In all honesty, I haven’t read many pentecostal writings (although Derek Prince seems not totally on board with the pentecostal movement) or more specifically demon related material. In way of “pentecostal writings”, especially those about demons, I have read more about those writings than the writings themselves. For which I would admit error and fault. It is good to read outside one's own “tribe” or line of thought, and that is where I found myself over the last week, turning the pages of this book. Although the rating is low, as I will get to below, I would absolutely recommend this to any “general evangelical Christian”, though that term is broad I would assume this book pushes ideas different or even uncomfortable to the “normal”.
On the whole, I wouldn’t say I disliked this book, it has interesting ideas and thoughts from a well-known and experienced Christian teacher. However, as seen in the rating, I take significant enough issues throughout it that I would be stretched calling it a good book. Is it thought provoking? Yes. Is it challenging in multiple ways? Yes. Does it make you see, ponder and think about Scripture in different ways, or ways you would never think of? Yes. But is it edifying? Is the book, in and of itself edifying? See, as I turned the pages of this book and found the answer, yes, to those first three questions, it dawned on me. This is similar to Job and his friends. Job calls them “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2) and even God rebukes them in the end (42:7-9). Yet Job, as a book, is the Word of God and is “useful” (2 Tim 3:16) and beautiful in many ways. Now I am not comparing this current book to the Bible or God’s Word, but I am making a connection between Job’s friends kinda sucking, and the Book of Job absoluting still being great and edifying. This book - in and of itself, taken at face value - is not edifying. It will make you think and it will force you to open God’s Word and see things for yourself. Both good things. But it, in and of itself. Not edifying.
A quick outline of the book. It is split into four parts: Fundamentals, In the School of Experience, Seven Questions and How to Recognise and Expel Demons. There are 26 chapters split among them.
The main driving force of the book is Prince wishing to share his experience with and knowledge of demons, and therefore equip the Church as a whole in “dealing” with them, or as he would say and title of the book suggests, expel them. He goes into length in Part Four (How to Recognise and Expel Demons) of how this is accomplished. He has a nine step preparation leading up to and including expelling. As I make clear below, I think this last part is unscriptural.
I feel I could go into many differing issues with this book, however, my main concern is with SCRIPTURE. Within the first couple of chapters Prince makes clear that Scripture comes first, and then experience after that. As well as, he repeats this and similar phrases throughout the book. However, the first part ‘Fundamentals’ is almost a third of the size of the second part of the book ‘The School of Experience’. This on its own may not be a major issue, but for me it felt right off the bat that something was amiss. It felt that although he may say over and over that Scripture comes first, as well as maybe he also truly means it, I believe both the structure of the book and seeming methodology counteract it.
I feel where he gets his “scriptural basis” from as well as his exegesis of said “scriptural basis” is questionable. One of the first things I noticed while reading is he primarily (almost exclusively) quotes from the gospels and Jesus’ ministry. Now again, on the surface this doesn’t seem bad, but I felt once I closed the book, no deep biblical theological analysis had been done, no breadth of Scripture had been taken in, no serious reflection on the life and death of Jesus and his definite impact on the spiritual realm and warfare. Now, I feel there could be much more said here, but I will simply point out two specific exegetical questionables.
First, one of his necessities in expelling demons is to find the name of the demon, as well as it seems he speaks of expelling as time consuming and tiring. The only time in Scripture that Jesus (or anyone) names a demon is in Mark 5 (and parallel passages in Matthew and Luke). However, Jesus doesn’t seem to need its name in any way to “expel” it and doesn’t use the formula that Prince seems to require and teach to others. As well as, it doesn’t seem time consuming, as with any other mentions of “expeling” in the New Testament. Prince spends an amount of time in the book outlining the importance of the names of demons and how every one of them will have one. It feels at one point in the book that not only do they all have names, but that every sin and every situation has been personalised in demon form. I find no grounding in Scripture for this.
Second, there is a difference between prescriptive and descriptive text. Descriptive texts describe events that happened, as the Bible is a historical document, and prescriptive texts don’t describe events as much but tell commands, direct what to do, and have clear imperatives. Much of the gospels are descriptive in nature, it doesn’t mean they don’t tell Chrisrtians what to do, but they do so through historical narrative that needs to be contextualised and understood before being applied to Christian life. Now obviously prescriptive texts also need to be contextualised in different ways, but my point is this. I think Prince relies on the demon stories within Jesus’ ministry primarily, and then connects them to his thoughts and experiences to create or rather add to the truths within the Bible. One of the only texts that lean into the “prescriptive” and which Prince leans on heavily is Mark 16:15-18. This text is one of the only, if not the only, command to Christians to “drive out demons”, and from the very lips of Jesus himself. However, something that Prince fails to mention in his countless quotations is the questionable nature of these verses, specifically Mark 16:9-20. These verses are thought to be added between 100-300 AD and therefore not truly inspired Scripture.
In summary of the weaknesses of this book. I feel he fails to understand the overarching biblical narrative of Scripture and its deep meaning with Jesus at the centre - NOT demons. As well as, fails to exegete the specific passages he quotes. Both the broad and narrow of Scripture, both the breadth and depth…missed.
To make a couple more positive notes before concluding. I think Prince does many things well. I feel he has humbly brought himself to this task. That he has taken it seriously. That he also believes it for himself, or at least that he has made me think and feel that he does. I have heard of lots and seen a few writers in this field scare people into what Prince is trying to convict and encourage people towards. I have seen those same writers gatekeep the necessary information and say they alone (or other trusted ones) have the power to do it, but Prince, as Part Four makes clear, gives the “power” to everyone.
I also appreciate greatly that at multiple points he makes clear that demons are not the cause of everything. That medical professionals are good and should be consulted. And that mental health exists and is very much real.
As I have made clear, I do disagree with his perspective and worldview, but I respect that he seems to genuinely care about it and also communicate it in an accessible and respectful way.
To conclude I’d like to make a few notes on my opinion on this matter. I would say that Prince’s view is the extreme, maybe not the most extreme out there, but still an extreme. I absolutely believe in both Satan and demons, in the spiritual realm and its warfare. I think these things absolutely need to be taken seriously, and to ignore them is not only detrimental to the Christian as an individual, but to the Church as a whole and as a community. However, I think Prince in this book is trying to box in what Scripture hasn’t, or rather, he is trying to fill in the details he feels Scripture has left out. In the naming of demons and the personification of sin almost through it.
I think in the pages of the Bible you find a great amount of ink towards the spiritual warfare that is absolutely playing out. Church history has deemed these to be The World, The Flesh & The Devil. That the pages of the New Testament call for action against the flesh, that the flesh and spirit are at odds. That we are meant to be in the world, not of it. That the devil and his forces exist. These are all true. These are all to be taken seriously. But to take one, the least spoken about one, and to identify where it’s spoken about most (Jesus’ ministry) and hyperfocus on it, in my opinion is unhelpful and wrong.
Again I say. I do recommend this book for anyone wanting to think deeply about something not often talked about (too rarely) and from most likely a different perspective.