Can Christian Be Possessed?
Short answer. No.
Long answer. No, and it’s complicated.
One of the most fascinating discussions in practical theology is that of deliverance and exorcism. It is an area of practice that is full of fruits and nuts, who do and say kooky things. A lot of misunderstanding, malpractice and unknowns. At the same time, there are also those out there who have a very excellent handle on both the theology and practice of spiritual deliverance and exorcism as it is more widely known, but they are often not as recognizable and are paid much less attention than the people who just shout and scream at demons to leave for the sake of making it a show of power and force.
One of the big reasons why this area is misunderstood or not looked at is because there are certain wings of the Church that don’t believe in the operation of the demonic, or at least in their operation in our day and age. On the edge of this camp are those that believe when the demonic operates, it instantly goes away at salvation.
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum as referenced earlier who thinks that there is a demon behind every lampshade. While theoretically this maybe has some merit it produces in the ways I’ve seen it an overstimulated anxiety over every single part of life. The reality, as it often is in things with theology, is right in the middle.
The first main reason why this get so misunderstood has to do with our Bible translations. A great example of this is Mark 1:32, “When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed.” We see the word “demon-possessed” and we immediately think of totally control, that a demonic being has a puppet like control over a person Our minds start flashing with scenes from The Exorcist, or other similar movies with crawling up a wall, floating and speaking in Latin. Part of this comes from the dramatization of Hollywood, and the other part of it comes from the translation not being the most accurate. A better translation of daimonizomenous (used 13 other times in the New Testament) would be “demon oppressed”.
What any practitioner of spiritual deliverance will tell you (be it Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox etc…), is that there are varying levels of oppression and agreement with the demonic. There can be lower levels of oppression from a demon where there is attachment to trauma, patterns of sin and the like, and they like to wreak emotional havoc in a life. It can go from there, to full blown agreement with a demonic being that would be more akin to the possession we often think of.
What this washes out to is for most people (90-99% of cases) there is no direct confrontation with a demonic entity as we often think of.
Now, there is so much here that I have skimmed over, simplified, or not even touched, and at the end of the blog I will link to some excellent resources and books if you are interested in learning more. But back to the main question at hand. Can a Christian be possessed?
Actually possessed by a demon? No, a Holy Spirit residing in them Christian can not be possessed by a demon. But can they be oppressed? Yes. A friend of mine recently put it this way.
“When a person becomes a Christian the deed to their life is transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness to God. So the “house” (person) is legally free from the powers of darkness. But, they still might have garbage strewn across all the floors that need to be cleaned out.”
Everything that happens after salvation is a part of the work of healing and sanctification in a believer’s life. You see, deliverance and exorcism are ultimately rites of healing. It is the work of the Spirit through the authority vested in the Church that a person is healed from the brokenness in their lives, and that includes the demonic oppression that might be there.
This blog post is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this topic. As someone who has had some training in this, has been reading more on the topic, and practised a bit, it is a deep, deep rabbit trail. But, I hope this tiny primer has cleared up the initial question, and has also created some more questions to lead to further research and discernment for the future.
The last thing I will say is, Christ wants His people to be free. Our sins have been paid for, bought with the price of His blood, and we are no longer owned by sin and death. And now, just as the image of Christ is to be continually made in us, that also includes clearing out the broken garbage in our lives so we can experience the abundance He has for us.
Recommended books to get started:
Unbounded – Neal Lozano (https://a.co/d/0b4cOe1U)
Deliverance – Jon Thompson (https://a.co/d/08fk7l40)
Thunderstruck – Peter Bellini, a GMC Candidate for Bishop (https://a.co/d/082sQgJi)
Dominion: The Nature of Diabolic Warfare – Fr. Chad Ripperger (https://a.co/d/0hJm8L3P)