The horror genre has reached an all-time high in terms of book sales during the past year. There appears to be a heightened interest in the forces of evil and the supernatural. There should therefore be a large market for this new title, and it should make essential and salutary reading among believers and non-believers alike.
Based on a hugely successful podcast of the same name, The Exorcist Files relates the experiences of Father Carlos Martins, described as “one of the most in-demand exorcists in the Roman Catholic Church”.
Father Carlos uses ten examples of real-life exorcisms, detailing individual possessions, which manifest through levitation, supernatural strength and violence, foaming at the mouth and even the sprouting of fangs. Each account is sensitively written, without hyperbole or sensationalism and is, subsequently, quite terrifying.
He presents all these situations in the context of the history and theology of demonic activity, and highlights the causes. Sin, trauma or occult activity can open us up to evil, he says. And it’s clear that we should be taking this much more seriously than we do.
We are spiritual beings, he explains, and when someone doesn’t believe in God, they can seek satisfaction through the pagan alternatives prevalent in our society. Fortune-telling, new age therapies, horoscopes, seances, Ouija boards, witchcraft – are all dangerous.
The author describes the prayers, rituals and techniques he uses to achieve exorcism. And these are methods that can be accessed and adopted by any true Christian believer, he says. Ultimately, when Christ is invoked through prayer, he always triumphs.
This is a powerful book. The devil is real, and we fail to take him seriously at our peril. But with Jesus at the centre of our lives we can counter the evil around us. Christ has the victory.
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