Battle With the Devil: Meeting People Who Believe Satan Tortured Them

by Terry Moran

It's not your ordinary Sunday service.

In a small church just outside Buffalo, N.Y., people are retching and coughing up into paper bags. A few are incessantly, forcefully, weirdly yawning. An 8-year-old boy is tackled and pinned to the ground as he yells out, "Get off of me!" Someone gets hit in the back of the head by a large man erupting around the room in a screaming fit. There is much fervent praying and quiet weeping.

There is something else going on here, too. In the belief of these Christians at the Agape Bible Fellowship in East Aurora, N.Y., a "deliverance ministry," there is a triumph unfolding before our cameras -- a triumph over Satan.

"When we begin to cast that spirit out, there is manifestation," said Pastor John Goguen, a graduate of the Dallas Theological Seminary who founded Agape 22 years ago. "People have to humble themselves, and some people can't get beyond what to them looks like play acting -- it looks foolish. But there's a verse in the Bible where Paul the apostle says that God uses the foolish things of the world, things that look foolish, to confound the wise."

Satan has fallen out of fashion for many Americans, even for many Christians. Belief in the existence of the devil as an actual living spirit wanes in this country with each passing year. To many people, Satan is, at most, a symbol or metaphor for the malignancy that stalks human history, a way of thinking about our species' seemingly boundless capacity for cruelty. For a lot of other people, the devil is merely a fantasy of deluded minds. A tired Hollywood joke.

Believers like to quote the old line that the devil's greatest trick was convincing people that he does not exist. But every culture in human history has believed in evil spirits. For better or worse, this belief, and the figure of Satan himself, is part of the human story, a story that continues today, in our own time, in our own country.

In our program, "Beyond Belief: Battle with the Devil," we set out to discover how the battle against Satan is being carried out in America, for those who believe that the Prince of Darkness and Author of All Lies is a real presence in the world, a real threat in their lives.

From the Agape church in New York to an exorcism conducted in California, from a Christian ministry attempting to rescue women from the sex trade in Las Vegas to a training class for exorcists in Rome, from Times Square in New York to the "Amityville Horror" house -- we met people who sincerely believe they are locked in combat with the devil. It has been an astonishing journey.

We don't set out to prove or disprove the existence of Satan; we simply want to respect the authenticity of the beliefs of the people we met. What we hope we've done is shine a light into a world of spiritual warfare that goes on all around us, and report the amazing experiences of people who are convinced they have struggled not just with the moral reality of evil in their lives, but with a powerful and terrifying supernatural being who promotes and generates that evil: The devil.

Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/christianity/36464-battle-devil-meeting-people-who-believe.html
And that they have triumphed over him with the most powerful spiritual force of all: Love.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36464

See video at this link of an exorcism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-..._b_903973.html

 
Do share your immediate thoughts or reactions on this issue? We value your views! Login Now! or Sign Up Today! to share your views with us.. Gurfateh!

spnadmin ji where you find all this stuff
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36464

I think the following I like,


Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36464
I wonder if they switched the book they put on her head, would the acting be the same or the demon will say "Don't trick me, you handsome hunk of a man! Get the Bible!".

Mind is a strange animal indeed. Many ways to play with it.

Of course nothing to judge by watching a YouTube video.

Thanks.

Gurfateh

Speaking as someone who had lived a lifetime of excess, a christian friend once tried to get me to convert, as he was convinced I was held in a trap by the devil, I refused, on the grounds I was having too much fun, however, looking back, now from a sikh standpoint, I would say the following

There is no devil, there is no addiction, only lack of moderation, and self control
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36464

Those that claim the devil in them, or I am addicted to this or that, they no more have the devil in them, or have addictions than a small child who will not stop eating ice cream
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This is my view and my view alone taking into account my own experiences as relevant to me, others may have different views that are relevant to them which I would fully respect

psychological disorder

Harmanpreetsingh ji who do you think has the disorder (say in reference to my post and Video in it),

• The Lady
• The people Exorcizing to get rid of the devil in the lady
• or Both

Thanks.

