It's really a 'devil' of a subject!

WITH A DRAMATIC SUDDENNESS, the small native woman's timid face became a snarling mask of defiance. And then she began to convulse.
As the preacher prayed: "Come out of her in the Name of Jesus," three large men attempted to hold her flaying arms, however, she flung them aside like pieces of waste paper.
Then guttural sounds came from deep within her and moments later she sank to the floor like a limp rag doll. The preacher continued praying and then the small native woman smiled and her once grotesque features became almost child-like.
It was the mid-1980s and I had just witnessed one of a number of "exorcisms," which I had previously relegated to the movies such as 'The Exorcist' (1973) and 'The Amityville Horror' (1979). And of lines such as "An I'm the Devil. Now kindly undo these straps" and "For God's sake, get out."
Of course, besides the movies there had been TV characters such as the late Flip Wilson (as Geraldine), who always got a laugh with his/her most famous line: "The devil made me do it."
It was repeated countless times throughout the 1970s by anyone who had ever fouled up. I know I've said it on more then one occasion.
And then there was another constant: "(He's or she's) full of the devil." Now, you're really showing your age.
Those familiar and often trite lines, however, were dismissed upon hearing that the world's No. 1 demon hunter -- Rev. Bob Larson -- is going mainstream on British TV on Wednesday, March 19. 'The Real Exorcist' will, undoubtedly, reach across the pond to the U.S. and Canadian markets.
Of course, I'm familiar with Larson, having received his newsletters on an almost daily basis and in the British tabs there's been an avalanche of reports.
There among blurbs about 'Britney might become permanently bald' and 'Keith Richards: I'm a Bible basher' was Rev. Bob's next project of deliverance, troubled singer Amy Winehouse.
Of course, Britney Spears, was not spared Rev. Bob's assessment of possibly being under "the devil's influence."
And just who is this Rev. Bob?
In the blurb about his life, he had planned to pursue a medical career, but after he became a Christian at the age of 20, he felt a call to the ministry. This one-time rock musician would become a motivational speaker, author and radio-TV host.
Along his journey, Rev. Bob became interested in the occult phenomenon, world religions and alternative spirituality and he witnessed demonic possession first hand.
As founding pastor of Spiritual Freedom Churches International Inc., Larson is now about to appear on a regular basis on British TV. It can be a dangerous undertaking, but Rev. Bob has conducted more than 10,000 exorcisms over 30 years, according to a newspaper report.
Of course, dealing with Satanism and occult practices is not new, for probably the world's most well-known preacher, Billy Graham, was quoted as saying: "A generation ago, when I began as an evangelist, people generally, and intellectuals, in particular, thought of the devil as an anachronistic symbol, a handy expression of profanity, or as a superstition believed in chiefly by religious eccentrics. Today, the devil is getting maximum exposure, precisely as the Bible predicted would happen prior to Christ's return."
At the top of this column I detailed an exorcism I had observed. It occurred in Edmonton while I was working, briefly, for a well-known and globe-hopping evangelist.
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OPRAH AND MY MOTHER: In January, 1999, I wrote a two-part series for World Net Daily, about that media darling, Oprah Winfrey, and her obsession with New Age "religion." At the time, I received letters questioning my mentality.
As TV's leading personality, she was advocating "remembering your spirit." And millions started to believe what she had to say. Now, almost a decade later, Oprah, who claims she is a Christian despite a strange belief system, is promoting Marianne Williamson's "A Course In Miracles" and also a book by Eckhart Tolle about 'A New Earth.'
But I have a suggestion for you, Ms. O, it's time you put my 92-year-old praying mother on your show and let her explain how a true miracle from Jesus healed her after a long and extremely painful bout with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Of how she abandoned her wheelchair and within a year had a "miracle baby," and then she returned to her schooling -- attending the University of Alberta in Calgary. And of her becoming a beloved teacher for 22 years.
Yes, Oprah, you could talk with her about a real miracle, rather than you living in your putrid New Age with its false beliefs.

