Acts 19:15

Acts 19:15. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? The possessed man, like the Gadarene demoniac of the Gospel, identifying himself with the evil spirits, replied: ‘Jesus, whom ye invoke, I know: I know Him well, and His authority, and His power; and Paul too, the servant of the Highest, I am acquainted with; but who are ye?' ‘The question was not one of ignorance, but of censure, because they arrogated to themselves what belonged not to them, and of contempt, because they considered not their own and their opponents' strength, but with rashness dared to contend with one more powerful, to whom it was mere play to overcome them' (Raphelius, quoted by Gloag).

The whole question of demoniacal possession, which comes before us on several occasions in the Gospel narrative, and again, though not so frequently, in the ‘Acts,' is surrounded with difficulties. The main difficulty may, however, be summarised as follows: (1) Was that ‘demoniacal possession' alluded to by the New Testament writers something peculiar to that period of the world's history, and has it since disappeared from the face of the earth? or (2) Was this terrible state, into which certain human beings had fallen, merely what is now termed ‘dumbness,' ‘blindness,' ‘epilepsy,' and the many and varied forms of insanity?

If we accept (2), as some expositors would seem to press, we should be much perplexed when we read the very positive words on this subject spoken in the Gospel and Acts by the Saviour and His disciples. They certainly treated the unhappy ones as positively possessed by evil spirits; and on more than one occasion a dialogue was held between the Saviour and the lost spirit. On many grounds we must reject (2).

As regards (1), it does seem as though the first age of Christianity was a time considering its extreme sensuality (never equalled in the world's history in any period), considering, too, the general absence of all religious belief, and consequently of all moral restraint in which a more direct influence over the souls and bodies of men and women, on the part of the powers of evil, would probably exist. That there was, indeed, some such unholy influence then, we have not only the witness of the New Testament writers, but also that of Josephus, Plutarch, and other Greek authors. In no other age do we possess such varied and ample testimony to these strange and unholy influences. Gloag well remarks, after calling attention to the fact that madness seemed to have been an inseparable accompaniment of possession, that ‘we are not at all sure that it has entirely ceased in our days; at least, cases occur which bear a close resemblance to the descriptions of demoniacal possession given in the New Testament. For all that we know, such possessions may occur in our days. If we had the power of discerning spirits, it might be discovered that such cases were not unknown.... We live in a spiritual world; there are powers and agencies around us and within us; and in the case of mental disease especially, it is impossible to say whether the mere derangement of the physical organs or some spiritual disorder is the cause of the disease.'