The Exorcist's Bestiary

“A Christian can’t have a demon,” an irritated college student told me during my lecture. This wasn’t the first time I had heard this incredibly damaging statement, which is often made by people who have never done an exorcism. There is no such statement made in Scripture. There are some passages used to endorse such a conclusion, but these passages are more about people openly worshiping demons—they’re not necessarily about people having demons.

Why do we put God in this box? If the Holy Spirit is the Creator, why is he afraid of the created? If God is like light, why is he afraid of darkness? Shouldn’t darkness be afraid of him? If God can’t be around demons, how did Jesus descend into the underworld? If the Holy Spirit can’t be around demons, then we are in great trouble, for he must not be able to be around sin or sinners either—let alone our entire world since it’s cursed by our sin and under the rule of Satan.

Fortunately, this is not the case. The Trinity is not afraid of demons or the space they occupy. Quite the opposite really. When an army of demons once approached Jesus, they simply fell before him and asked him not to torment them.

Christians can have demons, and it does not make them lesser Christians or faithless. In such moments, they need help finding freedom from bondage, just like we all do. One of the most destructive things we can do is tell them they were never a Christian because they have a demon. This dismantles their identity in Christ and is detrimental to their self-understanding. How painful to be told that your entire relationship with Jesus has been a sham—that every spiritual experience you’ve ever had has been illegitimate. How gut-wrenching to have someone tell you that the foundation of your life never existed.

In my experience, exorcism is for Christians only—or at least for those willing to become Christians. It is unwise to exorcise a demon from someone who does not have the Holy Spirit in their life, for according to Jesus when a demon is exorcised, it goes and finds seven other demons to make the person’s life even worse than it was before. With this in mind, exorcism is dangerous for non-Christians who don’t have the Holy Spirit to help defend them in the return battle.

Scripture is illuminated by experience, and the experience of myself and many other exorcists is that Christians can have demons. And the good news is that Christians can also have those demons removed through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit!