by jimwalton » Fri Nov 18, 2022 6:39 pm
Generally speaking, demon possession in the New Testament causes physical symptoms like seizures (though the NT recognizes it as different from epilepsy) and what seems like madness. Demon possessed people are never known to self-diagnose (to answer your question), but are identified as demon-possessed by those around them. It's interesting that in the NT, demon possession never motivates people to sin, is not perceived as evil, and, even more intriguing, we only ever hear demon-possessed people speaking the truth.
So how would you know if you're possessed by a demon? It would be difficult to tell, but if we follow the NT model, your friends would notice something radically different about you that would lead them to that conclusion. But if your friends are atheists like yourself, they would probably never come to that conclusion, so the odds are you would never know.
Generally speaking, demon possession in the New Testament causes physical symptoms like seizures (though the NT recognizes it as different from epilepsy) and what seems like madness. Demon possessed people are never known to self-diagnose (to answer your question), but are identified as demon-possessed by those around them. It's interesting that in the NT, demon possession never motivates people to sin, is not perceived as evil, and, even more intriguing, we only ever hear demon-possessed people speaking the truth.
So how would you know if you're possessed by a demon? It would be difficult to tell, but if we follow the NT model, your friends would notice something radically different about you that would lead them to that conclusion. But if your friends are atheists like yourself, they would probably never come to that conclusion, so the odds are you would never know.