It is a liberating truth that we are not in this world to fight each other. We are to be for, not against, our fellow men, regardless of race, color or creed. Here we have ideas foreign to the thinking of most of us: that we are to be against the world forces of darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness. While mankind throughout its history has struggled against itself, “the domain of darkness,” which is the real enemy, has gone largely unchallenged.

I will expand on my thesis by telling you a story out of my own experience, which I might call “The Night I Talked with Evil Spirits,” if that would not sound too dramatic. The story will serve to set forth a crucial aspect of my view of the universe. It is of course a true story, all too true I fear!

  It was an auspicious occasion, for those involved were highly respected professional people of Jacksonville, Illinois, all of them being either MD’s or PhD’s, along with a clergyman or two, about twelve in all. It was a seance conducted by the famous medium, Arthur Ford, who was a friend of Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood Eddy, who were famous in their own right, residents of Jacksonville when I lived there as a professor at MacMurray College. When the Eddys invited me, I told them I would have to be late since I was to deliver a high school commencement address that evening. I was told a chair would be awaiting me, that I should enter by the kitchen door and quietly take my place in the circle. This I did, little realizing what that night would do to me! I was to learn later that Arthur Ford, formerly a Disciples of Christ minister, conducted a school of psychic research in New York. His book, As Strange As It Seems, tells how he was recruited as a medium by a Roman Catholic priest, a Frenchman who lived centuries ago, whom Ford called “Fletcher.” This led to communication between the two worlds, with Fletcher speaking for the “spirits” and Ford speaking for the earthlings. To do this Ford would coax himself into a trance and “tune in” to his spirit counterpart. The idea was that each would have a little gathering that somehow knew one another, and so they would talk to each other through the two psychics.

This was my first experience with such a thing and my first reaction was one of amusement. Once I quietly took my seat, the only vacant one in the circle, I was subjected to a spate of trivia. It was ludicrous to see a medium sprawled out on a couch with a napkin over his eyes conveying to a circle of doctors such momentous messages as “Sue Ellen appreciates your serving as organist at First Presbyterian,” and this from another world, supposedly!

It was then that Ford (or Fletcher or Somebody) nailed me with What is Leroy laughing about? That really jarred me, for the Eddys had made it clear that there would be no introductions until after the seance and that Ford would know nothing of those in the circle, certainly no names. Since I had missed the briefing at the outset, a friend sitting next to me, the history professor of the college where I taught, nudged me and said, “You are supposed to talk to him.” So I promptly replied that I was not laughing, which was a lie since I was laughing to myself, but simply amazed. He talked about the speech I had just given at the high school, and then referred to an earlier address I had given, “the one last Thursday.” He was running ahead of me, for it took me a moment to recall that I had addressed the Congregational Church the preceding Thursday . “We appreciate the fine work you are doing, Leroy,” he went on to say.

Then he (or “they”) really laid it on me with “You need to ask Phoebe about these things.” Now on the ropes, I gulped and muttered something about Phoebe being my adopted daughter. “We know,” they said, “for we arranged it.” “For your spiritual development,” they added, and went on to tell me that Phoebe was an old soul who had lived many more times than I and one who could teach me much. While they did not call Ouida by name (even the demons can’t spell or pronounce my wife’s name!), they did tell me that she was psychic, which was no surprise. Others in the circle were similarly smitten, with some things said that “no one in Jacksonville even knew about.”

Needless to say that I was very impressed by such a display of psychic power, “mind reading” or “mental telepathy” I called it in explaining it to my colleagues afterwards. They were all agreed on one thing: there was no collusion with the Eddys. We were all impressed with Ford’s sincerity (or delusion?), and did the guy ever have class. He was every inch a gentleman, suave, intelligent, and low-key, with no effort to persuade anyone of anything. When he was afterwards asked to clarify something said in the seance, he insisted that he knew nothing of what was said. He was in a trance and it was Fletcher doing the talking! We were persuaded that it was true that he did not know what he or “they” had said during the uncanny two hour session. It was spooky at one point, when Sherwood Eddy, who was also psychic, stood, clapped his hands and cried out, “Fletcher, we are tired, so let’s break it off for now!” In a moment Ford arose from his “nap” and coffee was served to a dazed circle of doctors.

I reminded my colleagues that Ford did not tell us anything that we didn’t already know. He brought it out of our subconscience, I argued, borrowing from Freudian psychology, but I readily admitted that that itself was an amazing feat. But it was not communion with departed spirits, as claimed, I insisted. Several believed it was communion with the dead, while others were satisfied to leave it a mystery.

I am older and wiser now, and I now believe that it was not psychological at all, but demonic. That night I talked with demons! As a Christian I had no business being there, for it was a flirtation with “the domain of darkness,” and if I had it to do over I am persuaded that I would have broken up the seance if I had forcefully asked the demons if Jesus Christ was not Lord. I was in fact attending an evangelistic service for “the prince of this world.” The old Deceiver was out recruiting and he promoted his cause that night with the elite of a typical little Midwestern city.

