Perg,

I think that the first chapters of Job could sufficiently answer your question, wherein Satan brings fire from heaven to destroy a house, a great wind to destroy another house, and lacerates Job with painful boils. The text seems to intimate that he easily could have slain Job with nary a thought, had God not prevented him and regulated his evil.

In the Gospels, do demons not throw people down? Drive them mad to the point of living in cemeteries? I forget the exact reference, but did Christ not say that the woman with the issue of blood had been "bound by Satan", or something to that effect?

I don't see any logical or Biblical reason why an evil spirit couldn't afflict or slay someone if that person was not one of God's elect; and, Scripturally, the elect can be afflicted by evil spirits prior to conversion (the examples just cited) and, if Job counts, physically afflicted after. But that's a more debatable point.

I think that too often, especially in Reformed circles, the closing and cessation of special revelation is practically, if not formally, seen to mean the cessation of everything supernatural, or out of the ordinary. But the one does not imply the other, IMO.

How many dark spirits are there on the level of the loyal one who slew Sennacherib's army? I imagine when we get to heaven and look back upon our life, we will realize that we lived our life, in a very real sense, as Daniel lived in the lion's den, constantly surrounded by entities of immense power that could tear us to shreds and drive us mad according to their own capacities. And yet God shuts their mouths and prevents them from doing harm, just as He did to the lions of old.

Anyhow, that's not a "blanket acceptation" of everything, either. I'm sure there can be social belief, psychosomatic worry, etc. But I imagine the "real thing" goes on as well, especially in countries wherein the gospel has never had a major influence.

__________________
Joshua Wiseman
Riverview PCA
Charleston, WV

"Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings."
- Psalm 17:8