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According to a 2010 Pew Research Center study, 74% of Christians in Ethiopia claim to have experienced or witnessed an exorcism. [50] Demon-possessed persons are brought to a church or prayer meeting. [51] Often, when an ill person has not responded to modern medical treatment, the affliction is attributed to demons. [51]
The Vatican offers a course on exorcism, which in 2019 for the first time was opened to members of other Christian denominations. [11] [12] According to Brad Steiger, after the exorcism has been finished, the person possessed feels a "kind of release of guilt and feels reborn and freed of sin." [13]
The church views demonic possession as the devil's primary means of enslaving humanity and rebelling against God. Orthodox Christians believe objects, as well as individuals, can be possessed. [18] As in other Christian churches, Orthodox exorcists expel demons by invoking God through the name of Jesus Christ. [19]
Possessed individuals of both sexes can become healers due to their condition. Hamer and Hamer suggest that this is a form of compensation among deprived men in the deeply competitive society of the Sidama, for if a man cannot gain prestige as an orator , warrior, or farmer, he may still gain prestige as a spirit healer.
Jesus drives out a demon or unclean spirit, from the 15th-century Très Riches Heures. In English translations of the Bible, unclean spirit is a common rendering [1] of Greek pneuma akatharton (πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον; plural pneumata akatharta (πνεύματα ἀκάθαρτα)), which in its single occurrence in the Septuagint translates Hebrew ruaḥ tum'ah (רוּחַ ...
Christian views on magic vary widely among Christian denominations and among individuals. Many Christians actively condemn magic as satanic, holding that it opens the way for demonic possession. Some Christians simply view it as entertainment. Conversely, some branches of esoteric Christianity actively engage in magical practices.
Christian demonology is the study of demons from a Christian point of view. It is primarily based on the Bible ( Old and New Testaments ), the interpretation of these scriptures, the writings of early Christianity philosophers , hermits , and the associated traditions and legends incorporated from other beliefs.
Others, however, doubt that there was actual docetism threatening the churches, arguing that he was merely criticizing Christians who lived Jewishly or that his critical remarks were directed at an Ebionite or Cerinthian possessionist Christology, according to which Christ was a heavenly spirit that temporarily possessed Jesus. [24]