This is a saying of Jesus about casting out demons, actually a type of parable, but I am operating under the assumption that what he is saying about demons is, of course, accurate, and that it applied to that generation as well.
Matthew 12
43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
(NKJV)
Back in the late '80's and early '90's, there were certain teachers who taught on spiritual warfare. A seminary professor put out a book that proposed that the key to opening up areas for the Gospel may be a type of 'spiritual warfare' by means of speaking against principalities over certain regions. So then there was this movement to identify the spirit over a certain territory. One approach seemed to be to name a spirit after the city's problem (assuming a one to one correlation between a problem and a spirit, e.g. spirit of drunkennes, spirit of murder, etc.)
And then there was a move to drive or even fly around a city or region and rebuke the principalities and cast them down.
So here is a question, if you do this and it actually works, if there happens to be a spirit or principality to corresponds with what you are rebuking, and it leaves the city, and you cast out all the demons you name in a city, and you don't evangelize everyone and win them to Christ, then won't they come back, get seven times the reinforcements for each unsaved person they were cast out of, and the city or region may be worse off than it was?
I had a conversation with a former missionary to India who'd lived in one of the areas that was used as a test case to support this idea that rebuking principalities opens up areas. He didn't agree that the story was accurate since many people had been ministering in the gospel before whoever it was came in and did this so-called 'spiritual warfare'.
I also have another concern about this sort of thing that has to do with the warning against speaking evil of dignitaries in Jude.
We have a lot of great and precious promises in the Bible about praying to God in faith. There aren't promises about casting out demons as a cure-all.
Matthew 12
43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
(NKJV)
Back in the late '80's and early '90's, there were certain teachers who taught on spiritual warfare. A seminary professor put out a book that proposed that the key to opening up areas for the Gospel may be a type of 'spiritual warfare' by means of speaking against principalities over certain regions. So then there was this movement to identify the spirit over a certain territory. One approach seemed to be to name a spirit after the city's problem (assuming a one to one correlation between a problem and a spirit, e.g. spirit of drunkennes, spirit of murder, etc.)
And then there was a move to drive or even fly around a city or region and rebuke the principalities and cast them down.
So here is a question, if you do this and it actually works, if there happens to be a spirit or principality to corresponds with what you are rebuking, and it leaves the city, and you cast out all the demons you name in a city, and you don't evangelize everyone and win them to Christ, then won't they come back, get seven times the reinforcements for each unsaved person they were cast out of, and the city or region may be worse off than it was?
I had a conversation with a former missionary to India who'd lived in one of the areas that was used as a test case to support this idea that rebuking principalities opens up areas. He didn't agree that the story was accurate since many people had been ministering in the gospel before whoever it was came in and did this so-called 'spiritual warfare'.
I also have another concern about this sort of thing that has to do with the warning against speaking evil of dignitaries in Jude.
We have a lot of great and precious promises in the Bible about praying to God in faith. There aren't promises about casting out demons as a cure-all.