Possessed?

[Edward]

The story of the demon possessed boy in Matthew 17:14-21...

14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.†17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.†18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it[c] came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.[d] 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?†20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."/(ESV)

Does this mean that epileptics are demon possessed? I am epileptic and so this concerns me. Also, another thing is, verse 21 when viewed in KJV says that this kind only comes out through prayer and fasting. Is that so?

Is this really talking about epileptics? Could this be a translation error/implication brought about by the mere use of synonyms during translation? And why the prayer and fasting? Hmmm.

 

[Pizzaguy]

I seriously doubt the word being translated "epileptic" is really describing the condition you have.

Fact is, epilepsy is a disorder in the brain that is well documented and reasonably understood. I believe that as soon as we got booted from the Garden of Eden, God's protective hand was withdrawn and all sorts of conditions become our future as a race. No system left to it's own maintains itself, once God quite managing our health and bodies, down we went!

That boy WAS demon possesed, we know this because Jesus said so. I do NOT believe he was an epileptic at all - HE WAS POSSESSED!

My son is paranoid-schizophrenic, there are chemical and electrical stuff going on in his brain that cause his problems. It is not a demon, just as in my grandmother (who also had the same condition). My grandmother was a devout, wonderful, Christian lady who simply had some synapses in her brain that didn't work right. There is no way my grandmother OR son is demon-possessed and I'm sure you aren't, either.

 

[jasoncran]

The story of the demon possessed boy in Matthew 17:14-21...

14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it[c] came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.[d] 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."/(ESV)

Does this mean that epileptics are demon possessed? I am epileptic and so this concerns me. Also, another thing is, verse 21 when viewed in KJV says that this kind only comes out through prayer and fasting. Is that so?

Is this really talking about epileptics? Could this be a translation error/implication brought about by the mere use of synonyms during translation? And why the prayer and fasting? Hmmm.

really? my dad and sister are both epileptic its genetic and has nothing to do with a demon.

 

[Edward]

Keep talking brothers, I feel better already.

I've thought about this for a long time, and certainly prayed about it and commanded the demon to leave in the name of Jesus and so forth, just to be on the safe side. I have been epileptic since about 5 years old. I have grand mal seizures. I have 'high electrical activity' in my brain which is fairly well controlled with tegretol. I am supposed to be on the time release version of it (carbatrol) since I have a very high metabolism but the stuff is so darn expensive that I simply can't afford it. No insurance. I just take a little extra here and there and am very careful to not miss a dose. But I still want to toss it around some here on the board for the different perspectives and experiences and such. Maybe we even have a Neurologist on board?

 

[Edward]

genetic

Really? Could you expound on that a little? Are you saying I was born with it?

As far as I know, it came on when I was 5. I was bouncing on the bed, bounced off and hit my head...(bad) and been having seizures ever since. (No prior epileptics in the family).

 

[reba]

There was such talk when our baby girl started seizures ... What a internal battle then some how my heart settled... The meds controlled the seizers I reasoned meds don't control demons....Thank You Jesus...

 

[jasoncran]

most people get epilepsy before they are 15., and at the latest 18

my sister had her first seizure at 17 and dad his at 15. he has gran mal seizures and my sister has petit mal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy

 

[Edward]

There was such talk when our baby girl started seizures ... What a internal battle then some how my heart settled... The meds controlled the seizers I reasoned meds don't control demons....Thank You Jesus...

I've had the same thought before reba. Good point.

 

[Deborah13]

Does this mean that epileptics are demon possessed

Bad, bad translation from an old wives tale because people didn't understand about seizures or other biological brain disorders. But I remember people in my old church in the 70's still saying it.
Black it out with a big black marker.

Seizers can be caused by head injuries and sometimes from running a very high temperature when ill, although that is not common. I know someone who fell off a ladder and hit his head and now has seizers.

 

[jasoncran]

any brain injury or medication can also cause it.my wife had seizures from an allergy to meds.

 

[Edward]

Bad, bad translation from an old wives tale because people didn't understand about seizures or other biological brain disorders. But I remember people in my old church in the 70's still saying it.
Black it out with a big black marker.

