Can a Christian Be Possessed By a Demon?

Is it possible for a Christian to be possessed by demons or by the Devil?  Is the Bible silent on this or is there Scriptural evidence for whether a believer can or cannot be possessed?

Can Believers be Possessed?

The Bible does not come right out and explicitly say that a believer cannot be possessed by demons or the Devil but we do know that unbelievers can and have been (Matt 17:14-16; Luke 8:27-33).   Some infer that Peter was possessed by Satan when Jesus told him “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Mark 8:33) but does this prove that Peter was controlled or possessed by Satan? No.  Jesus was rebuking Satan who had put the idea that Jesus didn’t have to die and go to the cross into Peter’s mind (Mark 8:32) because Satan also tried to make Jesus avoid Calvary “if [Jesus would] fall down and worship [him]” (Matt 4:9).  If Jesus had listened to Satan then we could not have our sins forgiven.  Jesus told Peter, just as He told Satan that “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Mark 8:33b).  The fact is that when “Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter” and not Satan, clearly indicating that this was Satan inspired but it was from Peter himself (Mark 8:33a) otherwise Jesus would have rebuked Satan and commanded Satan to come out of Peter.  There is no record of Peter, Jesus’ disciples, the other apostles or any Christian ever having to be exercised of any demon or of Satan, therefore Peter was not ever possessed by Satan or a demon, but like Peter, believers can be influenced by Satan or demons.  There is a drastic difference between being influenced and being possessed.  They are most certainly not the same thing.

Resist the Devil

James shows that the Devil can be resisted when we flee from him since we are no match for this powerful spirit being (James 4:7).  If a believer could be possessed then what good would it do to flee since if we could be possessed, we would be helpless victims of him and his demons and could never outrun him?  There is not one example anywhere in Scripture where a believer in Christ was ever demon possessed or possessed by the Devil and since Satan hates all believers, if he could he surely would.   Believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:9-11) and since the Holy Spirit is God, can the Devil occupy the same space where Almighty God is abiding?   The Evil One cannot enter into a temple (a believer’s body) of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19) any more than He can occupy Jesus Himself because He also is God.

The Greater One is in You

The Apostle John wrote something that may indicate just how impossible it is for a demon or the Devil to enter into a Christian when he wrote that we “are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you (the Holy Spirit) is greater than he (Satan)who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).   The Holy Spirit of God is greater than Satan or his demons because God is the Creator and no created being (like Satan or demons) can overtake the Creator of that being.  Does anyone seriously think that the children of God can be destroyed or possessed by a being that God created (1 John 5:2)?   If we have been born of God (John 3:3; 1 John 5:1) we have already overcome the world and that means Satan and his demons (1 John 5:5).   If we have overcome the Evil One and the world, how then can we be overcome by Satan or his demons?  God does not have any aborted children and Satan cannot take away what God has already granted (John 6:37, 39; 10:28-29).

Oppressed and not Possessed

The reason that Paul tells believers to put on the whole armor of God is because Satan casts fiery darts at us so believers can be oppressed but that is not the same as possessed (Eph 6:10-18).  Many Christians tell about having spiritual attacks and many of these come from those who are not saved.  Since those who are not saved are the children of the Devil, this shouldn’t surprise us that he uses unbelievers to persecute and attack Christians. God is not the Father of unbelievers, Satan is (John8:44-45) and if you are not Christ’s then you are a “child of the Devil” (Acts 13:10).  John writes “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are” (1 John 3:10).  Despite the biblical evidence that believers cannot be possessed, many state that they have seen believers be controlled by the Devil, however experiential evidence outside of the Bible is not a reliable source of truth.  Perhaps that person who they believed to be saved was never regenerated in the first place.  The same goes for those who say that they used to be a Christian but no longer are.   That’s impossible to reconcile with Scriptural evidence.  A person is saved or they are not.  People have used Scriptures, out of context, to state that a person can lose their salvation but if a person says that they received eternal life and then lost it, it was certainly never “eternal” and the fact is that they never really had it to begin with.  A person is born again not of their own will but from the will of God and as I have said before, God does not have any aborted children.  The literal Greek wording of John 3:3 says that “unless one is born again (literally “born from above”) they cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Since you had no ability to cause your own birth, neither did you cause your own birth as a child of God.  All you contributed was repentance and faith.

Conclusion

If you have never been born again, or literally born from above, then you are a child of the Devil and you are his subject and you could be possessed.  That sounds harsh but that is not my opinion…it is what the Bible teaches.  I plead with you today, while there is still time (2 Cor 6:2) to repent and trust in Christ and then neither “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword” can keep you from the kingdom (Rom 8:35b) and this makes us “more than conquerors through him who loved us [so you can be] sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate [you] from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” Rom 8:37-39).  And anything in creation includes Satan or the demons who themselves were created being.  By Paul saying “nor anything else in all creation” that covers it all.

Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon