This Sunday at Garnett Wade talked about demons. We’re going through this series called Chreaster, which is following Jesus life and work from Christmas through Easter. This week he talked about Jesus’ interactions with demons. He focused on three stories: the man in the synagogue in Mark 1, “Legion” in Mark 5, and the boy in Mark 9.
It was an interesting sermon that we discussed Sunday night when I sat in on the high school small group. We talked a lot about spirits and demons and whether or not we were talking about literal demons that can possess and control a person, or a person’s bad traits. Everyone seemed to come to the same conclusion that they’re are different issues and both equally valid.
Late in the discussion one of the girls was talking about how modern medicine has affected the perception of demons and miracles, using epilepsy as an example. It made me think of diseases like autism or ALS that aren’t really understood, they’re only classifiable. What if those types of diseases are in fact symptoms of possession?
As I type this I can see some people becoming upset or offended because they know or have known someone affected by one of the aforementioned disorders. Please don’t. I’m simply raising the question.
Technorati Tags: bible, chreaster, demons
3 responses so far...
That’s an unusually conventional position coming from you Ryan…have you lost your flare for the dramatic?
I’m not discounting the likelihood that we will discover a medical cause (and cure) for things like this, just raising another possibility. I know that “unclean spirits” exist - though I think that you disagree - so I’m going to leave the issue open.
Rawr all religious people are stupid rawr! RAWR I SAY!
I have deigned to speak, and that should be enough to prove that I am always right.
How’s that for dramatic?
Blogs4God
Its probably predictable of me to say that I don’t think they are symptoms of possession. I think they have medical explanations that we just haven’t found yet. To me, it seems similar to things from the distant past re: we used to think the world was flat or the center of the universe, because we just didn’t have enough information to go on. The same can be said of these diseases… we don’t have enough information yet, and attributing them to demonic possession doesn’t seem right.
But I’m just one guy with his opinion.