disease equals demons?

by ssn587 3 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  ssn587

  Got this idea, (yeah I know it don't happen often) while reading another post, but the bible says at Acts 10:38 NWT (not with truth translation), "namely, Jesus who was from Nazareth, how God anointed him with holy-spirit and power, and he went through the land doing good and healing all those oppressed by the Devil."

  Here and other places, disease, ie. seizures, were in fact possessed by demons, that kind of thinking prevades the Watchtower society, in that local elders tell those suffering to pray more, meeting more, d to d more. I am not saying this clearly but, don't they think that spiritual things (ha ha) will in fact heal a person and that this kind of thinking comes from the biblical belief that disease or at least some of it is caused by being possessed by a demon?

  Others thought on this will be very much appreciated, as i am getting younger and don't always think, or even think clearly for that matter.
• 

  MarcusScriptus

  You are right on the button with that, according to mainstream Christian theology and etymology/linguistic studies. Often when the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles speak of “demons” being “expelled” from people, they did not mean an exorcism as in the case of the nude demoniac and the herd of swine or as possibly also in the case of Mary Magdalene.

  In most other cases where we don’t read of actual demons speaking when expelled it usually is idiomatic speech for curing disease. We know this because such expressions are not exclusive to these Biblical texts.

  In a world where religious people did not know about germs and genetics, disease was often attributed to demonic influence and sin. This didn’t mean they thought that a demon was literally in a person when someone was sick, but the Jewish theology had changed a lot from the time of the Babylonian captivity.

  Prior to Babylon we find Scripture attributing everything to God, good and evil, as Job did when he was willing to accept the torment coming to him as something from God’s own hand. By the time Jesus walked the earth, Judaism no longer attributed evils to God but to demons, especially the Devil who was becoming more individualized and rebelliously independent in their theology than ever before.

  Today illness is still described in theological terms as an “evil,” but not evil in the sense of the movie The Exorcist or the film character Darth Vader or even as coming from the Devil directly. It is an “evil” in that it robs individuals from living out their lives fully as God intends. Yet even in this definition one can see how the choice of the word “evil” to categorize illness in theology is connected to the idiomatic expression you highlight in Acts 10:38
• 

  MarcusScriptus

  Post Script: This should not be confused with a belief that all elders in congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that disease is directly connected to demonic activity. This form of their theology is very clouded for them so you often see an unclear understanding of the way they deal with this, with some elders seeing it similar to what I explained above to the other end of the spectrum with other elders seeing disease as a sign of demonic influence.
• 

  ana_dote

  I don't think they so much think that those types of things are actual demon possession....but rather "caused" by the devil because of the course that led to sin and imperfection (causing abnormalities that lead to disease) prompted by the devil (as the story goes). I think in extreme cases of mental disease (i.e., schizophrenia and worse) they MIGHT say a particular person COULD be possessed....but I don't really think that's their motto anymore. They do however seem to think that praying and reading your little bible will cure and/or ease your depression, even though it has been proven as a scientific physical condition.....but don't get me started lol

  anyone feel free to correct me if they have other thoughts or experiences.....that's been mine