Demoniacs…..They’re Still Out There

Demoniacs: “This word is frequently used in the New Testament, and applied to persons suffering under the possession of a demon or evil spirit, such possession generally showing itself visibly in bodily disease or mental derangement.”[1]

Demoniacs: Not Under Every Rock

“The devil made me do it” is a cop out and, in most cases, simply is not true. The Word of God says:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:13-15).

What makes man do it? What makes man do the sinful things he does? His own sinful desires, that’s what. There aren’t demons under every rock. However, there are hearts of stone in every unregenerate human–hearts of stone that can be made hearts of flesh, when God causes people to be born again.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

Having spent the first several years of my Christian life on a steady diet of Charismania and Frank Peretti novels, I looked for Satan and his evil minions under every rock and around every corner. Working in the county jail during those early years of my Christian life sometimes left me wondering how many demoniacs were incarcerated in my jail. I even joined my Charismatic friends in anointing the door frames throughout my home with olive oil to keep the evil spirits out. I tried to insert Satan and his demonic troops into every trial and tribulation of my life, never considering that the sovereign God of the Universe was in complete control of my seemingly out-of-control seasons of life.

It wasn’t until I was involved in an on-duty shooting as a deputy sheriff (February 6, 1993) that I began to understand God’s sovereignty, His complete control in every moment of my life. As the dust settled after that critical incident, the first passage of Scripture that came to my young Christian mind was this one:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).

The Lord further matured my understanding of His sovereignty during this difficult time through one of Dr. Steven J. Lawson’s early books, “When All Hell Breaks Loose–You May Be Doing Something Right.”[2] This devotional commentary on the Book of Job was used by God to set my mind aright regarding Satan’s limitations. Satan does not have free reign on planet Earth. He does not have free reign over the hearts and lives of men. Satan, demons, and demoniacs are under God’s sovereign control.

Since then, I have tried to have a balanced way of thinking and approach regarding the spiritual forces at work in this world (Ephesians 6:12), which is to say I have since tried to think biblically about such things.

With more than a decade, now, heralding the gospel on the streets, there have been a number of occasions when I thought I was dealing with a person who was not simply out of control, acting, or mentally ill. While, in the grand scheme of things, the number of instances have been few, I believe I have encountered people who may have been demoniacs. Here are a few examples:

Deceptive, Delusional, or Demon-Possessed?

Under the Influence of Demons

Was She a False Prophetess or Worse?

Important to Note

My good friend Sye Ten Bruggencate and I were talking about this topic as I began to write this article. He had some good insights, which I share with you now, with his permission. Sye wrote:

“I do indeed believe that there are still demoniacs out there, but I also believe that identifying a person as one was either an apostolic gift or a responsibility that fell to only those who held the apostolic office. I am uncomfortable when I see people trying to cast demons out of an angry heckler or a buffoon. I also believe this ability was an apostolic gift or a responsibility that fell to only those who held the apostolic office.

“Believing apostolic sign gifts ceased with the end of the Apostolic Age, I do not believe Christians today can know with certainty that a person is indeed demon-possessed.”

Sye and I are on the same page.

If I mention the idea of demon-possession to the person with whom I am speaking, it is most often in the form of a question. I do so to solicit a response from the person–anything that might give me a better handle on the person with whom I am speaking. I can’t know with certainty, even if the person claims to be possessed by demons, if the person in front of me is in fact demon-possessed.

I know demoniacs are out there. I also know God has not gifted me to positively, without error, identify the demoniacs that may be in my midst.

In some of the few instances in which I wondered if demon-possession was a factor in an encounter with a person, I simply read Scripture aloud to the person in front of me. I’ve been amazed how well this “works.” Better stated: I’ve been amazed at how effective the simple reading of Scripture can be in closing the mouth of the sinner in front of me.

And Then All Hell Broke Loose

Monday morning, May 23, 2016, I was at the North Hollywood Metro Station with two young, Christian men: Joey Cusenza and Jared Baergen. Joey is a student at The Master’s Seminary and is also a member of Grace Community Church. Jared has family at our church and was in town from Wisconsin to visit them.

It was a beautiful morning. We arrived shortly before 6:00 AM. The sun had already started to rise and warm the air. Joey and Jared, placed gospel tracts in the bibles we had brought to distribute. By God’s sovereign grace, these fine young men distributed some 70 bibles (both English and Spanish) in less than an hour.

I preached for about 30 minutes. My sermon, “The Centurion and the Authority of Christ,” was drawn from Luke 7:1-10. The size of the crowds fluctuated as people moved to and from the bus station and the subway station.

When I finished preaching, I noticed a diminutive Hispanic man talking to Joey. No sooner had I made that observation when Joey pointed to me. Both Joey and the Hispanic man looked in my direction. The Hispanic man walked toward me.

