“Come Out in Jesus Name” The Movie and Ministry Christians Must Understand and Avoid

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Approximate Reading Time: 39 minutes


Note: For a quicker rundown of two major issues with the movie and this ministry, read the first two sections titled “Gaslighting disagreements” and “Misunderstanding the authority to cast out demons.”

The documentary “Come Out in Jesus Name” was released to 2,000 theaters on March 13, 2023. The movie sets out to introduce people to Greg Locke and the men he works with in something called “deliverance ministry.” Christians from all denominations are discovering a newfound fascination with demons, supernatural gifts, apostles, and how the powers of darkness affect Christians today.

After seeing the movie, I find it important to give Christians a thorough breakdown of what’s actually going on. This movie seems legitimate on the surface but is riddled with unbiblical theology and emotion-driven manipulation. The common thread throughout the movie is that they either offer no biblical support for their bold claims of how the spiritual realm works or the Scripture they do offer is out of context and misunderstood. The final product is a belief system that relies on emotionalism, biblical illiteracy, giving people a misguided purpose, and offering a way to understand sin that allows us to be victims.

Ultimately, if Christians aren’t careful, they’re going to spend years being swept up in a deceptive theology that offers freedom, but will actually keep them in spiritual immaturity.

Table of Contents

The basics of deliverance ministry

Those involved in this ministry believe that Christians, although truly saved by the blood of Jesus, still carry actual demons inside them. These demons can be recently acquired, may have been allowed in during their childhood, or even inherited from their ancestors. Deliverance ministry delivers Christians from these demons by casting them out with the authority of an apostle.  

Gaslighting disagreements

One of the first and last things said in the movie and post-credits live stream is that anyone who disagrees with deliverance ministry is either blinded by, or outright obedient to, Satan and the spirit of religion. 

During the movie, rejecting the ministry is seen as a clear sign of Satan and an acceptance of the doctrines of demons warned against when Paul said “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1 )

Another deliverance preacher said “The higher dimension always brings fear when it enters the lower dimension,” meaning that anything that seems weird or unbelievable is simply our minds being unable to grasp such a higher truth.

Pastors are condemned for obeying the spirit of religion and withholding the Holy Spirit’s work of deliverance.

Spirits of Denomination are likewise condemned for creating divisions between different groups of Christians.

Greg Locke’s closing prayer concluded with a condemnation of spirits who are against the deliverance ministry.

Basically, they claim that deliverance ministry is a necessary part of the gospel that scares Satan. Thus, only those influenced by demons would possibly reject a ministry designed to cast those demons out. So anyone in the theater, in person, or online who would criticize the ministry is obeying Satan.

And that’s very convenient for them. Those who are convinced about the movie’s claims about Satan and demons are told that any disagreement that would make them doubt needs to be rejected as a tool of Satan. So when anyone points out any issues, no matter how sound their reasoning, followers are conditioned to see through the lies of Satan, reject any demons causing them to doubt, and recommit themselves to denouncing these satanic spirits.

Undermining a person’s reason, destabilizing their relationships, and cutting off opportunities to doubt are tactics similar to gaslighting and cult indoctrination. It strips away their followers’ own thoughts and reservations, insisting that any deviation from the leader is a sign of being outside the group. It sows doubt in a follower’s own reliability and makes them feel guilty or compromised if they question anything.

This type of conditioning is nothing new, especially in groups who claim to have a secret of God that evil forces are actively fighting against. And by creating such a stark us-vs-them mentality, they no longer need to be biblically or logically consistent because anything that seems amiss to their followers is dismissed as Satan’s lies. These leaders just have to keep people convinced that they’re right by creating enemies out of everyone who doesn’t agree.

Misunderstanding the authority to cast out demons

One thing they keep repeating is that Jesus gave Christians the authority to cast out demons. In addition to completely missing the point of why those things happened in the context of the New Testament accounts (proving the gospel by supernatural signs), they also misunderstand how Jesus and the apostles differed from what we see in the movie.

Read the accounts of Jesus and Paul casting out demons.

Now when Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” And after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; (Mark 9:25-26a)

Now it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a servant-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” And she continued doing this for many days. But being greatly annoyed, Paul turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to leave her!” And it left at that very moment. (Acts 16:16-18)

Now when evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill (Matthew 8:16a)

How could Jesus and His apostles do this? Not because they were Christians, but because Jesus had the authority and offered that authority to those followers. 

And calling the twelve together, He gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases… Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come [note: the “after this” isn’t after giving the disciples authority, but He clearly gives authority over demons to this specific group as well]… Now the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” (Luke 9:1, 10:1, 10:17)

What was noteworthy wasn’t that they could expel demons, because there were already Jewish exorcists from before Jesus was born (see Acts 19:13 and Jewish exorcism practices written about before the time of Jesus). In Luke 10:17, the surprise was that they could cast out spirits with authority. If they spoke with full reliance on God, as Christ reminds them to do in Mark 9:28-29, then they would cast out the demons with a single command. No repetition, rituals, or option to fail if they truly did it in the name of Christ.

This is the authority claimed by those in the deliverance ministry. However, note the difference between the abrupt, “I’m not going to repeat myself” authority of Jesus and His disciples compared to what we see today. 

