INTRODUCTION
The modern west has ushered in and out many culture-defining conventions. The entertainment industry is booming, creating new fictional kingdoms that solicit our mental citizenship every day. Meanwhile, the Biblical realization of demons has reached an all-time low, both among believers and unbelievers.
This has given birth to one of the most overlooked dangers of our generation: our guard against demonic influence has become like a trinket that we think we still have; we just don’t know where it is. We haven’t seen it in a while. Inevitably, the entertainment industry has seized this opportunity to incorporate demons into its cinematic toybox.
Within the past month, three prominent films about demons have hit the silver screen. The first one I’m referring to is a documentary from Greg Locke called “Come Out In Jesus Name.” The second is a drama called “Nefarious,” which takes a serious look at modern-day possession from a Biblical perspective. The third is not worth naming, because it’s merely a rehash of the same secular exorcism film tropes we’ve been seeing for years.
These three radically different films highlight the fact that, not only is demonic subject matter far from excluded in entertainment, but it scores enough at the box office to continue the cycle. This proof that viewers find demons conceptually fascinating should serve as a wake-up call to believers to examine what message is being sent by making spectacle of them.
EXHIBIT A
“Come Out In Jesus Name” is a frenetic, perky documentary that principally assumes every physical or spiritual affliction to be a demon. Are you given to gluttony? Demon. Do you have trauma from a rape? Demon. Do you have a toxic fear of COVID-19? A woman once vomited that demon out into her mask (no, this isn’t a Babylon Bee article). “Good people, bad spirits” is the precept behind this, the logical conclusion of which is to utterly ignore one’s own sinful flesh, blaming everything on demons like Eve blamed the serpent.
Greg Locke, posing as a knight in shining armor, beckons the masses to come running to him like damsels in distress. He then performs so many alleged “exorcisms” one would think that Oprah Winfrey inspired his method of doling things out. “You get an exorcism! You get an exorcism! You get an exorcism! Everybody gets an exorcism!”
The film begins with Mr. Locke explaining that he started as a cessationist, but then saw some things he couldn’t explain, read one book, acquired some connections, and then threw himself into a position of leadership in “deliverance ministry.” Thus, his entire premise, argument, and conclusion all consist of him talking about himself. At no point does the film even attempt Biblical exposition. Reduced to a formality, Scripture only makes an occasional cameo in the form of verse slides, as if an isolated verse affirming the existence of spiritual warfare somehow validates Mr. Locke’s whole house of cards.
In one of his most pivotal anecdotes, he recounts being embarrassed that he was unable to help a demon-possessed girl—as he should have been, because a pastor should know the Bible well enough to know what Jesus told the disciples when they were in that very situation.
Mark 9:28-29
And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
Prayer should be the first help a pastor offers to any plight, no matter how well he understands it. There is no embarrassment in this; rather, Mr. Locke’s pride was hurt because he had no turnkey solution in hand. So instead of finding a solution for her, he found a solution for himself: call the problem a demon, perform a lazy charade, and shout, “NEXT!”
In doing this, Mr. Locke has created a cult of “now.” Normative Biblical deliverance is a slow-cooked process of prayer and fasting, but Mr. Locke offers it in a drive-thru—McExorcism, if you will. Worse yet, he gaslights Biblical pastors by calling them inadequate, as if 1 Timothy 3 or Titus 1 list proficiency in exorcisms as a qualification for elders.
“The main demon that has to be cast out is the demon of religion. People who have a hard time with deliverance ministry are oppressed by the demon of religion.”
~ Greg Locke
But perhaps the strongest insistence the film makes is that Christians are just as capable of becoming demon-possessed as anyone. Anticipating the objection that a Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), Locke points out that the temple had a courtyard into which anything or anyone could enter. Therefore, he contends, demons can possess believers without affecting the Holy Spirit’s ownership of them.
For the sake of argument, let’s suppose that it wouldn’t be a compliment to call this extrapolation “eisegesis.” Even if the spiritual temple has a spiritual courtyard, the courtyard is still separate from the temple. Where’s that written, you ask? In the name, “separating courtyard,” which is exactly what Ezekiel calls it. Chapters 41 and 42 allude to it seven times; and every single time, it is called the “separating courtyard.”
So if our bodies are the temple, what could compare to the separating courtyard? What is a place that believers are to be separate from (2 Corinthians 6:17), belongs to Christ (Matthew 28:18), and through which evil things may pass in this age (1 John 2:16)? The answer is: the world.
It is a common misconception that the devil and his angels occasionally check into earth, do some mischief, and then go home to roost in Hell. Far from it, they have not yet been cast into the Lake of Fire. Living on earth, they may oppress or manipulate anyone (such as the thorn in Paul’s side—which, of course, Locke also calls a demon).
It is a shamefully low view of the Holy Spirit to believe that He allows demons (or anything) to be His roommates. Were this possible, you’d think the legions would have launched a mass retaliation within believers after the Day of Pentecost; yet not one exorcism was ever performed on a believer by the apostles. Even their fangirl in Acts 16 was confirmed to be working for false prophets.
Think also of Job, whom Satan worked very hard to coerce into cursing God. Satan never possessed Job; in fact, he was the one to acknowledge Job’s righteousness. It was Job’s three friends who said that his affliction was because of evil inside Job, and do we want to be like them?
