Can all believers cast out demons?

[Lucian Hodoboc]

Jesus seemed to have implied that yes, all those who believe in Him are able to cast out demons, while the incident with the two Jewish brothers from Acts seems to indicate that it takes more than having faith to cast out demons. What are your thoughts on the matter?

 

[Lamb]

Jesus seemed to have implied that yes, all those who believe in Him are able to cast out demons, while the incident with the two Jewish brothers from Acts seems to indicate that it takes more than having faith to cast out demons. What are your thoughts on the matter?

That's an interesting question. I'm not sure? I know personally I wouldn't trust just any Christian and I'd go to a pastor or priest trained in exorcisms...yes, there is training! I don't trust the tent revival guys or the tv guys who make a big show because they're proven to be so fake.

 

[atpollard]

[Mat 10:5-10 NASB] 5 These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in [the] way of [the] Gentiles, and do not enter [any] city of the Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 8 "Heal [the] sick, raise [the] dead, cleanse [the] lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. 9 "Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, 10 or a bag for [your] journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support.

[Mar 6:7-13 NASB] 7 And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits; 8 and He instructed them that they should take nothing for [their] journey, except a mere staff--no bread, no bag, no money in their belt-- 9 but [to] wear sandals; and [He added,] "Do not put on two tunics." 10 And He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. 11 "Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them." 12 They went out and preached that [men] should repent. 13 And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

[Luk 9:1-3 NASB] 1 And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. 2 And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. 3 And He said to them, "Take nothing for [your] journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not [even] have two tunics apiece.

[Luk 10:1-4, 17-20 NASB] 1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. 2 And He was saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 3 "Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 "Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. ... 17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." 18 And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. 20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."

• A specific instruction for a specific mission to specific individuals.
• Not universally applicable to all Christians in all times and places (unless you believe that we are forbidden to preach to any non-Jews, or to accept any money, or to own more than the clothes on our back).
• This particular casting out of demons was to ‘prove’ that the Kingdom of God was at hand.

[Mar 3:13-15 NASB] 13 And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. 14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He [could] send them out to preach, 15 and to have authority to cast out the demons.

• Again we have a clear link between Jesus appointing twelve very specific people and Jesus granting those same people the authority to cast out demons.
• There is nothing here to suggest that all Christians are called out to be Apostles or that all Christians have the authority to cast out demons.

[Mar 9:38-41 NASB] 38 John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us." 39 But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. 40 "For he who is not against us is for us. 41 "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as [followers] of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.

[Luk 9:49-50 NASB] 49 John answered and said, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us." 50 But Jesus said to him, "Do not hinder [him;] for he who is not against you is for you."

• Here we have a very different situation: some casting out demons that is not Jesus or one of the 12 specifically given authority by Jesus to cast out demons.
• We must be careful with what this says and what this does not say.
  • Jesus said not to stop him.
  • Jesus did not say that He had given him authority to cast out demons.
• The “non-Apostle” casting out demons MAY have been given authority by Jesus, in which case it would suggest that other non-Apostle Christians might be given authority by Jesus to cast out demons
• The “non-Apostle” casting out demons MAY be one of those people that Jesus will ultimately claim “I never knew you.”
• This passage does not tell us which was the case for this man, so we cannot know his heart for certain.
• (Josiah should like this part) ... this is one of the Mysteries in the Bible known for certain only to God.

[Mar 16:14-20 NASB] 14 Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining [at the table;] and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. 17 "These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly [poison,] it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." 19 So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.] [[And they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions. And after that, Jesus Himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.]]

