Demon Possession and the Christian

Message / Question

tough question for you doctor dave ! ! can christians be satanic ?

Response

I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “satanic”, so I’ll deal with the question from 2 perspectives.

First, can a Christian be possessed by a demon even to the extent that he/she becomes a satan worshipper? My answer is swift and simple. NO! Now, let me explain in a very brief way. The Bible says that humanity, because of Adam’s fall and our own sin, is “dead” – yet the world is filled with these “dead” people walking and appearing to be alive. The Bible also says that when we became a Christian, the old things ceased to be and we were made completely new – yet most people who I know still look the same after conversion as they did before. So what does all of this mean?

We are spirit, soul and body. In Eden, there was no death so Adam and Eve, had they not sinned, would have neither died nor aged (aging is, of course, a process of death within our body). God told Adam that in the day that he ate any of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, he would die. So what happened? When Adam sinned, his spirit died instantly, his soul was condemned to die and his body began the process of death (i.e. he began to age). That “death” has been the natural state of man ever since. When we become a Christian, what changes? We have the same body and our mind (soul) still functions and remembers, but our spirit is made alive and is filled with the light of the presence of His Spirit. The kingdom of darkness is overcome by the Kingdom light (the presence of God in us) and darkness can thereafter never have a place. Light ALWAYS overcomes darkness, darkness can NEVER exist in the presence of light. So now, we have been translated from darkness into light (that’s what has happened in our spirit) we can never again be possessed by anything of the kingdom of darkness – such as demonic powers. We are possessed by His Spirit, so no other (dark) spirit can possess us.

So, the second issue flows on from the first. If a Christian can never be possessed by a demon, should a Christian ever need to be “delivered” from demonic powers? We are given the responsibility of renewing our mind (Romans 12), so clearly this renewal does not happen at salvation (as it did with the re-created spirit). This makes the mind ground zero for spiritual attacks that the enemy attempts to make on the life of the Christian. Sometimes, the Christian may give some ground to this enemy and may need to have some help to be set free from its demonic power. This is setting free is often referred to as “deliverance”. So, if this is what your question means by “satanic” then the answer would be yes, a Christian can give ground to a demonic influence in the soul realm and may need to be “delivered” (i.e. set free) from its power and influence in that Christian’s life.

So, Christians cannot be possessed (spirit) by a demonic power, but may give place to such a power (soul/mind) in their life.