Exorcism

[Shlomey]

I’ve heard of islamic, Hindu, even Buddhist exorcists. I’m not so sure about Jews.

But the question is: how come they can exorcize demons?

Matthew 12:24 But the Pharisees hearing it, said: This man casteth not out the devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. 25 And Jesus knowing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.

26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself: how then shall his kingdom stand? 27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.

 

[anjoh66]

I’ve heard of islamic, Hindu, even Buddhist exorcists. I’m not so sure about Jews.

But the question is: how come they can exorcize demons?

Matthew 12:24 But the Pharisees hearing it, said: This man casteth not out the devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. 25 And Jesus knowing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.

26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself: how then shall his kingdom stand? 27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.

Hindus and buddhist exorcist i have never heard of but when it comes to Islam it is not so strange as they claim to believe in the same God as the Christians so why could not God also work through them?
They are misguided yes, but still they are sincere in their devotion, thinking they are doing Gods will.
So by Gods mercy they could possibly be able to cast out demons.
Now i dont think it is very common among muslims today to do exorcisms.
Also probably most of those cases are not possesions but other phenomenas, just as it is also in the catholic church.
95% of those who want to be exorcised are not posessed.

So keeping that in mind it is probably uncommon amongst muslims and as far as i know they dont engage much in it.

 

[Shlomey]

Hindus and buddhist exorcist i have never heard of but when it comes to Islam it is not so strange as they claim to believe in the same God as the Christians so why could not God also work through them?
They are misguided yes, but still they are sincere in their devotion, thinking they are doing Gods will.
So by Gods mercy they could possibly be able to cast out demons.
Now i dont think it is very common among muslims today to do exorcisms.
Also probably most of those cases are not possesions but other phenomenas, just as it is also in the catholic church.
95% of those who want to be exorcised are not posessed.

So keeping that in mind it is probably uncommon amongst muslims and as far as i know they dont engage much in it.

Hindu exorcism:
cbmphoto.co.uk/Hexorcism.html

Buddhists:

Buddhists take a different line. Said Mr Shen Shi’an, chief editor of the Web and library departments at the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery: “Buddhist exorcism does not aim to kill, trap, hurt, or chase away harmful unseen beings.”

The prayer and meditation is carried out for the purpose of persuading the spirit to leave the body.

“Buddhist exorcism aims for win-win situations for the involved human and spirit - who are seen as two parties negatively affected by grudges that require peaceful negotiation,” he said.

Taoists:

Taoists, meanwhile, mainly use chanting, prayer and physical movements to fight the evil spirit.

Master Tan Kok Hian, vice-president of the Taoist Federation (Singapore), said: “We believe that there is good and there is evil, and the evil spirits will usually run away when they are faced with good.”

Islam:

Among Muslims, belief in possession is not universal.

Mr Nazirudin Mohd Nasir, head of the Office of the Mufti at the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, said: “We believe there are unseen creations of God such as the ‘jinn’.” Jinn are similar to spirits.

“One could possibly be possessed by the unseen, but one should not simply blame everything on this. In fact, some people do not believe in possession, although they believe that the unseen exist.”

The important thing for Muslims, said Mr Nazirudin, is “to enhance their spirituality, so that they have a strong spiritual self to thwart all forms of disturbance”.

For Muslims who do believe, however, he said there were those in the community who specialised in the exorcism ritual.

One 47-year-old teacher, who did not want to be named, told The Sunday Times of her encounter last year with possession.

“Half an hour before it happened I felt something inside me, like I was pregnant,” said the mother of three daughters.

“When it happened it was like somebody was trying to suffocate me from the inside. Then it was like I had no control of my body. I could see out, but I was caught in this box.”

Her family remembered her screaming for hours on end and then abruptly going quiet. Yet, when they took her to the hospital, all her vital signs were normal. “The doctor told us to look for other treatment,” she said.

That was when they called a spiritual healer. The ritual, which involved reading passages from the Quran, seemed to cure her. All in, the ordeal lasted a day.

 

[anjoh66]

As i said, we dont know how many of these cases were acctually possesions. So therefore we can not judge if it was an exorcism or not.

I just wanted to point out the possibillity for other religions to carry out exorcisms.

