Lessons #341 and 342
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prohibition of idolatry and reasons (1 Cor 10:14-22)
... 18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
We ended our last study by asserting that believers should not expose themselves to demons because of the last clause of verse 20 and I do not want you to be participants with demons. We promised to review the doctrine of demons that we have previously studied in our study of Luke in 2006. We had dived into detail study of the doctrine so I suggest that if you want to review the full doctrine that you should consult the church website and begin to listen with lesson #80 of Luke study. My review will not cover the entire doctrine, but I will review primarily the first two lessons on the subject with occasional addition of information to what we studied then. Again, I suggest that you go back and review the entire series on the doctrine of demons although for some of you that will be the first time you will hear the entire doctrine.
Introduction
We live in a time of great advances in physical and biological sciences. Engineers and designers are designing all kinds of gadgets, which are computerized, that make man’s life on this planet more pleasurable. In the same breath, the medical sciences are involved in treating diseases using the gene therapy and DNA analysis that almost border towards the miraculous. The impact of all these advances is that humans tend to become more arrogant in their abilities at the exclusion of God. Do you notice that technological advances have no impact on the moral fiber of humans? There is no advancement in technology that has kept humans from lying, stealing, and committing adultery. If anything, some of the advances promote promiscuity. For example, it is the availability of birth control pills that has led to increase in sexual promiscuity among the young people. It is used to be that in the old days, parents were worried about their daughters being pregnant outside wedlock. But that has changed because so many parents place their daughters on birth control pills and so they seem to be less concerned about their conduct. Of course, I am not preaching on sexual immorality. I am merely pointing out that technological advances while they help us live more comfortably does nothing to help us in our spiritual being; that must come through a person’s relationship with Jesus Christ. Furthermore, these advances have led to very few people believing in the supernatural. In fact, in some quarters, the idea of the supernatural is total discounted and to them anyone who believes in it must either be ignorant or is still living under ancient beliefs and therefore still unenlightened. The question of demons falls into this category. Because of skepticism on part of many we should ask the question, do demons exist? Some theologians think that Apostle Paul considered demons “not personal beings but impersonal forces which exerted a powerful influence over unregenerate man” or that the concept of demons “… have become reduced to pockets of power operating where human social “worlds” or value systems still offer them ground and sway.” These views of some theologians notwithstanding, our answer to the question whether demons exist is “yes.” There are several ways to demonstrate that demons indeed exist in our world today as in the ancient times.
Certain activities of both ancient and modern societies point to the existence of demons whether people accept it or not. There are many forms of crimes that could only be explained by the existence of some power stronger than man. You see, people can commit some of the most heinous crime without such crimes fazing them. A person kills others, cuts them into pieces and stores them up in his closets without being bordered. A woman kills a pregnant woman cuts open the womb and takes out the child. A woman becomes pregnant gives birth to a child and offers that child to be sacrificed at some altar in the name of worshipping a god. I mention these three illustrations as heinous crimes but there are many more. It is impossible to look at these illustrations objectively and not conclude that for a human being to do such a thing to another that such a person must be under the influence of a force greater than the individual that controls the person. Some people explain some of these atrocities as due to the influence of drugs but most of these heinous crimes involve people who do not use drug of any kind. Therefore, we cannot attribute such conduct to drugs or even alcohol. There can be only one true rational conclusion that such individuals must be controlled or possessed of a supernatural force. This supernatural force must be evil or contrary to God and so should be described as evil spirits or demons.
Historically, the belief in demons is one that is found among the ancient. Not too long after the flood did mankind plunge into idolatry with its resultant demonism. So, it is not surprising that the ancient people believed in demons. The land of Canaan was swarmed with demonic activities at the time of the Israelites conquest of it; otherwise, it is hard to explain some of the immoralities of its inhabitants. It is because these immoralities had to do with demonism that caused God to give the Israelites the instruction recorded in Deuteronomy 18:10-12:
10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.
You see, the practices of the Canaanites involved activities that have to do with demons such as sacrificing their sons and consultation of the dead. Israel in rebellion against the supreme God copied this practice as indicated in Psalm 106:37:
They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
That aside, in the ancient pagan religions, it was not easy to draw a clear distinction between the gods and demons although a demon was conceived as being less powerful than a god as well as being good or evil. Archaeological discoveries from Sumeria and Babylon indicate belief in demons as evident in texts that describe exorcisms, incantations, and spells. Records concerning Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Romans confirm the same belief in demons. The Greeks were also involved in belief in demons, but their involvement is interesting that we should summarize the historical development in their beliefs.