• Things are going to get bumpy here.
• First we must acknowledge that the earliest manuscripts end at verse 8, so all of verses 9-20 may not be original to Mark. I am not qualified to argue textural validity of early manuscripts, so we will accept these passages as Scripture with an asterisk that they MAY (very small chance) have been altered by later copyists.
• OBSERVATION: v.15 This was a command to the eleven Apostles.
• OBSERVATION: v.20 The casting out of demons was a sign of confirmation everywhere the Apostles went.
• v.18 “These signs will accompany those who believe” ... we have two obvious possible interpretations of what this says:
  • Every individual believer will display each and every one of the listed signs
  • These signs will manifest among the collective body of all believers, but each individual believer may have any one or even none of the signs.
  • There are people that hold to each of these positions.
• Since there are other verses that tell us that there is one Spirit that distributes spiritual gifts as He chooses and not all have the gift of tongues, I see no way that this passage can mean that every Christian will have all of those signs.
• So the casting out of demons is:
  1. A sign for the church to confirm the Word of the Gospel
  2. NOT a universal ability of all Christians without exception.
  3. Potentially a sign which the church can still exercise (only God knows for sure).
  4. Also potentially a sign that was meant to confirm the office and authority of an Apostle (only God knows for sure).

 

[atpollard]

So having reviewed the Scripture, what is my final conclusion on the question “Can all believers cast out demons”?

Probably not.

• God certainly can cast out demons.
• Jesus can grant men the authority to cast out demons (and has).
• Everyone does not have all of the spiritual gifts, rather the Holy Spirit distributes them as God pleases.
• If someone is going to stand on Mark 16:17-18 as proof that THEY can cast out demons because all Christians can do all these things, then I suggest that they work up to casting out a demon:
  1. They should demonstrate that they can speak to someone fluently in another language that they have never studied (like what happened in Acts 2).
  2. Then they should visit a hospital and clear out a ward by healing the sick.
  3. At this point they should have a faith strong enough to drink poison without harm.
  4. Only after mastering the gifts over the physical world, should they attempt to battle the dark powers, principalities and rulers of this age in the spiritual realm.
     

That’s my opinion.

 

[zecryphon_nomdiv]

Jesus seemed to have implied that yes, all those who believe in Him are able to cast out demons, while the incident with the two Jewish brothers from Acts seems to indicate that it takes more than having faith to cast out demons. What are your thoughts on the matter?

My thoughts are that it isn't advisable for a Christian to go toe-to-toe with a demon or demons. You need years of special training in spiritual matters as complex as this.

 

[tango]

I think this question has an answer that is, in its own way, both simple and complex.

I think that all believers who have the Holy Spirit can cast out demons. That said I think there's an awful lot of showmanship among the "travelling revival" types who are frankly doing little more than peddling snake oil. The kind of people who make a big show of speaking to the huge crowd and asking "who here has a demon they want cast out?" and inviting people to go forward for an exorcism, in front of the (fully packed) arena of people, are probably not doing anything useful at all. The people going forward may be placed stooges, they may be people who see a demon behind every corner (the ones who break their diet on the first day and blame it on a demon, for example) or whatever else.

We shouldn't be going out of our way looking for demons to cast out. If we are presented with a demon I believe we have authority over it in the name of Jesus but we should be aware of how our own walk with Christ looks. If we are faithfully attending church every Sunday and putting on a good show for everyone else in the congregation but our prayer life isn't great and we've allowed ourselves to become comfortable with sin in our life, we're probably not in a good place to tackle such a fight.

I remember reading an interesting analysis of Paul's analogy of putting on the armor of God, and how the only weapon was the sword. The analysis talked of how the sword typically carried by a Roman centurion was a short sword, suitable for short-range defensive fighting. It's very easy to get a grandiose picture of a Christian as a lone warrior, rippling with muscle and wielding a huge sword as they fight back the powers of darkness. In practise the analogy of the Roman with his armor and sword makes a lot more sense - we're better suited to fighting as a group and fighting the things that attack us rather than going out looking to pick a fight with something.

Luke 10:19 shows Jesus saying how he gave the disciples authority to trample snakes and scorpions and all the powers of the enemy. We could discuss whether that is also meant for us today but if we go too far down that route we have to also ask whether the call to go into the world and preach the gospel applies to us today. 1Jn 4:4 says that he who is within us is greater than he who is within the world.

So I guess the short form of that is "yes, but know yourself first".