Can Christians be demon possessed?

There are two things that we may notice before our Lord is tempted of the devil. The first is that He is most emphatically recognized as the Son of God by His Father; secondly, that He is anointed as man by the Holy Ghost. Now a similar thing is true of the believer — of course in an inferior way. Still the believer is owned as a son of God, and has the Spirit of God given to him before he becomes the proper object of the enemy's temptations. And this is an important distinction to bear in mind. Strictly speaking, the relation which the sinner bears to the enemy is not as subject to be tempted. He is a captive; he is led by the devil at his will. This is a very distinct thing from temptation; for it supposes a person thoroughly under the power of Satan. We are tempted when we are out of the enemy's power, and because we are sons of God. Thus, you see, all men have to do with Satan in one way or another. The mass of mankind are his slaves; but those delivered by the power of God, those who by grace are God's children, become the objects of his assault in the way of temptation. It is not so much his power that such have to dread; for when the soul has received Jesus, Satan's power is really void; it is completely broken for the believer. And therefore it is that we are warned rather against his wiles. In certain cases there may be the suffering from his fiery darts; but even this is not his power, which is nothing to the believer while he is looking to Christ; he has only to resist, and the devil will flee from him. If Satan had really power, it is clear that he would not flee. But he has lost it as regards the soul that has received Christ. But then, while to faith the power of Satan is a thing destroyed in the cross of Jesus, his wiles are a very serious matter; and we ought not to be ignorant of his devices. Now God has been graciously pleased to give us his manner of dealing with our blessed Lord. That this is intended for our use, and the great pattern and principle of the temptations of Satan at any time, is clear from many obvious and weighty considerations.

The answer to that question is, that it is quite possible. Only a true believer can be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but all within the circle of Christian profession, whether truly converted or not, partake or share in the benefits of the presence of the Spirit. A man may be enlightened without being saved. He may taste the heavenly gift without receiving it. He may taste the good word of God without digesting it in his inward parts. He may share in "the powers of the world to come." (i.e. miraculous powers) without experiencing the real power of the world to come.

Ephesians 2:2. Vol. II. p. 267. — Scripture explicitly proves the existence of Satan's power in a special and positive way over the minds and bodies of men, and nowhere intimates its cessation when Christianity began or prevailed. There is generally no little imposture along with it, so that the sceptic may find an appearance of reason in attributing all to human craft and superstition. But facts there are, and have always been, which attest a spiritual foe working still among men, and especially the heathen. See Crantz, Brainerd, etc. Our text, however, speaks not of such demoniacal powers or possessions, but of that universal influence which Satan exercises over all unconverted persons.

Christ has overcome, and therefore we have only to resist the devil who will flee. If we resist him, he knows that he has met Christ who has all strength against him, for He has vanquished him. The devil can never touch Christ in you - only the flesh; so, if there is a fall, it is a proof you were walking in the flesh. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood," etc. The contrast here is between the conflict with men that Joshua led the children of Israel against (flesh and blood as man, not sinful flesh, is meant here). Now we are not fighting with men, but we are Christians fighting with all these mighty beings, whose subtlety we are apt not to detect because they are so elevated - "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses in the heavenlies."

And the devil is a defeated foe. He has no authority or power over the saints; he "trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees." They have but to resist him and he will flee from them, for they are no longer his prey, but the blood-purchased possession of the Saviour who has delivered them, and they are to share in all the results of the great victory of the Lord over him for "The God of peace shall shortly bruise Satan under their feet" (Rom. 16:20).