The Greeks as a whole had the popular belief that demons were spirits of the dead that were endowed with supernatural powers. They considered demons as rulers of human destiny that were responsible for misfortune and distress. In other words, the demons to them were responsible for all kinds of human suffering. To them, demons then were present in unusual places such as shadowy places and at terrifying events in nature and human life but that they could be appeased, controlled or warded off by magical arts. This popular belief notwithstanding, those among the Greeks that considered themselves enlightened had a different view. Therefore, the Greek philosophers gave a slightly different interpretation to demons. They viewed them as representing divine force that were in part responsible for protecting man’s life or at some portion of man’s life. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Greek word (daimonion) translated demons were used to describe the “gods.” The Stoics used the same Greek word as a term for “divinely related element in man,” hence some used it as a reference to the mind, as the divine part in man and others use it in the sense of conscience. The point is that understanding of the concept of demons kept changing among the ancient.
It is not only the ancient people that believed in demons. This belief exists even in more recent times among the Chinese, Indians, Africans, the Islanders. This belief is still found among some in North and South America although in various forms. There are occurrences in the modern times that clearly indicate that there are demons present in the world today. There are many documented cases of demonic activities in the world today both in China, Africa, and Europe. We will mention some of these at the appropriate time.
Finally, the greatest support for the belief in demons is the Bible. We concede that the Bible does not say anything concerning the origin of demons. In Jewish nonbiblical texts, the origin of demons is attributed to the events of some angels cohabiting with women narrated in Genesis 6:1-4. In these Jewish texts, it is believed that when a Nephilim was killed, its disembodied spirit was considered a demon that roamed the earth harassing humans. The Bible simply asserts the existence of Satan and evil spirits or demons. It is also the Bible that indicates that the view of deifying demons is wrong although it confirms the idea of viewing demons as beings associated with something sinister or horrible. The reality is that without God’s revelation, it is impossible to truly understand the nature of demons. It is therefore not surprising that even in the modern time there is little understanding of demons outside those who accept the Bible as the word of God. Even among those who accept the Bible as the word of God, there is little understanding of demons. For, there are those who assume that demons that were very active in the time of Jesus and the apostles are no longer in the world. Of course, such thinking is incorrect because there is no indication in the Bible that all demons have been removed from this planet. Thus, people who at the present time that do not take the concept of demons seriously are in self-deception. Demons are real as will be evident in our study.
Identity of demons
Who then are the demons? The truth is that the Bible does not give an explicit definition of them. Instead, their existence is assumed without explanation of their origins as we have stated previously. The very first mention of the word “demon” in the Bible is in connection with idolatry. In other words, the Bible presents demons as beings that distort the true worship of God and so become object of man’s worship in contrast to the supreme God as indicated in Deuteronomy 32:17:
They sacrificed to demons, which are not God — gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.
In any event, it is true that there is no direct statement in the Bible that define demons or that provides information as to how they came into existence, but their descriptions presented in the Bible allow us to understand them as created beings of God. The most we can say about them is that they are the same beings described as evil spirits in the Bible. The Bible is clear that demons are the same as evil spirits. A good illustration of this truth is found in the gospel of Mark. A man is introduced as having evil spirit in Mark 5:2:
When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him.
When this man with evil spirit came to Jesus, the evil spirit in him was driven out. Later, Mark described the same person as one who was formally possessed of demon as we read in Mark 5:18:
As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.
Hence, there is the clear example that demons are the same as evil spirits so that wherever we see the term “demons” we should think of “evil spirits.” Demons are fallen angels/gods who are other than the chief fallen angel, Satan. The demons that are in operation in the world today are those fallen angels/gods who did not participate in the corruption of humankind that led to the flood judgment of God. We say this because the fallen angels involved in the attempt to corrupt the human nature are now in prison waiting for their final judgment as implied in Jude 6:
And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home — these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
The angels who abandoned their “home” we believe are the fallen angels involved in events of cohabitation between angels or “sons of God” and women described in Gen 6. Since these fallen angels are now in prison, we then deduce that all the other fallen angels who are described as evil spirits that are free at the present time are the same as demons. Thus, the term “demon” describes any fallen angel except Satan that is free at the present time. They are creatures of God for unless they were, God would not use them under certain conditions. As it stands, because they are creatures of God, He uses them to carry out judgment against individuals or nation. It is for this reason that an evil spirit was used in judgment of Abimelech as described in Judges 9:22-24:
22 After Abimelech had governed Israel three years, [God picks the right time for judgment] 23 God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem , who acted treacherously against Abimelech. 24 God did this in order that the crime against Jerub-Baal's seventy sons, the shedding of their blood, might be avenged on their brother Abimelech and on the citizens of Shechem , who had helped him murder his brothers.