Seizures can be caused by head injuries and sometimes from running a very high temperature when ill, although that is not common. I know someone who fell off a ladder and hit his head and now has seizures.

Thank you sister, good point. I also had scarlet fever when I was very young (forget the age) but I had a temperature of 104° for several days and was in the hospital. It was so bad that I was hallucinating spiders crawling on the bed and on me. I remember that. That may have had something to do with it, or at least was a contributing factor.

any brain injury or medication can also cause it.my wife had seizures from an allergy to meds.

Really. I've never heard such things linked to allergies and I'm certainly sorry to hear that. I will certainly send up a prayer for her.

 

[jasoncran]

[MENTION=90700]Edward[/MENTION] that was a sleep med called abilify. she no longer uses it. most of the seizures meds are aslo anti-depressants and bi-polar meds. take to many of them you also can get tardic dyskensia. a type of dementia. my wife had that and has it no longer. off the meds and that went bye bye

 

[Edward]

@Edward that was a sleep med called abilify. she no longer uses it. most of the seizures meds are aslo anti-depressants and bi-polar meds. take to many of them you also can get tardic dyskensia. a type of dementia. my wife had that and has it no longer. off the meds and that went bye bye

I remember the commercials for Abilify. I never have used an anti'depressant. I'm scared of those things. They used to have me on Depakote, which is I know, a bi-polar med. I didn't like the side effects of it so cut down the dose and eventually stopped taking it altogether. I remained seizure free for about 17 years, but 3 days after I stopped smoking pot, I had a seizure. Started smoking again and (went back on tegretol) remained seizure free for another 11 years, then thinking it was a fluke, stopped smoking pot again and 4 days later I had a seizure.

That was the bad accident where I broke my back, and the Lord saved my life. I still don't smoke pot anymore but with daily prayer and tegretol I am fairly well controlled. I don't like thinking I could be possessed though. Or that I have to smoke pot either. The Lord is stronger than pot.

 

[jasoncran]

pot and epilepsy. wow, I know that it makes depresents worse. but never thought it would help with epilepsy.

 

[Edward]

pot and epilepsy. wow, I know that it makes depresents worse. but never thought it would help with epilepsy.

Oh, I've never taken any anti-depressants. It pretty clearly was not a fluke that the pot was helping to keep me seizure free. The first time I quit it was 3 days until I seizured, the 2nd time I quit 4 days. I never did smoke much of it, a real lightweight. Never in the morning. A little bit in the evening and enough was still in my system to keep me seizure free the next day.

 

[jasoncran]

I wonder if the pot you used had a natural remedy for seizures. phenolbarbatyl is from a plant and it is a nature's anti-seizure medicine.all the meds do is damn up the quakes.it will happen sooner or later. stress ,as is the case with my dad can, cause seizures

 

[Edward]

I wonder if the pot you used had a natural remedy for seizures. phenolbarbatyl is from a plant and it is a nature's anti-seizure medicine.all the meds do is damn up the quakes.it will happen sooner or later. stress ,as is the case with my dad can, cause seizures

Oh, I'm sure it does. I don't know what, that's in it is the effective ingredient but it surely helped. All throughout my marriage my wife tolerated my use of it, but didn't like it. God bless her for that, she put up with a lot from me. I did a lot of reading about it after my 2nd seizure (when trying to quit) and come to find out that it's well known to help control seizures and has been for hundreds of years. It probably did relieve my stress, but I didn't know, as I was using it recreationally all that time.

 

[Pizzaguy]

There was such talk when our baby girl started seizures ... What a internal battle then some how my heart settled... The meds controlled the seizers I reasoned meds don't control demons....Thank You Jesus...

Does this mean that epileptics are demon possessed

Bad, bad translation from an old wives tale because people didn't understand about seizures or other biological brain disorders. But I remember people in my old church in the 70's still saying it.
Black it out with a big black marker.

Seizers can be caused by head injuries and sometimes from running a very high temperature when ill, although that is not common. I know someone who fell off a ladder and hit his head and now has seizers.

Wisdom from the women in this thread....

 

[reba]

We thank you kind sir...

 

[Edward]

Wisdom from the women in this thread....

Yes Sir, and duly noted. This board seems to be full of wise women.