Book Review: Deliver Us from Evil (1973) by Don Basham

Deliver Us from Evil (1973) by Don Basham

I read this book as soon as I finished Francis McNutt's Deliverance from Evil Spirits (see the previous book review). This book came as a surprise to me. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did. If truth be told, I went into it a bit critical and skeptical. I'm just not one to subscribe to all these manifesting spiritual things. But the way the book was written, you know that Don Basham was really experiencing this. For what reason he was 'chosen' to deal with this phenomenon events is another story (though he wrote the details of how he called into this ministry. But by him coming from a completely conservative background to be thrown in the midst of manifestations of evil, is quite bizarre and had me thinking a lot. The book was well written on this subject and I learned a lot.

The "censored quarter of Christ's ministry," in Basham's estimation, is the part involving evil spirits or demons. He claims that one-quarter of Christ's ministry was devoted to deliverance ministry, yet the Christian church - during his day and even today - often chooses to ignore it totally or partially (or avoid this topic altogether). Basham has spent years counseling people with chronic problems and addictions. But throughout the course of his work, he was amazed to discover that exercising authority over demons could achieve in an instant what months of personal counseling often failed to do (not that he discounted the counselling ministry. Not all sickness and problems caused by demons but mostly are, said the author. We must be careful, of course). And so deliverance became not a fearful thing to him, but a thing of hope and reassurance. Don believes that "the ministry he now understands means more than (just) deliverance 'from' evil, it means deliver 'into' health and well-being." With real-life stories and vast experiences, the writer hooked me into reading this book to the end. Very good!

This book is now updated (this one is the first published version) and had a new title, "A Pastor's Reluctant Encounters with the Power of Darkness." I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about this subject.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.