On Saturday, October 29, Corban faculty and students alike were treated to a workshop entitled “Angels, Demons, and Ghosts: Oh My!” from Dr. Gerry Breshears.
Cory and Jen Ellison, RD’s of PVG, are personal acquaintances of Dr. Breshears. Both were his students at Western Seminary, where he has three decades of educational ministry under his belt. As if that were not enough to make him a credible speaker on spiritual matters, he has also taught at multiple Bible colleges and seminaries in various countries, including Lebanon, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and Poland.
Dr. Breshears spoke in front of approximately 40 listeners in the PVG lobby. Jen Ellison scheduled this event for anyone who was interested in learning more about the controversal topic of angels and demons.
“Every year there are students who have encounters with demons,” Ellison said, “and there aren’t a lot of resources of how to respond. I wanted to equip students with the knowledge of how to deal with these situations in their own lives, and the lives of others.”
The three-hour seminar was divided into three sections dealing with common misconceptions about demons, discussion of the “dominion of darkness” and the “kingdom of light,” and personal stories from Dr. Breshears.
Dr. Breshears discussed commonly believed facts about demons that may be true, but are never stated in the Bible. Some examples of these are that demons are fallen angels, the devil cannot read minds, and that demons cannot dwell in Christians. Dr. Breshears reassured that these facts very well may be true, but there is no specific scriptural evidence that backed them up.
Dr. Breshears reminded his listeners that Christians have authority over the demons in Jesus’ name. He urged that if anyone ever encountered a demon, they were to quote scripture, tell it to leave, and lastly, “do Jesusy stuff”- as he put it. “Jesusy stuff” means praying or reading your Bible, among other things.
The audience consisted of students and faculty alike, which pleased Ellison.
“I was suprised at the variety of people,” she said, “especially the age range and people from all different dorms.”
While some students took notes, others sat back and took in all of Dr. Breshears’ words. Ashley Cowan personally enjoyed the first hour of the seminar, where Dr. Breshears talked about the true and false ideas about spiritual beings.
“I liked the true and false part of his discussion,” she said, “because I think a lot of students have misconceptions about what the Bible says about demons.”
Overall, it was a unique seminar with a topic that lots of people don’t know how to handle. One thing is certain though; Jesus Christ is much more powerful than any evil. In Dr. Breshears’ words:
“My boss beat up your boss, get away!”