This video shows Isaiah Saldivar casting out demons using Zoom. Note that without the surrounding hype and excitement of a full-blown deliverance ministry, people are fairly subdued in their deliverances.

Even during a more spectacular deliverance, notice how Alexander Pagani, who believes he’s an apostle, has to fight to cast out a demon after the movie’s premiere. What Pagani does is similar to what many did in my own theater.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di0y3sYcrVs

Although this man isn’t associated with this movie, it takes him over thirty minutes to deliver a woman from demons using the same techniques found in “Come Out in Jesus Name,”

Notice how little respect these so-called demons have for the authority of these so-called apostles. These men have to keep repeating themselves, yelling, and even physically guiding the demonized person to make something happen. This isn’t authority, it’s nagging.

Yet we see the complete opposite in the Bible. Christ and His followers cast out demons with a single command. There was no resistance, argument, or failure. It was so basic that Paul only had to pause briefly to cast out a demon so he could get back to praying. If someone with the authority of Christ tells a demon to leave, that demon offers absolutely no resistance.

Those in the deliverance ministry would say my last sentence was a lie. They say there was one time when Jesus Himself was unable to cast out a demon immediately, legitimizing their need to make a big, long-winded spectacle of their deliverance ministry. But when we actually look at the passage they rely on, even this proves these men don’t have the apostolic authority they claim.

And seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and crying out with a loud voice, he *said, “What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he *said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” And he began pleading with Him earnestly not to send them out of the region. Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. And the demons pleaded with Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” And Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea. (Mark 5:6-13)

The argument is that Jesus “had been saying to Him ‘Come out,’” meaning that Jesus did have to repeat Himself. And it’s true, this legion of demons didn’t release control immediately. However, look again and notice how the demons interact with Jesus from beginning to end.

And seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and crying out with a loud voice, he *said, “What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he *said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” And he began pleading with Him earnestly not to send them out of the region. Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. And the demons pleaded with Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” And Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

The demons’ immediate reaction to Jesus was groveling. The demons weren’t holding on out of rebellion, but negotiation. They knew they had zero hope of staying in that body, but they didn’t want to be removed from the region. In full surrender to the authority of Jesus Christ, they sought mercy and permission, and acted at the word of Christ.

We see that even the best biblical argument for deliverance ministry proves that the whole thing is unbiblical. Those with authority don’t need to yell, verbally guide the demons in how they should react or what they should do, physically touch the person to guide the demon’s exit, or repeatedly shout “out out out!” Those with the authority of Jesus command the demons with a word. Greg Locke, Alexander Pagani, and everyone else in this ministry clearly lacks such authority. Whatever they do on stage is clearly a spectacle that isn’t fueled by the authority of Jesus or the power of the Holy Spirit.

Misunderstanding apostleship

Deliverance ministry is built on the claim that these men are modern-day apostles. The logic follows that if apostles were confirmed by performing the supernatural:

I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most-eminent apostles, even if I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were worked out among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles. (2 Corinthians 12:11-12)

If apostles proved themselves by performing signs, it must also follow that those who can perform such wonderful signs must be apostles. And although none of these men do anything more than cast out demons, they still claim to be apostles. Greg Locke even compares his own rise within deliverance ministry to Paul, who had to go to other apostles to be confirmed. 

However, there’s one critical flaw that is common with anyone who believes apostles are still active today. They overlook the fact that apostles weren’t meant to last for generations, but were instead only intended to grow the early church.

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Paul compares Christ’s church to a house. Jesus was the cornerstone, and the prophets and apostles were the foundation. And just as a foundation is laid once and built upon, God’s model was for the universal church to be built on the foundation laid by Jesus Christ and the apostles. And just as Christ’s work is finished, so too has the role of apostle seen its fulfillment. 

This graphic shows what this looks like.

Credit to Chris Lenoir

The claims of apostleship by Greg Locke, Isaiah Saldivar, Alexander Pagani, and anyone else is not only false, but dangerously unbiblical. They deceive themselves by twisting Scripture, and through that they deceive thousands of others. This alone is enough to dismiss them as either Christians with a poor understanding of the Bible or dangerous heretics.

Misunderstanding supernatural gifts

Similar to the role of apostles, supernatural gifts also had a temporary purpose that has ceased. They accompanied apostles and other believers in the church’s infancy, confirming the truth of the gospel that was being proclaimed. We must be careful not to read what happened at one point in biblical history and assume everything should be normal for today.

When we read things like the book of Acts, we must remember that the New Testament wasn’t written, the Old Testament was primarily only available in Jewish synagogues, and persecution against Christians was quick and inevitable. Supernatural gifts served two purposes: to confirm that Jesus Christ truly was the Messiah to those outside the church, and to grow and mature those within the church. Although we may wish Christianity was as spectacular as we read about, God’s purpose for gifts has been replaced by a global church and the collection of His divinely inspired word.

If you’d like to read more about understanding the purpose of gifts biblically, check out these discussions:

Understanding the Gift of Tongues

1 Corinthians 14, Church, and our Consumer Mentality

Responding to the “3 Prophetic Dreams” Video

The most spectacular deliverances are off-camera

We witnessed demonized people violently shaking, but not involuntarily like a seizure or severe muscle spasms would create. They cried and yelled. They vomited after a lot of intense emotion and provocation. They hissed or slightly changed their voices. If we didn’t know people were supposed to have genuine demons, we could have assumed we were watching an amateur improv class acting out demon possession and exorcism. I don’t say that disrespectfully, but I point out that nothing we witnessed was beyond what the human body is capable of choosing to do.

