Deliver Us From Evil: A Pastor’s Reluctant Encounter with the Powers of Darkness
by Don Basham
Chosen Books
US $14.99
ISBN: 978-0-8007-9603-7
Deliver Us From Evil is one of the few first person-memoir modern religious books I like. Really like. It’s about a pastor’s slow and yes very reluctant journey toward understanding that there are demons in the world and that those demons are very actively destroying the lives of believers and non-believers alike.
Fact is, most modern western Christians don’t take the devil seriously and back in 1960 when Pastor Basham’s journey began...very pastors bothered to even ponder the demonic. Belief in the supernatural had been knocked out of them by Christian seminaries and by the culture they lived in; demons were assigned to the Middle Ages and Jesus was thought to be “humoring” the people of His age whenever He mentioned Satan.
But Pastor Basham ended up taking an unplanned journey and many real-life lessons into deliverance, and this book shows the small personal steps and theological advances he took to understand how demons operate.
Basham is not arrogant and doesn’t put himself out as an expert. The book is about spiritual truths but it is also a memoir of his life as a pastor and a mirror of the trials that happen to ministers along the way.
In addition to stories of afflicted formerly-demonized people, Basham also shares what he has discovered about how and why demons affect people and how to battle them. The stories are compelling and the people he describes -- demonized victims, theological opponents, congregations, and colleagues-- all seem like people we know and have met.
Of course the book is a handbook as well. So those who read it will be well-armed in the spiritual warfare battle. Highly recommended.
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