Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 60062 This is a question that requires both honesty and care. Millions of Roman Catholics around the world hold a sincere faith in Jesus Christ, attend Mass, pray, give sacrificially, and seek to live according to their understanding of God’s will. At the same time, the official doctrinal positions of the Roman Catholic Church,…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 60055 The question of extraterrestrial life and unidentified flying objects has moved from the margins of popular culture into mainstream public discourse, particularly following official government acknowledgements in recent years that military personnel have encountered aerial phenomena that remain unexplained. For Christians, the question touches on matters of creation, the uniqueness of humanity, the…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08057 Sleep paralysis is a deeply unsettling experience. The person wakes, or appears to wake, but finds themselves completely unable to move or speak. The episode is often accompanied by a crushing pressure on the chest, a sense of a malevolent presence in the room, and vivid, frightening hallucinations. Accounts of this experience are…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08053 If every genuine believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit from the moment of conversion, the question of whether Christians can experience demonic oppression is not a minor pastoral curiosity. It touches directly on the nature of the Spirit’s indwelling, the reality of ongoing spiritual warfare, and the practical experience of believers who…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08051 Paul makes a startling claim in 2 Corinthians 4:4: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” This is not a metaphor for general ignorance…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08052 When Christians talk about demonic activity, terms like “possession,” “oppression,” and “influence” are used regularly, sometimes interchangeably and often without much precision. Understanding what Scripture actually describes, and what distinctions are warranted by the biblical text, matters enormously for pastoral care. A person struggling with spiritual attack needs accurate diagnosis, not borrowed terminology…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08071 Exorcism is a word that evokes strong reactions. For some, it conjures images from horror films and sensationalised media. For others, particularly in Pentecostal and charismatic traditions, it describes a regular feature of Christian ministry. For many in mainstream evangelical churches, it occupies an uncomfortable middle ground: something they believe happened in the…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 08050 Paul warns Timothy that a church leader must be “well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:7). The same phrase appears in 2 Timothy 2:26, where Paul expresses hope that those who oppose the truth may “come to their…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08070 Deliverance ministry has become an established feature of charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity, with dedicated teams, training programmes, conferences, and a substantial body of literature devoted to the practice. In some churches, deliverance sessions are a regular part of congregational life, and in others they are presented as the key to spiritual breakthroughs that…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 08066 The practice of rebuking Satan and demons verbally has become so common in certain Christian circles that many believers assume it is simply what Scripture teaches. People rebuke the devil over illnesses, financial problems, traffic jams, and virtually every other inconvenience, often with great confidence and volume. But the question of whether believers…