Remember that also the pharisees were casting out demons according to Jesus words and you know what situation they was according to Jesus himself. So i dont think that you must be on the only true way, God can work miracles in many ways.

Also there was one occasion when the apostles couldnt cast out a demon but only Jesus himself. That was probably for us to know that casting out demons doesnt mean that your faith is very high our it is not a measurement of your faith.

Of course the apostles had very high faith but as all humans they had some doubts.

Another occasion was in the Vatican year 2000 when pope John Paul II was doing a half exorism for a girl and promised to say a mass but it only helped her temporarily.
And the demon was saying that “not even the head of your church can cast me out”

That doesnt mean that Pope John Paul II was in error or on the wrong path.
The same happened to the apostles, so it is not a criteria of right or wrong.

 

[Shlomey]

As i said, we dont know how many of these cases were acctually possesions. So therefore we can not judge if it was an exorcism or not.

I just wanted to point out the possibillity for other religions to carry out exorcisms.

Remember that also the pharisees were casting out demons according to Jesus words and you know what situation they was according to Jesus himself. So i dont think that you must be on the only true way, God can work miracles in many ways.

Also there was one occasion when the apostles couldnt cast out a demon but only Jesus himself. That was probably for us to know that casting out demons doesnt mean that your faith is very high our it is not a measurement of your faith.

Of course the apostles had very high faith but as all humans they had some doubts.

Another occasion was in the Vatican year 2000 when pope John Paul II was doing a half exorism for a girl and promised to say a mass but it only helped her temporarily.
And the demon was saying that “not even the head of your church can cast me out”

That doesnt mean that Pope John Paul II was in error or on the wrong path.
The same happened to the apostles, so it is not a criteria of right or wrong.

Sure, but the pharisees who also cast out demons did so by invoking the name of Jesus Christ. I doubt that muslims, Buddhists, etc. do so.

I’ve heard of a couple “success” stories of exorcisms in other religions. My question is: if not done in the name of Jesus, then by whose authority do they cast demons out? It seems to simply contradict what we read in the Bible.

 

[anjoh66]

Sure, but the pharisees who also cast out demons did so by invoking the name of Jesus Christ. I doubt that muslims, Buddhists, etc. do so.

I’ve heard of a couple “success” stories of exorcisms in other religions. My question is: if not done in the name of Jesus, then by whose authority do they cast demons out? It seems to simply contradict what we read in the Bible.

No the Pharisees didnt cast out demons in the name of Jesus, the story you are thinking about is the Jews in the book of acts:

Acts 19:13-17
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”
16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

This went very wrong because they tried to use the Lords name although they didnt believe in it.

But when the apostles failed Jesus said this kind can only be exorcised with fasting and prayer.

And when Jesus was accused of casting out demons with beelsebub he simply asked the Jews, if I cast them out with Beelsebub in whose name is your own excorsists casting them out.
There was no mention that they should be using the name of Jesus

 

[anjoh66]

here is the story when jesus was accused
Luke 11:14-28

[14] Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.
[15] But some of them said, “By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”
[16] Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.

[17] Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.
[18] If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub.

[19] Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.

[20] But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

[21] "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe.
[22] But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.

[23] "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.

[24] “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’
[25] When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.
[26] Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”

[27] As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”

[28] He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

Look at verse number 19

[19] Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.

There is no mention that they used the name of Jesus we must assume the opposite because they were followers of the pharisees and they were opposed to Jesus.

So as a grace God can work miracles in any way He wants. Just as He has bound us in his sacraments meanwhile he himself is not bound to the sacraments.

The same way it is possible for a muslim, jew, or anyone invoking the almighty God to cast out devils. Even though we should not rely on that but do as Jesus said:

[23] "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.

So the only way we can be sure to attain salvation is through Him.
Even if there is some succesful exorcisms of other religions we cant rely on that.

 

[Shlomey]

Thanks a lot

 

[anjoh66]

This link is rather intressting, he deals quite well with the excorsism in the time of Jesus and the meanings of those verses.

jesuswalk.com/lessons/11_14-28.htm

 

[pjk123]

Sorry for the bump.
Hindu Exorcism is in Their Religion itself.it is called “Uchadanam”.