Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance

Product Information

As I talk about what can be controversial topics regarding demons and the spirit realm even in Christian circles, it comes with hesitation and concern that some may be offended. That is not my intention at all as I write. I can only tell you what I experienced and what God has shown me during the last 4-5 years. When I told a friend my concerns, he reminded me that “we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.” (Revelations 12:11) I needed to hear that. All of this is part of my testimony and I need not be ashamed. Because of His blood and the testimony He’s given me through this, I HAVE overcome. A shame to hear how some believe it’s based in fact. When literally there are passages about how to interpret dreams and how these authors are literally making money off of your incompetence. “Demon of pain, come out of Fred!” -Is literally in the book.

I learned so much about demons and deliverance and not to fear them. I learned about how to minister to different kinds of people, groupings of demons, ample scripture support, and deliverance tips, etc. Great read for anyone desiring to learn about demons and how to be delivered from them who believes in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, the Son of God. Demons return when they are cast out of unbelievers: Jesus clearly warned us that if we cast demons out of unbelievers, they are bound to return, each spirit bringing 7 even worse spirits with it (Matthew 12:43-45). The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Deliverance is for those who are in covenant with God: In Matthew 15:26, Jesus tells a non-Jewish woman who was seeking deliverance for her daughter, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." Obviously the context of this verse tells us that He wasn't speaking of physical children, but spiritual children. I also believe Jesus made it clear in this verse that it is not fit to cast deliverance before those who are outside covenant with God. In the Gospels, the symptoms of those who had a demon included extreme strength, epileptic-like fits, self-destructive behavior, screaming, and revulsion at Jesus Christ (a symptom no Christian can have). Compare some of the symptoms that Hammond says are common in people who have a demon: worry, procrastination, gossip, caffeine addiction, and the like (28-29). In fact, these things supposedly *are* demons. Also on the list of nearly 300 demons are stubbornness, shyness, daydreaming, discouragement, headache, retardation, forgetfulness, heartache, embarrassment, sexual frigidity, and intellectualism (113-15). I suppose I have the last-mentioned demon. Ignorance and stupidity, however, did not make the list.However, PIGS IN THE PARLOR is one of the worst Christian books I have ever read. Hammond teaches that *everyone,* including every Christian, has at least one demon and should seek to be delivered from it . In the Gospels, though, no one who had a demon ever approached Jesus and requested deliverance. No one! Loved ones had to bring the demoniacs to Jesus because they had no control over their bodies. There was just so much stuff in this book that was laughable (and this isn't even going into the entire chapter dedicated to explaining how Schizophrenia isn't an illness but is actually caused by multiple demons) My last post about ‘Healing the Family Tree’ touched on the topic of ‘deliverance’ in the context of the Eucharist – otherwise known as the Holy Communion service. From what I have read so far about healing and deliverance (as a total amateur on all of this by the way who isn’t really even in a position to practise any of the stuff I read except maybe on myself) the administration and receipt of deliverance through the Eucharist is apparently a minority method of receiving ‘deliverance’. Most other stuff I have found to read so far on the topic describes a different method which does not use the Eucharist. This method is modelled on what is found in the New Testament – especially the Gospel accounts of Jesus life and ministry, where we see descriptions of how Jesus ‘did’ deliverance on people in need of it, who he met. All Jesus did was to speak words of command much of the time and it was recorded that the demons simply obeyed him and come out of the people concerned – all be it with sometimes a last act of anger such as throwing the person being delivered to the ground. See Luke to 4: 34 to 37 for one example. There are plenty of others in the Gospels and Jesus is also recorded as giving authority to his followers (his disciples) to do the same – see Luke 9:1. I wish I could say that I have experienced all the mighty miracles that He did when He was on earth, but I can’t. Just like you, I am a work in progress; growing stronger in the grace, knowledge and power of Jesus Christ, going from glory to glory. Wherever you are in your journey, be hopeful, not discouraged. He desires for us to know who we are in Him, His power that is there for the taking — never in condemnation, only out of love for us. Receive it, grow in it, be ready to have Him take you to places you never thought possible. No matter what, as I’ve learned with Him, the journey is all worth it.

Unbelievers aren't prepared to receive deliverance: Colossians 2:13-15 shows us how Jesus forgave our sins, and thereby disarmed the demonic spirits in our lives. In the life of a non-believer, there is no disarming of the demons, because there is no forgiveness of sins. Would you trust self-appointed exorcists or healers to baptise you, to marry you ? With exorcism, they take advantage of the stress of the situation .

My Book Notes

Hammond taught that ethical issues such as resentment and gossiping – together with issues such as compulsive eating, forgetfulness, sexual problems, and mental illness – may be caused by demons requiring deliverance ministry, and that such individuals may require such deliverance. [1] [2] [3] He and his wife Ida Mae have been called "perhaps the most influential practitioners of deliverance ministry." [2] Their 1973 book Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance is one of the most influential on the topic, [2] [3] and has sold over a million copies. [1]

I read this book many years ago, it was an assignment I had in a class about demon-possession and spiritual deliverance ministry. It is a book I will keep all my life and over the years have used it many, many times to help people who struggle with religious issues and strongholds in their Christian walk. This issue is written about in the New Testament quite a lot, and many Christians would assert that the New Testament is part of God’s ‘Word’ which is the contents of the Holy Bible. So do most churches in the developed and wider world today still teach demons are real? Not where I’ve been living that’s for sure. Your average evangelical Christian would say all of the Bible is true I’m sure – but you won’t find ‘deliverance’ being practiced as is written about in ‘Pigs in The Parlour’, which claims follows Jesus model of deliverance and teaching on the subject. Hammond also teaches the doctrine of positive confession, that if we say something negative it “will open the door for the enemy” (35). On this false doctrine, see the book _The Word-Faith Controversy_. First book I had ever read that gave me clarity about what we are waging for and against. A tad edgy and certainly uncomfortable the first read but two or three times around new revelations came to pass in my seriously logical A type personality processor Well in conclusion, all I can say is that while don’t know of many Christian Churches practising this stuff, the practice does sound like it makes a for rather more literal reflection of what Jesus went around doing for suffering people and of what called his disciples to do. In fact I now notice that the Gospels talk rather more about Jesus casting out demons than I ever realised they did. Read them for yourself (again?) if you’re wondering. They say – The Gospels that is – that he did it for A LOT of people – and his doing it made big waves from the descriptions of how people reacted. I will read further on this I think and get some other angles from those who claim to practise it.If an unlicensed person set themselves up and described themselves as a Psychiatrist or a Surgeon, would you go to them for treatment or an operation ? Here is the clear example of how Christians, who have been born again and received Holy Spirit, can be tempted into receiving a false spirit - a demon. The first argument to be considered is this one: ‘Christians can’t have a demon ‘in them’ because they have the Holy Spirit in them. You can’t have both in a person at the same time’.