“Can I have some money for food?” The man asked.

“If you can wait just a minute, I have some $5 MacDonald’s gift cards in my car. I’ll go get you one.” I said.

“Is it going to take long?” The man asked impatiently.

I paused and gave the man a quizzical look. I quickly shook off the obvious rudeness of the man’s short response and said, “It will only take me as long as it will take to walk to my car and back.”

I walked to my car, grabbed several gift cards from the glove box (just in case I needed more during the morning), and headed back to where the man was standing. As I walked, I reached into my Bible and removed an “Are You Ready?” gospel tract. This particular tract was written by the elders of Grace Fellowship Church of Davenport (IA). Grace Fellowship is one of our supporting churches. I had recently spent a week in Iowa and brought home some of the church’s tracts.

By now, the man was standing next to the Metro Station’s security guard shack. I noticed that near the subway escalators stood a cadre of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department personnel. There were about a dozen civilian security officers and a handful of deputy sheriffs. They’re demeanor was indicative of the start of a new shift and not some kind of disturbance down in the subway station.

I approached the Hispanic man, who was holding several empty plastic bottles and cans. Many homeless or destitute people frequent the North Hollywood Metro Station to collect recyclable items as a means of income, no matter how slight.

I handed the man the MacDonald’s gift card and the gospel tract.

“What’s this?” He exclaimed with a loud voice.

“Um. It’s a gift card and a gospel tract. Food for your stomach and food for your soul.” I replied.

“I don’t want that!” He yelled–keeping the gift card and handing the gospel tract back to me.

The man exploded into an uncontrollable rage. Blasphemous, threatening, murderous words spewed from his mouth. Calming him down and reasoning with him were completely out of the question.

The man accused me of trying to buy him and enslave him by giving him a gospel tract with the gift card. Of course, I never made reading and agreeing with the gospel tract a prerequisite to keeping and using the gift card. Simply giving the man a gift card without giving him the gospel would have accomplished only one thing. I would have made him more comfortable with a full belly, on his way to hell. It would have been unloving and self-satisfying to give the man a meal without giving him the gospel.

The man continued his hellish rant for several minutes before walking away and toward the sheriff’s department personnel. Their attention had already been drawn to the obvious disturbance. As the man walked by the law enforcement contingent, he spewed his verbal venom at them with cursing and veiled threats. To my surprise and to their credit, the deputies did not respond other than to tell the man to move along.

The angry man disappeared into the massive metro station parking lot. But we would hear from him again. Oh, how we would hear from him again.

The Video

Below you will find the video documenting much of the angry Hispanic man’s tirade. The video is so laden with profanity and blasphemy that editing the video would have left no content at all. I was hesitant to post the unedited version of this video because it was so thick with vileness. However, I think there is an opportunity, here, to provide instruction in a number of areas–even if that instruction comes simply through observing what happened.

Maybe this video will help you prepare for a similar encounter. (Most Christians will never experience anything like this because most Christians will never engage in public evangelism. It’s too scary outside the American Evangelical Bubble for most Christians.)

Maybe this video will give you a better understanding of the unprovoked antagonism many open-air preachers and Christians engaged in street evangelism face out there.

Maybe this video you will provoke you to be more intentional about regularly “holding the rope”–praying for me and others who are on the streets as ministers of the gospel. I hope so.

Captions

There’s a lot going on in this video. To add captions to the video would have made viewing the video cumbersome. So, allow me to provide some additional context for you, before you watch the video.

1. Notice Joey as he is preaching. I think Joey did a fine job fighting off the obvious distraction in front of him. It wasn’t easy. It never is. Considering Joey’s street preaching experience level, Joey kept it together well.

Also notice how Joey improvised and adapted to what was going on around him. Several times during Joey’s open-air sermon he addressed things the angry man was saying without directly addressing him.

One of the things I try to teach young open-air preachers is that they are under absolutely no obligation whatsoever to engage a heckler. To engage this man who was either acting, insane, demon-possessed, something else, or a combination thereof would have been to invite a total derailing of the open-air sermon. Engaging hecklers certainly has the potential of drawing a large crowd. Lost people are voyeuristic and love to see others in conflict. But what often happens in circumstances like these, especially when they involve either inexperienced open-air preachers or open-air preachers whose agendas are self-serving and not Christ-honoring, is that the crowd never hears the gospel. All they walk away with was meaningless entertainment drawn from two sinful men fighting.

Joey did the right thing. Joey preached over, through, and around this out of control heckler. And Joey did so with a listening and discerning ear–using sound bites from the man’s wicked tirade to enhance his gospel proclamation.

