Greg Locke, founder and lead pastor of Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, released his new book “Cast It Out: The Call to Set People Free” in August.
In it, Locke highlights the Bible’s teachings on deliverance and what he believes is the universal call for the church to engage in this ministry.
Locke told ChurchLeaders that he wrote the book so that people could experience the journey of “a guy that was full-blown cessationist” turned “full-blown deliverance minister.” The book adds details to the story explored in the film “Come Out in Jesus Name,” which was released in the spring.
“I wanted to take the fantastical out of it, the spookiness out of it, and I want people to see this is the ministry of Jesus,” Locke said. “It’s New Testament. It’s biblical. And it doesn’t have to be scary.”
Locke shared that he wrote the book with the hope that Christians will come away with an understanding that deliverance ministry is a “theological concept that I can wrap my mind around.”
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The majority of churches in America do not truly believe that there are angels and demons fighting an unseen war, Locke said, arguing that many Christians and pastors say they believe that “demons flee at the name of Jesus, but would be freaked out” if they ever encountered one.
“I think it’s just an ignorance” for followers of Jesus to not believe in the supernatural, Locke said. “In theory, we believe in the supernatural, but as far as practicing our theology, we do not.”
“If we assume, as a cessationist, that all the gifts have ceased, then there’s no need for the gifts,” he added. “Then there’s no need for the use of the gifts, which is really spiritual warfare.”
Therefore, what happens is Christians “play like we believe in demons and angels but we really don’t.” This result, Locke said, is “we’ve medicated demons, we’ve counseled demons, and we’ve even prayed for demons.”
Locke clarified that not everything is a demon. “I get it,” he said, “that’s one of the big arguments against deliverance ministry. Not everything’s a demon. But if it is, and many times it is, and if it is, there’s only one remedy for it. And it’s not prayer, it’s not counsel, and it’s not medicine. It is deliverance. It’s casting it out through the power of the name of Jesus. It’s the only remedy.”
