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In 2008, Dr. Richard Gallagher, a certified psychiatrist, and professor of psychiatry at the New York Medical College, wrote an article for the New Oxford Review entitled, A Case of Demonic Possession: Among the many counterfeits.
It ended up being the most-read article in the review’s history and over the next few years, there were follow up articles on several news sites include the Washington Post and CNN.
In the article Gallagher discussed a case of demonic possession that he encountered in his psychiatric practice. It involved a woman, who he gave the pseudonym Juia, who was a high priestess in a satanic cult.
During the sessions that followed, Julia displayed many of the classic signs of demonic possession that were witnessed not only by Gallagher, but by several other mental health professionals, nurses, lay people and as well priests.
These included times when Julia would go into trances and begin uttering threats and scatological phrases such as ‘leave her alone’ and ‘she is ours.’ Gallagher noted her voice often changed and would go lower taking on more man like qualities.
She also had a contempt for the sacred or religious such as crosses.
Julia also had what Gallagher described as paranormal awareness and knew things about people and situations, of which she had no previous knowledge. She was receiving information about people from other sources.
On the first day, Gallagher met Julia, she asked, “How did you like those cats last night?” Gallagher said he had told no one what had happened to him and his wife the previous night. They were awakened around 2 am by a horrible screeching sound as their two cats were involved in a brutal brawl. It was so bad they had to grab the cats and put them in separate rooms. Gallagher said they never fought, but something had stirred them up and somehow Julia knew about this.
As a certified board psychiatrist, Gallagher acknowledged that the majority of the cases he deals with involve physical and mental health issues that require medical treatment. But there are rare instances of what he describes as demonic oppression and possession.
In his article, Gallagher wrote:
“Possession is only one and not the most common type of demonic attack. Possession is very rare, though not exceedingly so as many imagine. So-called ‘oppression’ or ‘infestation’ is less rare, though hardly frequent either, sometimes more difficult to discern accurately.’
Hi my name is Dean Smith, and in this podcast, I want to discuss a somewhat curious topic: why do we see so many examples of people being possessed or oppressed and then delivered from evil spirits in the New Testament, but rarely see these type of things happening in the Old Testament?
First, we do see examples of what could be described as demonic possessions in the Old Testament.
In Ezekiel 28, the prophet delivered a word against the King of Tyre. However, about halfway through, this word takes a curious turn.
In verse 11, Ezekiel who is still addressing the king of Tyre says:
“You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God.”
Then in verse 14, the prophet adds, “you were anointed as a guardian Cherub.“
The king of Tyre was never created perfect. He was born a fallen man. The King was never in the Garden of Eden. He was never an anointed Cherub.
But Satan fills those qualifications, and it’s obvious the focus of Ezekiel’s prophecy had shifted and the prophet was now addressing Satan.
This meant speaking to the King of Tyre was the equivalent of speaking to the devil, which suggests some type of demonic possession was in play here.
The same thing happened with the prophetic word given to the King of Babylon by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 14.
Again it starts off in much the same way as a tirade against the Babylonian King, but in verse 12, the word takes a turn.
We read:
“How you have fallen from heaven, you star of the morning sun of dawn. You have been cut down to the earth.”
The King of Babylon did not fall from heaven. He was born on earth and died on earth. So similar to Ezekiel, the word was now addressing a being from the demonic realm.
We see another example of possession involving an Israeli King.
King Saul became violent and tried to kill David when an evil spirit tormented him in 1 Samuel 16:15 and we see what could be deemed a partial deliverance when David played his lyre.
We read:
“David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would feel relieved and become well, and the evil spirit would leave him.” (1 Samuel 16:23)
So it suggests at least a partial deliverance, but ultimately the evil spirit returned and possessed Saul.
While we have what seem to be example of demonic possession in the three cases I mentioned, I suspect there were other cases including Jezebel, who in turned King Ahab towards wickedness.
But in all these examples, the possessions appear strategic, involving kings or their close associates in order to manipulate and control human affairs.
But as we move into the New Testament, there is a dramatic change. We see Jesus delivering countless people from demons and evil spirits.
Luke writes, “Demons were also coming out of many, shouting you are the Son of God.” and Mark adds, “And He healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons.”
We even see an example of one deranged man being delivered of a legion of demons in Mark 5 and Luke writes that Mary Magdalene had seven demons cast out of her (Luke 8:2).
It is such a sharp contrast between what we see in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament we saw strategic possessions, with political importance, while the New Testament we see examples of average everyday people dealing with demons and evil spirits and we also see it on such a larger scale.
So why the difference?
I believe there could be several reasons for this.
First: The Old Testament was about the nation of Israel
First, the Old Testament deals largely with the nation of Israel as a political entity. The emphasis was on religious and political leaders.
I can explain the difference this way. A few years back, someone challenged me on why the Old Testament spoke of an eye for eye and tooth for tooth justice, while Jesus emphasized forgiving those who offended us.
