Baptised with an Unholy Spirit

In other papers on this website (on Healing and Visualisation), we have examined the magical use of the spoken word as an outworking of occult word-power in order to effect change in one's environment. We now turn to the use of verbal suggestion as a powerful method of effecting change in others — a form of Shamanism which has become astonishingly widespread throughout the Christian Church.

As Charismatic teachings have become increasingly popular, there has also been a major growth of interest in demons and demonology. An alarming number of people have developed for themselves what is commonly called a 'deliverance ministry', through which they claim to practise exorcism and other forms of combat with the demonic realm. Coupled with this, there has been a huge upsurge in a variety of animistic and superstitious practices which are used to ward off demons from an particular geographical area or life-situation. There now follows a list of some of the techniques for the attempted neutralisation of demonic activity which we have personally witnessed or which have been brought to our attenti

'Then I had one of the strangest and most amazing experiences in my life, an experience which resulted in a radical shift in my belief system. After sitting quietly for five minutes, my body began to quiver and shake in an indescribable manner. Beautiful colors appeared all around me, and it seemed as though I had stepped out of my body and was looking down at it... I began to talk in tongues — a phenomenon I had heard about but discredited. A beautiful beam of light came into the room and I decided at that moment to stop evaluating what was happening and simply be one with the experience, to join it completely'.20

When Peter saw that the Gentile Cornelius and his household had been saved by the power of God, he said: 'Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptised who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?' (Acts 10:47). Then, a few verses later, when accurately recounting this exact episode to the brethren in Jerusalem, Peter said that he

In this verse the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church recorded in the Book of Acts is compressed into a brief précis: From Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and from there to the ends of the earth. Do you see the significance of these words? This is what the Book of Acts encompasses: The Spirit-inspired spread of the Gospel begins in the place that was the heartland of the Old Covenant nation, Israel, and then spreads out through Judea and the land of the Samaritans (despised by the Jews) and thence to the Gentile nations of the world, to places such as Ephesus, Corinth, Macedonia, etc., (also despised by the Jews) — an event which finds its ultimate fulfillment in Paul's arrival in Rome (the very apex of Gentile culture at that time) at the close of the Book of Acts. In other words, in this book, we see the authoritative cataloguing of the historically unique and necessary development from Judaism to Christianity.

'Yes there is. The 'healing of memories' is the bringing of deliverance to people in a 'low-key' way. Many who minister 'healing of memories' or 'inner healing' would not realize that they are actually ministering deliverance from demons; yet this is what is happening'.2

What many professing Christians do not seem realise is that the widespread practice of ritualistic 'exorcism' is actually a primitive (shamanistic) form of psychotherapy, which works through powerful suggestion and is very different from the way that Jesus Christ cast demons out into the abyss. This fact has even been unwittingly revealed in a Charismatic 'deliverance' handbook. During a section on 'Questions and Answers on Deliverance', the question is asked, 'Is there a relationship between the 'healing of memories' and deliverance?' The reply states:

There is a further lesson to be gained from the record of this event. Contrary to those who imagine that there were continuous tongue-speakings and post-conversion Holy Spirit baptisms in every corner of the church, Peter tells us that when Cornelius was baptised with the Holy Spirit, it was a carbon copy of the original outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 11:15) — thereby also proving that it was genuine languages which were spoken here rather than ecstatic babbling. How significant it is that the only event used by Peter for comparison with what took place in the household of Cornelius was a unique occasion which had taken place some eight years earlier! Such an event was something really special — a rarity — not one that can be worked up at any time by bringing an emotionally-manipulative evangelist into town who can give out some crude instructions on how to plug into a pseudo-spiritual experience. In common with the other Spirit baptisms in the Book of Acts, this conversion of the Gentile Cornelius is a uniquely important milestone in the Holy Spirit's gradually-spreading, post-Pentecost ministry, and is not to be used as a normative example for all Christians in every era.

All these ritualistic tec

Some topics in this essay:
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