Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: crf@ginger.princeton.edu (Charles Ferenbaugh) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: demons and such Message-ID: Date: 12 Feb 90 09:15:49 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Princeton University Mathematics Department Lines: 30 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article murphy@mips.com (Mike Murphy) writes: > >...In fact, when you read the gospels, there is a lot of supernatural stuff >(demons, angels, healings, miracles) that sounds foreign to our modern minds. >So how do we explain that? If we assume that the gospels are basically >accurate (not necessarily inerrant but not fiction either), then either >the writers were naively wrong, using the supernatural to explain what >was really natural phenomenon that they could not understand, or they were >actually right and we've become blinded to a broader spiritual reality. I'd argue for the latter case, personally: that all of the 'supernatural stuff' has been real all along, and we're just blinded to it today. A good explanation of this can be found in Lewis' _Screwtape Letters_. It goes something like this: in Jesus' time, belief in demons and miracles was common enough that the demons didn't lose anything by working openly. In our day and age, however, there is a materialistic mindset in our culture which says, there is a natural explanation for everything. So, given this, Satan's strategy is to work undercover, so to speak; if you are convinced that your adversary doesn't exist, why should he do anything to change your mind? Another observation which supports this view: I have it on good authority from missionaries to other parts of the world, where beliefs in demonic forces are more common, that the sorts of demon possession, miraculous healings, etc. described in the New Testament, are still happening today. Grace and peace, Charles Ferenbaugh