Pastor Greg Locke defends deliverance ministry after chasing suspected witches from church

Christian Post ^ | Feburary 17, 2022 | Leonardo Blair

[who knows what evil?]

Plenty of witches around...central/east TN down throughout central and western NC...

[who knows what evil?]

You did the right thing.

[wastedyears]

I thought it was okay until this: In a now-viral sermon on Sunday, Locke swore that a demon revealed to him the identity of six witches in his congregation during a deliverance session with a young girl in his office last week.

There's probably more to this than is being let on.

[fireman15]

Don't be so quick to judge... he and his followers used science, deductive reasoning and advanced technological tools to make their determination.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Each woman weighed the same as a duck.

[larrytown]

... during a deliverance session with a young girl in his office last week.

Lots of bad things seem to come out of such 'activity' on the part of pastors. Sounds like a kook.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

You beat me.

[fireman15]

My wife and I still love that silly movie.

[Morgana]

what movie is that from?

[SkyDancer]

Why didn’t he just see if they would either float or sink in the baptismal?

[old school]

Wait! He’s gonna let them leave of their own accord? If there are people in the congregation, who are demon-possessed why didn’t he deliver them? He’s not even entertaining! Not worth the price of admission!

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Same here. We’ll watch the DVD every few years, even though we’ve got it pretty well memorized.

[fireman15]

what movie is that from?

Monty Python and the Holy Grail from 1975

[fireman15]

For those who have not seen the movie... here is the dialogue leading up to the scale scene shown above where the determination is made that the woman is a witch.

Bedevere stands on a stage in front of a large crowd of wild villagers.

Villager: We have found a witch, may we burn her?
Crowd: BURN!! BUUUURN HER!
Bedevere: But how do you *know* she is a witch?
Villager: She looks like one!
Other Villagers: Yeah! She looks like one!!!
Bedevere: Bring her forward.

(a young woman is pushed through the crowd of villagers to the platform. She
is dressed all in black, has a carrot tied around her face on top of her nose,
and a black paper hat on her head. She talks funny because her nose is
closed by the carrot.)

Witch: I'm not a witch, I'm not a witch!
Bedevere: Er,...but you are dressed as one.
Witch: THEY dressed me up like this.
Villagers: No! nooo! We didn't! We didn't!
Witch: And this isn't my nose, it's a false one!

(Bedevere lifts up the carrot to reveal the woman's real nose, which is in
fact rather small.)

Bedevere: Well?
One Villager: Well, we did do the nose.
Bedevere: The nose?
Villager: And the Hat. But she's a witch!
Villagers: Yeah! Burn her! Burn! Burn her!
B: Did you dress her up like this?
Villagers: NO! No, no, no, no, no, no...
One Villager: yes.
Villagers: yes. yes. yes. A bit. yes. a bit. a bit.
Another Villager: (hopefully) She has got a wart...
B: What makes you think she is a witch?
Villager: Well, She turned me into a newt!!

(pause)

Bedevere: a newt?

(long pause)

Villager: I got better...
Villagers: BURN HER anyway! BURN! BURN! BURN HER!
B: Quiet, quiet, quiet, QUIETA There are ways of *telling* whether she
is a witch!
Villagers: Are there? What? Tell us, then! Tell us!
B: Tell me. What do you do with witches?
V: BUUUURN!!!!! BUUUUUURRRRNN!!!!! You BURN them!!!! BURN!!
B: And what do you burn apart from witches?
Villager: More Witches!
Other Villager: Wood.
B: So. Why do witches burn?

(long silence)
(shuffling of feet by the villagers)

Villager: (tentatively) Because they're made of.....wood?
B: Goooood!
Other Villagers: oh yeah... oh....
B: So. How do we tell whether she is made of wood?
One Villager: Build a bridge out of ‘er!
B: Aah. But can you not also make bridges out of stone?
Villagers: oh yeah. oh. umm...
B: Does wood sink in water?
One Villager: No! No, no, it floats!
Other Villager: Throw her into the pond!
Villagers: yaaaaaa!

(when order is restored)

B: What also floats in water?
Villager: Bread!
Another Villager: Apples!
Another Villager: Uh...very small rocks!
Another Villager: Cider!
Another Villager: Uh...great gravy!
Another Villager: Cherries!
Another Villager: Mud!
Another Villager: Churches! Churches!
Another Villager: Lead! Lead!
King Arthur: A Duck!
Villagers: (in amazement) ooooooh!
B: exACTly!
B: (to a villager) So, *logically*...
Villager: (very slowly, with pauses between each word)
If...she...weighs the same as a duck......she's made of wood.
B: and therefore...

(pause)

Villager: A Witch!
All Villagers: A WITCH!

(they do consequently weigh her across from a duck on Bedevere’s largest
scale, and she does indeed weigh the same as the duck.)

Witch: (to camera) It's a fair cop.

[jimfr]

I don’t have any idea what is going on here but, Jesus did ask the demon his name!

[mdmathis6]

Instead of the Holy Spirit...he relies on the word of a supposed Demon for discernment.

Something reeks of Jim Jones ....

[mdmathis6]

Well...you folks at least tried, their blood won’t be on your hands

[mdmathis6]

I believe Christ was demonstrating for those observing and for those of us in our day something of the demonic dimension he was dealing with when asked the name. Othertimes he drove demons out without asking their names. But with Legion, Christ wanted to have a conversation with it...to show the rest of us the complexities of the demonic realm and the fear and respect for Christ’s authority the Demons had of Christ. They knew Christ with a word could send them into the abyss.

[AndyTheBear]

Suspicion is one thing, but he should have first tested to see if they weighed the same as a duck.

[mdmathis6]

Your church found out these two were witches by the workings of the Spirit. There were multiple witnesses(as the Bible requires for confrontation in love) You had no demon telling your group who they were, indeed these witches confessed it. Sounds like Biblical process in action.

Way different from what the Post account describes the “Locke” fellow as doing.