I am Protestant, baptized and raised, but I do not ever hear about Protestant pastors driving out demons in exorcisms. We know the spiritual world is real, so exorcisms have to be real by default. Demons can call out our sins to accuse us and drag us down with them, so that is also universal between Catholics and Protestants.
So what is the defining difference that gives Catholics the power to do the exorcisms and not Protestants?
Do they teach in a way that gives more divine authority? Are we doing something wrong? Or is it withholding information within the Catholic church?
The rites, "holy water", etc, are all worthless. Jesus instructs us in the Bible that if we are Christians, we have the AUTHORITY (NOT the POWER) to cast out demons, in Jesus' name.
Jesus has the power. God has the power. We as Christians only have the authority to call upon the Lord for His power.
So the trinkets and baubles and devices used by priests, along with the scripted rites? Worthless.
Protestants believe in the "Priesthood of the Believer"...We don't need intermediaries. JESUS is the intermediary. Not some priest doing rites in Latin.
As far as the use of trinkets? Jesus warned us of only one kind of evil spirit...the one that strikes the possessed one MUTE... as the only kind of demon that requires more than a Christian's word. The additional effort is 100% spiritual and from God. Jesus said that type of spirit can only be driven out with PRAYER and FASTING. 100% based on the Christian's relationship with God.
Trinkets and baubles are paganism.
Thank you for this. I have always believed that you do the right thing because you are saved, and there are illiterate people in third world countries who still can go to heaven, so so what is the baseline in that case? They don't know religion, but they can still find Jesus. I am lutheran, but I know a lot of bad people that go to church. We're not supposed to add or take away from the word of god, either, so that's why I was asking the question, because I only ever hear about catholics doing all this stuff.
One of my daughter's toys was saying her name at 1 AM, and I burned that toy and said "in Jesus's name, leave and you are not welcome back." I know it's kind of a trailer trash version of an exorcism, but because I am a believer, that should be enough. I was listening to a podcast from a catholic priest talking about this stuff, and that's why I asked the question.