OCCULTISM—DEMONIC ACTIVITIES

Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

—Rev. 12:12

3945 Hospital Specializes In Casting Demons

Miami, Florida (AP)—A form of exorcism is a daily occurrence at a Miami hospital treating several hundred patients a month who ask to have evil spirits driven from their bodies.

“Usually, we treat 600 to 700 a month,” says Dr. Hardat Sukhdeo, director of Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Crisis Intervention Center. “But last month we had 900 people come for help … we worked our tails off—maybe there was a strong pull from the moon or something.”

The belief that demons can infiltrate a person’s body is old hat to the Jamaicans, Haitians, Bahamians, Cubans and Puerto Ricans who live in the Miami area, he said.

The patients are given strong tranquilizers to calm them; then staff members try to soothe away their fears.

3946 London’s Exorcist-In-Chief

London (AFP)—The diocese of London will have its exorcist. The bishop of London, Dr. Ellison, has created the post of “Exorcising Adviser” and named Canon Henry Cooper, rector of the parish of Saint George, Bloomsburry, as exorcist-in-chief. His job will be to advise his colleagues on the hundreds of cases of “manifestations of evil”—haunted houses, possessed people—which are submitted to them every year.

According to Canon Cooper, who is 65, there is no doubt that there exists a power of evil in the world. This manifests itself in haunted houses and by taking possession of some people whom neither medicine nor psychiatry can cure. “It is important to destroy this power by exorcism and to show that the love of God is more powerful than any other power,” he explains.

3947 Pastor Learned A Lesson

A minister handled a lot of people who were psychically ill. Through prayer and casting out of spirits, people were cured under him. He allowed the people to stay with him during the course of their treatments. Then, as time went on, his own child became depressive. Following the principle of James 5, they laid hands on her and she was cured. The pastor learned a lesson. He decided no more to have people suffering from depressive illnesses stay with them in the house.

3948 Girl’s Evil Specialty

A bishop was an active spiritist for years. His daughter, although a good-looking girl, was enslaved to almost every vice you could think of. She drank heavily, smoked heavily and took drugs. Her sex life knew no restraint. Yet her main aim was directed at seducing Christian workers and ministers.

Once at a Christian house party her intelligent questions and answers brought her to the attention of the minister leading it. After talking with her he took her back to the manse to counsel her further. She said that although she wanted to become a Christian she was not able to. The minister tried praying with her, but the girl just could not pray herself. About to repeat a verse of the Bible by way of comfort, the minister put his hand on her shoulder. Immediately he felt a shock go right through himself. Everything went black and he felt himself sinking into a bottomless pit. A cry of terror escaped from his lips.

On hearing this some other helpers at the conference rushed into the room closely followed by his wife. After a few minutes, although it seemed like hours to the minister, he regained consciousness. The girl looked at him, and with an evil expression on her face asked him, “Do you know who I am now? I’ve shot down others already.”

The girl later confessed that she had succeeded in seducing a well-known Christian worker. She had led the man on and let him talk to her on theological matters, but then had succeeded in making him commit adultery with her. She even gave his name. After his experience with this demonically-affected girl the minister who was telling me the story was depressed for three weeks. The girl herself later committed suicide; but the minister, by God’s grace was cured of his depressions.

It was then that he visited the other man who the girl had named, in the hope of perhaps being able to help him. The story turned out to be true and the man concerned, after his affair with the girl, gave up all his Christian work.

—Kurt Koch

3949 They Went To The Pigs

A friend of mine, a Christian worker, told me of an experience he had had as a young man at his parent’s home. One day quite suddenly and inexplicably the house began to be haunted. Knocking was heard in the walls and at night they would hear heavy footsteps about the house and other sounds. As the poltergeists persisted in their game the father called in a Christian man to help them. The man prayed in each room of the house commanding the spirits in the name of Jesus to leave. The haunting immediately ceased.

However, this was paralleled by another remarkable event. Almost immediately after the exorcism two of the pigs owned by the family developed a kind of rabies. They started running around their sties making a terrible noise. After watching them behave in this mad way for a couple of hours the father had no alternative but to have them both killed.

See also: Satan ; Rev. 9:7; 12:7, 9; 16:13.