Deliverance Ministry Practices —Just Making it Up
What we are finding in this brief review is that the new deliverance ministries, when compared with Scripture, set forth proofs that are different, premises that are different and, as we shall see next, practices that are different.
For example, how these ministers communicate with demons is distinctly different than what Jesus did.
Communicating with Demons Different
Jesus never initiated a conversation with a demon; the demon spoke first. Furthermore, Jesus never protracted a conversation with a demon; the communication ended quickly. Matthew 8:16 even says, “He cast out the spirits with a word.”
Dr. Craig Keener, in his book, The IVP Bible Background Commentary, The New Testament, points out how amazed the people were to see Jesus simply order a demon to vacate and it was done. Other exorcists of the day would resort to such practices as putting a smelly root up the nose of the possessed, hoping the demon wouldn't be able to stand it.
The longest verbal interaction between Jesus and the demons occurred when Jesus dealt with the demoniacs of Gadara, but even that conversation was brief: There was a question “What is your name?” (Mark 5:9), and there was the command to “come out” (verse 8). That’s it!
Mark 1:34 and Luke 4:41 seem to indicate that Jesus normally didn’t even allow the demons to speak. In complete contradiction with this fact, John Eckhardt states: “Some spirits cannot leave until they reveal certain information if commanded to do so by the Holy Spirit.” 1 But Scripture never says that.
The new deliverance ministers enter into lengthy conversations with demons—questioning them, arguing with them, taunting them, repudiating them, before then commanding them to vacate. A dialogue between the modern deliverance minister and some ancient demon can last for more than an hour.
Ray Stedman wrote:
Contemporary deliverance procedures usually involve finding the name of the demon, what sin allowed it to invade, the demonic hierarchies involved, and rebuking it before casting it out. Such procedures contain many elements which are not described in scriptural exorcisms.
Dr. Stedman then concluded: “Any practice or technique of spiritual warfare which has no scriptural warrant is always suspect.”2 He further observed:
Under no circumstances should Christians carry on conversations or arguments with demons. Such contact is prohibited in Scripture (Leviticus 19:26,31; 20:6,27; Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Jeremiah 27:9-10) and it is patently unwise since it increases the opportunity for demons to counterattack. The only attention demons should receive is that of rejecting, refusing or resisting them. The brief interchange in Mark 5 is quite different than contemporary practices involving extensive fact finding.3
Exorcising Different
Yet another difference between Scripture and these new deliverance ministers is the time given for exorcising a demon. Jesus commanded them to go, and they went; it happened within a matter of minutes.
By contrast, the reports given by these new deliverance ministers detail marathon sessions with a demon, some of these lasting for hours, and others transacting over successive days. Big difference!
Throwing logic to the wind, John Eckhardt wrote, “Some argue that true deliverance should not take long, that it should be quick and instantaneous.”4 Then, citing two verses that mention the time it took to drive nations out of the Promised Land, Ekhardt claims this as a rationalization for why exorcising demons today takes longer than the examples given in Scripture.
Eckhardt also recounts the long saga between Pharaoh and the people of God before they were finally delivered from bondage,5 and between Saul and David before that persecution ended..6 To accept Eckhardt's reasoning is to accept exorcisms lasting for years.
Eckhardt, who calls himself an apostle, keeps finding parallels to justify long, drawn-out exorcisms where none exist.
All the new deliverance ministers do extensive interrogations of people prior to deliverance. Rob Reimer does.7 Randy Clark does.8 John Eckhardt does.9 Neil Anderson does.10 Why? Hang on, you’ll see why.
In their book, Pigs in the Parlor, Frank and Ida Hammond identified seven areas that could indicate demonization. However, John Eckhardt increased that number to one hundred ten—wow! That’s a lot of ground to cover!
Some of these symptoms include: falling asleep during services, insomnia, involvement in martial arts, your parents having argued at home, your mother having had hard labor, you having had imaginary playmates, you having chronic headaches, asthma, sinus problems, or having a difficult time reading the bible or praying.11 Eckhardt concluded, “The range of things that can bind a believer is almost limitless.”12
Well, that would make for a very long interview!
Vlad Savchuk, another deliverance minister, identifies other possible symptoms of demon possession that should be checked out. These include: bedwetting, knuckle-cracking, thumb-sucking, laziness, addiction to chocolate, playing video games, being afraid prior to marriage, getting a tattoo. Yes, getting a tattoo! By opening the skin, he says, demons gain entrance. So I guess by that reasoning surgery should be avoided, too.13
Randy Clark adds to this list when he writes:
When we speak against someone, we open a door for the demonic to exercise their legal right to attach to that person’s life. Something said in anger or frustration can set in motion forces in the supernatural that have the potential to do great harm.14
Well, if that’s true (that demons can attach to a believer’s life because of someone’s criticism), then we’re all doomed. Ray Stedman ventured the thought that if each man knew what was said about another, there wouldn’t be four friends left in the world.
Moreover, if this is a legitimate cause, how is an interview supposed to uncover it? Who knows all that has been said against them? And who could remember even half of what they once knew?