However, the stories we heard were far less mundane. People throughout the deliverance ministry report some pretty incredible things only possible when dealing with the supernatural. I believe it was Pagani who ever claims he’s seen someone climb up a wall. 

We’re told we must believe in the power of deliverance ministry because there’s no other explanation for what people have experienced than supernatural demons allowing people to defy physics. However, in an age of cell phone cameras and frequent live streams, it’s odd that we never get to see these things. So many people witness them, but only when the cameras aren’t rolling. 

Even Luke 8:29 tells us that we should at least expect to see someone with supernatural strength, even if it’s a demon naturally creating bursts of adrenaline. Yet if anything spectacular has happened, we never get to see it. Instead, we get stories of the supernatural in the midst of heightened emotions and rather mundane reactions from demons.

Demons literally feed on sin

Throughout deliverance ministry, they will cast out very specific spirits. Some have names, but others are attached to specific sin problems (i.e. the spirit of fear, lust, porn, anger, etc). Page 13 of Greg Locke’s “Deliverance Handbook” gives even more examples of these spirits. Although the Bible is silent on why demons would dwell inside Christians, the movie explains it.

They liken sin to food for these demons. Demons find actual nourishment from their preferred sins, and temptation comes when they get hungry. So a spirit of laziness wants to stop a Christian from getting things done. A spirit of lust wants them to look at porn, look at someone with lust, or just have certain thoughts. A spirit of witchcraft may want them to consume Satanic media like Pokemon and Harry Potter, do yoga, or participate in New Age practices like healing crystals.

There is no biblical support for demons giving us thoughts or whispering temptations to us, nor do they offer any. But everyone knows what it’s like to have thoughts and desires that we can’t immediately explain, and we can even be so ashamed that we want to blame it on something outside of us. Deliverance ministry puts great emphasis on demons as the source of these things. Thus, they explain temptation as how demons inside us seek to be fed.

How they explain demonization and demons in Christians

Deliverance ministry creates a unique problem for itself. To quote Isaiah Saldivar, “We’ve done thousands of deliverance on genuine Christians and pastors. I’m talking about ‘speaking in tongues, Spirit-filled’ leaders/pastors/Christians. So to say a Christian can’t, you’re discrediting thousands of people’s stories; like people in the chat, your story, my story.” They’ve had experiences that they’ve interpreted as genuine deliverance from demons, so they must answer how Christians can possibly have demons inside them.

While some want to distinguish between demon oppression (a demon harassing from outside a person) and demon possession (a demon dwelling inside a person), Saldivar and others insist there’s no difference. He goes back to the Greek word that can be translated as “demonized,” meaning there’s no functional difference in how demons treat those with or without the Holy Spirit.

When asked how a Christian can be the temple of the Holy Spirit yet allow a demon inside as well, the movie appeals to the temple metaphor in the way the Bible never has. Their logic goes something like this: Just as a temple has a courtyard where anyone could go, demons are also in the courtyard of our bodily temples. They may not inhabit the same sacred place as the Holy Spirit, but they are still there.

Ignoring that the temple courtyard was meant for Gentile worshippers, not demonic loiterers, this loose appeal to a temple metaphor is what results when we assume experience is true and then find ways to make the Bible agree. The final part of Saldivar’s statement above highlights a core issue in Charismatic theology. Experience is equal to, or above, the Bible. If experience tells us one thing, the Bible must be changed and interpreted to confirm that experience. 

Although the movie doesn’t offer biblical support for casting demons out of Christians, Isaiah Saldivar does so on a popular YouTube video. At around the 5:20 mark he says that Acts 8 shows Philip casting demons out of Christians.

Now Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began preaching Christ to them. And the crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was being said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was doing. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:5-8)

There’s no indication that these people had demons after salvation. Instead, when we remember that supernatural gifts served to confirm that the gospel truly was from God, it makes even less sense that people needed these signs and wonders after salvation. But because those in deliverance ministry must make the Bible agree with them, they must interpret it in a way that doesn’t contradict experience.

Likewise, they try to argue that Paul had one or more demons in him.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. (Romans 8:18-19)

Here, they argue, Paul is saying that a demon dwells in him. It makes him do what he doesn’t want to and stops him from doing good. Paul is a Christian, yet also a victim of demonization just like we are.

It’s worth noting that Paul explains where this comes from in his very next sentence.

But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.  (Romans 8:20)

I’m not accusing these men of intentionally leading people astray. They may be, but a nefarious purpose isn’t necessary to explain why someone would consistently misinterpret God’s word. However, there’s no denying that they make unbiblical assertions without substance because their experiences must be validated, even if it means God’s word must fall under the authority of those experiences.

Speaking authoritatively about speculation and conjecture

I want to be gracious to the needs of a movie. They introduce several new concepts for the audience within a two-hour movie, but they need to use their time to entertain as well. A single movie meant to entertain entire audiences won’t allow for a thorough examination and exegetical breakdown of big ideas and their many nuances. The movie is more of a crash course in deliverance, not an all-encompassing resource to understand absolutely everything.

