Wednesday, March 26, 2008

• Theologians and Demons - who will win?

  After spending many years in theological education, I am still wondering what has gone wrong with our theological schools and seminaries!  Every other field of education (academia) has a direct correspondence with the real world of practice.  An engineer uses the tools of his or her learning into his profession.  A medical student is able to put all his or her know how into practice and treat a patient. An economics, a linguist, a scientist and you name it; all of them feel equipped to function in the real world.  But a theologian…when he or she enters into the real world of his field finds that the years of learning are about to betray him or her!  Yes, the theologian is prepared to argue his case, yes he or she is well prepared to explain all that is there to explain about the Bible, history, philosophy and you name it.  But when it comes to ministering to an individual who is in real need; all such knowledge flies out of the window.  The only thing that can save the theologian is if he or she has learnt to live and do things in the power of God and this is what is missing in most of the seminaries that I have attended over the years.

  After I returned to Nepal, so many people have come with so many kinds of needs and somehow they expect me to be the person who can meet their needs.  How many times I had to fall on my face and ask God to show me how to face the person who comes with need.  Every day we have no electricity for 8 hours.  Even when there is electricity, we can not go out of our homes after 7 PM.  But last night a member of our church rang our door bell after 7 PM and informed me about a family that was in a dire need of someone to come and pray for them.  Their daughter (already married) had been sick for the last one year and they had done all they could in terms of medical and their traditional (religious) treatment and there seems to be no cure.  She is still a young lady, but her husband finally told her to go to her parent's house.  The parents took her in but from the last three days she lost speech and from tow days was in semi-consciousness. With no other option, they had heard about Christians.  In God's providence, one of their distant relative had just begun to attend our church and by the time they came in touch with that person, it was 6 PM.  Then they tried to telephone us, but our telephone would not work.  As a last resort, the new believer (not yet baptized) walked 30 minutes (no vehicles at night) and came to us.  My wife was about to serve our family dinner, but seeing the man and hearing the story, I took my flash light, asked a couple other nearby believers to join me and walked another 30 minutes to reach the house.  As we sat in their little house, we could feel the smell of death.  After a few minutes of prayers, it was obvious that the sickness was not physical but demonic and the lady who was not able to move began to stair at me with her white eyes and her body began to be shaken violantly.  It was at that time I saw my theology run out of window!  All I could hold on to was the very simple words of the Lord Jesus in Luke 10:19 and John 14:12-14, Mark16:16ff.  As we rebuked the evil spirit, the lady began to speak and asked for water.  After drinking a full glass of water, we led the lady to accept Christ.  Her body was weak and frail but after our prayer the parents confessed that she looks so different than how she was before we had arrived. 

  I have spent well over 12 years in seminary life, but not even one time do I remember learning how to cast out the devil and heal the sick.  But in the real world, this is what brings a soul to the knowledge of God and helps one to minister to the needy.  I am afraid that our theological system has been trying to outsmart the Lord Jesus by thinking that demons and sickness belonged only in the past.  If Jesus being the Son of God needed to demonstrate the power of God by healing the sick, casting out the demons, how much a theologian needs to depend on God for these things in order to minister his people!

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