lol! Thanks Randy! Maybe I could even blog from inside the haunted armoire! ...too funny!

Linda, most practical advice, thanks! My first thought when I saw the ad was, c'mon, it ain't haunted. But then I read the description and I admit it spooked me! So can a piece of furniture really be "evil"??

mmm...interesting....

being from Mexico (oh! the joys of our prehispanic culture...eeek! ) I have faced some of this stuff... my family just prays and gets rid of the thing... It would make a nice bonfire! :D

It could me Mike, but you can turn it around.  There is a Haunted Restaurant in Waxahachie Texas that the wife and I have taken the kids to a couple of times.  I figure I’m protected so I have fun when I’m there.  Besides the Catfish is pretty good.

ok so this is my thought... I really like the Greater is He who is in you...than in that armoire.... very nice... but i do agree with that thought... but how about you go to where the amroire is and pray over it and cast out any spirits that may have attachted themselve to it for the people who already own it?... if they are believers, they can even help... nothing like acting out scripture to raise alittle faith... i just think it would be neat if the people who love it now got to keep it because our God is So kind and abundantly Loves that He would take the time to get us an armoire that we really like... plus i just like hearing stories of GOD kicking the butt of the enemy!!!

Wow, If you all were in Portland, Oregon, I'd take it in a second.

Here's an interesting passage.  I think it pretty much says there is nothing to be worried about (I italicized the text). I'd just sand out the engraved marks and keep it, personally.

I have to admit, though, any furniture with the name "armoire", sound kind of creepy ;)

1 Corinthians 8:4-6  Amplified Bible

4  In this matter, then, of eating food offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing (has no real existence) and that there is no God but one.
5  For although there may be so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many of them, both of gods and of lords and masters,
6  Yet for us there is [only] one God, the Father, Who is the Source of all things and for Whom we [have life], and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through and by Whom are all things and through and by Whom we [ourselves exist].

Haunted furniture?  That's a little hard for me to accept although I've never given it any thought before.  My first response would be a cynical "Hogwash". 

I think this guy is pulling people's collective legs. Besides a demonic cabinet would look something like this:

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Jess, the part of me that wants to get the armoire agrees wholeheartedly with your post! :-)

Kristie, I found it easy to be cynical initially as well. But after reading the ad I got a creepy feeling and kept thinking, what if...  A gateway, hmm. Hadn't heard that one before, Denise. Are there any examples of that in the Bible? (I don't know offhand..)

BTW, the doll thingie above is from here, Norm posted the link on his WWJD blog.

Now that's an interesting armoire, DR.  I don't think you'd ever find that one in an alley, more likely a museum. Or Dracula's castle! lol!  BTW, here is the link to the craigslist ad, in case you want to add the armoire to the "forbidden" section of your furniture collection...

:) If the armoire had ears it would listen to us... but it would probably need a mouth to tell us something... *giggle* (I don't mean to sound mean...it just seemed funny to me :)  )

Man, I just say let it go. Maybe it doesn't have any kind of spirit or anything like that, but the story might make your kids/visitors nervous and maybe cause fear in their heart, making them lack trust in God...then that's the real spiritual attack.

on another note...someone mentioned "anointing" the armoire with oil...at the beginning I was going to suggest Holy water but I thougth that was too Catholic... I guess not! *giggle*

If it ran into the river, it would only float.  If I had possesed and armoire, I would do something much more spectacular - like go onto Antiques Roadshow and mock people's bow-ties.

Makes me think though:

Why did the armoire not cross the road? 

Does anyone know of a new testament verse that plainly says to avoid possessed objects?  I don't know of one.  There are a lot of verses in the Gospels about Jesus casting out demons, but never out of objects.  In the old testament, they burned a lot of idols, but those were actually involved in worship.

That passage in 1 Corinthians 8 makes it pretty plain that an idol is just a block of wood.  That there is nothing to an idol.

This is an interesting question.

I have to admit - some of my cooking may be proof that some objects can be demon possesed.

Anything possessed can run?   So no one who is lame can be possessed.  Just asking if that's what you're saying.

BTW I think the real question is why Jesus didn't cast them into the sea directly.  If you ask me Jesus was killing two birds (so to speak) with one stone.  The land he was in largely Jewish and yet you have a pig farm?

Oops.

Mike - have you checked with the person who ran the ad?  I'm guessing that the armoire has already been claimed by someone.

Here's a story for you:  A pastor's wife that I know- a very sane and pragmatic person - received a ring as a gift from a friend.  She started wearing it and began to have all sorts of mental/memory problems.  (We're not talking old lady here folks; she was in her late 30's or early 40's at the time.)  She had trouble driving, couldn't remember how to get to the church, couldn't process what people were saying to her, didn't remember people, etc.  She had people praying for her big-time.  Someone who had been praying for her got the feeling there could be something up with something that the pastor's wife wore all the time, such as jewelry.  The new ring came up in conversation and the pastor's wife realized her problems had started when she had first put on the ring.  She found out that the friend who got it for her had found it at a second-hand shop; it wasn't known who had it before.  The pastor's wife threw away the ring and her health problems immediately went away.  Strange, but true...

Actually I wasn't trying to crack anyone up.  I was looking for the quickest way to make a point. :)

Getting rid of the demons through the pigs really did point to two issues.

As for the armoire, Jen is probably right about someone already having taken it.  However even if she's not, my personal opinion is to pass on it.  Would you be interested in a car if the engine didn't work occasionally (probably because it was haunted by evil spirits)?  Ok the part in parentheses was a joke.

While talking about is one thing, do you want something in your house that if someone else sees it is going to lead to talking about it's history and possibly tantalize someone with possession, etc.?  Do you want it in your house if every time you think of it, your mind goes "I wonder".

I also think there is a danger in taking Satan's tactics lightly.  Just saying.

Who is the biggest enemy in the Christian life? Satan? Demons? Armoires?

Self.
I think Satan shows himself to get our focus off of battling our sin to begin battling Him. As far as something (other than human) being possessed, such as a Ouiji board, I think the demon has taken root in the human and makes the human think that it is the result of the Ouiji board. I think this conversation has, from the beginning, lost focus on Christ our Victory and has gotten wrapped up in various things we can do to "harness and channel" spiritual energies, such as anoint it, pour holy water on it, sneeze on it and wipe it with a magic hanky. Mike, if you buy the Armoire and it makes you feel better to scrape the pentagram off, fine. Others, if you've got stories of demon possession in your family, fine. But where is our focus in this topic on killing self -- pride, vanity, superstition, unbelief -- in the power of Christ's atonement? This topic could be hosted on any number of new age forums without editing...

I appreciate the light humor others have put forth. I do not think Mike actually intended this thing to get this out of hand. I think he was thoroughly amused to see this being sold for this reason and wanted to know if other people thought it was as funny.

I'm done.

Can you clarify what you mean by self?  You seem to be saying self = sin.  Which would mean we are sin, which isn't accurate.   Or if it is, none of us will be left when we get to heaven.

And yes I do think noting the difference is important.

I think this blog entry got so much attention because Satan isn't something we can control.  We can control how we think about freedom, or if we argue.  We always want to understand what we can't control, so we tend to talk about it more.

There's my two pennies =D 

Mike,

About the kids... I wouldn't want them to think that whatever "power" was in the armoire would be greater than the power of Christ to overcome it. The armoire is gone, so that's a moot point, but this could be an awesome discussion to have with the kids.  Just a thought...