The demons know who I am, and they know my name and the names of my children, and they know what I say when I give a speech. And that night they sought to deceive me into believing that I was talking to people like myself who had died and gone into the spirit world. It was all a medley of lies, inspired by the father of liars, the “lying wonders” that the Scriptures refer to, “the mystery of evil” that is ever-present in our world. Despite my naivete and ignorance I was close enough to Christ and the Scriptures not to be deceived by Satan’s craftiness. I did not know what it was that I heard that night but I knew what it wasn’t. We may have been talking to our own psychic selves, I figured, but we weren’t talking to the dead. The Lord in his mercy protected me from Satan’s agents!

Arthur Ford, now deceased, was deceived by Satan. There was no “Fletcher,” and there was no communication with the dead. He was a tool of the demonic world and was used to destroy people’s faith. While he appeared to be a minister of light, poised and genteel, he was actually a minister of darkness, a servant of the demonic world.

This became dramatically evident when, a few years afterwards, Ford conducted a seance on nationwide TV, during which he conjured up the spirit of the son of the controversial Bishop James Pike. The son was a suicide and his father was desperate to talk with him. Talk about demonic evangelism! Nationwide TV, a bishop of the Episcopal Church talking to his dead son, the world’s most famous medium, all for free! Pike was fully persuaded that he talked with his son, assuring the public that things were said that were known only to him and his son. The bishop did not realize that “the Shadow knows!”

Satan got all he could have asked for. When Pike asked his son what the spirits thought about Jesus Christ, the reply was: we know about Jesus over here, and he is respected as a great spirit, but not as the Son of God. Millions got the message, right out of “heaven” that Jesus Christ is just another man. Since demons can work miracles Pike was deceived. It shows what happens when a bishop gets away from the Scriptures. Not only did the bishop talk to demons instead of his son, but he allowed himself, a prince of the church, to be used in proclaiming to millions that Jesus is not the Lord of glory. And that message came from another world, where apparently everyone is saved. Arthur Ford was never known to conjure up any souls out of hell!

It is evident that demons are real, otherwise the Bible would not legislate against them. Lev. 21:27 says, “A man or a woman who is a medium shall be put to death.” This was not against one acting a hypocrite, for mediums were for real and they communed with real spirits. Black magic was such a threat to the integrity of God’s people that Moses enjoined, “You shall not permit a sorceress to live” (Ex. 22:18), and even in the New Covenant Scriptures sorcery is named as a sin that will bar one from God’s kingdom. (Gal. 5:20)

Part of the Messiah’s mission was to confront the demonic world, and the demons knew who he was just as they know who we are. “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?,” the demons cried to him, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (Mt. 8:29) And he of course knew who they were, sometime calling them by name (Mk. 5:9). He not only cast out demons but appears to have limited their power, as Col. 2:15 implies: “He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it (the cross).” While demons could possess people, even children and animals, at will in the time of Christ, the Lord apparently delivered us from that dreadful prospect, for now the demons have to deceive us.

If demons could possess people today against their own will, there would be no need for them to use such deceptive tactics as they did on me in that seance. Paul makes it clear that we can “See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8). The “elemental spirits of the universe” refers to the demonic world, and I can “See to it” that they hold no power over me by relying upon Christ.

The apostle further assures us that we can withstand all “the wiles of the devil” by putting on “the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6:11), and it is that context that he refers to the evil spirits as the principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness.

So, while I believe demons are real, I do not believe in “demon possession,” because of what Christ has done for us. Satan may dominate our lives, but it is only because we willfully allow him to. And we over-come him and get rid of him by resisting him, by means of putting on Christ and the whole armor of God.

That demons have great latitude of power in their evil machinations, even supernatural power, can hardly be questioned. An apostle concedes this when he writes, “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). But the next line tells us that we can “Resist him, firm in your faith.” Yes, the demons are on the prowl --- cinema, the press, TV, literature, institutions, everywhere --- seeking to devour. But they can’t seek us out unless they find us disarmed, away from Christ and his word, no longer praying and trusting.

In fact “deliverance services” conducted by some Christians may themselves be used by Satan, for they imply that what Christ has already done for us is not sufficient. An exorcist (a sorcerer?) is needed, one who has expertise with demons! Don’t be deceived by such things, for Christ has already conducted the only “deliverance service” you need, having disarmed the demons, triumphing over them by way of the cross. That victory is for you, just for the asking. The way to be delivered from Satan is to believe and obey the gospel, and to keep on living according to it. --- the Editor

The victory of the kingdom of God over the dominion of darkness, the devil, demons and death is the most dramatic description of what God has done and is doing in Jesus Christ for the redemption of man from sin. --- Guslaf Aulen