2. Notice the body language of some of the men in the crowd. You will see men, who in all likelihood were unsaved, take positions of advantage around the heckler. They were annoyed with him and seemed at the ready to jump in should he try to physically assault one of us.

You will notice that I talk to one of the men and, at one point, come between him and the heckler. Unknown to the heckler, I was protecting him from a “beat down.” The dark-skinned, dark-haired, dark sunglasses-wearing man approached me and whispered, “You are a very patient man. I am not a very patient man. I want to kill him!”

I explained to the man that it would not be in his best interest to assault the man. It would only get him into trouble. The man showed me a county hospital wristband on his left wrist. He explained that he had recently been released after a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation.

So, I had a possibly deranged, possibly demon-possessed man in front of me and a man who, for the moment, was calm, but might also not be in his right mind behind me.

“But I’m homeless. I’m hungry. But I don’t act like that!” The quiet man said.

I gave him a MacDonald’s gift card, which he appreciated receiving.

The seemingly crazed heckler turned his venomous, hateful speech against the crowd. Jared, to his credit and I think great courage, got the heckler’s attention and said words to the affect: “Talk to us. Don’t talk to them. We’re here to take it.” Like me, Jared sensed the growing tension in the crowd and that, at any moment, one of the men in the crowd might attack the heckler. I don’t know too many Christians; I don’t know too many open-air preachers, for that matter, who would redirect a heckler toward himself in order to protect the heckler from potential harm at the hands of others.

3. Notice the security guard. Later in the video, you will see a young, red-haired, fair-skinned, lanky security guard appear on the scene. This young man is one of several security guards with whom, over time, I have established a good rapport. Some of the security guards “keep an eye on me” when I’m there. For that, I am grateful, both to them and to the Lord.

The security guard whispered to me, almost completely in jest, “Would you pepper spray him for me?” We chuckled. I, of course, declined the offer. There was another time when another Tony Miano, an unregenerate Tony Miano, would have been all-too-eager to fulfill the security guard’s insincere request. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift–the gift of salvation by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone!

4. Notice my demeanor and body language. In the video, you will see me pacing from side-to-side in front of Joey. I am not nervous. I am providing protection for one of my sons-in-the-faith. I am shadowing the movements of the heckler as he marches back and forth in front of Joey, waving what most will think is nothing more than a flag–a construction signal flag he stole from somewhere (He did not have it in his possession what I first met him). Yes, it was a flag, but it was also a potential weapon.

Notice where my hands are, most of the time. They are folded in front of me, in a non-combative manner. The whole time, I was watching the hecklers hands, his feet, and that flag. His eyes and his mouth couldn’t hurt me, but his hands and feet could.

I was prepared to take a blow or many blows to protect Joey. If the man had attacked, I would have done my best to wrap my arms around him and hold him until either security guards or police officers arrived. If that had happened, had the heckler attacked, I was also ready to shield him from the real possibility of an attack from men in the crowd who were chomping at the bit to get a piece of him.

My thoughts regarding to what extent I should defend myself are changing. But that is an article for another day.

Notice also in the video that I am not responding to the heckler in kind. I am not trading insults and barbs with him. Not only is this biblical (1 Peter 3:9), which is most important, but it is also tactical. A gentle word or a soft answer has the potential to turn away wrath (Proverbs 15:1)–not only the wrath of the heckler, but also the potential wrath of the people in the gathering crowd.

By God’s grace–grace for which I am very grateful, the Lord continues to sanctify me in areas related to my mindset regarding the use of force, command presence, and verbal tactics. Please pray for me as I seek to leave behind the deputy sheriff in me. I am not ashamed of my time of service as a deputy sheriff, but that’s not who I am anymore. I’ve tried for years to reconcile the cohabitation in my heart and mind of the street cop and the street preacher, the gunslinger and the gospeller. It’s time to let one go, for the glory of Christ.

With that, here’s the video:

Conclusion

Yes, demoniacs are still out there. Demoniacs can come in any conceivable human form–male or female, big or small, quiet or loud. Neither I nor any other Christian knows with certainty who is a demoniac. Again, that gift and/or responsibility was for another time and for other men–a time when the gospel was being introduced to the world by the genuine apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 5:12-16; Acts 19:11-20).

The above truth in no way diminishes the very real presence of dark, unseen forces in the world today. Satan is real (1 Peter 5:8). Demons are real (James 2:19). Sin is real (Genesis 4:7). And it can get pretty scary out there in the world, especially when shining the light of the gospel into this present darkness (Ephesians 6:12). Be that as it may, the Christian, every Christian, is commanded by God to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). The Christian, every Christian, is commanded by God to proclaim the gospel to a lost, dying, demon-filled world (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).

[1] http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/demoniacs/

[2] http://www.amazon.com/When-All-Hell-Breaks-Loose/dp/0891097325