Satan Entered Judas (2 of 2) – Can Demons Possess Christians?

Now the second question. Some feel that Christians can invite an evil spirit into their lives and hand over control of their bodies voluntarily. But note:
• Mt 12:29 Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
• Jn 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.
• Mt 12:43-44 Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.
• 1 Co 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
• 1 Co 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
• 1 Jn 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

I believe evil spirits cannot possess a genuine Christian because:
• Demons can plunder a man’s house (his body) only if they can bind the man.
• An unsaved person’s house (body) is unoccupied, but genuine Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and have the Father and the Son living in their hearts.
• He who is in us (God) is greater than he who is in the world (Satan).
• Therefore the devil and demons can’t take over a true Christian. They can only attack him from the outside.

Lastly, what about Judas?
• Mt 26:24 The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. (Also Mk 14:21; Lk 22:22)
• Lk 22:3-4 And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve. And he went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray Him to them.
• Jn 13:2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,

It would have been better if Judas had not been born. I don’t know why, but he was foreordained to betray Jesus to accomplish God’s plan of salvation. He was never a genuine Christian.

Satan Entered Judas (1 of 2) – Is Judas a true Believer?

Q. Luke 22:3-4 says that Satan entered Judas and that’s when Judas went to the priests and developed a plan to sell out Jesus. If Judas was a follower and believed in Christ, how could Satan have entered? Aren’t believers protected from evil spirits entering them?

A. There are actually two questions – “Is Judas a true believer?” and “Can evil spirits possess a genuine Christian?”

Let’s start with the first.
• Jn 6:39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
• Jn 8:29 And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.
• Jn 17:12 While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
• Jn 6:64 “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.

Judas was not a true believer because:
• It’s the Father’s will that Jesus lose none of all that His Father gave Him.
• Jesus always does the things that please the Father i.e. His will.
• Of all the Father gave Jesus, not one perished except the son of perdition i.e. Judas.
• We therefore deduce that Judas was not one of those the Father gave Jesus, otherwise Jesus failed in doing the Father’s will to guard the elect, which is impossible.
• Judas was lost because he did not believe. He followed Jesus for a while but did not have saving faith.

(To be continued)

Pray for your Missionaries

We had lunch with a missionary friend, who shared with us some of the challenges she’s facing in the field. Since I could not find good graphics for missionary statistics, I borrowed one from the pastoral ministry as many of the problems they are facing are similar. The difference is that for missionaries often the problems are even more acute, as they work in cross-cultural settings with few resources and limited support.

97% of pastors have been betrayed, falsely accused, or hurt by their trusted friends. Our colleague narrated the case of a young pastor who left the pastorate because he was falsely accused by a retired pastor. The saddest part is that the old pastor was the one who encouraged the young man to enter the ministry and mentored him, but grew increasingly narrow-minded and stubborn as he aged. The elderly pastor started well, but he did not finish well. I am less sure about the statistics being that high for betrayal by trusted friends, but have seen many cases of being hurt by “friends”.

94% feel under constant pressure to have a perfect family. Pastors live in a “fishbowl”, and their wife and kids (PKs) are under continual surveillance. The same applies to missionaries, their spouse and MKs.

90% work more than 50 hours a week, yet admit their work is never done and the expectations never end. This is not an exaggeration as my own experience was 62 hours a week, and I was only average.

80% feel discouraged, 78% have no close friends, 70% battle depression. Many hear only criticism from their lay leaders and feel lonely with little or no support. Nearly 2/3 of the 70% experiencing depression or burnout are serious to such an extent that they needed to take a leave of absence from ministry.

You can review the charts for other challenges your missionaries are facing. They have given up on climbing the corporate ladder and earning a comfortable living for their family, and the security of being surrounded by family and friends and having resources at their disposal. Often they face a hostile environment in which neither the language nor the customs are familiar.

If pastors feel discouraged by their apathetic congregation who care more about fun and fellowship than following the Great Commission, so much more for missionaries planting a church in foreign land. Few are those who regularly receive words of encouragement from their churches. Are there bad pastors and missionaries? Of course there are, but in percentage terms probably no more than bad sheep among God’s people. Many are conscientious workers doing the best they can with what little they have. Pray for your pastors and missionaries. They deserve better support than that.