Deliverance Ministry: What Does The New Testament Actually Teach?

I haven’t stopped thinking about a question that came in during the final minutes of Wednesday night’s question-and-answer service. I recognize that many people have sincere and important questions surrounding this subject, so I wanted to reply with a more organized answer.

Someone asked, “Why doesn’t Landmark Church have a deliverance ministry?”

I’ll admit: if the question had been, “What are your thoughts about deliverance ministry?” I would have answered it differently even with the 60 seconds we had left in the service. But because the question specifically concerned Landmark, I felt the need to offer a more complete and biblically grounded response.

Landmark absolutely believes in the reality of spiritual warfare, demonic activity, and the authority of Jesus Christ. The devil is real, demons are real, and spiritual bondage is real. We also believe that Jesus Christ still delivers people and that His Church should never be indifferent or unprepared when genuine demonic activity is present.

The New Testament clearly shows followers of Christ confronting demons. In Acts 8:5–7, unclean spirits came out as Philip preached Christ in Samaria. In Acts 16:16–18, Paul commanded a spirit of divination to leave a slave girl in the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 19 also records evil spirits departing through Paul’s ministry.

The Gospels likewise record Jesus giving His disciples authority over unclean spirits. Yet when they rejoiced that demons were subject to them, Jesus redirected their focus: “Rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

These passages establish that demonic activity is real and that Christ possesses complete authority over it. What they do not establish is a specialized “deliverance ministry” as a necessary office or program within every local church.

When the New Testament describes the structure and ministry of the local church, it emphasizes elders and deacons, biblical teaching, fellowship, Communion, prayer, discipleship, pastoral care, evangelism, and equipping believers. It never establishes the office of “deliverance minister” or commands churches to organize a separate deliverance ministry. Even among the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12, “deliverance” or “exorcism” is never identified as a distinct gift.

That doesn’t mean demonic activity should never be confronted. It means Scripture does not reserve that responsibility for a specialized class of Christians using particular techniques or formulas. Acts 19:13–17 warns us through the sons of Sceva that the name of Jesus is not an incantation. Spiritual authority belongs to Christ and cannot be manufactured through spectacle or sensationalism.

Throughout the New Testament, spiritual warfare is addressed through submission to God, resistance against the devil, prayer, truth, righteousness, faith, Scripture, repentance, and the renewing of the mind. Ephesians 6 does not teach Christians to search for a demon behind every difficulty; it teaches us to put on the whole armor of God.

This is where discernment becomes essential.

Not every struggle is caused by a demon. Scripture identifies three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Some struggles require repentance, discipleship, or pastoral care. Some involve physical or mental-health concerns that should be addressed wisely and compassionately. Others may involve genuine demonic oppression. Biblical ministry must take every possibility seriously without carelessly labeling everything “demonic.”

One concern I have with the modern deliverance movement is the tendency to attribute nearly every sin, addiction, emotional wound, illness, or destructive pattern to a demon. That can remove personal responsibility, minimize sanctification, and reduce spiritual warfare to techniques Scripture never prescribes.

Landmark does believe in deliverance. We pray for people, counsel them biblically, call them to repentance, help them renew their minds through God’s Word, and confront genuine spiritual bondage in the authority of Jesus Christ when it is present.

We believe these practices belong within the Church’s broader ministries of gospel proclamation, prayer, pastoral care, and discipleship; not necessarily within a separate ministry carrying the label “deliverance.”

So, the most biblically precise answer is this:

The New Testament presents a Church capable of confronting demonic activity through the authority of Jesus Christ, but it does not prescribe a separate, specialized deliverance ministry. We should neither deny demons nor diagnose every difficulty as a demon. Ultimately, true deliverance is found in Jesus Christ, the One who “has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13).

‍