I haven't witnessed any more ghostly happenings at the theater, and I have been checking the candles. As I suspected, they do loosen up over time. So, it is going to take more than that to convince me that there is really a ghost. Though if I were a ghost I can't imagine a more wonderful place to haunt than a theater. Much more exciting than heaven if you ask me.
Last Sunday the pastor read out of Acts 19, which is one of my "favorite" chapters. Paul is in Ephesus, Turkey, which apparently was a stronghold of demonic activity. There was a lot more going on than candles falling out of candlesticks or strange noises. Apparently this was the real deal. Because Satan was so active in Ephesus, the Holy Spirit had to be twice as active. That is why there were so many miracles in New Testament times. Now, it seems to me that the Spirit is strangely quiet these days; one would think that with so much rampant disbelief that the Spirit would need to really ramp things up. But I guess it is that faith thing; if you don't believe, then neither side has any power.
Anyway, he reassured us that Satan really doesn't have any power; that he has to go get permission from God before he can do his thing on us humans. I don't know if that makes me feel any better. Maybe about Satan; I'm not so sure about what that makes God.
He started out his sermon by acknowledging that we don't think the way they did back in Ephesus; when something goes wrong we don't automatically look for demonic causes. (This is why I wonder if he has been reading my blogs). But he didn't go into why and how that changed. He talked about science and materialism but said that they ignore the fact that the spirit realm is real, and that we are in spiritual warfare.
So what happened in Ephesus (and this is the part I like!) is that a group of Jewish exorcists went into a house where there was a demon-possessed man and they decided to give the name of Jesus a try in exorcising him. But the man said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who the hell are you?" And he beat the sh*t out of them and threw them out of the house without a stitch of clothing on! The pastor said that was a warning to not use the name of Jesus as an experiment. But I see it as a question of legitimacy, because from some of the other things Luke says in this chapter that although there were other groups going around talking about some of the things Paul said, if they were not directly connected with either him or the Jerusalem church, they weren't legitimate. Anyway, I like the "demon's" reply. I'm very tempted to use it when someone comes evangelizing me, or when I see all these new churches popping up all over the place. "Who are you?"
Afterwards I went up to him and asked him about the relationship between autism and demonic possession--how do you know that autism and other conditions aren't caused by demonic possession? He said, "We don't know. Sometimes these things are caused by brain chemistry or injury, we just don't know." Well, then, I asked, how do you know how to treat someone who has a mental problem? He said that as a pastor he would look for spiritual causes first, but the thing he would use to determine whether the problem was physical or spiritual was if he sensed the presence of evil. He said "I don't know if that answers your question." He thought that I had raised a very good point. That was when I said that Christians should be in the forefront of brain research. And he agreed.
Unfortunately, because he preaches a religion that has the idea of spiritual warfare at its foundation--and sooner or later, spiritual warfare becomes physical warfare--it is not the kind of environment that nurtures scientific thinking; just the opposite. When learning is belittled and science is dismissed, you aren't going to get people choosing to go into research. And so the discoveries and inventions that change lives will increasingly be made by people who don't share religious beliefs and values, and religions like his will be increasingly pushed to the side and marginalized.
Last Sunday the pastor read out of Acts 19, which is one of my "favorite" chapters. Paul is in Ephesus, Turkey, which apparently was a stronghold of demonic activity. There was a lot more going on than candles falling out of candlesticks or strange noises. Apparently this was the real deal. Because Satan was so active in Ephesus, the Holy Spirit had to be twice as active. That is why there were so many miracles in New Testament times. Now, it seems to me that the Spirit is strangely quiet these days; one would think that with so much rampant disbelief that the Spirit would need to really ramp things up. But I guess it is that faith thing; if you don't believe, then neither side has any power.
Anyway, he reassured us that Satan really doesn't have any power; that he has to go get permission from God before he can do his thing on us humans. I don't know if that makes me feel any better. Maybe about Satan; I'm not so sure about what that makes God.
He started out his sermon by acknowledging that we don't think the way they did back in Ephesus; when something goes wrong we don't automatically look for demonic causes. (This is why I wonder if he has been reading my blogs). But he didn't go into why and how that changed. He talked about science and materialism but said that they ignore the fact that the spirit realm is real, and that we are in spiritual warfare.
So what happened in Ephesus (and this is the part I like!) is that a group of Jewish exorcists went into a house where there was a demon-possessed man and they decided to give the name of Jesus a try in exorcising him. But the man said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who the hell are you?" And he beat the sh*t out of them and threw them out of the house without a stitch of clothing on! The pastor said that was a warning to not use the name of Jesus as an experiment. But I see it as a question of legitimacy, because from some of the other things Luke says in this chapter that although there were other groups going around talking about some of the things Paul said, if they were not directly connected with either him or the Jerusalem church, they weren't legitimate. Anyway, I like the "demon's" reply. I'm very tempted to use it when someone comes evangelizing me, or when I see all these new churches popping up all over the place. "Who are you?"
Afterwards I went up to him and asked him about the relationship between autism and demonic possession--how do you know that autism and other conditions aren't caused by demonic possession? He said, "We don't know. Sometimes these things are caused by brain chemistry or injury, we just don't know." Well, then, I asked, how do you know how to treat someone who has a mental problem? He said that as a pastor he would look for spiritual causes first, but the thing he would use to determine whether the problem was physical or spiritual was if he sensed the presence of evil. He said "I don't know if that answers your question." He thought that I had raised a very good point. That was when I said that Christians should be in the forefront of brain research. And he agreed.
Unfortunately, because he preaches a religion that has the idea of spiritual warfare at its foundation--and sooner or later, spiritual warfare becomes physical warfare--it is not the kind of environment that nurtures scientific thinking; just the opposite. When learning is belittled and science is dismissed, you aren't going to get people choosing to go into research. And so the discoveries and inventions that change lives will increasingly be made by people who don't share religious beliefs and values, and religions like his will be increasingly pushed to the side and marginalized.