Demons are the supernatural beings that the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul described as “authorities, power, and forces” in Ephesians 6:12:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Demons are also identified as “deceiving spirits” in 1 Timothy 4:1:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
Anyway, we should recognize that demons are also described using other terms such as evil spirits, deceiving spirits, authorities, power, and evil spiritual forces.
Demonic Activities
Although the Bible does not furnish us with detail descriptions about the nature of demons (evil spirits) or even details of how they function; nevertheless, we are provided enough information to identify at least five of their many possible activities. Before we consider these activities, it is important to remember that the term “demon” is interchangeable with the phrase “evil spirits,” so that wherever this phrase appears it should be clear that demons are in view.
A first activity of demons is to sponsor false prophecy. It is for this reason that all the prophets Ahab consulted before going to war gave him false hope of victory. The behind-the-scenes actions that led to the false hope of these prophets are described in 1 Kings 22:20-23:
20 And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?' "One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.' 22 " 'By what means?' the LORD asked. " 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said. " 'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.' 23 "So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you."
It would seem here that the lying spirit is a demon since “lying” is contrary to God’s will so a spirit that lies or sponsors lies must be an evil spirit. As we have noted, God uses the evil spirits for judgment so it should not surprise us that God permitted the lying spirit to sponsor false prophecy with respect to Ahab because God had decreed that Ahab would be killed in battle, being his judgment for all the atrocities he committed in Israel. To understand this phenomenon of lying spirit, we have to remember that God uses anything He chooses to bring about His purpose, as implied in Psalm 76:10:
Surely your wrath against men brings you praise, and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.
A more literal reading is given in the NASB as: For the wrath of man shall praise You; With a remnant of wrath You will gird Yourself.
In any event, the very existence of false prophets is an indication that there are evil spirits since the elect angels could not sponsor lies. It is because demons sponsor false prophecy that God gave Israel information that is tantamount to a litmus test for true prophets of God as recorded in Deuteronomy 18:21-22:
21 You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?" 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
Of course, it is not only whether what the prophet says comes true that is used to ensure that demons are not behind that prophecy but there is also the criterion of the content of the message. If it leads away from the worship of true God, then that prophet is under demons for demons would love to be worshipped. Hence, another criterion the Lord provided Israel for evaluating false prophet is specified in Deuteronomy 13:1-3:
1 If a prophet , or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
If demons were not capable of causing false prophecy, there would have been no need for God to give these criteria of distinguishing true from false prophets.
A second activity of demons is to sponsor false doctrines. It is for this reason that the apostle Paul warned of the doctrines from demons in a passage we cited only a verse previously but here we cite it fully, that is, 1 Timothy 4:1-3:
1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.
Demons teach doctrines not directly, but they sponsor falsehood through those who teach. It is for this reason that believers are to be careful to watch for teachings that come from those who claim to be Bible teachers that contradict the Bible with respect to conduct. It just happened that Apostle Paul mentioned two of these teachings that deal with marriage and food. The reality is that demons sponsor false teaching. It is because demons are capable of false doctrine that the Holy Spirit through Apostle John also instructs believers to test all those who claim to have the Spirit of God because there are other spirits that exist that would lead some to teach things contrary to the truth. Consequently, Apostle John writes in 1 John 4:1-3:
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
The test of whether a person is teaching the doctrine from the Holy Spirit or from demons is what he teaches about the person of Jesus Christ. Clearly, anyone that denies incarnation no matter what else he teaches should be recognized as a person propagating the doctrines of demons.
A third activity of demons is living in bodies. Demons like to live in bodies whether of human or animals although their preference of course is human bodies. This is clear from the plea of demons to be given the permission to go into bodies of pigs after our Lord drove them out from living in a human body as we read in Luke 8:30-33:
31 And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. 32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
The fact that these demons did not want to be sent to Abyss but wanted to remain in bodies of pigs in the same area that the man with demons lived, implies that demons are territorial that is, they like to reside in one particular region. Furthermore, demons do not mind sharing bodies. This fact is indicated in several passages in the gospel, for example, we read in Luke 8:2:
and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out;
You see that Mary had seven demons living inside of her indicating that demons do not mind sharing the place of their residence. The fact that demons love to possess bodies leads us to examine shortly in more detail the concept of demon possession.
