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In his Preface to The Screwtape Letters in 1941, C. S. Lewis makes this shrewd observation:

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist and a magician with the same delight.

I would add another pair. It is just as foolish for pastors to presume expertise in diabolical activity as to ignore it. One measure of an effective pastor is his ability to minister to people who are under spiritual attack and to learn from that experience. It makes for a better theologian as well.

A calm discussion on demon possession, like any serious theological reflection on it, is, of course, deeply embarrassing even in Christian circles in those countries shaped by the ideology of the Enlightenment. The worldview of the West erects an iron curtain between the natural, material world and the supernatural, spiritual over-world. It also completely discounts the existence of a supernatural, spiritual underworld. Thus both demons and the devil are, theoretically, expunged from the cosmos by definition. If only it were that easy! The possibility of their existence is ruled out, except, perhaps, as the phantasies of an unstable imagination. Yet, for all that, the demons refuse to be excluded. They still haunt us, even though we often have no idea as to what to do with them, let alone how to think of them.

In contrast to our society’s denial of the demonic realm, most other cultures take the existence and activity of demons for granted. Thus the exorcism of demons is vital to the mission of the churches in non-Western countries. There evangelism involves the ministry of deliverance, for wherever the gospel is proclaimed in a pagan environment the demons emerge from hiding. They are required to be dealt with, spiritually. That too is increasingly the case in North America, Europe, and Australia, in the present aftermath of apostasy from Christ as the walls that have kept the demons at bay come down. Something is changing at the deepest levels of popular culture as the spiritual world is once again rediscovered by our compatriots in many different ways. This rediscovery has, in turn, produced a deep and yet somewhat indiscriminate interest in spirituality as they try to make sense of what they experience. It is not entirely clear why and how this has occurred. But it is, I believe, likely to accelerate.

This change of perception first struck me in my first years as a young pastor from 1969–1972, during a tumultuous time of social, cultural and religious upheaval that swept across the Western world. As a result of sexual experimentation, the use of hallucinogenic drugs, and the counterculture that celebrated emotional liberation through them, young people experienced for themselves, emotionally and psychologically, imaginatively and cognitively, the wonderful and yet terrible realities of spiritual goodness and spiritual wickedness. As a result, there arose a call for teaching on spirituality and the need for deliverance from demonic darkness in all its ugly manifestations. I still remember, vividly, the first time an evil presence looked straight at me with malice and mockery through the eyes of a teenage girl and addressed me with an alien voice quite unlike her own. By sheer necessity I, like Harold Ristau, had to engage in the ministry of deliverance, something that I had not been trained to do. Both then and in later instances I was guided by what I knew from the ministry of Jesus in the Gospels and what I learned gradually from painful experience.

As I welcome this lively study by Harold Ristau on his first exorcism, I am grateful for his reflections on it, and for sharing all that he has learned from it. As a pastor and theologian I resonate with much of what he says. He speaks from within his tradition as an orthodox Lutheran pastor at a time when his church is rediscovering its own heritage of teaching on spiritual warfare. While his approach is popular and useful for any mature Christian, this book is addressed, mainly, to other pastors. It is not a handbook on exorcism or a pastoral treatise on the ministry of deliverance. It is, instead, an extended pastoral case study, based on and inspired by his first experience of an exorcism. It combines his description of that encounter with a Biblical and theological reflection on it, as well as the implications for his own theological and spiritual self-understanding. Thus, his intent is not to prescribe any particular method of exorcism, but to show how the ministry of deliverance is to be undertaken as part of the whole counsel of God, the whole of Christian doctrine, and the whole enactment of God’s Word in the Divine Service.

Ristau is to be commended for his sober, pragmatic approach to an issue that is all too often treated sensationally. Contrary to popular misconceptions of demonization as a single, uniform state of oppression, there is a spectrum of demonic activity that ranges from accusation and condemnation to what is often described as demon possession. And each of these attacks needs to be dealt with differently. Since the devil is the master of chaos and confusion, the father of lies, it is unhelpful to look for order where it does not exist. Thus the pastor does well to deal with what is presented as it occurs, without undue reliance on any set pattern or a stock ritual procedure, in providing Christ’s help for people under demonic assault. Every case is different. Accordingly, treatment is usually part of a process rather than a single dramatic event, a process in which the causes for attack are dealt with, new defenses are erected, and the soul is gradually healed.

Ristau is also to be commended for his consistent emphasis on the three basic, interrelated resources that are available to pastors for ministry to people who are under demonic or spiritual attack. First, exorcism is not an exercise in personal spiritual expertise or power; it is always the exercise of Christ’s authority in the Office of the Ministry and of faith in Him. Thus the Office of the ordained ministry provides all that is needed for him to deal with the master of insubordination and his insubordinate cronies. By himself the pastor has no authority or power to silence the evil hosts and put them back to where they belong. He depends entirely on the authority of Jesus Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit.

Second, since exorcism depends on Christ’s victory over the devil and all the powers of darkness, the pastor’s basic weapon, his sword, is the Spirit-filled Word of God. God’s Word alone has the power to penetrate the dark corners of the human heart and to drive the devil from the stronghold of the guilty conscience. When God’s Word is spoken out aloud and addressed to the conscience of the hearer, the demons are unsettled, disempowered and put to flight. Of all God’s words the most powerful is the most holy name of Jesus. Oftentimes, the reaction to that name exposes the spiritual state of the hearer. The proclamation and confession of Jesus as Lord brings deliverance.

Third, since pastors, like the twelve apostles, are commissioned to drive out demons in the name of Jesus (Matt 10:1; Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1), they rely entirely on Christ’s help in the ministry of deliverance by praying to the Father in His name. They ask for protection and guidance from the Triune God, best achieved by praying the Lord’s Prayer. Therefore the ministry of deliverance is the faithful ministry of intercession which relies on God’s Word to know what to pray for, and how. In moments of uncertainty and doubt, the pastor resorts to prayer for the troubled soul and himself as Christ’s representative. By praying he, as it were, steps aside, so that the interaction between him and the harried soul becomes an encounter between Jesus and the devil, the Holy Spirit and the unclean spirit.

The anecdotal and reflective character of this book does not claim to provide its readers with the final word on demon possession and exorcism. It is, instead, a tentative exploration of the issue that aims to stimulate reflection and encourage action. More than anything else it sets out to give pastors confidence in helping people who are under demonic attack or disabled by the devil. By telling his story and sharing his personal reflections on its significance, Ristau encourages all pastors and faithful Christians to be vigilant against the devil in all his many guises and to resist him by their faith in Jesus (1 Pet 5:8–9).

Rev. Dr. John W. Kleinig