Why does the New Testament show so much demonic activity? and why are so many young Christians turning to high church traditions?

Ask NT Wright Anything

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Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, History

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

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Summary

Demonic activity in the New Testament, the surprising rise of “high church” worship, and whether Christians should be keeping Saturday as the Sabbath…This week on Ask NT Wright Anything, Tom and Mike tackle three big and very different questions. First: Did Jesus’ arrival trigger a surge in demonic activity, and should Christians today expect to encounter the demonic? Tom draws on decades of pastoral experience (including licensed diocesan exorcists!) to explain how the New Testament frames dark spiritual powers and why neither fear nor fascination is the right Christian response.Next, they explore why so many young Christians are moving toward “high church” traditions—liturgy, sacrament, structure, and beauty, and how to discern wisely between Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, and low-church evangelical expressions.Finally, Tom unpacks the Sabbath controversy: If the Bible commands Sabbath on the seventh day, why do Christians worship on Sunday? What changed between the Old and New Testaments? And should we still keep a weekly day of rest in a Sabbatarian sense?Another rich episode (we hope!) full of biblical grounding, pastoral wisdom, and Tom’s signature clarity.02:24 Why does the New Testament show so much demonic activity?18:34 Why are so many young Christians turning to high church traditions?30:41 Should Christians keep Saturday as the Sabbath? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Ask NT Write Anything podcast, the program where we try to answer your
0:07.2	questions about Jesus, the Bible and the life of faith. I'm Mike Bird from Ridley College.
0:14.0	And I'm Tom Wright from Wickliff Hall in Oxford. And Tom, we're back again to answer some more
0:19.6	questions. We've got some great ones.
0:22.4	But Tom, I want to know, where do you go for the winter?
0:25.9	I mean...
0:26.4	Well, we have no set pattern.
0:29.8	We used to go and stay with one or other set of parents when we were younger, but since
0:35.2	our parents have now passed away, the question is, do we spend
0:39.5	time with our children? That's how it now works. That too gets a bit complicated because some we can
0:45.6	stay with and some we can't because the house is too small or whatever. So they have tended to come to
0:50.5	us and we've sometimes done Christmas with them, sometimes done New Year with them.
1:00.9	Last year, we actually spent some of December before Christmas in our new house in the Hebrides and then we came back for Christmas. This year we are hoping if our health is okay and if the roads
1:07.4	are not completely snowbound to go up to the Isle of Harris between Christmas and New Year
1:13.1	and spend maybe three or four weeks up there
1:15.8	before we come back for the start of the spring term.
1:18.3	It's lovely up there in the winter.
1:20.3	The days are very short and dark, and you light a fire in the grate,
1:23.7	and you sit around and keep warm, and it's all very cozy.
1:27.3	And then often the mountains that
1:30.6	we can see from the house are covered in snow and it's absolutely beautiful with the snowy mountains
1:35.5	and the sea. And so what's not to like? And one can settle down and be cozy there.
	...

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