Can a Christian be possessed by demons? First, I need to explain what it means to be possessed.[1] I completely agree that Christians can be oppressed or harassed by demons, but by “possessed” I mean that the demon has actually taken up residence in the Christian. So, can a Christian be possessed by a demon?
My teen years were spent in a very large charismatic church named Melodyland, which had about 10,000 in weekly attendance (it sat 3,700 people at one time). During this same time, I had a Bible study at my parents’ house and we had about 65 high school students attending every Friday (we called it the Valencia Fellowship after the high school most of us attended). One evening in the middle of the meeting (I wasn’t teaching that evening), a couple of guys brought in a teenage girl they said was possessed by a demon. I got up and led them to the garage where this girl was snarling, in a weird voice telling us we were all “deceived,” and sort of rolling her head around (no, her head wasn’t doing a 360° like in The Exorcist). There was no doubt that this girl was possessed. So after a quick prayer, in the name of Jesus I commanded the demon to come out of her. Immediately she slumped, became calm, and started crying. I then prayed the sinner’s prayer with her. She never returned to our group, perhaps because she was too embarrassed. But I did speak with her on the phone some days later, and she said she was confused because she thought she already was a Christian (more about that later).
A few years later I was an associate pastor at the head Vineyard (when I came on the pastoral staff it was Calvary Chapel of Yorba Linda and became The Vineyard Yorba Linda while I was on staff—John Wimber hired me). During this time, I was finishing my Master of Divinity and started reading a lot of psychology books my counseling classes assigned. Among them were the works of a neo-Freudian named Karen Horney and a family therapist named Virginia Satir. I was shocked at how much psychology could explain about me and others I knew. The trouble was that I was beginning to explain almost everything from a psychological viewpoint, which undermined my confidence in Christianity. And one day, sitting in my home office, the words came to mind “You don’t know Him anymore.” That scared me because I really did want to know Him, but I was torn.
About a week later I got a call from a girl I knew who was working at the Melodyland Hotline Center. She told me that they had a demon possessed girl there and asked if I come help. It was about 11:00 p.m. I immediately drove to the hotline thinking that I was going to calm her down in the full power of psychology. Walking into the building I saw a blonde girl (I’d say she was about twelve) being held down by four adults—one on each limb—and they were trying to keep a blanket over her because she was naked. She was snarling in a bizarre voice (the movies do seem to get that right) and cursing God and Christ.
I walked up to this girl and bent down to talk to her, getting my face about 24 inches from her face. She looked at me and snarled, “You don’t know Him anymore!” Whoa! Woe! I immediately backed away from her because there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that the power of psychology wasn’t going to make this girl better. Also, I had lost my confidence that I could cast the demon out of her because I was too smitten by the “wonders” of psychology. Soon the paramedics arrived and restrained the girl. I followed them to the UCI Medical Center emergency room. I got out of my car to watch what was happening. You could tell they were scared. One of them exclaimed to the other, “I’ve never seen anything like that before!” Indeed.
Earlier I had spoken with those holding her down. They said that they had prayed over their food and were talking about Jesus and this girl “started looking funny.” They began talking with her more about Jesus and soon she was lying on the Hotline carpet naked but covered and cursing God (no idea how she got naked).
For the next few days I was shaken (thank You Lord)! I spent the next couple of weeks or more trying to figure out what happened to me—how I could have gone so wrong. I threw out the psychology books (I’m not saying there weren’t truths in them, but I needed to make a clean break and it was a helpful, albeit symbolic, gesture). From then on, I stuck with Scripture as my guide. In time my confidence in Jesus returned. Again, thank You, Jesus!
As a Vineyard pastor during this time, The Vineyard was teaching that Christians could be “demonized.” They preferred “demonized” to “possessed,” but there’s no point getting into that now. For the purpose of this post, when I talk about being possessed or demonized, I mean the kind of demonic experience where the person who is possessed actually has a demon in them that needs to be cast out of them, and when that demon manifests, they are out of control and behave just like the demon possessed people described in the New Testament. Sadly, The Vineyard decided that sincere Christians could be possessed in such a way that the demon was in them (I don’t know whether they still do or not).
The reason John Wimber and other Vineyard leadership came to that conclusion was that we’d have a guy or girl in the congregation, singing songs, talking about Christianity, joining in prayer, etc., but suddenly, he or she’d be writhing on the ground and cursing God in a macabre voice. Therefore, they concluded, Christians can have demons. But they came to this conclusion empirically—from what they thought they had accurately experienced—not from Scripture.
But what if these obviously possessed people were never really Christians in the first place? What if those possessed were Christians in name only. I’ve written a blog entitled “Most ‘Christians’ Aren’t” where I explain that many of those who claim to be Christians really aren’t born again. After all, Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23:
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
Notice that Jesus will say to “many” who call Him Lord, “I never knew you.”
So, can Christians be possessed? No. Here’s why.
Biblical Reasons Real Christians Can’t Be Possessed
The first and major reason that a real Christian can’t be possessed is because the sincere Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 reads, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Also, 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” Then 2 Corinthians 6:16 reads: “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’”
How could a demon coexist in the temple of the Holy Spirit?
Today the Holy Spirit abides in the sincere believer. How could a demon share a room with Him? Consider 1 Samuel 5:1-4:
When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.
Notice that when they put the Ark of the Covenant next to an idol, the idol was destroyed. So how can anyone argue that a demon could inhabit the temple of the Holy Spirit? It couldn’t. So, can a Christian be possessed? No.
In Matthew 12:29 Jesus said, “how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.” How is a demon going to bind the Holy Spirit?
Also, 1 John 5:18 tells us, “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.” The word “touch” in this passage is the same Greek word used in Matthew 9:20-22 describing the woman who “touched” the hem of Jesus garment and was made well.
Bottom line regarding can a Christian be possessed? No, the sincere Christian cannot be possessed or have a demon inside of them.
You might check out my books, Why Does God Allow Evil? Compelling Answers for Life’s Toughest Questions? and Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It
[1] There is a lot of controversy over how to translate daimonizomai. At The Vineyard they insisted on saying a person was “demonized.” Many non-Vineyard theologians agree with that. But the NIV, NASB, and ESV all use the word “possessed” and that’s good enough for me.
