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sardegnr
Guest
Do demons really exist? If so, why did they appear so prevalent during Jesus’ time as opposed to now?
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Barbkw
Guest
Individuals were demonically influenced 2,000 years ago.
Societies today are under corporate demonic influence. We are so entrenched with demonic activity that we “can’t see the forest because of the trees”.
Societies today are under corporate demonic influence. We are so entrenched with demonic activity that we “can’t see the forest because of the trees”.
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WorkerPriest
Guest
Yes, they exist.
They are quite active now. Ask your local diocesan exorcist how busy he’s been. There haven’t been nearly enough formally trained and commissioned exorcists to deal with the enormity of demonic activity in our day, and it’s getting worse every year.
Lot’s of reasons for that, but I’ll leave those for another time. Christians of other communions are seeing the same phenomenon.
Lord have mercy.
They are quite active now. Ask your local diocesan exorcist how busy he’s been. There haven’t been nearly enough formally trained and commissioned exorcists to deal with the enormity of demonic activity in our day, and it’s getting worse every year.
Lot’s of reasons for that, but I’ll leave those for another time. Christians of other communions are seeing the same phenomenon.
Lord have mercy.
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DCNBILL
Guest
Sometimes I think they are right down the hall.
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jbecknell
Guest
In my experience, they most certainly do. When I was about twelve or thirteen years old, my brother and I got a ouiji board as a gift. My Mom, being from the old country, had no idea what it was and so had no idea how terrible it was for us to have. Needless to say, we started playing with it with startling results. A few nights later, and right before bed, my brother ran into our bedroom rather terror stricken. He said that while in the bathroom brushing his teeth, the drinking cup moved from one end of the sink to the other–all by itself. He wouldn’t go back in unless I went with him. We walked into the bathroom together where I half-expected to see a pool of water that perhaps the cup was “riding” on. The sink counter was dry and so was the cup. A few moments after we shut the door, a shoe-horn we had under the sink banged on the sink pipe so loudly that it really sounded deliberate. We were both very scared at that point and ran out. Over the next few months, things became very strange. The door to the garage would open and slam shut in the middle of the night. My Mom would go to see who it might be at such a strange hour only to find no one there. In the kitchen, I once saw the dishes, and nothing else, rattle so violently that I thought they would break. No rattling windows, like in an earthquake. No loose hinges creaking anywhere else. Just the dishes. It once again felt very deliberate. After a few months, my very devout Grandmother, who prayed the rosary every day in front of her large and beautiful statue of the Blessed Virgin, moved in. A few days after that, another strange event occurred. The screen door to the backyard was on the ground with the screen shredded, by what were obviously claw marks. Sure, it could have been a cat or a raccoon that knocked the door off and destroyed it, but I had the distinct feeling when I saw it that day that something was trying to get out of the house. There hadn’t been another strange incident since.
Reading Father Gabrielle Amorth’s excellent book on the subject many years later; An exorcist: more stories, he related in one passage how he took a couple of very skeptical biologists from the local Italian University to a house he diagnosed as having been infested with a demonic presence. Despite the fact that the house was hooked up to the municipal water supply, what came out of the tap looked very much like human blood. Both scientists scoffed at the idea, and took samples back with them to the university to test. Both scientists were terrified when the results came back positive for human blood. Father Amorth asked them to return, but both absolutely refused out of fear. Father Amorth explained that what the devils did here was only what they did for Pharaoh’s priests, in imitating the sea of blood when Moses dipped his staff in the water. What the devils did in that house was inadvertently confirm the miracles of the Exodus in a very real way.
I feel God sometimes allows the devils to give these kind of testimonies of their existence of a sort, because sometimes that’s the only testimony some people will listen to. Some just don’t take to the ‘lightness and sweetness’ of God thing, thinking that it’s just too saccharin a belief to be true. The whole economy of salvation, for some, must begin with Hell.
Reading Father Gabrielle Amorth’s excellent book on the subject many years later; An exorcist: more stories, he related in one passage how he took a couple of very skeptical biologists from the local Italian University to a house he diagnosed as having been infested with a demonic presence. Despite the fact that the house was hooked up to the municipal water supply, what came out of the tap looked very much like human blood. Both scientists scoffed at the idea, and took samples back with them to the university to test. Both scientists were terrified when the results came back positive for human blood. Father Amorth asked them to return, but both absolutely refused out of fear. Father Amorth explained that what the devils did here was only what they did for Pharaoh’s priests, in imitating the sea of blood when Moses dipped his staff in the water. What the devils did in that house was inadvertently confirm the miracles of the Exodus in a very real way.
I feel God sometimes allows the devils to give these kind of testimonies of their existence of a sort, because sometimes that’s the only testimony some people will listen to. Some just don’t take to the ‘lightness and sweetness’ of God thing, thinking that it’s just too saccharin a belief to be true. The whole economy of salvation, for some, must begin with Hell.
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Joab_Anias
Guest
Interesting. I was having similar doubts a couple hours ago and just bumped into this thread.
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Timothy17
Guest
Unfortunately yes, but so do angels who, unlike the demons, are not seeking human fear or worship for or of themselves. They, like their Heavenly Master, are not boasters and do good without seeking the praise or fear of men, hence perhaps why the Apostle mentioned that many have entertained angels without knowing it.
Pax,
Tim
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RosaryFan
Guest
They do exist and they are more prevalent now. Just as you need the eyes of faith to recognize Our Lord, you also need the eyes of faith to recognize evil and the work of demons. That is why no one thinks anything is a sin anymore - they simply don’t recognize the evil because they have no faith (or very little faith).
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thistle
Guest
It is a Church teaching that demons exist and as Catholics we are obliged to believe it.
CCC 414 Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God.
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Roman_Korvinus
Guest
I’m pretty sure a majority, if not all of the supposed exorcisms, were preist trying to cure children of autism, by slapping, beating, and subjecting them to torture.
have you not noticed that when someone speaks against the masses they are automatically regarded as being evil or possessed by the devil. Doesn’t say much for the masses. Just becasue many agree doesn’t make them right, or even holy.
have you not noticed that when someone speaks against the masses they are automatically regarded as being evil or possessed by the devil. Doesn’t say much for the masses. Just becasue many agree doesn’t make them right, or even holy.
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Jehoshua
Guest
If they don’t exist then why does the Church have exorcists?
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Joab_Anias
Guest
Since “The Rite” has come out, I have been wondering about possession.
I know of a couple ways people can leave themselves open to possession but there must be more to it than that.
Is anyone aware of a comprehensive work on how possessions occur exactly?
I know of a couple ways people can leave themselves open to possession but there must be more to it than that.
Is anyone aware of a comprehensive work on how possessions occur exactly?
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puzzleannie
Guest
curious as to why you assume demonic activity is rare now, despite all evidence to the contrary
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puzzleannie
Guest
do you have any evidence whatever for this baseless libelous claim?
what on earth is this about? what masses? No I never “noticed” at any time what you relate. What can you be talking about?
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pablope
Guest
You can read the book which the movie is based on…The Rite by Matt Baglio, another book by Fr. Gabriel Amorth, Rome’s exorcist for decades, and another book by Fr. fortea (am not sure about the spelling). You can check them on amazon.
It is all explained in the books I mentioned above.
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RomanKorvinus
Guest
I think anyone who says get behind me satan can pretty well say that to anyone they disagree with, however it doesn’t make that person evil, it just means the person saying it doesn’t want to hear a truth that isn’t their own.
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GreggAlvarez
Guest
As if truth is subjective? Or that truth is “owned” by anybody?
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