Demonic Opposition to Ministry at Cornell University

[an excerpt from The Six Pillars of Honest Politics: The Biblical Nature of a Level Playing Field, © 2007 John C. Rankin]

   Once when speaking at Cornell University, I met with a husband and wife team in campus ministry, whom we will call Joe and Sue.

   Sue was eager to speak with me. In the fall of 1988, she was awakened once at 3:00 a.m., being strangled at the throat by invisible hands, or claws. She cried out in terror, asking Joe to pray for her. After a period of prayer, the strangulation receded and ceased. There were repeated attacks in the ensuing months, each time at exactly 3:00 a.m., as she was awakened by a cacophony of “noise,” where “the whole room seemed alive and crawling with evil laughter, accusations, mockery.” Sometimes the attacks ceased with a short period of prayer, but at least once, Joe and Sue had to pray until dawn.

   This was new territory for them. A woman friend, who had experience as a third world missionary gave one piece of advice to Sue – namely, when the demon showed up again, to command it to “name itself.” So the next time it happened, Joe commanded the demon to name itself, and the whole room became still and quiet. Then Sue heard God’s voice in the most direct way she had ever experienced. His word came to her, through her mind but originating outside it. He said to her, “Its name is ‘the bold one.’ ” So she told this to Joe, and he said, “By the authority that the True Bold One, Jesus Christ, gives me, I command you to leave and not return.”

   As he did, she saw in her spirit the appearance of a “... huge lumbering demon in the upper right corner of the room. It seems jillions of smaller demons shot out of the room and the big one went out, snarling and fuming.” The peace of the Lord came over Joe and Sue and their home, they fell peacefully asleep, and never again experienced this demonic attack. These 3:00 a.m. attacks – sorcery at the right hand of power in an academic setting?