Like Guru Sahib said we can 'burn' away our ego by listening to Shabad.
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Christians believe that Bible burns up the demon inside men. Same thing, different perspective!

Thanks.

ਮਃ ੧ ॥ First Mehl:

ਲਿਖਿ ਲਿਖਿ ਪੜਿਆ ॥ The more one write and reads,

ਤੇਤਾ ਕੜਿਆ ॥ the more one burns.

ਬਹੁ ਤੀਰਥ ਭਵਿਆ ॥ The more one wanders at sacred shrines of pilgrimage,

ਤੇਤੋ ਲਵਿਆ ॥ the more one talks uselessly.

ਬਹੁ ਭੇਖ ਕੀਆ ਦੇਹੀ ਦੁਖੁ ਦੀਆ ॥ The more one wears religious robes, the more pain he causes his body.

ਸਹੁ ਵੇ ਜੀਆ ਅਪਣਾ ਕੀਆ ॥ Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36464 O my soul, you must endure the consequences of your own actions.

ਅੰਨੁ ਨ ਖਾਇਆ ਸਾਦੁ ਗਵਾਇਆ ॥ One who does not eat the corn, misses out on the taste.

ਬਹੁ ਦੁਖੁ ਪਾਇਆ ਦੂਜਾ ਭਾਇਆ ॥ One obtains great pain, in the love of duality.

ਬਸਤ੍ਰ ਨ ਪਹਿਰੈ ॥ One who does not wear any clothes,

ਅਹਿਨਿਸਿ ਕਹਰੈ ॥ suffers night and day.

ਮੋਨਿ ਵਿਗੂਤਾ ॥ Through silence, he is ruined.

ਕਿਉ ਜਾਗੈ ਗੁਰ ਬਿਨੁ ਸੂਤਾ ॥ How can the sleeping one be awakened without the Guru?

ਪਗ ਉਪੇਤਾਣਾ ॥ One who goes barefoot

ਅਪਣਾ ਕੀਆ ਕਮਾਣਾ ॥ suffers by his own actions.

ਅਲੁ ਮਲੁ ਖਾਈ ਸਿਰਿ ਛਾਈ ਪਾਈ ॥ One who eats filth and throws ashes on his head -

ਮੂਰਖਿ ਅੰਧੈ ਪਤਿ ਗਵਾਈ ॥ the blind fool loses his honor.

ਵਿਣੁ ਨਾਵੈ ਕਿਛੁ ਥਾਇ ਨ ਪਾਈ ॥ Without the Name, nothing is of any use.

ਰਹੈ ਬੇਬਾਣੀ ਮੜੀ ਮਸਾਣੀ ॥ One who lives in the wilderness, in cemeteries and cremation grounds -

ਅੰਧੁ ਨ ਜਾਣੈ ਫਿਰਿ ਪਛੁਤਾਣੀ ॥ that blind man does not know the Lord; he regrets and repents in the end.

ਸਤਿਗੁਰੁ ਭੇਟੇ ਸੋ ਸੁਖੁ ਪਾਏ ॥ One who meets the True Guru finds peace.

ਹਰਿ ਕਾ ਨਾਮੁ ਮੰਨਿ ਵਸਾਏ ॥ He enshrines the Name of the Lord in his mind.

ਨਾਨਕ ਨਦਰਿ ਕਰੇ ਸੋ ਪਾਏ ॥ O Nanak, when the Lord grants His Grace, He is obtained.

ਆਸ ਅੰਦੇਸੇ ਤੇ ਨਿਹਕੇਵਲੁ ਹਉਮੈ ਸਬਦਿ ਜਲਾਏ ॥੨॥ Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36464 He becomes free of hope and fear, and burns away his ego with the Word of the Shabad. ||2||

(Source : Asa Ki Vaar)

Kanwaljit SIngh ji I started a discourse on this shabad as follows,

http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/gurmat...tml#post150202
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Sat Sri Akal.