Those seem to be such contradictory messages.
However, we need to understand that the Old Testament was speaking to government and political leaders, while the New Testament was aimed at a personal level. So while an individual has to forgive someone who murdered a loved one, the government still has the responsibility of handing out justice.
As a result of this different emphasis, we don’t examples of everyday people dealing with the demonic in the Old Testament.
Second: The Arrival of Jesus
The second explanation for the difference is the arrival of Jesus. Having defeated Satan in the wilderness, Jesus demonstrated personal authority over the demonic realm. This had never happened before in the history of the world, so Christ’s arrival forced demons to reveal themselves such as happened when Jesus spoke at a synagogue in Capernaum.
We read:
“An evil spirit inside a man sitting in the congregation suddenly shouted out, “Leave us alone. What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth.” (Luke 4:34)
Jesus quickly rebuked it and cast it out of the man. Now it’s true there were Jewish exorcists at that time, which Jesus even alluded to, but there success rate was very poor compared to Christ.
For the first time, people who were being plagued by demons and evil spirits, had someone who could legitimately help them, so they showed up in droves.
Now this would suggest that evil spirits and demons were possessing people in the Old Testament to the same extent as the New, but it just wasn’t as obvious, but this may not actually be the case.
Third: Change in the spiritual climate between Old and New Testament periods
There may be a third reason for the increased number of possessions in the New Testament, and this was due to a dramatic shift in the spiritual climate that took place between the Old and New Testament periods.
To better understand the significance of this change, we need to look at the time the pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub a more powerful demonic spirit in Luke 11.
Jesus had just cast an evil spirit out of a man and the people were amazed, and the pharisees were trying to discredit Christ.
Jesus responded that the demonic kingdom is not divided and then talked about how evils spirits actually work together in verses 23 and 24.
Jesus says “If an evil spirit is driven out of a person, it will seek the help of seven more powerful evil spirits in order to return inside the individual.”
But then Jesus describes the state of the evil spirit after it has been cast out of a person. Christ says, “it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it then says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’”
Once cast outside the human body, the evil spirit finds itself in a waterless place, where it can find no rest, which is why it wants to return.
Since the demons are spiritual and exist in a spiritual realm, I am uncertain what it means that they are now in a waterless place.
At the very least, the evil spirit finds itself in a very uncomfortable state. But since water is necessary for life, Jesus seems to imply that the evil spirit can’t live in this state for an extended period.
If this is true, then the same would be the case in the Old Testament period. Demons and evil spirits would need to inhabit people in order to survive.
But things were different in the Old Testament.
We know godly angels exist and they don’t inhabit humans, which means they must have access to a realm where they can find water and rest, whatever that means in a spiritual sense.
This is what we refer to as the heavenly realm.
And oddly enough the same seems to be true for those who we would classify as demonic. In Job 1 verses 6 and 7, we read how Satan came before a gathering of the sons of God, or the angels, in the heavenly realm.
This means that Satan also had access to the heavenly realm where he could find the equivalent of water and rest.
Again in a similar gathering of angelic beings, a lying spirit volunteered to deceive the prophets who were advising the evil Israeli king, Ahab in 1 Kings 22:19-23.
Again, if this lying spirit was an evil spirit, it was in the presence of God and other angelic beings. In other words, it was in the same heavenly realm where Godly angels find water and rest.
So it seems that these fallen angels were operating in and out of this heavenly realm. From time to time, they possessed kings, but it was done strategically to influence the course of history.
But something dramatic happened at the birth of Christ.
In his vision of the end times in the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John describes what happened:
“And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her Child” (Revelation 12:4 NASV)
We read how Satan tried to kill Jesus at his birth and as he had done in the past, Satan manipulated a government leader, King Herod, to accomplish this task, but Herod failed.
But because of this failed assassination attempt on Jesus, Satan had crossed the line.
John explains what happened next:
7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they did not prevail, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Revelation 12:7 NASV)
Satan and those fallen angels who sided with him, were driven out of the heavenly realm and forced to inhabit earth. This again shows us that up to this point, these demons still had access to the heavenly realm where they found water and rest.
Now the only respite they was inhabiting human bodies. Their need to possess people was no longer strategic, but rather a necessity, and that is why see more of it in the New Testament.
And this may even explain why when Jesus drove the legion of evil spirits out of the demonic man, the demons asked if they could inhabit a nearby herd of pigs in Mark 5:13.
Though obviously a third rate habitation it was better than the alternative.
So I hope these three explanations provide a Biblical understanding of the dramatic changes in the spiritual realm that took place between the Old and New Testament periods.
While there was a spiritual shift between the Old and New Testament periods that extends to our day, the facts remains the same. Jesus was given all authority over heaven and earth and the demonic realm and the Lord has given that authority and power to everyone who believes in Him.
Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will catch you again.
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