Do Exorcisms Still Happen Today?

Can you tell me if real exorcisms still happen in the church today? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

You can also email us with your question at questions at corechristianity.com. Well, it's Halloween week, and we know Christians have different views on trick-or-treating and Halloween. Adriel, do you take your kids to trick-or-treating?

I do, and I actually wrote an article over at corechristianity.com called Can Christians Celebrate Halloween, where I sort of unpack some of the reason for why I think it's okay, but obviously, you know, this is one of those issues where people have a difference of opinion, and that's totally okay. I really enjoy the candy. I mean, typically after we're done, I'm able to tax my children's candy bags, so I leave them with all the Tootsie Rolls, and I take the good stuff like the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and the Butter Fingers, and my favorite, top of the list, and I know that this is a controversial thing, maybe even more than whether or not we can do Halloween, candy corn. A lot of people debate about whether candy corn is good or not, and I happen to love it. Oh, you know, I don't know if you realize this, but the outer coating on candy corn is made from bugs. Well, that has to be the most delicious bug I've ever heard of. You're going to have to tell me which one it is. No, seriously, candy corn's firm, smooth coating listed as confectioner's glaze on the label, but it actually is known as lac resin, a coating that comes straight from lac bugs, which are bright red insects found in Asia. Now, just to let you know, they have six legs and a set of antennae. Oh, well, I'm just going to pretend like I never heard that, Bill, and I'm going to continue to enjoy my candy corn, so thanks for trying to ruin it. OK, let's get to our first question of the day.

This is a call that came in from Gregory. My parents are Russian Orthodox. They're originally immigrants to America from the former Soviet Union, but they converted from baptism to Russian Orthodox, and they believe that all other church denominations have gone apostate.

Should I believe in them or should I believe everybody else and what everybody else does? Because they're telling me that all other church denominations are apostates and that the Orthodox Church is the only true denomination that exists. I don't know what to say.

Please help. Thank you. Thank you for that question, Gregory, and of course, that's quite the claim to say that all other Christian groups are apostate, and that word apostate just means they've abandoned the faith. To be an apostate means you're not a true believer, you're lost. And so that is quite the claim, and I know that this is such a difficult thing, especially because this is your family.

You know, these kinds of divisions in family can be really hard, and so I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing this. And oftentimes when people convert, you know, they're told that the Orthodox Church is the church that Jesus instituted, and they'll press in on the idea that they've been worshipping God the same way for 2000 years, and it's almost as if to suggest that if you go to one of their churches, the worship you're going to experience is the exact same thing that Peter or Paul experienced when they gathered together with the church that's described in places like the Book of Acts. Historically, that just isn't true. The Orthodox Church, as it developed in the East, saw various liturgical developments, that is, you know, developments in how they worshiped that were introduced later into the worship of the church, things like icons. You might be familiar with icons, but I'm sure a lot of our listeners aren't. They're those images of Jesus and of the saints and of the Virgin Mary that are sort of plastered all over the church walls. Well, that wasn't something that you had in the early churches, in the earliest churches, and incense as well. You know, the earliest churches didn't have incense, and the reason they didn't have them is because it was so closely associated with the pagan worship. And the early Christians, when they talk about incense, and especially the incense that was related to the temple in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant, they said the fulfillment of that was the prayers of the church right now. And so there were these developments that took place, these changes in worship that took place over the years, and oftentimes I bring this up because what Orthodox people will say is, we've been worshiping God the same way since the very beginning.

And I just think historically that's not the case. Now, one of the concerns I have with all of the smells and bells is that sometimes the very simple gospel can be buried under our traditions in worship. Now, there's an article written some time ago by an Orthodox priest, and in that article he lamented the fact that if you ask the average Orthodox person in the pew today, what is the gospel, they wouldn't be able to give you an answer.

