Can A Christian Be Demonized? There is a movement within professing Evangelicalism today that says, "Yes", teaching that a high percentage of sin among Christians is caused by demons. Followers assent that a person can be a believer in Jesus Christ, experience fullness of salvation, and still be in bondage to Satan and demons. The popularity of this movement can be seen in the seminars being held across the country and the best-selling books being published that promote this teaching. Nonetheless, this teaching of the "demonization of the believer" is contrary to Scripture and is in line with the world's view of everyone being a victim. It is a denial of the sufficiency of the work of Christ and Scripture.
Spiritual Warfare... False Clichés However, the more one listens to the ever growing chorus of spiritual warfare teachings, the more he encounters phrases and clichés which reflect and convey the mentality of the popular, but false, "spiritual warfare" teachings. Most of these expressions make sense only if a believer can be demon-possessed or inflicted, which the Bible teaches he cannot. [This and many other issues are dealt with in great detail in A Holy Rebellion: Strategy for Spiritual Warfare (Harvest House: 1990); the title for subsequent printings was changed to Overrun by Demons.] The following is an examination of some of the more popular, but according to Scripture, false spiritual warfare clichés:
How Deliverance Ministries Lead People to Bondage Those who promote the warfare worldview mislead us by claiming that the options are only between a worldview that believes that there are demons, curses, and real Satanic activities and a “western” worldview that effectively denies that spiritual activity, good and bad, exists. This is a false dilemma. Do not be misled. The providential worldview also believes very much in the reality of demons, fallen angels, curses, principalities and powers as well as good angels and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The options are whether one believes in God’s sovereignty over all of these spiritual beings and realities or whether one believes God is allowing the battle to run its course on its own.
Binding and Loosing We can see how Peter and the others understood Jesus' teaching on binding and loosing by examining their actions as recorded in the Book of Acts. Did the apostles ever utter "I bind you, Satan?" Not once is such an utterance recorded in the New Testament. It is not credible to assume that they understood Jesus' teaching as an instruction to "bind Satan" through prayers and verbal declarations and then never followed the instructions personally.
Territorial Spirits and Spiritual Warfare: A Biblical Perspective Is there really a demon of homosexuality over San Francisco? Does a demon regulate the teaching of Islam? Does a spirit of sexual abuse victimize successive generations of a family line? Is there a specific demon of adultery in womanizers or a spirit of alcohol (demonic, not distilled!) in alcoholics?
Generational Curses Many popular books published in the last thirty years claim that Christians are subjected to unknown generational curses that have detrimental effects on their lives. The writers of the books offer their special knowledge that can break the curses. In this article we will examine the Old Testament passages about generational curses. By careful exegesis centering around the whole counsel of God, we shall show that these passages do not support the idea that Christians are cursed because of the sins of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents
The Cursed Doctrine of "Generational Curses" Many understand these passages as referring to the cycle of psychologically and socially-influenced negative behavior patterns that tend to be repeated from one generation to the next (e.g. alcoholism, spousal abuse, uncontrolled anger). According to this interpretation one's upbringing, not God, is responsible for the curse. But notice that this understanding of generational curses has nothing to do with God....
The Armour of God What we often forget, is that all this stuff about armour is part of a letter. Paul didn’t just tag it on as an afterthought. These verses in Ephesians 6 fit in somehow with the rest of Ephesians. Hopefully, by looking carefully at how they fit in, and at what they actually say, we will be able to paint a slightly clearer picture of the battle in which we are engaged.
Index To Section 8B... 
