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Luke 11

The Danger of Emptiness

24 “When an evil spirit comes out of someone, it travels through dry places, looking for a place to rest. But it finds no place to rest. So it says, ‘I will go back to the home I left.’ 25 When it comes back, it finds that home all neat and clean. 26 Then the evil spirit goes out and brings back seven other spirits more evil than itself. They all go and live there, and that person has even more trouble than before.”

First, to start with I asked from a scientific perspective on the Cognitive Science Stack Exchange if there was any way to scientifically measure spirits in a human and it was immediately closed as having no scientific basis or relevance.

Next, in Matthew Henry's Commentary of this passage he seems to be liking spirits to a change of heart, disposition and personality.....?

Jesus healed people by casting out evil spirits. Is an "evil spirit" something that actually comes into the body like in the Halloween movies or something completely different or more like bad influences? What exactly was Jesus casting out?

Any help in the right direction is greatly appreciated.

Please note this is not the question: Are people possessed by demons today? What is the modern Christian perspective?

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This one CLEARLY can't be answered in a way that applies to Christianity as a whole. From a specific denominational perspective, maybe, but not across-the-board. I could give a great answer from a Baptist perspective, but others from different traditions could give equally good, but entirely contradictory answers – David Stratton Oct 23 '12 at 22:47
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@DavidStratton: Please give the answer from the Baptist denomination and state that in the answer. Denominations don't really agree on anything anyway, so if that was a requirement for questions here what's the point... – Greg McNulty Oct 24 '12 at 4:15
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Can you tell us why this isn't the same question as Are people possessed by demons today? What is the modern Christian perspective? It looks awefully similar and I don't see why Caleb's answer there doesn't suffice. – Jon Ericson Oct 24 '12 at 5:35
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@Caleb You are right and right! – tunmise fashipe Oct 25 '12 at 7:40
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As of right now you're asking for truth rather than a belief of a subset of Christianity. What subset are you interested in? The beliefs of various Christians vary widely, I cannot in good conscience reopen this. – wax eagle♦ Oct 25 '12 at 12:28
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closed as not constructive by David Stratton, Jon Ericson, Caleb♦ Oct 24 '12 at 7:02

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