Churches need to talk about demonic spirits

[Nostradamus]

[Craig Browning]

The New Life Church is a very dangerous cult-mind element... I believe I have referenced them in my blog on MySpace a few months back.

[Nostradamus]

I got a kick out of the first quote. The qualifier in the sentence was inspiring. It does not say that churches do not talk about demonic spirits. It says that this person never heard about demonic spirits in a mega-church. This guy needs to attend a smaller church.

The other great quote from the article is that the guy promises not to be weird next week.

[ciscop]

those megachurches ... are just incredible
have you seen them on tv?
there is this pastor... a smily young man
he talks and talks but is more motivational than religion based..
oh man..

[Nostradamus]

I recall seeing one of the churches when I was a kid. I was duped for a while by some claims about creationism and proteins. Fortunately, I went to a good school system and had the chance to find out what was happening.

[Twain Shakespeare]

Fear of demons was one of the major factors in my becoming a Xian. I concluded by the time I was twenty, on my first try at believing xianity, (except for the unbelievable bs about Jesus loving me), that demons were real, since I had experiences that were explained by the hypothesis. Most specifically, I am an anorexic, and have “heard demons” saying I did not deserve to eat (but I am taking my meds now) so when I abondoned Xianity, I kept the belief in demons, eventually coming to believe YHWH was a real member of this class of beings, a malevolent demiurge I called Der Teufal im Himmel (The Deva in Heaven).
I am agnostic on the subject now. I certainly don't believe everything my voices tell me. But if the megachurches aren't talking about demons, perhaps we could.

[Craig Browning]

[NinjaPuppy]

Excellent post Craig.

[Twain Shakespeare]

Puter probs keep this short. Thanks for response, Craig.
1. "Demons" is good shorthand for these mental maladies of the phobic or sociopathic sort, including. as I look at it, religion itself, at least my own voices of der Tuefal and GI Jesus, but only "liberal" ministers would agree with you among prots.
2. You also mentioned "possession" and "haunting", more traditional xian ideas of demonic activity, esp the former. I would accept, for argumnt, that description of the nature of traditional xian demons as "elemental"
3. A third is what I will call "kami" from the japanese word for spirit or "soul". "Kami" of human sociopaths become demons if they are strong enough, according to their shamanistic schema.
I am willing to discuss any of the above as well as 4 and 5, hypotheses I haven't mentioned and/or even thought of.

[Craig Browning]

[Paradox]

Mega religions + mega churches= mega lies usually associated with a particular political propaganda. I swore to myself before joining Scepcop that I would avoid quoting the Bible. Religion is a manmade tool that actually opposes spiritual enlightment. If anyone is a believer I would suggest reading about Howard Storm's near death experience for I believe he gives the most accurate description of 'hell'. Those deformed figures he saw that looked demonic were at one time humans that physically walked the earth. Mind seems to have immense power in the etheric universes. A physically beautiful person on earth who was evil will have that evil show itself in physical form in the 'afterlife' realms. This is one verse from my King James Authorized Version Bible that probally holds more truth than any other and probally was inspired by God: Matthew 7:12 "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." It really does seem you reap what you sow according to the universal law of cause and effect. I think we are our own devils.

[Craig Browning]

Matthew 7:12 is just one version of a wisdom teaching that can be found in the majority of world philosophies/religions INCLUDING believe it or not, SATANISM. (I love telling Christians that one... and the fact that LeVey would literally catch flies and physically set them free outside of the house... he was very respectful of all life and not the maniac some think "Satanists" are... or as his Daughter and Ex-Wife encourage).

There is a wonderful little book I found many years ago, if I remember right the title was "Golden Threads", it was filled with every known version of this "Golden Rule" everyone credits the bible for, many of them penned centuries before Jesus was even a thought in his mother's mind... I'll not refer to his father in that no one knows for sure who that was. . .

[Paradox]

I still believe the darker realms aka hell and evil spirits/entities aka demons do really exist. Perhaps certain parts of each religion (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc) have elements to them that are true. I still try not to take any certain religion literally however. Hell seems to be real and it is a very very horrible place. The entities that reside there seem to be extremely evil as well. I'm going by several individuals near death recollections that wern't the typical 'pleasant' ndes we so often hear about. Why some people go to these dark realms and why some don't I do not know. Some of the people who had hellish ndes didn't even seem like they were that bad of people. I'm not sure. Maybe we aren't meant to understand everything. The truth of the Universe, whatever this 'truth' is is most likely more stranger and fascinating than any science fiction novel or religious myth.

[Craig Browning]

[NinjaPuppy]

Great post Craig.