“We are either the children of God or the children of the devil, and there is no neutral ground. We must be under the influence of the one or the other, and the possession of the devil is incompatible with the possession of Christ.”
~ Jonathan Edwards
I had the opportunity to see the “deliverance edition” of the film, which includes a recorded livestream in which the circus clown pastor screams his whole book of exorcisms at the camera. Notably, he rebukes demons who are opposed, not to Christ, but to “deliverance ministry.” In other words, he attempts to cast out the demon of disagreeing with him.
Ultimately, these things fall into the same category as most other megachurch antics: entertainment. As demonstrated by the film’s footage, the deliverance conferences are crowded, noisy, and chaotic. This, combined with aggressive physical contact and shouting, agitates attendees into spastic behavior, while the onlookers cheer it on like a sport. This illusion of victory creates a heady experience that is the opposite of how exorcisms were conducted in Scripture. In fact, Jesus often warned people not to make spectacle of His exorcisms and other miracles.
But Mr. Locke and his so-called “demon slayers” (whatever that means) have presumptuously spun a campy yarn that normalizes interacting with demons on a whim. In addition to the countless violations of the ninth commandment, they have grossly violated the third commandment by using the name of Jesus in their orgiastic vanity fair.
1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
EXHIBIT B
Based upon the novel “A Nefarious Plot” by Steve Deace, “Nefarious” is a faith-based film that takes a realistic and sincere approach to demonic possession. There is no head spinning, levitation, or horror genre gimmick. In fact, contrary to the film’s cheesy marketing, it’s hardly a horror film at all. It’s a dark spiritual drama, and the majority of its runtime is comprised of dialogue between an atheist psychiatrist and a demon-possessed man on death row. Its hundred-minute tightrope of a story sheds a fresh and overdue light on just how far-reaching demonic influence is in the modern west.
Although the film is not without its caveats, the way it goes about portraying demonic activity is exemplary. It is neither a sacrilegious shock fest nor a preachy Christian pander piece. Its presuppositional worldview has a very toned focus, geared toward convicting rather than converting. Most importantly, although it does not neglect to be engaging, the point of the film is not to entertain. While it is acutely suspenseful and thoroughly unpredictable, its haunting and heartbreaking maturation characterizes it as an emphatic warning. Rather than telling one story of a rare demonic manifestation, it makes its awareness of demonic presences applicable to the lives of any mindful viewer.
1 Peter 5:8-9
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
The film’s relevance to the topic at hand, however, does not make it perfect. Although the directors of God’s Not Dead have made an impressive improvement with this adaptation, it still has several fingerprints of primitive Christian film tropes, including a brief reference to free will. Additionally, the production controversies should not be ignored. The creators of the film consider the suspicious series of freak accidents and other setbacks to be demonic sabotage, while the crew members that went on strike testify of illegal mismanagement. These are issues on which prospective viewers will simply have to draw their own conclusions.
EXHIBIT C
The secular demon flick formula largely sprouted from the 1973 classic “The Exorcist.” While this film takes both demons and faith very seriously, discerning Christians should question why they would subject themselves to such gratuitous and explicit Roman Catholicism. (Oh yeah, and the salaciousness too.) Notwithstanding the film’s heresies, the precautions taken during the making of it are noteworthy.
A priest was invited to bless the set and script, religious symbols were treated with reverence, access to the set was strictly limited, actual so-called “holy water” was present, and an abundance of spiritual counseling was made available to participants. While such Romanisms should by no means be viewed as a Biblical model for vigilance, they do tell us that the filmmakers understood the gravity of the subject matter and acted accordingly.
But, inevitably, the film’s impact resulted in countless other filmmakers wanting a slice of the pie, whether they took it seriously or not. Ever since, exorcism films have—with some exceptions—played out less like spiritual warfare and more like a religious version of Harry Potter. When Jesus and the apostles cast out demons, they never wielded magic charms like holy water, crucifixes, or Latin chants.
Hollywood plays with demons like a child playing with his dad’s gun, and Satan loves it. He doesn’t mind being a silly cartoon villain as long as Jesus is a silly cartoon hero. And, recently, another wannabe franchise—predictably based upon alleged true events—has popped up with tongue-in-cheek humor and sarcasm added to the mix.
Proverbs 14:9
Fools mock at sin, But among the upright there is favor.
WHAT ARE WE THINKING?
Tragically, many Christians celebrate entertainment that makes spectacle of demons, so long as they are defeated in the end. Blindly believing that this is a ray of light in an otherwise dark world, they will look for any way to elevate the few facets they agree with. Perhaps a priest in a film goes against the Roman church’s exorcism guidelines. Perhaps he sacrificially invites the demon into himself in order to save the original victim. Perhaps he strategically ascertains the demon’s proverbial kryptonite, such as its name, and saves the day. But all these things are flagrant abandonment of Scripture.
This has not only allowed Roman theology to be tolerated, but an increasing number of novelties, such as the ghosts of evil people returning, an exorcist entering the victim’s mind to fight a demon, and mental illness blocking the authority of God. Demons and exorcisms are not trifles to be enjoyed with popcorn. They are realities that are just as fearsome as the sin that condemns us all by nature, and the only way to be free from them is the same way, truth, and life that frees us from said sin: Christ.
Ephesians 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.