Showing posts with label Rev. Mark Hunnemann. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rev. Mark Hunnemann. Show all posts

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Paranormal Supernatural Deliverance Cleansing

By Stephen Piersall
Deliverance Ministry Consultant, Central NY

Doing a cleansing of a home is quite debatable amongst the different religious denominations. Given that, I will not write about this, saying this is the one and only way to do so. Just as a ghost (demon) hunting and investigations are different from one team to another the same goes for cleansing at a home. The bottom line is this procedure needs to honor God and God only has the power over the demonic. This subject will be the topic of my next few blogs, so stayed tuned. Now a word from our sponsor"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoeverbelieveth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

I want to first thank some special people in my life and thank them for their support, training, and guidance along the way with my training and experience. First Jesus who died on the cross, is there for me 24/7 to forgive me of my sins, and brings blessings my way as He provides for all our needs. Rev. Mark Hunnemann, for all the mentoring he has provided me and guided me to get me to the point that I have been able to open my own local Deliverance Ministry here in Central NY. His book: Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes will show you the worldview and God’s view regarding if ghosts are demonic and so much more. As a result, my own Church with Pastor John Elmer, and some other churches in the area to be able to reach out and help individuals and families find Jesus and provide help to those with demonic issues in the local community. In fact, Saturday August 18th, our church and the Syracuse, New York VA will be providing aid to the Vets who are homeless, by providing clothing, food, and entertainment. Pastor Michael Griffin Sr., who helped me many years ago to walk the straight and narrow road of a Christian’s walk and his insight and guidance, and glad that I have him still in my life where I can hear his preaching on his church’s web page. He is Georgia’s number one proponent in the movement to stop abortions. Rev. Darrell Gene Motal, he is always right there with a quick response to any questions I have asked and help provide training and guidance for Deliverance Ministry. His book The Schoolmaster: Autobiography of a Demonologist will take you into his life when He was a small child and living with the supernatural in his own life.

From watching TV and movies, it looks quite exciting and personally rewarding. Far from the truth! The title that many use is “Demonologist”. Just from the name alone to an outsider I’m sure they would assume that you’re involved with demonic rituals. I don’t like the title myself, and what is scary is that there are so many self-imposed Demonologists and who can you trust and who is dangerous. Remember Satan is a master of disguises! Demonology is the study of Demons, nothing more and nothing less. You don’t need to be a “Demonologist” to rid evil spirits from a home, but what you DO need to be is a Christian. Anybody who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has the authority necessary to drive out demon spirits. For Jesus said in Mark 16:15, 17

"And he said unto them, Go ye into the entire world, and preach the gospel to every creature... And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils."

As Christians we know that God is omnipresent and Satan is not. Satan can only be in one place at a time. He uses his demons (ghosts) to do his evil deeds and they are everywhere seeking to destroy believer’s testimonies. There is strong evidence in the Bible that a Christian cannot be possessed. However, we can be what is commonly referred to as “demonic oppression”. So what extents can the demonic have on Christians? We read in Luke 4:2 where Satan tempted Jesus 3 times. The demons will tempt us to sin and make life difficult for us to obey and worship God accordingly. If as a Christian we continually sin willingly, we allow the demonic oppression to exist. If we do not focus on our daily walk with the Lord God, the demonic oppression can have a very strong influence on our thought’s, behavior, and spirituality. Confession and repentance of sin is the ONLY way to break the power of Satan’s influence. Take a personal inventory and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal what open sins you have in your life.
    
Why does it seem demons will obey some believers and not others? It is because we have authority through our faith in God. Jesus gave His disciples authority over ALL powers of the enemy (Luke 10:19), but when they reached a demon they couldn't cast out, He told them it was because of their unbelief, as we can see in Matthew 17:19-20:

"Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief."

Jesus went on to say that some demons are so strong and stubborn, that prayer and fasting is required to drive them out Matthew 17:21:

"Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."

Prayer and fasting builds up your faith like nothing else and sometimes it is crucial to drive out the stronger demons. The more faith you have, the more authority you will be able to put into effect against demonic spirits. It is important to understand that, as Christians, we already have eternal victory over Satan. But we can be delivered from their influence in our lives by using two weapons God has given us as part of our spiritual armor with which we battle against the powers of the spiritual forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12-17). You as a Christian will defend yourself with the shield of faith and use the Bible as your offensive weapon. Satan and his minions cannot prevail against these two. By holding up the shield of faith, we destroy the flaming spiritual arrows of lust, doubt, guilt, jealousy, profanity, pride, and all manner of temptations. By the offensive weapon of Truth, we overcome the evil one 1 John 2:14. Deliverance from sin, rescue from trials, and escape from the influence of a world in the control of the evil one, come only through Christ, the Son of God who has come and “has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. In addition, we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” 1 John 5:19-20.

Next blog we will take this further.

Friday, December 2, 2011

The Paranormal Christian – Purgatory and Ghosts

Dr. Michael Frisbee, DD/DM

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving last week.  The short work we last week left me a ton of work this week, and unfortunately, I spaced getting an article ready for my blog.  Thus, this week, my co-host on “The Paranormal Christian”, Rev Mark Hunnemann, is helping me out by presenting an article he wrote back in April regarding Purgatory.  We will be discussing this in greater detail on our show tomorrow night.

