Demons Today

ARE demons authentic spiritual beings worthy of serious consideration by Christians today?

Can we identify modern counterparts of the "demonic possession" described in the Gospels? Or were these peculiar manifestations of demonic activity particularly noticeable during the life of our Lord and nonexistent in later history?

Is there a relationship between demonism and the current upsurge of interest in occultism, astrology, spiritualism and various kinds of psychic phenomena?

These are just a few of the questions that confront the Christian in a day when a widely known bishop testified that he had conversed with the departed spirit of his son; when astrology and the reading of horoscopes have become the "in" thing; when one of the most popular writers of our day is a Roman Catholic seeress.

In San Francisco one Anton Szandor LaVey is "high priest" and leader of the Church of Satan, where black masses (a perversion of the Roman Catholic mass) are celebrated, divinations are performed and lectures in black magic are given regularly to witches and warlocks.

LaVey claims that the late film star, Jayne Mansfield, asked him to put a hex on her overly-persistent lover, Steve Brody. Shortly thereafter both Brody and Miss Mansfield were killed in an automobile accident. LaVey reputedly takes credit for Brody's demise, and concedes that the actress was the "innocent" victim of the same curse.

Perhaps nothing LaVey has done is more repulsive to Christians than the "Satanic" funeral he conducted for a young sailor who had previously been active in an evangelical Baptist church in Chicago but came under LaVey's influence while stationed on the West Coast. Can LaVey's Satan worship be traced to overt demonism?

Early in 1969 poltergeist phenomena (rappings and movement of objects without traceable human cause) were reported in the home of Sylvio Saint Onge in Quebec. Four priests investigated the strange happenings, including a statue of the Virgin that fell and broke for no apparent reason, a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that was constantly thrown to the floor despite a very solid nail holding it, clothing that left the closet and gathered in the center of the room and the foot of a bed which would rise in the air then fall to the floor. The investigators concluded: "The Devil, if God allows it, can manifest himself tangibly by all sorts ... of pesterings of certain people or things, as happened in the lives of many saints."

And, in London an Irish-born Dominican, F. Basil Prendergast, was suspended in February from his teaching post after reportedly indulging in witchcraft and the black mass. He was accused of taking part in nude rites and meetings of a witches' coven. Most serious charge against him was that he had been seeking a virgin to participate in the black mass.

While reports of witchcraft and other occult activities are not unknown in the U.S., this country seemingly is expressing its hunger for the transcendent by an obsession with astrology.

The Chaldeans originated astrology and the Greeks and Romans popularized it. By 3,000 B.C. Babylonian priests were translating their heavenly observations into predictions of human events. The basic tenet of astrology is that the stars and planets influence human character and events. Astrology had been generally regarded as a pseudo-science since Copernicus proved in the sixteenth century that the earth was not the center of the universe.

There have been extensive stories recently on astrology in Time, The National Observer and the New York Times Sunday Magazine, among other periodicals. These journals estimate that there are at least 10,000 astrologers in the U.S. Best-known are Jeane Dixon, Carroll Righter and Sydney Omarr. According to Editor and Publisher 1,200 daily newspapers in America publish horoscope columns, compared with only 100 papers 20 years ago.

Jeane Dixon

But Jeane Dixon is much more widely known for her uncanny predictions of future events, which she attributed to a Godgiven psychic sensitivity. Visions sometimes come to her without any planning on her part, she says. At other times she employs a crystal ball or touches the finger tips of persons to whom she discloses her revelation. Only more recently has she turned to astrology. Many orthodox Christians who have read her pronouncements in the news papers or Ruth Montgomery's book A Gift of Prophecy, timidly ask, "What do you make of her?"

It is not easy to categorize Mrs. Dixon, for much that she predicts seemingly is both theocentric and Christocentric. Perhaps, as a growing number of experts in the field of parapsychology feel, Mrs. Dixon has highly developed powers of extrasensory perception.

Yet there is an eerie quality to some of her visions. She describes a hair-raising vision on July 14, 1952, when a snake crawled onto her bed and coiled itself about her body. "While I watched, it slowly turned its eyes and gazed into mine," she reports. "In them was the all-knowing wisdom of the ages. ... It did not speak, but I seemed to know that it was telling me that I had much to learn."

In view of the serpent's encounter with Eve in the Garden and the invariable role of snakes and serpents in sorcery, witchcraft and religions of evil spirits, this vision of Mrs. Dixon's is anything but reassuring. However, Mrs. Dixon's personal character seems impeccable.

While the naturalistic theology and psychiatry of our time rule out the existence of demons, there has been a great popular swing to supernatural themes in books and films. Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby has exploded into a bestseller with 2.5 million copies already in print. The film has grossed $40 million and ranks among the top 50 all-time hits in the motion picture industry.

What is its plot? It is the story of a young New York housewife who finds herself trapped and manipulated by a coven of modern witches. Like many medieval victims, she experiences incubus (forced inter course with a demon) and ultimately gives birth to a child half human, half devil.

The Scene in Europe

But perhaps more unbelievable in this age of scientific achievement and sophistication is the real-life story of 17-year-old Bernadette Hasler, a pretty Swiss girl who was beaten to death May 14, 1966, because she was charged with incubus. This weird case came to light at the Zurich trial of a defrocked German priest and five of his followers, who were charged with murdering Miss Hasler while trying to exorcise a demon from her.

Christian workers in Switzerland have reported that there is scarcely a village in that beautiful country that does not have a "witch" or medium who casts spells or brews potions in the manner of their medieval predecessors. There are reportedly 2,000 mediums in Zurich alone.

Similar stories have been reported from all over "civilized" Europe---particularly from Germany, France and Italy. Dr. Robert P. Evans, founder and director of Greater Europe Mission in Let Europe Hear, describes the situation in France: "The spiritual ignorance and moral slavery of many French people almost surpasses belief. Underneath the surface of millions of lives lies a fear of unseen powers and a compulsion to propitiate them."

He describes the killing of a French farmer by his sister who suffocated him in a basin of saltwater. The woman had previously consulted a sorcerer who had made incantations over some salt in order to lift a curse by an "evil eye" that threatened the woman's farm. The farmer would not cooperate in the "cure." In the towns and villages of Normandy alone, there are more than 300 temples that specialize in spiritism and healing.

Kermit Zopfi, while director of the German Bible Institute, encountered a youth named Rolf, who expressed a desire to become a Christian. As Zopfi knelt by the side of a bed to pray with the young man, the missionary felt the bed shaking. He opened his eyes to find Rolf "trembling violently as though he had convulsions. He began gasping for air as though he were choking, then flung himself on the bed."

Then Rolf cried out, "The Devil will not let me pray. I belong to him." Later it was discovered that Rolf's father was a leader of a devil worship cult. Rolf himself had participated in a ceremony committing his life to the Devil. Some months later Rolf was able to accept Christ and turn from his life of bondage.

In February representatives of the wizards (magicians) of Italy demonstrated in front of Rome's Chamber of Deputies in a bid for professional status and old-age pensions. Time in reporting the incident declared, "Nearly every village [in Italy] has its specialist in the occult."

In commenting on the widespread interest in occult and psychic phenomena, Edward Gross, professor of sociology at the University of Washington, recently said: "Sociologists argue that in a stable society, religion provides the necessary answers to the great questions of life, death and man's fate. But when stability is upset, persons experience a sense of being lost, and, in a peculiar state of receptivity, they turn desperately about, looking for new answers."

(To be continued)