n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 4
And what does that mean in our lives? What
is this story telling us to do when we feel
overwhelmed by our problems?
This man was possessed by demons.
The teachings for the New Church tell us
that the demons who possess us are the evils
and falsities, or the destructive behaviors
and lies that can sometimes rule our lives.
For example:
• Loving ourselves more than
anything or anyone else
• Or wanting to do things that we
know are wrong and harmful
(Lord 48)
• Or loving the material things
of the world more than anything
else (Apocalypse Revealed 458)
• Or our obsessions with false ideas
that we believe to be true
(Apocalypse Explained 586.6,
659:6, 1001)
These could take many different forms
for each of us: greed, vanity, arrogance, pride,
addiction, dishonesty, ingratitude, criticism, being judgmental, infidelity, lack
of trust in God, coveting – the list will be different for each of us. But one thing
that will probably be the same for each of us is that our struggle with these
things is hard, intense work.
It’s no accident that this story contains strong emotional language. Words
like: crying out with a loud voice, cutting with stones, implore, torment, begged
earnestly, violently, fled, afraid, plead, begged, proclaimed, marveled. This story
describes the intensity of our spiritual struggles, when we are battling our
demons.
The man lived in the tombs, or in the cemetery, the place where dead
people were buried. This describes when we have come to a place in our life
where the true ideas that used to serve us are dead, because we are in a bad
place. (Apocalypse Explained 659:6) This might be related to our historical or
traditional faith, when the truths we know might have meaning for someone
else – our parents maybe – but to us they are dead. They don’t help us. We don’t
see any life in them.
“Love the Lord?” How will that help me fix this problem? “Love my
This is an amazingly
powerful story for
describing how we
can be possessed or
obsessed with false
ideas and negative
emotions. We can let
lies and negativity
control us. The Lord
has the power to
cast hell out of us.
Without the Lord,
we are enslaved in
our own negativity.
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