Purgatory and Ghosts.
Rev. Mark Hunnemann

Born the seventh of ten children, I grew up in a devout Roman Catholic family.  As a sensitive young boy, I understood Purgatory as hell with an ending; after the appropriate amount of time had been served, souls would be released. Who went to Purgatory? Any Christian who was not perfect when they died would spend a finite amount of time suffering in a hellish state in order to cleanse or purge away the remaining filth of sin.  After the soul had been perfected, then entrance into heaven was allowed. Thus, Purgatory was a virtual inevitability for every believer, except for a select few saints. Today, none of my siblings are Christians, and I suffer from scar tissue built up on my soul caused, in part, by belief in Purgatory. I would put bb's (bb gun) in my socks as a boy, and walk around in intentional discomfort, in order to suffer for Christ, and build up merit points which would lessen the length of my stay in short-term hell (Purgatory).

A growing number of paranormal investigators, especially Christians, are turning to the notion of Purgatory in an attempt to integrate their belief in earthbound spirits with their Christian convictions. Being trapped here on Earth, is seen as Purgatory. C.S. Lewis believed in Purgatory and he is the inspiration for some evangelical paranormalists embracing it too..

What response do I have? C.S. Lewis was one of the best read men of the twentieth century, as well as Christianity's most influential apologist (defender) during that period. He touched millions of lives, including my own.
   
However, Lewis never claimed to be a theologian. And I think he would disapprove of what many are saying about him in that regard. There were certain areas where he was aberrant: he did not believe in the inerrancy of the bible--AND he believed in praying for the dead and in Purgatory.
   
Regardless of what CS Lewis believed, the idea that the paranormal realm here on Earth is the place where souls experiences Purgatory is wrongheaded in a number of ways. First, from the data that we have from the vast corpus of EVP's, there is no correlation between official RC teaching on the nature of Purgatory and what is happening with alleged trapped souls. From their own voices, these entities--as a whole--give no expression of agony due to purgation of their sins. As I point out in "Seeing Ghosts through God's Eyes" precious little is said about sin, remorse for sin, longing for heaven, and the Person and work of Jesus. The body of EVP should be chock full of such expressions if the paranormal realm were Purgatory.
   
Second, official RC dogma states that only believers are allowed in Purgatory. Unbelievers are sent immediately to hell. That implies that every ghost trapped here on Earth is a Christian who is suffering hell-like torment. As seen above, that is simply not reflected in the data. Once you commit to using Purgatory as a means to explain the existence of ghosts, then you have painted yourself into a corner. To be consistent you would have to say that every ghost was a deceased Christian. That view does not have an ounce of plausibility.  If you mix Purgatory with the death criteria of becoming a ghost (any person can become a ghost given the right conditions), then you are left with a hopeless mess: some people are there because of traumatic death, and others are there suffering Purgatory! Again, official RC dogma does not allow for conversion/salvation in Purgatory--you already have to be a Christian to enter there and non-Christians go immediately to hell. There is no way a person can biblically defend the notion that hell is the paranormal realm.  If it is Purgatory (which it is not) then it can't be hell as well. RC dogma separates the two--one is temporal and the other is eternal; one has only believers in it, and the other (hell) has unbelievers and believers who die with unforgiven mortal sin. No time or need to elaborate on mortal and venal sins in RC theology-except it is repugnant to Scripture.
   
I cannot explain adequately the relief I felt as an 18 yr old young man when I first understood the gospel. In college I learned how the Reformation hinged on the debate about how we are justified before God. The concept of Purgatory is actually a symptom of a deadly disease-the belief that we are saved by faith in Jesus AND our good works. The Reformers restored the purity of the gospel by teaching that we are justified/saved by faith in Christ, plus NOTHING!! No more bb's...no more fear of Purgatory....no more angst about the possibility of becoming a Christian ghost. We are justified by the imputing of Christ's righteousness to us, and not by the infusion of grace. If it were the latter, then we would need to stay in Purgatory for eternity before we were righteous enough in ourselves to merit heaven. In Christ, the Father sees us as perfect; but in ourselves we are still sinners. Every believer is a saint. That is wonderfully good news! Purgatory is a reflection of confusion regarding the nature of justification--which is the heart of the gospel. The righteousness that saves/justifies us is outside of us-it is an alien or extraterrestrial righteousness that resides in Jesus who is in heaven.. He declares us "Not Guilty" and transfers or imputes to our account the perfect 33 years of living that Jesus lived for us. This is not a fictional righteousness--it is the perfect life that Jesus lived for us, and which the Father sees. Hence, the notion of Purgatory is contrary to the core of the gospel. Sure, when we die we are filthy in ourselves, but praise God He views us "in Christ"--union with Christ.
   
Every topic we touched on could have been elaborated on further but I trust this was sufficient to help you see that Purgatory cannot be used to support the notion of ghosts--unless you reinvent the nature of Purgatory. The scars received from taking the Catechism seriously as a boy, give me little patience with the Purgatory tinkering going on today. The problem with having infallible Papal decrees and councils regarding the nature of Purgatory is that they are then irreformable--it can't be changed.... There are many Catholic Christians who love the Lord deeply. What I don't understand is the rush to embrace a doctrine which should unravel you emotionally if you truly take it to heart. It unraveled the heart of a little boy I once knew ...