However, even with that, there is far too much said with objective certainty that has no basis in the Bible. They make wild claims about Satan, demons, God, and the nature of humanity with nothing to support it except their excitement, the music, and the sensational clips from a few deliverance meetings. We’ll discuss a few of these claims, but it’s important to realize that so much of what they say with authority cannot be found anywhere in the Bible and is purely reliant on their interpretations needing to line up with what they already believe about deliverance ministry. If we simply pause at every truth claim and ask “How do you know?” we’ll rarely find answers in the movie.

The greatest movement since Pentecost?

The movie starts out with a bold claim that deliverance ministry is the greatest movement since Pentecost. This seems like a bold claim, but how men like Greg Locke understand the lost purpose of deliverance makes this claim obvious. To them, the gospel cannot be fully proclaimed without being accompanied by casting out demons. Thus, in a way, they have recaptured what has been lost by the church for thousands of years. But, as we’ll see, these are just one of many authoritative claims without biblical support.

If a demon isn’t cast out right away, the person will be asked about who they aren’t forgiving. They’re told that they absolutely cannot be delivered if they refuse to forgive themselves or others. It’s explained that demonization is a legal exchange, and the deliverer cannot cast out the demon if the person gives them legal rights to their body and soul by refusing to forgive.

First of all, this is a very convenient cop-out. If a person walks away not delivered, then it’s their own fault. The person walks away looking guilty while the person on stage saves face.

Beyond that, there’s also no biblical support for this. We never see Jesus or a disciple fail to cast out demons because of someone’s lack of forgiveness. Likewise, while the Bible talks about the importance of forgiving because we’ve been forgiven of so much (see Matthew 18:21-35), we never see that forgiveness is part of a spiritual legal binding that unlocks us from bondage to demons.

The movie tries to explain it using God’s courtroom as described in the book of Job. Perhaps one of these teachers explains better beyond the movie, but as-is their justification was another example of making a bold claim, even referencing something in the Bible, but doing so in a way that completely ignores any context or responsible interpretation.

Also of note is a prayer of forgiveness from Greg Locke’s handbook, which read exactly like something in behavior psychology might say:

Lord, I come to you in full confession and repentance of my sin and rebellion. Today I rest in your forgiveness, and I fully and I completely forgive myself.

A dangerous reliance on pragmatism

It’s clear that little of what happens in deliverance is planned. Several statements follow the idea of “We tried something, it worked, so that meant God was blessing it.” They have their own metrics of success, often guided by experientialism, and justify what they do by how the audience reacts. This pragmatism, where the ends justify the means, is dangerously common throughout Christianity. And pragmatism is just as deceptive here as anywhere else, fooling people looking at results without considering whether those results were genuine. 

An example of pragmatism and forgiveness

Forgiveness is a major part of deliverance ministry. People aren’t just told to forgive others, but to employ the secular idea of forgiving themselves as well. Thus, people who are delivered find themselves relieved of a burden when they choose to forgive. 

Greg Locke insists that by forgiving, the demons lose their claim on the person. However, the same sense of freedom and peace is seen in secular settings as well. In our culture, it’s an accepted part of modern psychology that we need to stop being so disappointed with ourselves and live guilt-free from our past failures. Atheists, Christians, Wiccans, and all others are told to find peace and satisfaction by forgiving themselves and others.

This is pragmatism in action. They employ a basic psychology strategy in a Christian setting and assume that because it makes people feel better, it must be a necessary part of their ministry. And, as we’ve seen, they take it so far as to insist demons can only demonize us if we refuse to forgive, confusing why the act of forgiveness helps them feel better.

The gospel must have deliverance from demons (but keep the snakes away)

At one point they invoke the uniqueness of casting out demons. They claim that Old Testament prophets had a lot of signs accompanying them, but casting out demons was unique to Jesus. Thus, according to them, salvation and lasting revival are only true if they feature deliverance from evil spirits.

This is the verse they use to defend their belief.

And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons (Mark 16:17a)

This seems to confirm why they only need a ministry designed around casting out demons. However, they also neglect the full passage. 

And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; and they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. (Mark 16:17-18)

Pentecostals have a long history of taking this passage seriously, handling venomous snakes and drinking poison. Men like Greg Locke, who claim to have the signs of an apostle, stop at just one of these. They don’t speak in tongues (at least as Acts 2 describes tongues as real languages), they don’t heal the sick, mess with snakes, or drink antifreeze without issue. In light of all of these things, they do the one thing most difficult to test and claim to be apostles because of it.

Accusing pastors of disobedience and Satan-pleasing

“Denying the deliverance ministry is the greatest act of disobedience in the modern church.” These few words match the tone of the movie. They aren’t just promoting their own beliefs, but accusing pastors of purposely keeping their people in bondage by denying deliverance ministry. They double down on this by not allowing the pastors to just be ignorant, but actively obeying a demonic spirit.

God’s word encourages us to call out people in active and clear disobedience. However, making such bold accusations isn’t founded on any biblical principles. It’s an impulsive, controversial, and sensational claim with no way to defend it. They are telling entire congregations their pastor is a man of Satan with no evidence beyond their personal experiences and poor interpretation of God’s word.

Making Satan an evil version of God

Much talk about Satan portrays him as almost omnipotent, almost omniscient, and almost omnipresent. He has almost complete control over all situations, can read our minds, and personally attacks us either by being in our presence or exercising his power from afar. He may not be as powerful as God, but he’s pretty close. 

