Demon Possession

[contraeverything]

I have been reading "The Kingdom of the Occult," and have read Dr. Koch's books in the past. In Martin's "Kingdom" book, there is a chart of all of the p***ages in the gospels which deal with exorcisms in the ministry of Jesus.

Martin very obviously believes that the primary "gate" for demon possession is some sort of contact with the occult. He refers to experimentations with Ouija boards, heavy metal, witchcraft, horoscopes, and dozens of other occult contacts as being the "cause" (my word) of demon possession in the chapters that I have read.

However, I have a situation going on near me in which I am certain that several members of a family are demon possessed, but there seems to be no known evidence of direct contact with the occult. Rather, the issue seems to be that an unsubmissive wife has become possessed by her rejection of her husband's authority, and each of the women in the family are experiencing spiritual oppression, if not possession, as they struggle with the replication of the mother's character in themselves.

Briefly, the evidence of possession includes: blasphemy, active disobedience coupled with religion, inability to make sense of Biblical principles, discomfort around discussions of Christ and the Bible, incredible spiritual power (the mother/grandmother/matriarch, whom I maintain is demon possessed, has, despite being wholly devoid of charm or personality, somehow convinced several members of her family and church - persons who have credible professions of faith - to become involved in a crime with her, and some have been so convicted in court!), uncleanness, and inexplicable fear of the Bible and truth. Again, this is a brief sketch.

In reading through the p***ages in the table in "Kingdom" (pp. 541-542), I made a chart myself to record the results. Column 1 is the p***age, Column 2 is the "evidence" of possession, Column 3 is the "cause" of possession, and Column 4 is the "resolution" of the possession. Obviously, Column 3 is the least populated by data.

And at no point is "contact with the occult" one of the causes mentioned in the gospels. However, I added a couple of p***ages from Acts which did mention contact with the occult for a more complete chart.

However, the following "causes" I did discover in the gospels: not being with Christ (Matt 12:30), sin & blasphemy (Matt. 12:31-32), and being unregenerate (Matt. 12:43-45). It seems to me that these "causes" could each be cl***ified under one umbrella cause - that of rebellion. For rebellion is certainly not taking Christ's side of an issue, both sin and blasphemy are acts of rebellion, and remaining unregenerate, I suppose, is the ultimate act of rebellion.

I am proposing that the issue with demon possession, based upon my initial investigation of the scriptures here, is not contact with the occult, but rather rebellion against God. Rebellion - as in the feminist grandmother mentioned above - places one at once in the place of REJECTING God's authority and ACCEPTING evil (or, as one might say, a contrary, ungodly authority) instead. Certainly, "contact with the occult" is a form of rebellion, but it would only be a subset of rebellion, the actual cause, and not the cause itself.

I simply find a paucity of indications that "contact with the occult" is widespread enough among the incredible number of people who were possessed in the Bible to be able to intellectually isolate it as THE cause of possession. Also, I have questions about the possession of children (not wholly infrequent in the gospel p***ages Martin lists) and the likelihood that children could choose to participate in occultic matters. Maybe it is just me.

However, I would love to get some feedback on this. I am not saying Martin is "wrong" per se, and his ***ertion is certainly true as far as it goes, but I simply wonder if it goes far enough.

Or perhaps I am missing a crucial aspect of his argument?

Any help here?