in Christians.
-----------------------------
I possibly need to discuss this subject further for those who are new to this subject.
In the days of Jesus and the early apostles, the New Testament refers to people who experience physical healing. But it also talks about people who are delivered from demons. And all of Jesus' disciples were trained in healing and deliverance from demons.
And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Mark 16:17-18
In order to (1) bring people to Christ (2) Demonstrate the power of the Gospel (3) Bring in the Kingdom of God on Earth and (4) help people overcome untold suffering, I believe that we can’t bury our heads in the sand! We need to be equipped to deal with these
things, and frankly, we’re not. It means
that if a problem has a demonic root, surely we should be able to deal with it
effectively.
I find it interesting that every diocese within the Roman
Catholic Church and the Church of England has a designated exorcist to deal
with phenomena such as people disturbed by demons, hauntings, poltergeists,
buildings with creepy presences and so on.
They don’t employ these people, I believe, because they are simply being
superstitious and weird. They do it because
there is a constant trickle of people coming forward asking for help with these
things. I once heard a radio interview
with a couple of very well-spoken Anglican exorcists who matter-of-factly
explained how they successfully dealt with a range of phenomena in the Name of
Jesus. I’d love to have a recording of
it, but I haven’t.
But again, nether of these denominations hold any water with
a large number of evangelical Christians.
There are evangelical Christians who will not give
Pentecostals or Charismatics the time of day.
So anything they say about:
- Healing miracles
- Baptism in Holy Spirit
- Gifts of the Spirit
- Demonisation*
-----------------------------
*It is not my purpose here to expound the biblical teaching on the subject of how demons affect people, including believers in Christ. It is a big subject that I am not qualified to comment on with much authority. However, I will say that I prefer the term 'demonised' to 'demon-possessed'. Traditional translations of the Bible prefer the latter term, yet in modern English it carries the connotation of being possessed by i.e. fully owned and controlled by a demon. Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones, speaking in the early 1970s and the best known writer at this time on the subject, the Lutheran Pastor Kurt Koch, would say 'Demon-possessed'. No Christian can be fully controlled by a demon in this way. And yet, I believe (and Lloyd Jones would concur) that Christians can be affected, oppressed, disturbed, weakened by demons. Hence, I prefer to used the term 'demonised', which is preferred by many of today's writers on the subject, and in my view it better resembles the New Testament Greek term.