Remembering this most righteous of Gentiles

THE PASTOR spoke the words, Yad Vashem. And without warning, the tears flowed from the eyes of a supposedly hardened newspaperman.
Suddenly, this former Middle East bureau chief for a major news-gathering organization was transported to the streets of Jerusalem. And then traversing the walk along the Avenue and Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations and re-living the agony of millions, who have wept on entering the Holocaust memorial.
When I whispered Yad Vashem, it was in reverence.
Of course, anyone who has ever visited this place will recognize the utter despair of suffering and the ugliness of mankind on the most innocent.
And then, in another surreal moment, I was climbing up into the attic of my "place" and finding a treasure trove of photographs of a Jewish family, somewhere in Europe, before the Nazis scarred their lives forever.
It was then I remembered a young woman coming to my apartment and weeping as she sorted through those crumpled photographs of relatives, who had survived the concentration camps.
However, a "return" to Jerusalem was not all despair; for I began to remember an interview with the late Gustav Scheller, who has often been likened to Oskar Schindler, who was venerated in Steven Spielberg's celebrated movie, "Schlinder's List."
While Schindler rescued 1,200 Polish Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, Scheller, through his organization, the Ebenezer Emergency Fund, had brought more than 60,000 Jews out of abject poverty and misery in the former Soviet Union to Israel by ship.
As I started to re-read the story I had written, tears again flowed; not for any phrasing I might have conjured up, but for life of this most righteous of Gentiles.
Sitting in his comfortable Jerusalem apartment with Elsa, his wise and very supportive wife, Scheller, then a 70-year-old and dying of cancer, spoke in a strong voice when he declared: "I do not compromise, I am not soft on these issues. I speak with clarity and conviction of heart."
The "issues" continue to be a virulent strain of anti-Semitism that still is sweeping the former Soviet Union. He believed one million had left the Land of the North. However, there were an estimated two million remaining in his expert opinion.
At the time of the 1999 interview, Scheller had just completed his 88th sailing from Odessa to Haifa aboard the ship, Dmitri Shostakovich, while trying to cope with lung cancer that had spread throughout his body. His doctors told him that he had less than a year to live. Already he had his left arm amputated.
However, he told me that he intended to be on the 100th sailing from Odessa to Haifa later that year.
Although disappointed that cancer had spread, Scheller told his doctors, "I like you, but I must tell you I have a better doctor, the Great Physician, and if it's His will He is well able to heal me."
Even after the devastating news, Scheller's mission remained the same of rescuing "the old and the young, the sick and the healthy, the lame and the blind."
He then reiterated, "I'm just an ordinary man that serves an extraordinary God."
Scheller, a Swiss-born Briton, then told me of the two fundamental reasons for his mission:
The first was the economic collapse of the former Soviet Union, particularly Russia. "And who are they blaming?" he asked. "Even in the Russian parliament (Duma) they quite openly say it's the Jews that are responsible for this crash.
"Secondly, anti-Semitism is rapidly growing. In certain cities, the Communists are meeting with the nationalists and openly declaring they want to eliminate (kill) the Jews when the time is right.
"However, the Lord is allowing these pressures to convince the Jews that their homeland is not Russia, not the Ukraine, but Eretz Yisrael."
He continued by saying, "The tragedy is that mankind, including the Jews, has learned nothing from history because history repeats itself.
"I personally believe there will be bloodshed in Russia and mainly the Jews will suffer. Now is the time (for them) to go home, there's no doubt about it."
While the Jewish Agency has transported thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union by air, Scheller's volunteers have "fished" for Jews throughout the far reaches of Siberia with the aim to bring them to Odessa and from there transport them by ship from Odessa to Haifa.
"I have 'fishers' that go out in villages and settlements that often don't have a name and where people live by barter. Wherever we go we find Jews."
Operating on $20,000 a day and with an annual budget of about $7 million, the strictly volunteer organization relies mainly on Gentile donors in Europe and the U.S. that adhere to Isaiah 49:22: "See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up My banner to the people; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders."
His Operation Exodus began while Scheller, a devout Christian, and others were praying in an Israeli hotel as Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles were falling outside in 1991. And the "mission" continued through 1999 with the completion of some 100 sailings and more than 60,000 Jews being rescued.
And then Gustav Scheller, this most righteous of Gentiles, died on Feb. 18, 2000.
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