CATHOLIC SCRIPTURE, THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF DEMONIC POSSESSION IN TOBIT 3

The Catholic Church is clear that this though the word of man is what God would write.  It says God wrote it.

Here it is:

In the city of Ecbatana in Media, it happened that Sarah, the daughter of a man named Raguel, was insulted by one of her father's servant women.

Sarah had been married seven times, but the evil demon, Asmodeus, killed each husband before the marriage could be consummated. The servant woman said to Sarah, You husband killer! Look at you! You've already had seven husbands, but not one of them lived long enough to give you a son.  Why should you take it out on us? Why don't you go and join your dead husbands? I hope we never see a child of yours! 

Sarah was so depressed that she burst into tears and went upstairs determined to hang herself. But when she thought it over, she said to herself, No, I won't do it! People would insult my father and say,

You had only one child, a daughter whom you loved dearly, but she hanged herself because she felt so miserable. Such grief would bring my gray-haired father to his grave, and I would be responsible. I won't kill myself; I'll just beg the Lord to let me die. Then I won't have to listen to those insults any longer!" 

Analysis

The demon must have used Sarah to kill the men.  The book says that God sent an angel to exorcise her.  "Raphael was also ordered to expel the demon Asmodeus from Sarah."  After we read how Tobias said "he rid my wife of a demon".

One wonders why the demons the Church works with today never commit murder!  The Church knows fine well there are no demons and won't be responsible for making somebody think they have a murderous demon in them for it will lead to bloodshed.

Raphael is clear on how to get rid of a demon and it's not a very religious tip.  Fish parts are burned. "The heart and liver can be burned and used to chase away a demon or an evil spirit that is tormenting someone. The attacks will stop immediately, and the person will never be troubled again. You can use the gall bladder to treat someone whose eyes are covered with a white film. Just rub it on his eyes and blow on the film, and he will be able to see again."

The angel had to get the demon to Egypt and bind him.  "The smell drove the demon away from them, and he fled to Egypt. Raphael chased after him and caught him there. At once he bound him hand and foot."

The book outlines how to exorcise.  Nothing else in the Bible gives a method. The demon must be driven away with smells and bound somewhere far away.  And demons can kill by possessing a person to get her or him to kill.  And we are expected to believe sane people like Sarah who claim their murders were a case of "the demon made me do it!".  None of this matches what the Catholic Church does so the exorcisms are a hoax in some form.  Perhaps the Church is redirecting demons not exorcising them!  No wonder they often keep coming back!

Asmodeus appears in the non-biblical Testament of Solomon.  Solomon is made to say that:

instantly there approached me the demon Asmodeus, bound, and I asked him: "Who art thou?" But he shot on me a glance of anger and rage, and said: "And who art thou?" And I said to him: "Thus punished as thou art, answerest thou me?" But he, with rage, said to me: "But how shall I answer thee, for thou art a son of man; whereas I was born an angel's seed by a daughter of man, so that no word of our heavenly kind addressed to the earth-born can be overweening. Wherefore also my star is bright in heaven, and men call it, some the Wain, and some the dragon's child. I keep near unto this star. So ask me not many things; for thy kingdom also after a little time is to be disrupted, and thy glory is but for a season. And short will be thy tyranny over us; and then we shall again have free range over mankind, so as that they shall revere us as if we were gods, not knowing, men that they are, the names of the angels set over us."  And I Solomon, on hearing this, bound him more carefully, and ordered him to be flogged with thongs of ox-hide, and to tell me humbly what was his name and what his business. And he answered me thus: "I am called Asmodeus among mortals, and my business is to plot against the newly wedded, so that they may not know one another. And I sever them utterly by many calamities, and I waste away the beauty of virgin women, and estrange their hearts."  And I said to him: "Is this thy only business?" And he answered me: "I transport men into fits of madness and desire, when they have wives of their own, so that they leave them, and go off by night and day to others that belong to other men; with the result that they commit sin, and fall into murderous deeds.  And I adjured him by the name of the Lord Sabaôth, saying: "Fear God, Asmodeus, and tell me by what angel thou art frustrated." But he said: "By Raphael, the archangel that stands before the throne of God. But the liver and gall of a fish put me to flight, when smoked over ashes of the tamarisk." I again asked him, and said: "Hide not aught from me. For I am Solomon, son of David, King of Israel. Tell me the name of the fish which thou reverest." And he answered: "It is the Glanosby name, and is found in the rivers of Assyria; wherefore it is that I roam about in those parts." And I said to him: "Hast thou nothing else about thee, Asmodeus?" And he answered: "The power of God knoweth, which hath bound me with the indissoluble bonds of yonder one's seal, that whatever I have told thee is true. I pray thee, King Solomon, condemn me not to [go into] water." But I smiled, and said to him: "As the Lord God of my fathers liveth, I will lay iron on thee to wear. But thou shalt also make the clay for the entire construction of the Temple, treading it down with thy feet." And I ordered them to give him ten water-jars to carry water in. And the demon groaned terribly, and did the work I ordered him to do. And this I did, because that fierce demon Asmodeus knew even the future. And I Solomon glorified God, who gave wisdom to me Solomon his servant. And the liver of the fish and its gall I hung on the spike of a reed, and burned it over Asmodeus because of his being so strong, and his unbearable malice was thus frustrated.

The demon is virgin born for his father is an angel.  The work could precede the gospels and shows that it is possible that the Christian idea of Jesus being born by a supernatural power without a father could have been inspired by the legend.

Final thoughts

The book says that bad smells shift demons so by prayers and exorcisms the Church is actually keeping the demon in the person!

How sincere or deluded is the Church for it cherry-picks from its Bible what it wants to believe about possession?  It does not want people thinking demons murder people directly or get victims of possession to do it.  Yet Jesus said Legion was possessed and Legion was dangerous and cutting himself.  The Church through its hypocrisy at least knows that such doctrines are extreme and fanatical.

The thought that the demon murdered to prevent babies being born inspires Catholic anti-abortion activism.  They think Satan and his cronies are behind the acceptability of abortion.