This is popular among almost all flavors of Christianity. However, we must remember that Satan is little different from an angel, and therefore has the same limitations. Angels can only be in one place at a time, are never recorded as reading minds or implanting thoughts, and Satan only has as much power as God allows him to have. 

A lot of deliverance ministry relies on fear-mongering by casting Satan as a supreme villain of the universe, solely responsible for our sin and temptations through his direct actions or those of his demonic minions. He has power, and he has plans. But we must be careful not to give him more power than he truly has. Throughout the movie, and this ministry in general, Satan is elevated to a level of power just shy of the Almighty God.

If you’d like to dig deeper into why this may not be the case, check out my audio and video teaching about the true source of our temptation.

Evidence someone has demons

The movie gives some fairly big ways to tell if you have a demon. You might have scary or sexual dreams, a fear of abandonment after a parent or partner left you, anger, or any number of other sinful behaviors, thoughts, or temptations. Without sarcasm, the simplest way to tell if someone is under Satanic attack is if they have anything negative in their lives.

Greg Locke’s handbook for deliverance ministry gives us a sweeping list of other ways you can tell someone is manifesting a demon, including:

  • Screaming
  • Sweating
  • Burping
  • Coughing
  • Sneezing
  • Yawning
  • Sudden urge to urinate
  • Passing gas
  • Falling
  • Trembling
  • Spitting
  • Cursing
  • Sobbing
  • Runny/Bloody nose
  • Watery/Itchy eyes
  • Light-headedness
  • Tingling
  • Heat/Burning sensation
  • Bitter Taste
  • Ringing Ears
  • Muscle Spasms
  • Body Pains/Headaches
  • Stiff Hands
  • Itching
  • Nervousness
  • Twitching
  • Vomiting
  • Dizziness
  • Violent Outbursts
  • Chest Tightness
  • Choking Sensation
  • Demonic Visions
  • Tension Release/Peace
  • Heavy Breathing
  • Drooling/Foaming at the Mouth
  • Roaring
  • Stomach Cramps
  • Dry Heaving/ Retching
  • Skin Irritation
  • Laughter

It’s difficult to know how much they put all of this into practice, but it’s no wonder so many people within these circles assume they have a demon inside them. Not only is any sinful desire, thought, or action blamed on these evil spirits, but people are told that the slightest physical abnormality may be a demonic manifestation.

God’s word also tells us that sin is a manifestation. But rather than pointing it to a manifestation of demons, it’s simply evidence of us submitting ourselves to our sin nature.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these (Galatians 5:19-21a)

There’s a continual habit of minimizing our sin nature for the sake of legitimizing deliverance ministry. It also seems to make us jump at shadows by encouraging people to notice the normal irregularities of living and give them greater significance. In both cases, it points people to the wrong conclusion. And when they replace the deeds of the flesh with the manifestations of demons, they also tell people that they’re basically good, it’s just those demons trying to lead them to trouble.

Three baptisms

Within Charismatic and Pentecostal theology, a person experiences two baptisms. At conversion, they experience the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as seen at Pentecost and 1 Corinthians 12:13. The speaking of tongues can accompany this, and depending on the group these tongues are either optional or a mandatory sign of the person’s salvation.

The other baptism is the one we’re familiar with. A person who has professed faith in Jesus Christ identifies with His death, burial, and resurrection by being immersed in water. 

However, as I was talking to a friend who grew up in the Charismatic Movement before God showed them how unbiblical it was, he made an interesting observation about the movie. These deliverance moments are almost like a third baptism within the Charismatic understanding. But rather than being a meaningful experience that happens once, they can be repeated as often as the person wants it.

Because Charismatic theology places a huge emphasis on experience, many are taught that their closeness to God is tied to the intensity of the experiences they have. Deliverance ministry clearly appeals to those needing an intense, even cathartic, experience. However, there may be even more to its appeal than we realize.

Because of how easy it is to acquire demons, and because the signs of a demon will be experienced by anyone with a pulse, people are frequently delivered in these confirming moments. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit being tied to the beautiful moment of salvation, but that incredible feeling of being set free from our bondage to sin and experiencing forgiveness through Christ can only happen once. Likewise, water baptism is only treated as a one-time event. 

But deliverance is something wholly unique from things like speaking in tongues or prophesying. Participants can recreate that moment of salvation by being set free from these wicked spirits of varying sins, taking their reliance on experientialism to whole new heights. They may never call it a third baptism, but it’s hard to deny it’s treated like a repeatable moment of salvation.

Conditioning the delivered

I’ve mentioned this in other points, but it’s relevant to call it out specifically. Whenever you see someone involved in a face-to-face deliverance, you often see them touching the demonized person. They’ll swipe their head or back to communicate that they should feel like the demons are leaving. They’ll touch their stomach and go up to their mouth, or maybe hastily hand them a trash can without them showing signs of needing it, encouraging the person to wretch or vomit. 

Likewise, people are verbally conditioned to react. Even during the livestream after the movie, Greg Locke comforted people by saying that not everyone would throw popcorn or vomit, but some would. The implication, obviously, being that people should expect to do things like that.

