Wednesday, January 23, 2013

On exorcism within the Orthodox Tradition

From the blog londinopoulos...



Many films have puzzled everyone with their depiction of exorcisms and demon worship. However, it is interesting to identify what the Church believes. Here the Orthodox point of view will be given, but we first need to identify the source of this issue, i.e. the Devil.

The Devil was created by God as an angel, called Eosforos, being the brightest of the angles. However, due to his free will he chose to oppose God’s plans. Hence he and those who followed him became fallen angels, being not evil in nature but by will and action. In the Bible they are referred to by various names, depending on the work they are assigned to, such as: devil, satan, serpent, deceiver, father of lies, tempter, Lucifer, murdered, chief of darkness, dragon, veelzevoul, veliar and eosforos. They wished to be independent from God, therefore a revolution took place among the angels, as expressed in Revelations 12:7-9,

“And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him”.

Satan has under his control and leadership legions and invisible powers; all of whom know and accept the existence of God, recognising therefore the true and devoted Christians. Their goal is to employ methods or deception in order to enslave man against God and the Heavenly Kingdom. Demons oppose the redemptive work of Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind. They place obstacles in order to lead the faithful away from God. However, the Apocalypse (2:10) states: “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life”. This fight against good and evil will prevail until the end of days, until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, where the Devil will be destroyed...

Complete post here.

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