Possession, then and now

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Megwalters2288

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In each NT book the Apostles speak of the removal of demons during possession. Several cases actually. I am curious as to whether anyone believes these were cases of actual possession or if the “unclean spirits/demons” were symbolic of the unclean parts of our own spirits, awful things attached to our characters that we could not break, which would have to be removed from us. I find it interesting that these episodes were occurring greatly in the time of Jesus and His disciples but they have seemed to completely disappear in our modern age. Did Psychotherapy find an actual cause to certain behaviors or just mask something deeper that is occuring? If this was an actual concern during the time of Jesus why than did it seem to all but pass away now? No church seems to believe these occurrences can happen or can be explained away with modern medicine.
 
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Megwalters2288 said:
No church seems to believe these occurrences can happen or can be explained away with modern medicine.
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In the Catholic Church, that’s because part of the process of determining if someone is possessed is having them examined by a psychologist to see if it’s psychological. So if they’re getting an exorcism, a psychological problem has already been ruled out.
 
Yes, this is true. But, the main question I have is why did these possessions seem to completely disappear? In this modern world we live in it is much worse and more sadistic than the time of Jesus but yet the incidents of a supernatural force were more predominant in that time period than now. I just find it very interesting and curious.
 
Megwalters2288 said:
But, the main question I have is why did these possessions seem to completely disappear?
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They haven’t completely disappeared. A diocese doesn’t exactly broadcast when they do exorcisms. They won’t even publish the name of the exorcist of the diocese. Why have they been reduced? Because the Devil doesn’t need to spend extra effort on those already under his grasp. He can leave them relatively alone and keep them going on a trail of breadcrumbs since they’re not trying to resist. He can get doom more souls by letting them believe he doesn’t exist or that he’s not nearly as bad as he’s painted out to be than possessing people and drawing attention to himself.
 
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Have you ever read the Bible ? People were awful back then! (I’m sure you have)

As to your question, I think there are layers. I believe that those he drove demons out of were actually possessed by demons, but it could be symbolic as well. The same way with the sick people. He actually cured their illnesses, but it’s also symbolic of forgiveness of sins.
 
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Do you really think evil did not go on in the past? There was no internet to spread the story, no photography to document it, but plenty of horrors went on if you want to research it and look for it.
 
You are missing my main question of the post. Evil still occurs in great numbers now and at a rate that can match or even rival the past. But, we place modern medicine explanations behind it for the most part. Why is the idea of possession and influence so dismissed by many churches in this time.
 
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