Deliverance ministry seems to create a cycle of conditioning. People are told how they should expect to react and are sometimes physically guided in doing so. Whether from personal experience or seeing things in the media, they also act out what they assume it looks and feels like when a demon is cast out of them. When you set an expectation for someone who wants something like deliverance to be true, you condition them to fulfill it. 

Confusing intelligent spirits with metaphorical spirits

There’s no doubt that the Bible assumes the existence of intelligent spiritual beings, both obedient and rebellious to God. However, throughout the movie, they will talk about very specific spirits that seem to serve a single function. The most popular one in the movie was probably the spirit of religion, since that spirit blinds people to deliverance ministry. However, listen close enough, and especially if you listen to enough Charismatic sermons, you’ll hear that there is a spirit for everything. 

A few examples from Greg Locke’s handbook include spirits of:

  • Feminism
  • Rape
  • Narcissism
  • Hopelessness
  • Abandonment
  • Nakedness
  • Flirtation
  • Outcast
  • Cancer
  • Food allergies
  • Autism
  • Dyslexia

As the movie progresses, and especially when Greg Locke did his live deliverance afterward, these spirits are rebuked as though they’re actual entities. Like patron saints in the Catholic church, people are regularly delivered from these spirits responsible for specific sins (or non-sin) issues in their lives. But where does this idea come from?

Ultimately, this is the result of ignoring context and language. Here are a few verses that deliverance ministry might use to show that there are spirits in charge of practically everything in our lives:

You shall speak to all those wise at heart whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron’s garments to set him apart as holy, in order for him to minister as priest to Me. (Exodus 28:3)

or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the woman stand before Yahweh, and the priest shall apply all this law to her. (Numbers 5:30)

Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of distortion; they have led Egypt astray in all that it does, as a drunken man strays into his vomit. (Isaiah 19:14)

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)

Despite a surface level reading seeming to imply there are good and evil spirits set over every area of life, the reality is that we need to apply context and logic to what’s being said. No where does God’s word speak specifically about actual spirits being in charge of confusion or wisdom. When intelligent spirits are mentioned, they aren’t set over a particular positive or negative action.

Likewise, the times when something is a “spirit of ____” is said within the context of a person’s capabilities or weaknesses. In none of these or similar verses can we find an intelligent being having such a role assigned to them. Instead, verses like these are little different from saying someone has “school spirit.” They speak to the demeanor, attitude, or way of thinking of a human being. 

Men like Greg Locke or Isaiah Saldivar devote entire ministries to driving out these so-called spirits who bring specific sins. Yet in the end, they start from an inability to rightly interpret things in their context, leading to incredibly misguided understandings. There are intelligent spirits out there, and the Bible uses spirit language to mention something about a person’s qualities, but these two things are impossible to connect unless someone really needs them to connect. 

“Satanic Panic” and looking like bad guys

While watching, I noticed the echoes of the Satanic Panic from the 1980s and how much impact it still had today. I was even taken back to books like “Turmoil in the Toybox” that I’d discovered as a kid in the 90s. Later in the movie, they even make mention of the Satanic Panic. Yet rather than seeing it for the irrational fear-mongering from people playing on the ignorance of people, they seemed proud to align themselves with it. 

They claim that the spirit of witchcraft was alive and well in the 80s, but that it was a bit too healthy. This spirit realized it had been too bold when America became aware of it, so it went into hiding and repackaged itself as something that Christians would find harmless. Today we see it in things like Harry Potter, Pokemon, yoga, Disney, and many other things Satan uses to put demons into us without us realizing it.

However, because the spirit of witchcraft designed these things to infiltrate Christians, these men are seen as the bad guys for denouncing them. This was made even worse when Greg Locke hit the news for one of his book-burning events where he encouraged people to burn books like Twilight. The unspoken implication isn’t just that Christians fall for Satan’s deception when they allow these things in, but that anyone who criticizes Locke for calling them Satanic are, likewise, led astray by Satanic spirits.

Renouncing all the ways we gain demons

Another critical component of deliverance ministry is renouncing everything bad in your life, in your past, and even in your ancestors’ pasts. The goal is to boldly claim you have no affiliation or allegiance to anything that invites demons into our bodies, breaking whatever hold those demons may have had and prevent more from entering.

The movie frequently mentions the various ways we can get these demons, and therefore things we must renounce. The ones I noted from the movie and live stream include:

  • Using a ouija board at 8-years-old
  •  even if you didn’t know what you were doing
  • A grandparent’s involvement with FreeMasonry (these are called “generational curses”)
  • Playing “light as a feather, stiff as a board,” despite it being based on physics and not witchcraft
  • Being raped or molested (I think they argue that it’s not your fault, but you allow demons to enter through your reaction to it, but the logic wasn’t clear when I heard it)

Again, page 6 of Greg Locke’s handbook offers a helpful number of these renunciations. By renouncing these things, whether someone knows they were involved or not, they are able to be set free from them. This is especially appealing because it acts like secret knowledge held by those in the deliverance ministry who can free people from things they didn’t know they had. No one who entered into a deliverance event would have guessed they carried a demon from their father molesting them or their great-great-grandpa being in a cult, but as they join Greg Locke and others in reciting these renunciations, they are finally able to be set free.

