Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 08055 Stories of haunted houses have been part of human culture for millennia, and they are not confined to superstitious pre-modern societies. Many people, including some Christians, report experiencing unexplained phenomena in certain buildings: strange noises, objects moving, oppressive atmospheres, and the sense of a presence that should not be there. Can a house…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08056 Ghost stories are among the oldest forms of human storytelling, and belief in ghosts remains remarkably persistent even in secular societies. Surveys consistently show that a significant proportion of the population in the Western world believes in ghosts or claims to have experienced a ghostly encounter. For the Christian, the question is not…
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: 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 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: 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…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 08067 Paul’s instruction to “give no place to the devil” in Ephesians 4:27 is one of the most practically important statements about spiritual warfare in the New Testament. It is also one of the most misunderstood, frequently cited as a general warning about demonic activity while its specific context is overlooked. What Paul actually…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08068 The language of “spiritual strongholds” has become deeply embedded in contemporary Christian vocabulary, particularly within charismatic and spiritual warfare traditions. Churches hold conferences on breaking strongholds. Prayer ministries target territorial strongholds over cities and regions. Individuals are told they have personal strongholds that need to be pulled down through specific spiritual techniques. But…