The Rite: A demonological review
Yesterday I flew into Las Angeles, California by plane. Even though it was $6.00, I decided to purchase the movie The Rite so I had something to help kill time. The reason I wanted to view this movie was to see from a Catholic perspective (because it’s based on a true story) the Christian spiritual practice of exorcism. 
What a great and informing movie it was! I think it easily was one of the most theologically packed movies produced out of Hollywood; the powerful case it presents for the reality of demonic forces has caused me to reexamine and work on having a carefully placed demonology in relation to my theology.
Often enough, our post-enlightenment worldview has allowed many of us within the church to have no problem in believing Jesus as divine, God being sovereign, and Him having absolute power; but at the same time, it’s caused us to have a misinformed demonology that is close to dangerous (if not dangerous). What do we do with this demon stuff if Jesus defeated Satan? What do we do with it if God is supremely powerful? What do we do with it in an age where scientism in many circles rules? What do we do with it in our neat systematic theology?
I think instead of flippantly dismissing the reality of demonic powers we need to attempt to grapple with the reality of them, even if they don’t make sense. From a personal perspective, it’s made me re-evaluate the reality of them. For a while (even though I was well aware of them) I dismissed them because I couldn’t understand where they belonged in my nice and neat systematic theology. I ignored them even after experiencing them.
God, in His sovereignty has used me as a conduit for His power in the ministry of exorcism more than once. And interestingly, what I saw happen to other people from a hands on perspective, happened often with the people who were receiving deliverance in the movie.
Around 3 1/2 years ago I was at a youth camp. A gentleman and evangelist I know by the name of Sean Smith was our speaker. Sean Smith is thoroughly involved with the power evangelism movement, which was first termed by the Vineyard’s founder, John Wimber. There was a moment that has been etched in my mind since the night it occurred. Sean Smith had an altar call for people wanting to encounter God. At that moment a good 300 people flooded to the front and within a matter of minutes around 7 people were on the floor demonized. That night people were set free from the bonds demonic forces had over them. I came to find out by multiple witnesses that where Sean Smith is, demons are coming out everywhere!
At this camp meeting, I learned how to bring deliverance to people in the name of Jesus. Oddly enough, this worked itself out interestingly in God’s sovereignty. About two weeks after this event, I was holding a prayer meeting for youth at my house, in which I was the only leader. My friend who I knew for around four years at this time walked in about 45 minutes late; automatically there seemed to be an eerie atmosphere shift. As he sat down he said “I’m not leaving here the same.” We prayed for him and within a matter of seconds his eyes rolled in the back of his head and began slithering on the floor like a snake (but somehow knew where to go). He had superhuman strength, made the most evil remarks toward Jesus and his followers, and put down the blood of Jesus. Three distinct different voices came from him and identified themselves as a spirit of lust, homosexuality (realize I am not for a moment assuming you have a demon if you are a homosexual. Just as I am a heterosexual and have had a lustful thought doesn’t by any means suggest I have a heterosexual demon), and Jezebel. That night, my friend received deliverance. This is not to say all his struggles stopped. He didn’t suddenly lose his homosexual attraction, lust, or anything else.
A few things I saw that were very comparable with the cases I saw in the movie were the following:
Superhuman Strength: I had three friends trying to hold him down. Two were around 300 lbs, another around 170, while he was no heavier than 150. They couldn’t.
Contempt for the Crucifix: Though this might seem far from Protestant, I placed a cross in front of him (when his eyes were rolled back) and within a matter of seconds with full force he punched it out of my hand. There was extreme contempt for the work of the cross.
Voices: Three distinct different voices identified themselves with different names.
Entirely weird physical contortions: He slithered around on the floor like a snake (I have no clue how) and knew where he was going with his eyes rolled in the back of his head.
These parallels were staggering to me!
Something in the movie I had an issue with, but can be due to my lack of experience/understanding about the supremacy of Christ in relation to demonic forces, was the emphasis on deliverance taking a long, long time. I think deliverance is possible quite immediately; I don’t think it should take 60 sessions with the person and they bit by bit get better. No, I think demonic forces have to leave in the name of Jesus. Another issue I found was that the exorcist, Anthony Hopkins, when letting his guard down became demonized. I’m not entirely sure I buy into the fact that believers can become demonized.
I say all this to say I think you should watch this movie. No, we shouldn’t have an ungodly emphasis on the reality of demonic forces as to constantly focus on them, but at the same time to just dismiss it is more than dangerous. I think that we need to get past our enlightenment/post-enlightenment convictions of trying to understand and place everything into our neat box of systematics. Mystery pervades in the Scriptures and it needs to be allowed to here as well.
What are your thoughts on demonology? Do you believe demonic forces can control people? Can believers become demonized? How does this work itself out with when it comes to the mind/body problem?
Peace,
Daniel.
I believe that we demons can access and harass us. I too have both personally experienced deliverance and been involved in the healing / deliverance ministry.
The pastor who trained me said in the Greek tenses it is the person who owns / has the demon and never the demon that owns the person and there fore we need to be careful about talking about possession.