Obsession with New Age, sex, the occult, and generational curses

Throughout the movie, they spent a lot of time focused on a few specific things. They had a lot to say about New Age things like healing crystals and yoga. They focused a lot on sexual spirits holding people in bondage (with the spirit of incest repeated several times in the live stream deliverance service). The occult was everywhere, from movies to music. The occult could even invite demons in from our ancestors up to ten generations ago. 

They talked a lot about tarot, ouija, FreeMasons, secret societies, and various elements of pop culture. The problem with these things wasn’t concerning God’s holiness, but the demons attached to them. Everything was always about demons and evil spirits. The obsession and over-emphasis on these things grew so distracting that it felt like we were listening to someone ramble on YouTube about conspiracy theories.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Greg Locke’s original fame came from riling people up, making wild accusations, and creating enemies. The tone and thrust of the movie seems scary, but it also makes sense when we consider the source. Locke thrives on stirring the pot, and a setting where he can accuse Satan of being behind almost everything suits him well.

After-credits gospel presentation

As far as the movie goes, I can say one very positive thing about it. During the live stream at the end, Greg Locke gave a gospel presentation that was heard by thousands. As I listened and discussed it with others later, it’s safe to say it was a solid understanding of the gospel. I don’t think Locke had anything scripted (due to the “Spirit-led” nature of Charismatics) so it may have meandered a bit. However, I was genuinely pleased that people heard the truth about their sins, their need for Jesus Christ, and him implying that people had to actually believe the prayer he led them in. 

So for the overwhelming amount of biblical concerns I have about the movie and deliverance ministry, this was a highlight.

Concerns about Greg Locke

Locke isn’t the founder of deliverance ministries, nor may he be the biggest name. However, he’s clearly famous enough that it warranted a documentary starring his development into deliverance ministry. People will now see him as an authority on the spiritual realm. However, there are issues created in both the movie itself and his recent past that change how much we ought to trust what he’s asking us to believe in his movie.

Locke’s first experience with a demon

In the movie and other interviews, Locke tells the story of his first real encounter with deliverance. While livestreaming his church’s baptisms, a grandmother approached the baptismal with her 8-year-old granddaughter. Everything was fine until they dipped the grandmother and the child into the water, at which point Locke describes the girl having a violent reaction to being immersed, including arching her back, hissing like a cat, and clawing at Locke.

The movie shows a clip of the woman and child sitting in the water, yet shows nothing of the child’s reaction. Instead, Locke simply narrates over the unexciting clip to assure us that he was scared for his life at this young child’s reaction. His wife likewise tells us that something was clearly wrong with the child.

It’s clear they have video evidence of the event, yet don’t show it. In my own searching for the full live stream, I was unable to find any video evidence. We could argue that it’s for the child’s protection, yet there was nothing stopping them from blurring her face during the violent reaction in the same way they blurred her in what they showed.

We can only speculate, but it’s concerning that we’re given a colorful narrative of how frightening this moment was for Locke, yet they intentionally omit what happened. What’s far more likely, and mundane, is that a young child was forced backward into the water and panicked, grabbing at whatever she could to protect herself. If the child also suffered from developmental issues, perhaps which her grandmother interpreted as demons, this is even far more likely than Greg Locke unbiblically baptizing someone who hadn’t professed faith in Jesus Christ and having a demon attack him in response.

Locke’s honeymoon period of deliverance ministry

One would expect that the central figure of a deliverance documentary would be seasoned in such a ministry. I don’t think the movie was specific about how long Locke had been actively involved. However, during an online interview, he clearly states that he started doing deliverance, or at least began looking into it, in August 2021. 

I will note that the movie’s producers, perhaps realizing this issue, eventually introduce other men like Alexander Pagani and Isaiah Saldivar into the discussion. However, Locke’s recent immersion into this life seems strikingly similar to any other instance where someone is excited for something new. Like a newly married couple who are certain they’d be content to stare into each other’s eyes every single day, Locke’s excitement, passion, and confidence in deliverance ministry needs to be rightly understood. And because of his reputation for the outlandish and controversial, and because he’s gone all-in in a public setting, we also need to understand that he’s committed himself to not only sticking by what he’s saying in his excitement but going bigger and bolder in the future.

His wife is a pastor

Toward the beginning of the movie, Greg Locke’s wife has the title of “pastor” next to her name. On his church’s website, a picture of each of them appears with the heading “biblical preaching. As a clear violation of 1 Timothy 2:12, Locke shows a lack of sound biblical understanding when it doesn’t suit his denomination or preferred beliefs.

Locke divorced his wife and married the church secretary

If the reports are true, and it seems as though Greg Locke has confirmed many of them are, he divorced his wife because she was dragging him down with her mental health issues (allegedly compounded by his own verbal and physical abuse), then married the church secretary a few months later.

This article by the Christian Post covers the basics of the story, while this one reveals how Locke sent her to a women’s shelter after their divorce. 

Pulpit & Pen thoroughly reported on events from the perspective of his ex-wife, including abusive and profane text messages that Greg Locke has confirmed are real.

This picture of Greg Locke seems all but confirmed from a sermon he gave a year ago where he says that people in bad marriages are in “relational bondage.” In this, he says that spouses can hold us back. He even seems to personalize it by mocking the idea of staying with a spouse who has a crippling addiction.

