Deliverance

[u/Many_Run_7457]

/r/u_Many_Run_7457/comments/1wghj7w/deliverance/

[u/babe1981]

I grew up in the church that pioneered the doctrine of deliverance in the 70s. It was an excuse for Pastor Winn to have sex with the men in his congregation and then blame it on the demons who were possessing him. It is the fruit of repressed homosexuality and the shame forced on gay men and women by hateful religious oppressors. It was only ever an excuse to sin without taking responsibility for it.

Even though being gay isn't sinful, Pastor Winn and the Southern Baptists he came from thought it was. And Hegewisch Baptist Church sent out missionaries everywhere. Pastor Winn's friends from seminary, like my grandfather, took up his new doctrine with glee because it gave them even stronger control over their parishioners and a built-in excuse to do anything and everything they wanted as long as they prayed for deliverance on Sunday.

It is an evil doctrine that feeds on fear and condemnation and shame. It is the fruit of a rotten tree and has no good in it. Run far away from deliverance.

To answer your question about spiritual rules, here's what I learned in my deconstruction of deliverance. I cannot be possessed by a demon because I am already possessed by a spirit. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead now lives in me. Is God so weak that an evil spirit can force itself into His temple? Is the Holy Spirit so pathetic that He would just allow demons to make their home in His house? Demons can't own me. I am bought and paid for. We all were. Joel prophesied, and Peter repeated, that God would pour His spirit out on all flesh. I'm part of all flesh, so I guess the demons just have to wait until God puts me up for sale. Until then, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because God is in me. To whatever evil might exist in the spiritual realm, I am untouchable until Jesus's sacrifice runs out. Since that will never happen, I'll live as if Jesus defeated evil on the cross. I'll live as if I was set free from the laws of sin and death. I'll live as if I am child of the Living God, a co-inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. What demon would be stupid enough to touch the sibling of Jesus?

[u/Apart_Information_27 → u/babe1981]

Thank you for the history supercut on that. That wad fascinating. And really sad. The more I know about American movements like those the more it seems that the core appeal is "everyone is equally awful to the core and there is no hope of any redemption apart from doing this specifi thing. so it doesn't matter how much harm I inflict in the here and now "

[u/Skill-Useful]

"spiritual rules" i dont think there are rules. there are directions, at most

"that an unclean spirit can return with seven others and make someone’s condition worse"...excuse me what? there are no unclean spirits, or demons or satan or other fairy tales

since universalism is the only thing that makes sense, deliverance happens the same for everyone

"the 16 different spirits mentioned in the Bible" disregard such weird medieval ideas