People and the Devil There are quite a few people who believe they have seen the devil. I guess almost everyone knows who he is supposed to be, but just in case I will tell you. He is an angel who rebelled against God and was thrown out of heaven. Many scriptures state he had been the favorite of God and some believe he wanted to have equal power with God or maybe even more. Many religions of the world talk about the devil. He has different names. Some call him Lucifer but he is also known as Satan, The Prince of Darkness, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, the Antichrist and many others. In Islam he is called Shaytan. When the devil is described it is mostly by how authors and painters depicted him, not the bible. The bible doesn’t describe the devil in detail. He was described in such a way by humans as the most fearsome they could conjure up. For all we know he could look like our next door neighbor or a pretty woman. There is a story of a man who claims he met the devil in 1942 in Mexico. He had met a stranger at the circus. The stranger had told him he had applied for a job at the circus but they wouldn’t hire him because his act was too frightening. The stranger asked him if he would like to see the act and the man said yes. The man was with others and they all agreed. The stranger put on white gloves and began his act by chanting so called magic words. Next the stranger removed the glove revealing a skeleton hand. Needless to say, everyone watching was terrified. They ran and the stranger followed them stepping on a plank with nails which went through his foot but the stranger didn’t notice and was laughing as he pointed at them with his skeleton finger. These people truly believed they had met the devil, but was it all a trick? They didn’t think so. When I was young, about 5 years old, I had a frightening experience. My mother’s girlfriend’s husband was in the hospital and we all went up to see him. He was in bad shape having been crushed by a truck backing up. As we were there, he began to scream for help saying he saw the devil and he was coming to take him away. He screamed then died. You can imagine how this would have scared a child of my age at the time. We will never know if it was a delusion or not. There are many stories about people who have had near death experiences, but here is one which is a little more unusual. A man was leaving a restaurant and when he got outside a gun battle was raging. He felt something hot pierce his head and he was in a coma for almost a month. During that time, he swears he was in hell. He said it was dark as black ink and he was hanging over a cliff with tremendous heat rising up around him. As he lay there, he said he could see demons coming for him but he was pulled out by an angel who told him it was not his time yet. While he didn’t actually see the devil, he claims he saw hell and it was real. His stay in hell lasted for less than a day, yet his coma as I said was 27 days long. It is turning out that while patients are in the ICU because of Covid, many of them are experiencing horrible visions of the devil. Could it just be the disease or is something else at play? The medical profession writes this off as delusions, but can there be other causes? There are those who claim the devil is not only real, but because of the way many live today, he is busier than ever. It certainly would look that way when we look at television news wouldn’t it? Some claim one of the clear signs is how some are trying to stamp out religion. Others state the rising crime rates and the continued wars we are involved in. Today we are able to kill people easier than ever before and millions of people just in this country are miserable and in poverty, many being kept there by terrible policies. If we study the bible, we will find that Jesus mentioned the devil six different times. This stresses the importance of Jesus trying to let us know how dangerous the devil is. If he didn’t feel that way, he never would have mentioned him at all. A Catholic priest who has performed many exorcisms says there are more demands now for exorcisms than ever before. He admits the majority of people turn out to have psychological problems, but says a small number do have demonic possession. He claims there are signs a demon is present and they include superhuman strength and speaking in Hebrew or Aramaic even though they never knew those languages. The priest said there was one case where the devil spoke to him directly. He said, “I am the prince of this world, I am Satan.” The priest said there is no mistaking Satan’s voice for any other one. As we have also seen in movies and such, when a person does something impossible like twisting their head all the way around it is a good indication of a demon possession. One of the problems we face when exploring this subject is the number of mentally ill people who believe they are the devil. There are also quite a few who believe they are Jesus, just talk to any experienced mental health worker and they will tell you this. There seems however to be far more to this subject than mental illness and sometimes clues appear to give more validity as when those who are the subject of an exorcism describe others who they never saw and are outside their presence right down to the clothes they are wearing. So, what do you think, is the devil real?
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