Why is that? I think part of the problem is that sometimes in these more liturgical traditions, you have less of an emphasis on preaching the Bible, breaking down the text of Scripture. Now, it doesn't have to be that way, but that is often what you find. Now, it's a terrible situation to be in if you're the quote-unquote one true church, but the people in your church don't know the basics of the gospel, and that's in part why I believe that true churches aren't the ones that have a specific name, you know, the Russian Orthodox Church, but the ones that preach and teach the same gospel that the apostles believed in with passion and power. Now, there are a lot of denominations out there, Gregory, and their differences shouldn't be exaggerated, but they also shouldn't be underestimated, but here's what you need to know. Wherever Jesus is being proclaimed faithfully, according to God's inspired word, the Holy Spirit is at work building the church. And at the end of the day, what's central to the church, the deposit of faith that was meant to be handed down from one generation to another, is the holy gospel, is the message of the forgiveness of our sins. That's what we have to focus on. That's what you need to focus on, and I hope that that's what your parents are focusing on as well, because there's nothing more important than that message, and that's what our churches should be giving to us.

God bless you, brother, and I pray that the Lord blesses you and that he blesses your relationship with your parents as you continue to have conversations about this. Focus on Jesus and focus on the good news of the gospel. You know, Adriel, I have a friend whose wife is a Russian immigrant, and she grew up Orthodox, and she for some reason is unable to attend evangelical churches because she says it's too casual, and the worship music is not appropriate because of what she grew up with, you know, the chanting and the very liturgical style of the Orthodox church. So it's really a tragedy because he wants his wife to attend church with him, but she just won't go.

Yeah. Well, and then that also raises another issue because I think that critique might be true. You know, maybe in some of our churches, we really have downplayed the holiness of God and worshiping him with reverence and with awe, as the author to the Hebrew says in Hebrews chapter 12. And so, you know, there are things that we can learn from one another, I think, and that's really important to, you know, we don't want to demonize each other, but there are also serious differences. And at the end of the day, the main thing, the area where we need to focus, as I was saying to Gregory, is on the gospel message, the deposit of faith, once for all delivered to the saints, meant to be handed down for all generations, Jesus, the message of the gospel.

That's what we need. That's where our focus has to be. And I hope that in whatever church Gregory's in, that's the focus, and whatever church you're in as you listen to this, that needs to be the focus.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's a question that came in through our website at corechristianity.com slash radio. David says, what does the Bible mean when it talks about the Antichrist? Is it a spirit or a person?

Wow. Well, I mean, this is a really, really important question, I think, because there's so much confusion about the Antichrist today. A lot of people, when they hear that word, they're envisioning this, you know, one world ruler, and they're sort of thinking, could it be this person?

Could it be that person? We're sort of waiting for the Antichrist to appear. Well, the only place in the New Testament where you have that word, Antichrist, is in the Epistles of John. And John introduces us to this idea in 1 John 2, beginning in verse 18.

Listen to what he said there. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Now that phrase right there could be translated, so now many have become Antichrists as well.

Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lies of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. Now later in 1 John, John is going to talk about how the spirit of the Antichrist is already at work in the world today. And so David, when we're thinking about the Antichrist, John says there were people there in that church who had abandoned the church who had become Antichrists, if you will. And that was because they were under the influence of the spirit of the Antichrist.

And what does that influence look like? Well, John says very clearly, and this is what you need to know, it looks like not understanding who Jesus is. It looks like denying who Jesus is. The spirit of the Antichrist wants to take our eyes off of Jesus Christ, wants to confuse us about Jesus. You think about what Paul said in 2 Corinthians, where he warned the Corinthians about abandoning the simplicity of the gospel. And he says, you know, if someone comes and preaches to you another Christ, you may well put up with them. See, the danger for us and for the church primarily, it's not, you know, looking to some one individual world leader who's the Antichrist.

No, it's more close to home. It's our own failure to understand who Jesus is. I think of that discussion that Jesus our Lord had with Peter.

This is the most important question that any of you could ever answer. Who do you say that I am? Jesus said to Peter. And I wonder if you listening right now, if you'll ask yourself that question right now, or let Jesus ask you that question right now, who do you say that I am?

And of course, Peter went down a list of what some people were saying. Some people say, you know, you're another prophet, you're like Elijah. And Jesus said to Peter, who do you say that I am?

And Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You see, not knowing who Jesus is, denying the truth of the Incarnation, that he is God incarnate, the Christ, the anointed Messiah, who came to save us from our sins. If we reject that, well, that's Antichrist. That's the spirit of the Antichrist at work today. And that's what the Bible focuses on, David, when it talks about the Antichrist. It's not so much a focus on one individual. I mean, you do get some of that in the book of Revelation and in Paul's letters to the Thessalonians, but what we're to take away primarily is we need to have a right understanding of who Jesus is. Who is he?

He's the God-man who came for us and for our salvation, who conquered sin and death on the cross and rose again from the dead. That's the truth. And that's what the Antichrist wants us to turn away from. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And if you are a regular listener to this program, we want you to know that we are listener supported and we count on people just like you to make donations to keep us on the air. Now, one of the ways you can do that is by joining what we call our inner core.

Yeah. I mean, what a joy it is to answer questions about the Bible every day. And we have an amazing team of people behind us producing this show, writing the articles over at corechristianity.com that are going to help you go a little bit deeper into the questions that we get here on the program.

And these are resources that are helping you and so many others more fully understand the gospel and ultimately to have confidence in what you believe about God's word so that you can share it with others. And as you can imagine, this is a work that requires many people to come alongside of us and support us. And we can't do it without your prayers and support. So we want to ask you, come alongside of us and become a regular supporter with a monthly donation of only $25 or more. You can join the inner core and be a part of the team that makes this show possible. Head over to corechristianity.com forward slash inner core to learn more or give us a call at 833-THE-CORE. That's 833-843-2673.

We would love to have you involved in our inner core. So give us a call or go on the website today and learn more about that. Well, let's get to another question. This is a call that came in at 833-THE-CORE.

Yes, this is Diana from Spring Hill, Kansas. I was thinking about Ananias and Sapphira and they got the death penalty from God. And then what about David and Moses and Paul? They did not get the death penalty and they all murdered.

It's just a question I've always had for a while. So there you go. Thank you. Hey, thanks for that, Diane. I could see why that would be a little bit confusing because you think about these guys and they'd committed these heinous sins. I mean, David, he deserved the death penalty, frankly, for what he had done, adultery and murder, essentially. And when Nathan the prophet confronted David, David realized that he was deserving of death. Remember, Nathan gave him that little story, that parable, if you will, about an individual who takes something that wasn't his and David says that guy deserves to die.

And Nathan said to David, you're the guy. And so, so yeah, I mean, why is it that Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter five are put to death, but David wasn't? Now, just for those who are not familiar with that passage in Acts chapter five, I want to read it. Acts chapter five, verses one through 11.

This is the early church. A man named Ananias with his wife, Sapphira, sold a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles feet. Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last and great fear came upon all who heard of it.

The young man rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. Of course, the same thing happens to his wife, Sapphira, when she comes in. It seems, Diana, at least to me, like the Lord is making a point here and the point was taken by the first century believers. I mean, great fear came upon all of them, we're told. Again, in verse 11, after his wife, Sapphira, died, we read, and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

The fear of the Lord. And what's being communicated here, I think, is that God takes sin very seriously. You know, we sometimes think that in the Old Testament, God took sin very seriously. You know, he judged Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10, verses 1 through 3, for not worshipping him in the way that he wants to be worshipped. He put them to death. But under the New Covenant, you know, God is way more laid back and he doesn't take sin as seriously.

No, that's not the case at all. God is demonstrating for us here, this very early stage of the Christian church, the New Covenant community, that this God is a consuming fire who takes sin seriously, who will not permit it in his church. Sin is deadly. I mean, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 30, this is the reason why many are sick, and some have even died, because we don't deal with the sin in our own lives, we don't turn away from them, and then we come to church and take communion like everything is a-okay, no, God won't put up with it. See, we all experience death because of sin.

For the believer, the good news is, when we die in Christ, death has been transformed, but we don't always experience death at the same time. I've heard it said before, and I think that this is true, you can choose your sin, but you can't always choose your consequence, and certainly that was the case for Ananias and Sapphira. And so I think, Diana, what's happening here is God is making an example. He's showing the early New Covenant church that he takes these things very seriously, and we should as well. This is why Paul, in 1 Corinthians, talks about purging the church of sin. This is why we have things like church discipline. Now, that's not to say that there isn't grace for sinners. Well, thank God there is, because all of us fail, we all fall and struggle with sin, and there is grace, and what you have here is more than just, I think, stumbling into sin.

No, this was a conscious, willful disobedience. I mean, this is why Peter says to Ananias, you're lying to the Holy Spirit. You're lying to God.

You're putting on a show. This is hypocrisy, and God takes that very seriously. But there's hope. When we recognize our sin, we turn to the Lord, there's grace, there's forgiveness, but let's not downplay the reality of sin, the fact that God cares about holiness in the church and in his community, and let's take this, this story, this account, as a warning for each and every one of us that God takes sin seriously, that it's not okay to pretend in the church, to be a hypocrite, to say one thing and do another thing. No, God is serious about that, and so if that's something that we're doing, boy, we need to stop. Remember Ananias and Sapphira, but above all, remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is kind and merciful towards sinners, and who calls us to himself to be honest about our sin, to confess it, bringing it into the light, and to receive his mercy and grace.

Thanks for that question. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is a question that really fits this week with Halloween coming up. Christian posted this on our Instagram page, and he says, Do exorcisms still happen today? I've heard that certain miraculous things have ceased to take place after the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. Are exorcisms included in those things that have ceased? Yeah, you're right, Bill. I mean, this is a question that does sort of fit with the Halloween sort of spooky theme, and the reality is Satan is at work in the world today.

I mean, you just can't deny that. We know that John says, and we talked about 1 John earlier, in the spirit of the Antichrist, the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one. That spirit of the Antichrist is Satan working today. I was even thinking about that passage that I just read from Acts 5 where Peter says to Ananias, Why has Satan filled your heart? Now, I don't know that that means that Ananias was possessed by the devil, that he needed an exorcism, but certainly he was under the influence of the evil one.

His heart had been captivated by this lie, by sin, and I do think that people today can be possessed by evil spirits, and insofar as that's the case, then yeah, I think that exorcisms can happen today. Now, one thing that we have to keep in mind is that Jesus in his earthly ministry bound Satan. That's one of the reasons why over and over in the Gospels, what you have are these accounts of Jesus casting out devils. Jesus gives a story, a parable in the Gospels, if you will, about binding the strongman and plundering the strongman's house, and in the context there, what Jesus is revealing is that he's come to bind Satan, the strongman, who's taken people captive so that Jesus, through the preaching of the Gospel, through his ministry, might release the captives, might deliver them. That's key, I think, because if we don't realize that, and I've said this before, we're going to view ourselves as these sort of spiritual Ghostbusters. We're the ones who are called to deliver people from Satan's grip by performing exorcisms or something like that.

Well, no, that's not the case. Jesus is the one who drives out the devil, and that's what he did definitively in his first coming. When he went to the cross, he conquered Satan, he destroyed his kingdom, he plundered it so that people might be redeemed, saved. The ultimate exorcism, I think, Christian, happens at conversion. You know, one of the things that's really interesting? In the early church, baptisms were always accompanied by an exorcism.

Isn't that kind of interesting? I mean, you have these early baptismal rites where typically a candidate for baptism, as they were being baptized, they would renounce Satan, and the pastor would perform essentially this exorcism, if you will. Now, it wasn't like the kind of thing that you see in the movies, but there was this sense, a very clear sense, in which this individual was coming out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. And we do know, Christian, that the light and the darkness cannot dwell together, that when someone is in Christ, when they belong to Jesus, when they've been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, they can't be possessed by the evil one.

No, John says, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And so I do think that Satan does have a sway today. I do think that, are there instances where someone really does need to be delivered from evil spirits? Yes, but that happens through the preaching of the gospel, by the work of the Holy Spirit in an individual's heart, as they understand who Jesus is and what he's done.

The forces of evil are driven out, if you will, and they're redeemed, rescued from the kingdom of darkness. We are, brothers and sisters, light in the Lord Jesus Christ through his work for us on the cross, and we're called to stand firm against the powers of the evil one and to point others, still captive to the darkness, to Jesus, the light of the world. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at CoreChristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.