We do not read about any demon possession in the Old Testament. The only occasion where we read of an evil spirit being sent upon someone is with King Saul in 1 Samuel 16:14. In this case, the Lord sends the spirit as a consequence of Saul’s rebellion against him (recorded in 1 Samuel 15:1–35). In the New Testament, we read about a lot of demon possession in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke (but not in John). It seems as if with the arrival of Jesus Christ, God’s King, Satan is making a big effort to try and stop Jesus from doing his work of redemption. That is why all of a sudden there are a lot of people who are possessed by demons. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, there are a limited number of references to demon possession and exorcism in the book of Acts (Acts 5:16, Acts 8:7, Acts 16:18, Acts 19:12). After Acts, however, we find no mention of any demon possession in any other Bible books. The New Testament Epistles do not contain any references to demon possession, though they do talk about spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:12). This suggests that demon possession was something limited to the time of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and we should therefore not expect to find anything similar today.
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”