I’ll leave it to readers to get as involved in this story as they feel is wise. But I’ll leave this with a clear call for concern. Greg Locke seems ill-suited to be a pastor, obsessing over status and image to the destruction of his own marriage. It’s impossible to ignore the timing of marrying his secretary months after these events, and the way he belittles marriage further shows his need to justify actions that have disqualified him from being a pastor. Even those who don’t agree with my understanding of biblical divorce and remarriage can’t ignore Locke’s clear violations of biblical commands.

Locke’s successful history of sensationalism

“It was never about the controversy. It was never about the politics. I thought it was. I thought it was about Trump. I thought it was about COVID. But God built our platform for deliverance.”

Greg Locke’s statement shows a lack of self awareness while simultaneously revealing why deliverance ministry appeals to him. 

In the movie, Greg Locke recounts his sudden rise to fame over a video criticizing Target’s new bathroom rules. He kept himself in the spotlight with similarly contentious content over politics, eventually becoming a heavy Trump supporter, followed by heavy criticism over COVID restrictions.

On the surface, it seems like Greg Locke went from being a controversial blowhard to a dedicated follower of Jesus. However, his newfound passion isn’t as dissimilar from what previously kept him in the spotlight. The things he did were certainly contentious, but they were also sensational. They played to his emotions, let him make wild accusations, gave him an enemy to fight, and allowed him to lead thousands (even millions) into a hidden truth that the “mainstream” didn’t want people to see.

The structure of Greg Locke’s message has never changed. Deliverance ministry is just a different outlet for whatever drives him to seek the spotlight. He may believe in deliverance ministry just as much as he believed everything else he did. However, it’s foolish to think all the sensationalism that built his platform isn’t the exact same thing propelling him right now. He thinks God built him up for deliverance, but the trend seems to point to deliverance being more of the same.

Two reasons this movie will impact Christians who watch it

If the response of my own theater is anything to judge by, this movie is going to excite, and ultimately deceive, most people who see it. As I listened to the things said, what people responded to, and how the movie presented certain ideas, I noticed a trend. I think there are two aspects of deliverance ministry that speak to the core of our human experience.

First, it gives us something to blame our problems on. Many testimonies in the movie centered around people who had thoughts or urges that they couldn’t control and didn’t understand where they came from. They’d sought plenty of worldly wisdom to no avail, yet felt great relief and comfort when they realized it wasn’t their fault, but Satan’s. And although many churches today teach that Satan is the one who tempts us, people are often left to wallow and told to “pray harder,” while deliverance promises them true freedom by dramatically removing Satan’s hold on a person.

Second, it gives people a purpose. One of the leaders from the movie said “We don’t build audiences, we build armies.” Several times, they pointed out that their goal isn’t to have a bunch of people come and look at someone speak, but instead to set people free from their demons and then equip them to go and do the same to others.

As I said, these speak to the human experience. Many Christians know there’s something wrong within them, and they spend years suffering with sinful thoughts and lifestyles without seeing any way to escape. Likewise, being given a purpose fulfills our innate, God-given command to subdue the world and fight for God’s righteousness. 

The sad reality is that men like Greg Locke and Alexander Pagani are right. People do have deep-rooted evil that the modern church is ill-equipped to understand, explain, or engage with. Likewise, they’re absolutely right that the work of Christian ministry is to equip people to truly act out their faith, both in and out of the church, yet so many churches let people remain immature. 

Sadly, they diagnose genuine problems but offer wrong solutions.

Christians do need to look inward to understand the source of their temptations. But it’s not demons we need to look at. As James 1:15 says, “But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (ESV)” 1 Corinthians 6:18 tells us to flee sexual immorality. James 4:8-10 says that freedom from sin comes from drawing near to God, purifying our hearts from double-mindedness, washing our hands, and humbling ourselves before God. No where are we told that the source of sin is demons, nor that the cure for sin is having them cast out.

Christians immerse themselves in worldliness, making the lures and enticements of Satan into a regular part of their daily habits. The things they see from Hollywood or social media, where they find their identity, and what they believe about what they need most in life all factor into temptations and sinful choices. But Satan doesn’t tempt us, he just lays out a buffet and knows that we’ll take any opportunity to act on our sinful desires as long as it’s available to us.

Likewise, Christians have the Holy Spirit inside of them pulling them toward holy living, yet our Christian culture has conditioned us to find the Christian life unexciting or unnecessary. People aren’t trained in discernment, equipped to teach, or given motivation to give the gospel. Instead, we’ve created a culture that keeps baby Christians on a steady diet of milk while suppressing the work of the Holy Spirit pushing us to grow in sanctification.

This movie, and deliverance ministry in general, offers a new answer to some old problems. It claims to hold information being suppressed by Satan and the spirit of religion that keeps pastors and other Christians in bondage. They offer a false dichotomy by insisting we must either accept watered-down Christianity or believe all the theology behind deliverance ministry. 

Ultimately, they offer another way of missing the answers of why we sin and why we’re discontent in our Christian walk.

Visit the “Christian Living and Spiritual Maturity” section of my topics page to learn more about living the life God calls us to.

For more on understanding the root of our sin and temptation, check out these discussions:

Christians & Psychology series

Anger Begins with Idolatry

How I Survive Depression

Kill the Anger in Your Marriage (Part 1): Understanding Anger, Bitterness, and Hurtful Words

Kill the Anger in Your Marriage (Part 2): Why We Fight and How to Stop

How to Kill Temptation Before It Starts