Now we have another thing, the ministry of Jesus in presence of Satan's power, and the utter confessed weakness and misery of nature. An instructive lesson, indeed, for not only do we see the all-conquering might of Him who was crucified in weakness, but the extent of the deliverance shown forth in him who was both set free from the thraldom of Satan and who afterwards became the active witness to others of the Lord's greatness and power to others. It is not merely sin here, or the lusts of the flesh and the world. We know how continually God does save from human violence and corruption and their consequences. In Legion, however, we have, rather, the direct agency of Satan paramount, if not there. As to this, men ordinarily are incredulous; or, if they admit it ever thus acted, they would limit it to the time of Christ on earth. That there may have been a greater rising up of the enemy's power in opposition to the Son of God when here below is a very different statement, and I believe it; but it is a most erroneous conclusion that his power was then so shattered as a matter of fact that cases of demoniacal possession were never afterward to appear. The New Testament refutes the illusion. After Christ died and rose (and this must have gone in the direction of destroying the energy of Satan further than anything else), He charged His servants to preach the Gospel with this sign accompanying them: "In My name they shall cast out demons." (Mark 16:17) And so, in the Acts of the Apostles, we find the word confirmed thereby. Sick folks were brought, and persons vexed with unclean spirits; "and they were healed every one" (Acts 5:16). This was after the descent of the Holy Ghost, too; so that this mighty event, following redemption, had not of itself extinguished cases of possession. Nor was this confined to Peter or the other Apostles; but similar power accompanied Philip, the evangelist, at Samaria. "For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed by them; and many that were paralyzed and lame were healed." I need not dwell on such strong cases as the divining damsel of Philippi, nor that at Ephesus (Acts 19), which the seven sons of Sceva proved to be too real to their cost: they are well known.

I may now refer to the differences of spiritual powers from the spirit of man, and how their workings make manifest themselves and their sources and their characters. When a demon or demons took possession of men (see, alas! many instances of this in the gospels), it or they seem to have made nothing of the human beings they entered into. Them they used as but mediums by which they would express their own malicious, murderous, lying character, and their delight in displaying man and creation degraded in God's own land. The human vessel lost all its individuality, and power, and character; the demon displaying his. But in contrast with this, the apostles and prophets and faithful, taken possession of by, and filled with the Spirit of God, did not lose their individuality, or power, or character. They had to act under known responsibility and order, however much the glory displayed might surpass themselves, or the weakness of themselves be made manifest thereby. Through the agency of the Spirit they might be, and were, lifted up in ecstasy beyond themselves as unto the Lord; or brought down in sober judgment to care for God's people and things down here, etc. The proofs of this are many. But observe it, not Peter, nor Paul, nor John ever failed to read aloud the mind of God and of Christ about persons or circumstances. Walking in the Spirit, their souls were up to the Lord Jesus, and in obedience to and dependence upon God, they could see and read His mind as to everything in the assembly, and did so. (See Acts, and the case of Simon Acts 8; and Acts 13:10, and Acts 16:16-19; and 1 John 4:1-6, and 1 John 2:19; Acts 5 again.)

For let us turn to Corinthians: we have the same principles as in Ephesians. Only (the subject not being the exaltation of Christ over all things, as the one head of the body), the subject is approached from a different side to suit the pneumatiko, and the contrast of the one Holy Ghost with the many demons. But while thus taking it up on a different ground, it comes to the same statements: the same doctrine is found in it. First that which distinguishes the Holy Ghost is that He says, in the saint, "Lord Jesus": a demon would not, But this shews that it acted in the mind, person, and faith of the individual; as indeed the demons often did, when really such, as in an oracle. See the case of Legion: "what have I to do with thee? I pray thee torment me not"; only it was by blinding the mind, and not by light. Nor do I doubt that this often happens now.

It is not hereby asserted that all whose organs of speech are surrendered by their own wills to an influence apart from themselves are under the influence of evil spirits, as in the case of those known as “spiritists,” though they are liable to be possessed at any time. But any who have a knowledge of hypnosis or psycho-therapeutics are aware that it is possible for persons to exercise a power of thorough compulsion over others when the patients submit. In that condition, where the control is human and not demonic, things are said and done of which the subject is quite unconscious. We say no more on this topic, and only allude to it because of the shameful irregularities which have been attributed to the Holy Spirit by the deluded votaries of the cult of Tongues.

In all cases the relief was experienced immediately the demon was expelled; the words used are too explicit to mean aught else than that the persons were possessed, and that the wicked spirits were cast out. The case of Judas Iscariot was somewhat different, inasmuch as it was Satan himself that entered into that wretched man. Luke 22:3. Here it was more than the mere question of power over man, it was the Adversary standing up against Christ.