I’m cautious about the healing / deliverance ministry in ‘toto’ because of the bad rap of ‘word of faith’ type ministries….however that doesn’t prevent me from being called upon to minister to people from time to time.
When I first become a Christian I begged God for a long time to give me the gift of discernment of spirits because I thought it would be a fun ministry… He granted that prayer and I was able to see spirits on people at the supermarket and other places…Since then I asked the Lord for the gift to operate only when needed – which makes for a much more peaceful life
It certainly is not a ministry to get involved with light heartedly; nor is a spectator sport that centres around demons. Rather its a ministry that has at its heart the object of making Christ known and to help the person walk in all that Christ has for them.
I haven’t seen the movie – but have read a lot about the priest it represents and his battle within the church to acknowledge that this spiritual realm does exist.
Great thoughts, Craig.
I’m not entirely sure about the Greek tense verb in relation to this. I do know that “possession” itself isn’t in the text, but if this is the case it’s very interesting. But at the same time, I think it’s kind of odd if it’s the person “owning” the demon, considering one needs an exorcist to get rid of it.
The discernment of spirits is a very, very powerful gift. I think haven’t been as graced with these experiences lately probably because I would have been the guy who has a channel on YouTube entitled “The Exorcism Channel” in which I had the rocky theme song in the background and the deliverance session on video.
I have come to believe that the gifts are not our gifts, rather are gifts for the person we minister to. For example – if someone gets healed; its the person healed who receives the gift of healing. If someone is given a prophetic word; its they who have received the word. And therefore they are not so much a gift we can use at will – rather its a gift God will grant amongst the brethren when its needed…though it does seem that some can seem to be granted a particular gift more often.
This helps prevent pride building up and knowing that God is more interested in helping the other and wants us to serve him / them.
Within the context of Christianity – we serve and live within a community of believers. It’s within this context that we confess and receive forgiveness. We ask each other for help and receive it. We ask each other to pray for us and we pray for those who ask.
I’m not entirely sure what my beliefs regarding demonology, but I do believe in demonic powers and influence over people. I think that we as Christians are so quick to diminish the possibility of true and pure evil acting in this world. For example, Jared Loughner in Tucson and his massacre down there. It is known that he was involved in Satanic rituals (as in LaVeyan Satanism) with a black magic altar in his backyard. Yet we so easily diagnose him as mentally ill; what if he were simply influenced by demons?
There was a line in a really dumb horror movie I saw not too long ago. It had Renee Zellweger in it so you know it was awful. It was a movie about a little girl who was supposedly a demon or something and her friend was walking out of church when Renee met him to tell him she thought the child was a demon. He immediately ignored her, called her crazy and did not believe her. She responded by saying that he believes demons inside the church but not outside in reality. I think this is entirely true of our society and our Christian churches.
I’m not Catholic, but it seems they are the only ones who genuinely believe in the power of evil and its forces.
Really great post Daniel – thanks for it. Yes, spiritual warfare is real – I wonder if God gifts certain people for deliverance? I am pretty sure if we had Sean Smith out the Grand Canyon it’d get chaotic real quick – that place is overly demonized and we needed help…
Whenever I have a discussion on demonology (rare, but it happens) it is inevitable that I will quote C.S Lewis’ words on this subject. In the Preface of his book The Screwtape Letters he wrote, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with equal delight.” I don’t think it could be said better.
As Daniel rightly noted in this post, we should not ignore the demonic. Our society might, and it may make us seem weird to acknowledge they exist, but that is better than the alternative. Likewise, when demons are sought more than Christ, because they are so novel, I fear that person is equally misguided.
@Ryan: I’m not catholic either, man. But it’s something that seems to have stuck with them from the beginning.
@Brian: Thanks, man! Yeah, Sean Smith is quite the guy. The dude moved in the prophetic like nothing I’ve ever seen, too. I’m quite the skeptic and I can vouch for the authenticity of it all.
@Brian Leport: You’re entirely right, Brian.
Is the picture for this post not showing on anyone else’s computer? I can’t see anything but a box with a question mark inside.
I see it fine Brian.
Weird, I wonder if it has something to do with my browser. Oh well.
Does not work for me.
@Ryan Are you on Mac or PC? I am on Mac.
@Brian: On my macbook it does not work, and right now I’m on a Dell netbook on google chrome and it does not work.
Hmmmm. Maybe Daniel can find another version and insert it. All the other pictures on the other posts are showing. This is the only one I can’t see.
@Brian: Same here. Every other picture is visible, just not this one for some reason.
It was visible before…its gone here now also.
It did the same thing to me. I just changed out the image.
Works for me now.
@Craig: I agree, though I do think there are gifts that are for ourselves too. Tongues and discernment (for yourself and the church community) are two, I think.
Good thoughts about tongues. Certainly there is a sense of private usage of tongues. I believe that tongues has a upwards, inwards and outwards element in them. God, self and community and that the private use of tongues for self edification is cause to help build the body of believers up and bring strength to the community.