Ecclesiastes 1:18 appears to be manifesting by demonic forces attacking addicts who now demand deliverance ministry—in secular terms, exorcisms—according to a recent report.
“We’re gaining all sorts of knowledge,” Father Vincent Lampert of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis tells the Telegraph. “But there’s still that emptiness within us that is being filled with addictive behavior such as drugs and pornography.
“There’s a line in the Old Testament that says when one grows in knowledge one also grows in despair. The decline in faith goes hand in hand with the rise in evil.”
The casting out of demons is now “thriving” in the United States, according to ABC News:
“Exorcism is more readily available today in the United States than perhaps ever before,” writes Michael Cuneo, a sociologist at Fordham University, in his newly published book, American Exorcism.
Cuneo suggests that though the hit book and movie The Exorcist brought the subject national attention in the 1970s, exorcism has grown more popular in the past two decades.
The Catholic Church has at least 10 official exorcists around the United States, nine more than a decade ago, Cuneo says. He found them reporting the kind of bizarre supernatural behavior featured in movies: levitation, mysterious scars and wounds that might form pictures or spell out hateful words, and more.
The church remains extremely cautious in approving the procedure. The vast majority of exorcisms today are performed by a variety of Protestant religions, Cuneo and other experts say.
“By conservative estimates, there are at least five or six hundred evangelical exorcism ministries in operation today, and quite possibly two or three times this many,” he writes, in addition to numerous exorcisms performed by charismatic, Pentecostal and other brands of Christianity.
Psychiatrists are now recognizing the demonic presence in the lives of their patients. Christian psychiatrist Richard Gallagher validates the increased demand for exorcisms.
He writes for the Washington Post:
The Vatican does not track global or countrywide exorcism, but in my experience and according to the priests I meet, demand is rising. The United States is home to about 50 “stable” exorcists—those who have been designated by bishops to combat demonic activity on a semi-regular basis—up from just 12 a decade ago, according to the Rev. Vincent Lampert, an Indianapolis-based priest-exorcist who is active in the International Association of Exorcists. (He receives about 20 inquiries per week, double the number from when his bishop appointed him in 2005.) The Catholic Church has responded by offering greater resources for clergy members who wish to address the problem. In 2010, for instance, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops organized a meeting in Baltimore for interested clergy. In 2014, Pope Francis formally recognized the IAE, 400 members of which are to convene in Rome this October. Members believe in such strange cases because they are constantly called upon to help.
Occult activities are on the rise in the United States today, quite possibly fueling the demand for intervention. Pop culture provides ample kindle for the demonic flame, from the recent Ouija: Origin of Evil film to pornography becoming a staple of wide-release movies.
And as the number of reported Christians decline in the United States, the number of “religious other,” or “religious nones,” increases, including the New Age movement.
Recent Christian convert Steven Bancarz speaks openly about the demonic activity that infiltrates the New Age movement, particularly in the ritual of “astral projection.”
He writes:
Anyone in the New Age who has a lot of experience with astral projection is well aware that it is not all fun and games, and there is always a need for tons of protection against “astral attacks” and “negative astral entities” and demons that can torment, rape and possess you. I have had personal experience with every possible state of consciousness that could fall under the category of astral projection, so I write this article not from ignorance but from personal experience. In this article, we are going to explore the dangers of astral projection. More than that, we are going to explore the evidence of the entire astral realm is a demonic air kingdom.
But Ephesians 2:2 and 6:12 give believers power over demonic forces.
If Christians shine a light on the darkness of some addictions, demons must flee in the name of Jesus.
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