Doubting the Devil: Christians Who Deny Satan's Existence Are 'Sitting Ducks,' Says Lutheran Pastor

Belief in God, heaven, and hell has steadily declined over the past 20 years, as has belief in angels and the devil, according to Gallup’s tracking of “Americans' Belief in Five Spiritual Entities” from 2001 to 2023. Not surprisingly, those who identify as Christian are most likely to believe the devil exists (80%), compared to just 58% of overall respondents. After all, Christianity’s sacred texts portray Satan as active in human affairs from beginning to end.

Yet, some believers insist the Bible’s claims about Satan and demons are not to be taken literally, but viewed only as symbols of evil. This reductionist view leaves Christians vulnerable, according to Dr. Harold Ristau, a pastor who specializes in deliverance ministry and warns, “‘[I]f you don't know who your enemy is, you're a sitting duck.”

Ristau, a veteran military chaplain and president of Lutheran Classical College, is not a sensationalist. He is a sober-minded theologian who speaks from decades of frontline experience confronting the reality of demonic influence.

Faithfully Mag spoke with Ristau about his latest book, Spiritual Warfare and Deliverance: How to Minister to the Demonically Oppressed and Possessed, which dismantles modern assumptions and provides a framework for this controversial aspect of the Christian life.

In this gripping Q&A, we explore why he is convinced a baptized Christian can be demonically possessed and the three most common entry points he has seen demons use to gain a foothold in a believer's life.

This excerpted Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Harold Ristau (Source: BPG/Marie MacPherson)

FM: Can you briefly describe your ministry background?

Ristau: I'm a faculty member at Luther Classical College in Casper, Wyoming. Prior to that, I was a missionary in Africa accrediting a school just outside of Nairobi, Kenya. I was a military chaplain for a number of years…deployed several times to the Middle East. I was a parish pastor in Montreal, Canada. [I] did a lot of work amongst inner-city contexts, some prison ministry, a lot of work with refugees. Then I was also a seminary professor for several years…[at] a Lutheran seminary in Canada.

This ministry of deliverance…is kind of dealing with unusual manifestations of the devil's work in our lives. I mean the devil's at work in all of our lives all the time and Christ is always victor, but some people get those attacks in more unusual ways than others. For whatever reason, God just gives us different crosses to bear. And this is one that He's laid upon me since I was probably in my late teens.

FM: One of the central claims in your book is that a Christian can be demonically possessed. How do you reconcile that with the indwelling Holy Spirit?

Ristau: The starting point is to basically first see possession and oppression [as separate conditions]. Possession is when you've got no control. Someone who's demonically possessed — and by the way, this is always rare — doesn't know what just happened in the last hour, half hour, 10 minutes. There's a demon in you speaking, kind of like the Hollywood movies. But I hate to tempt people to see Hollywood movies as a source of knowledge when it comes to this. I'd rather them go to the Holy Scriptures.