Besides, didn’t vile, venomous words come against Jesus? Wasn’t he even accused of being a devil? And did those vitriolic words harm him? No, even though their incendiary anger reached the pinnacle of pulsating hatred, it had no harmful effect in him.
Further lengthening this process is an agenda that includes finding out who these demons are. John Eckhardt says these demons often come in groups,15 that each group has a leader,16 that there are “endless combinations of groups,”17 that the exact location of the demon in a person’s body is needed.18
Rob Reimer says these demons must be kept in their proper hierarchy,19 that we should seek to learn their name,20 why they entered, 21 and if other demons are hiding.22
Claiming a freedom that doesn’t exist, Neil Anderson, like many other deliverance ministers today, has his clients do what a family systems therapist does, convey extensive information about different generations of the family.
A family systems therapist will spread refrigerator paper on a kitchen table and begin the arduous task of documenting the behaviors of parents and siblings, of grandmother, grandfather; great grandmother, great grandfather; Great-great-grandmother, Great-great-grandfather, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, all the cousins—the whole shebang.
They call this a genogram. The rationale used by these deliverance ministers for completing one is that demons could have invaded the bloodline way back when, thereby bringing a curse upon one of their elders and now them.
In his book, Blessing or Curse, Derek Prince, a forerunner to the new deliverance ministers, did much to advance the view of ancestral spirits and generational curses demonically damaging some unsuspecting believer. Seven signs of a curse, according to Prince, are: 1) mental and emotional breakdowns, 2) chronic sickness, 3) repeated miscarriages, 4) marital or family problems, 5) chronic financial problems, 6) being accident prone, and 7) premature/unnatural deaths in a family.
John Eckhardt goes so far as to say that when your doctor surveys your family’s medical history, everything listed that you have or will have is proof that you are generationally cursed.23
Like many other modern-day deliverance ministers, Neil Anderson believes that the need to identify and renounce past sins in order to be free of them is not limited to the sins in one’s own life but extends back to the sins of some ancestor.
Given this belief, a Christian may repent of a personal sin; nevertheless, the stronghold could still remain because personal repentance and subsequent forsaking isn’t enough.
Rob Reimer insists, “You have to overcome the pull of your family sin pattern.”24 So that’s why there must also be a verbal renunciation by the believer for every sin noted on that refrigerator paper.
Never mind the total lack of scriptural support for this procedure, can you not see the utter futility of it?
For example, what if you don’t know what all your ancestors did—which of course you don’t—does that mean the curse remains? If the answer is yes, then you’re doomed! But if the answer is no, then why go through this lengthy procedure in the first place? It just doesn’t make sense.
Deliverance-from-demons interviews are worse than useless. And yet their value is much esteemed by deliverance minister Kathryn Krick. She says it is important to discover the power of the particular curse hurting you. Why? So you’ll know how much to pay for her services to get rid of it. The bigger the curse, the more money she requires.
Oh, my! How discrediting is that!
Notes:
1. John Eckhardt, Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare Manual, (Lake Mary, FL, Charisma House, 2014), p.226.
2. Ray Stedman, “Deliverance Ministry,” posted online: www.raystedman.org/thematicstudies/doctrinal-topics/deliverance-ministry
3. Ibid.
4. John Eckhardt, Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare Manual, (Lake Mary, FL, Charisma House, 2014), p.76.
5. Ibid., p.126.
6. Ibid., p.123.
7. Rob Reiner, Soul Care, (Franklin, Tennessee, Carpenter’s Son Publishing, 2016), p.231.
8. Ibid., p.148.
9. John Eckhardt, Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare Manual, p.226.
10. Appendices dealing with this are found in Neil Anderson’s book, The Bondage Breaker (Lake Mary, FL, Charisma House, 2015).
11. Ibid. pp.20-27.
12. Ibid., p.32.
13. https://theapostasyfiles.com/heretic-landing-page/vlad- savchuk/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=7812&relatedposts_position=2
14. Randy Clark, The Biblical Guidebook to Deliverance, (Lake Mary, FL, Charisma House, 2015), p.80.
15. Neil Anderson, The Bondage Breaker, p.64.
16. Ibid. p.65.
17. Ibid. p.64.
18. Ibid. p.75.
19. Rob Reimer, Soul Care, p.255.
20. Ibid., p.258.
21. Ibid., p.260.
22. Ibid. p.258. Dr. Reimer more than once tells us that he begins inquiries like this by calling these inhabiting demons to attention, as would an army sergeant. To one more skeptical, this invites the memory of Sergeant Schultz from the TV show, Hogan’s Heroes. Schultz would command order from prisoners under his command at the gulag, and they would oblige him with witty smiles, even while hatching their plots and disobeying everything he said. But, Schultz, ever the buffoon, never caught on.
23. John Eckhardt, Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare Manual, p.57.
24. Rob Reiner, Soul Care, p.248.
Dr. J.W. Phillips is the author of the book, Swatting the Saved, a major, well-researched work (more than 450 pages, almost 700 endnotes) that exposes the ministerial malpractice of deliverance ministries.
