Dennis1209 Posted December 16, 2017 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 18 Topic Count: 347 Topics Per Day: 0.13 Content Count: 7,463 Content Per Day: 2.70 Reputation: 5,375 Days Won: 1 Joined: 09/27/2016 Status: Offline Share Posted December 16, 2017 I was reading the thread "Christian Tarot Cards", and didn't want to go off track, and a thought occurred to me about evil spirits, unclean spirits and demons. I can recall several instances in the Bible, where the Lord instructed the Israelite to completely destroy every man, woman, child and thing in a city they were to possess. To grind to powder and burn everything at that sight, and take absolutely no spoil whatsoever. The penalty for disobeying that command was instant death when found out. We know from scripture unclean spirits and demons can and do possess people and animals. Demon's wonder seeking those whom they may enter and devour. Based on scripture, I'm coming to the opinion unclean spirits can enter, or at least attach themselves to inanimate objects and/or places. I've heard and read stories where someone brought something home and immediately strange and unnatural things started to occur. Then immediately stopped when that item(s) was burned, destroyed and removed. Anyone think there's any validity to demonic attachment to physical objects? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis1209 Posted December 16, 2017 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 18 Topic Count: 347 Topics Per Day: 0.13 Content Count: 7,463 Content Per Day: 2.70 Reputation: 5,375 Days Won: 1 Joined: 09/27/2016 Status: Offline Author Share Posted December 16, 2017 9 minutes ago, Yowm said: I'm still looking for that verse, and if I find it, it will no longer be an opinion (open onion lol). Short of looking it up myself, I'm thinking it might be Jericho as one of the cities? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessPeachy Posted December 16, 2017 Group: Members Followers: 3 Topic Count: 9 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 59 Content Per Day: 0.03 Reputation: 76 Days Won: 0 Joined: 12/13/2017 Status: Offline Birthday: 12/05/1984 Share Posted December 16, 2017 Interesting topic! Many people believe in ghosts. Are ghosts and demons separate things? What does the Bible say about ghosts? I think I need these questions answered first before I can share my input on the validity of demonic attachment to objects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GandalfTheWise Posted December 17, 2017 Group: Royal Member Followers: 24 Topic Count: 40 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 1,459 Content Per Day: 0.60 Reputation: 2,377 Days Won: 2 Joined: 08/23/2017 Status: Offline Share Posted December 17, 2017 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.” Joshua 6:18-19 NIV 24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. Joshua 6:24 NIV It's interesting that metal things go to the priests who are in charge of the tabernacle and treasury. It's also interesting that they are allowed to keep the plunder from the next city, Ai. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunderand livestock for yourselves. Joshua 8:2 NIV But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua. Joshua 8:27 NIV Then, it is clear that God let the Israelites keep a good part of the plunder in their campaign in Canaan. There does not appear to be that much difference between Jericho and the other peoples and cities that they destroyed. Other than a few specific times where God forbid taking plunder, they appear to have been allowed to plunder (within the constraints of the law) fairly freely. 6 Then Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their homes.7 (To the half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given land in Bashan, and to the other half of the tribe Joshua gave land on the west side of the Jordan along with their fellow Israelites.) When Joshua sent them home, he blessed them, 8 saying, “Return to your homes with your great wealth—with large herds of livestock, with silver, gold, bronze and iron, and a great quantity of clothing—and divide the plunder from your enemies with your fellow Israelites.” Joshua 22:6-8 NIV Then, this can be compared to I Samuel 15 where God commands Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites and Saul fails to do so. This cost Saul the kingship. But, before and after the Israelites freely plunder the Philistines and other peoples they defeat. Now, it is clear that the Israelites were to have nothing to with idols and were to utterly destroy those. There appears to have been a few examples where God ordered complete destruction and not to take any plunder whatsoever. However, many times the Israelites seem to have been allowed to take things that were forbidden at Jericho and Amalek. I'd be hesitant to use these verses to assume that there is some connection with various objects from various cities and the supernatural. I'm not saying that there is not. I've heard similar stories from people who've talked about there being a connection between certain objects and occult activity. I know some Christians from some parts of the world take it quite seriously to have nothing to do with things associated various types of temples or worship of various things. The strongest verses I can think of with regard to things like this is in I Corinthians. Paul directly correlates idol worship with the demonic. 18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he? I Corinthians 10:18-22 NIV Now, it is interesting that Paul says that this food is offered to demons. But later, he says that it is okay to eat food from any source but not to do it from the standpoint of conscience. He does not seem to indicate that there is any continuing demonic influence in the food itself. If so, I would have expected him to say something like do not allow even one scrap of demonic food into your houses. There is also the story of the Ephesian sorcerers in Acts. Off the top of my head, I don't know the significance of the scrolls, what they were, or what they were used for. 17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. Acts 19:17-20 NIV. Due to time and space, I didn't look up and include OT verses related to particular places having a spiritual oppression about them. There are some OT verses about various places associated with idol worship being destroyed and defiled. My sense is that these seem to correlate with the destruction of idols and that whole topic. Bottom line, I've heard many Christians talk about the association of the occult and demonic with particular objects. I've also heard stories about particular places. I've been in a few myself over the years and observed things that I cannot easily dismiss. I've heard anecdotes from various Christians. I don't dismiss such stories, but I cannot find a clear biblical statement about such things. This seems to be a subject where we simply have to use our spiritual discernment (and consider the spiritual discernment of other mature Christians that we have confidence in) to get some guidance in this matter. My sense on this matter is that the occult and demonic seems more centered around people (and their activities) than objects. From my memory (except for the herd of pigs), demonic manifestations in the NT are mostly associated with individuals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ7 Posted February 18, 2018 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 2 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 166 Content Per Day: 0.07 Reputation: 25 Days Won: 0 Joined: 02/13/2018 Status: Offline Share Posted February 18, 2018 On 12/17/2017 at 9:13 AM, Dennis1209 said: Based on scripture, I'm coming to the opinion unclean spirits can enter, or at least attach themselves to inanimate objects and/or places. I've heard and read stories where someone brought something home and immediately strange and unnatural things started to occur. Then immediately stopped when that item(s) was burned, destroyed and removed. Anyone think there's any validity to demonic attachment to physical objects? Yes they can, my parents have seen it for themselves. Some statues a friend of ours had from Africa. God told her to get rid of them so they prayed and then cast them into the fire and they jumped back out. They had to command them in the name of Jesus to stay in the fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simplejeff Posted February 18, 2018 Group: Mars Hill Followers: 12 Topic Count: 12 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 7,689 Content Per Day: 2.39 Reputation: 2 Days Won: 20 Joined: 06/30/2015 Status: Offline Share Posted February 18, 2018 Just as Jesus could not do much in some towns because of the unbelief , likewise because of the unbelief in the United States, most people have never seen such spiritual activity. Missionaries from the USA to other countries have sometimes seen quite a bit like this in Africa and China and the Philippines, and reported it when they returned to the USA, but not often enough for people to turn their lives over to God , nor for most people to realize how often this happens. Often in the USA, it is only with extensive reading of the lives / biographies of men and women of God that people seeking God and His Way can find out such things, as it is not popular in American culture, religious or otherwise. (Truth is not popular in many churches or places) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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