The early church had its share of encounters with the devil and his demons. Read the following accounts the early church had with evil spirits. May these stories inspire other believers to continue this ministry of Jesus. –Jay Bartlett
- • Irenaens against Heresies, Book II, 32:4 (190 A.D.) “For some (Christians) do certainly and truly drive out devils, so that those who have thus been cleansed from evil spirits frequently both believe and join themselves to the church.” Deliverance is also implied to be done by Christians in Book II, 31:2.
- • Justin Martyr, Second Apology, Ch. 8 (153 A.D.) This apology was addressed to the Roman Senate. “And they {demons), having been shut up in eternal fire, shall suffer their just punishment and penalty. For if they are even now overthrown by men through the Name of Jesus Christ, this is an intimation of the punishment in eternal fire which is to be inflicted on themselves and those who serve them.”
- • Second Apology, Ch. 6, “And now yon (Roman Senate) can learn this from what is under your own observation. For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world, and in your city, many of our Christian men exorcising them in the Name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed and do heal, rendering helpless and driving the demons out of the men, though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and those who used incantations and drugs.”
- • Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho, a Jew, Ch. 30 (150 A.D.), “For we call Him (Jesus) Helper and Redeemer, the power of whose name even the demons do fear, and at this day, when they are exorcised in the Name of Jesus Christ, they are overcome.”
- • Dialogue With Trypho, Ch. 76, “And now we, who believe on our Lord Jesus, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, when we exorcise all demons and evil spirits, have them subjected to us.”
- • Dialogue With Trypho, Ch. 85, “For every demon, when exorcised in the Name of this very Son of God … is overcome and subdued. But though you exorcise any demon in the name of any of those who were amongst you — either kings, or righteous men, or prophets, or patriarchs — it will not be subject to you. Now assuredly your (Jewish) exorcists, I have said, make use of craft when they exorcise, even as the Gentiles do, and employ fumigations and incantations.”
- • Tatian, Address of Tatian to the Greeks, Ch. 16 (160 A.D.), “Sometimes they themselves (demons) disturb the habit of the body by a tempest of folly, but, being smitten by the Word of God, they depart in terror, and the sick man is healed.”
- • Theophilus, Theophilus to Autolycus, Book II, 8 (160-180 A.D.), Theophilus is refuting the false teachings of Homer and Hesiod who were famous Greek poets. “… And this clearly appears from the fact, that even to this day the demonized are sometimes exorcised in the Name of the living and true God; and these spirits of error themselves confess that they are demons who also formerly inspired these writers” (Homer and Hesiod).
- • Tertullion, Apology, Ch. 23, (197 A.D.), “Let a person be brought before your tribunals, who is plainly under demonic possession. The wicked spirit, bidden to speak by a follower of Christ, will as readily make the truthful confession that he is a demon, as elsewhere he has falsely asserted that he is a god.”
- • Tertullian, Apology, Ch. 37, “Who would save you (Roman Rulers), I mean, from the attacks of those spirits of evil, which without reward or hire we (Christians) exorcise?”
- • Tertullian, To Scapula, Ch. 4, “The clerk of one of the courts who was liable to be thrown upon the ground by an evil spirit, was set free from his affliction (by Christians); as was also the relative of another, and the little boy of a third. How many men of rank (to say nothing of common people) have been delivered from demons, and healed of diseases?”
- • Minucius Felix, The Octavious of Minucius Felix, (210 A.D.), “A great many, even some of your own people, know all those things that the demons themselves confess concerning themselves, as often as they are driven by us (Christians) from bodies by the torments of our words and by the fires of our prayers,” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. IV, p. 190.)
- • Origen, Against Celsus, Book I, 46 (230-254 A.D.), “And there are still preserved among Christians traces of that Holy Spirit which appeared in the form of a dove. The Christians expel evil spirits, and perform many cures, and foresee certain events, according to the will of the Logos.”
- • Against Celsus, Book I, 67, “And the Name of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of men, and expel demons, and also take away diseases and produce a complete change of character ….”
- • Lactentius, The Divine lnstitutes, Book II, 16 (250-320 A.D.), “But they (demons) fear the righteous, that is, the worshippers of God, adjured by whose name they depart from the bodies (of people); for, being lashed by the Christians’ words, they not only confess to be demons, but even utter their own names.” Also deliverance is mentioned in Book V, 22, and in The Epitome of the Divine Institutes, Ch. 51.
- • Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecturer, 16:12 (350-375 A.D.), “For He (Holy Spirit) employs the tongue of one man for wisdom; the soul of another He enlightens by prophecy, to another He gives power to drive away demons …. “
- • The Divine Institutes, Book V, 22, “For these (demons), as long as there is peace among the people of God, flee from the righteous, and fear them; and when they seize upon the bodies of men, and house their souls, they are adjured by the Christians, and at the Name of the true God are put to flight. For when the demons hear this name they tremble, cry out, and assert that they are branded and beaten; and being asked who they are, whence they are come, and how they have insinuated themselves into a man, confess it. Thus, being tortured and excruciated by the power of the divine name, they come out of the man.”
- • Lactantius, The Epitome of the Divine Institutes, Ch. 51, “But of what great weight the cross is, and what power it has, is evident, since all the hosts of demons are expelled and put to flight by it. And as He Himself before His passion put to confusion demons by His word and command, so now, by the name and sign of the same passion, unclean spirits, having insinuated themselves into the bodies of men, are driven out, when racked and tormented, and confessing themselves to be demons, they yield themselves to God, who harasses them. What therefore can the Greeks expect from their superstitions and with their wisdom, when they see that their gods, whom they do not deny to be demons, also, are subdued by men through the cross?”