Javier, I used emphasis & bolding below to make it easier to read and to highlight my main ideas so you can follow what I'm saying. This isn't the equivalent of raising my voice so don't take it that way. Its easier when you talk in person because voice inflection replaces the underlines and bold marks.
Two things. Stay away from Bob Larson...He is a false teacher who duped people...I have actually paid to see him perform his fake exorcisms live ...
I was immediately concerned with doing a background check on the man once I got the book and I saw some of the things said about him and I even saw an anti-Larson webpage and it did more of an ad hominem attack (and did a good job of proving he had mishandled funds, etc.) but when it got to refuting his theology it was shallow and rather ignorant on the front of them saying that a Christian can't actually open themselves up to demonic forces and be decieved (which I believe they can - though posession of a Christian is questionable - though perhaps possible), and they also made the rediculous claim that all exorcisms are unfounded because Christ conquered all the principalities of darkness and made them a spectacle the moment he ressurected, and therefore that there is no longer any enemy to battle.
At any rate I am
very cautious in everything I read in the book but I find it paralleling
everything I've ever heard about demon possession and from the written record of his experiences I
cannot deny that he has atleast cast out
real demons regardless if he also fakes some things. When I did research on him I noticed that he was a little given over to
sensationalism and thus for one person he could rightly judge that they were
truely demon possessed and cast the demon out (and he even admits to failed exorcisms - like the Emily Rose case) and the next person they could just be having a problem with drugs and he could misread if they are really poseessed and when he goes to cast it out
nothing happens because he's trying to cast out brain damage due to harful accumulations of chemicals in the brain, rather than a real demon.
I think that is his blunder. However I viewed his theology closer and he admits things that an otherwise sensationalist-only exorcist
would overlook - that not all things are due to demons: he admits and discusses the role of the flesh (though even though he knows this he still obviously struggles with seeing the difference between some cases - as cited above - which admittedly could be hard in this perverse culture) and that not all problems are to be automatically diagnosed as demon posession. He notes the natural inclination of man toward sin and evil. He also makes interesting notes on how demons
don't simply come out because you command them to at once (he used the example of how Jesus' dialogue with the demons [legion] began
after Jesus commanded them to come out - thus he uses this as his basis for the reality of excorcisms that can take day or months of battling [like Emily Rose] and possibly even fail after repeated attempts). Also he warned about Dungeons & Dragons (which I almost got into as a kid - and my Dad sat me down and explained away my ignorance of the game) in the same way my Dad did (which was wise advice) and he also warned againt the evil influence of demonic music like Slayer and AC/DC (which my Mom had even told me a long time ago due to her teenage rebellious experience of getting involved with those things).
Also when he describes his cases of seeing the demon posessed it shows real
hallmarks of demon posession as modeled on the Bible and even has shown some revelation into ancient religions: Once in Singapore as a young Christian he watched a pagan ritual in which the men stuck hundreds of needles in their flesh to mutilate themsevles (kinda like the Prophets of Baal) and induce pain to please their "gods" (demons portraying their gods) and one of the men in the middle of the ritual fell over and
convulsed and his eyes bulged out unnaturally and he frothed at the mouth. Bob asked a nearby participant what was happening and they respond that that is always how their Goddess replies to their ritual, "She has entered him". Bob said that later when he reflected on it it then
made sense why the Hindu gods' eyes always bulged out in all the historical depictions of them: it was a sign of demon possession in humans, and it became a deified experience and portayal of the gods in that religion. Larson's account showed that real demon possession could be the cause of foreign religions (which makes alot of sense if you think about it - even the NT says that when people sacrificed to idols they infact
were sacrificing to demons).
That story sure
seemed authentic to me, and seems entirely believable. I have
no doubt you saw him preform a fake exorcism, however that
does not mean that he has never preformed an
authentic one. I would actually be interested if you bought the book and read over it and discussed it with me as it is intensely interesting.
I actually came to the (obvious - I don't know why I didn't think of it before) conclusion while reading Bob Larson's book that Frank Peretti must have actually done real research on the occult and excorcisms (encounters with demons) to write his book
This Present Darkness, because accounts like Larson gives in his book lays the ground work and backdrop against which
This Present Darkness lies and it makes Peretti's
fiction book seem all the more real and founded on the truth.
That's all I can say. But I am not stupid or gullible
to the point of not checking proper doctrine and winnowing out the good from the bad. Thus far I haven't discerned any blatant false teachings and I'm only finding truth in the book. I dunno, I guess its just like how ministers like Jimmy Swaggart who got themselves
into trouble in their ministry because of scandalous affairs have seemed to bounce back and corrected their ways (Swaggart preaches the doctrine of the cross and blood as fundamental as I've ever heard it), even though Swaggart has earned distrust from his past failures. That however does not mean they cannot change or he correct in
any of their teachings and redeem themselves.
What are your thoughts on this?
Frank Peretti is excellent. I have read everything he has ever put out...
I've read almost all of his books. I've read all the Childrens books and I've read both
Darkness books, the Oath, the Prophet, and part of the Visitation. Did you know that Perretti has two movies out:
The Hangman's Curse and
The Visitation? I have them both and they are awesome, and he stars in his own movie - in the
Hangman's Curse! And he is planning to make a motion picture of
This Present Darkness!!! That will be awesome! I'm quite excited as you can tell.
God Bless,
~Josh