A fourth activity of demons is to inflict illnesses as well as cause all kinds of handicap on people. Consequently, demons could cause a person to be mute or even deaf as implied in Luke 11:14:
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.
Deformities can be caused by demons as implied in the case of the woman that was bent over for eighteen years that the Lord healed as recorded in Luke 13:11–13:
11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
A fifth activity of demons is to cause wars among nations as we may deduce from what the Holy Spirit gave through Apostle John recorded in Revelation 16:13–14:
13 Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
That demons or evil spirits cause war is also supported by the passage we cited previously, where an evil spirit moved Ahab to attack Gilead as stated in 1 Kings 22:20:
And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?' "One suggested this, and another that
Anyway, we have cited five activities of demons, but these are by no means the only activities of demons or evil spirits. They continue to cause havoc in the world.
Demon Possession
The term “demon possession” is not an expression found in the Bible as such. However, it is a term that has been coined to describe an activity of demons as described in the Bible. Therefore, demon possession is the indwelling of one or more evil spirits or demons in a person’s body resulting in total control of the person at the demon’s will. The demon may not always live in that body but may come and go as he wishes.
Demon possession is a concept that the Bible provides very little information. For example, we are not given the information as to how a person comes to be possessed by demon or how demons indwell the bodies of an individual. It is interesting that, as far as I have been able to determine, in all occurrences (about of 11 of them) where the Greek word (daimonizomai) translated “to be demon possessed” is used to describe the actual demon possession of individuals that they all appear in the present tense in the Greek. The present tense used in those instances indicates that the possession started in the past but with emphasis on the present state of those possessed. The present tense could also indicate, as we have already mentioned, that the possession may not be continuous indicating that the demon indwells the person at a chosen interval that is determined by the demon. So, we do not know when and how a person gets to be possessed by demons only their present state is emphasized. Furthermore, we do not know the basis how some get to be possessed by demons and others do not. In other words, the Bible did not clearly state the basis on which one person is a candidate for demon indwelling. However, what we know for certain is that there are conditions that at least would make a person be attracted to demons although we are not certain of what these conditions are. We say this because of the description of our Lord recorded in Matthew 12:43-45:
43 "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."
Our Lord did not go into detail to explain to us the conditions that make it attractive for a demon that has left a person to want to return to that person. However, one clear condition is that the demon must find that body unoccupied indicating probably that the person does not have the Holy Spirit leaving in him. This is the most logical way to understand that a body is unoccupied. For if some demon is already in that body, then the other demons would probably join them. But if the Holy Spirit occupied the body, then there is no room for demons to return permanently. The ambiguity of the conditions here is in the expression swept clean and put in order. The expression “put in order” is translated from a Greek word (kosmeō) that also means to beautify or make attractive. Therefore, it seems that there are conditions inside the soul that would make a person very attractive to demons, but our Lord did not specify those conditions. We could only speculate that it must be that the soul of the individual contains no truth of God’s word so that the demon would have no problem occupying the person’s body and influencing his soul. While our Lord did not go into any detail about the condition that makes a person suited for demon possession, it would seem one way for a person to make himself a candidate for demon possession is to be involved in idolatry and its associated practices; for, it is through idolatry that a person comes into closest contact, so to say, with demons. When a person is involved in idolatry that individual is certainly exposing himself to demons as implied with the instruction of Apostle Paul in the passage we have studied in detail, that is, 1 Corinthians 10:20:
No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.
It is probably for the same reason that a person who gets involved in idolatry or activities that are associated with demons, such as consulting mediums and witchcraft, would be making contact with demons that God commanded the Israelites not to get involved in these activities, as we read in Leviticus 19:31:
"'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
It is also probably the possibility of demon possession that is implied in the word “defiled.” For it seems that when a person consults a medium or a spiritist (one who contacts and gains information from dead spirits) that such a person is exposing himself to the realm of demons and so could easily become demon possessed. Hence to avoid this possibility God instructed Israel not to have anything to do with consulting mediums. In fact, the cases of demon possessions that have been documented in modern times by missionaries involve individuals who were involved in idolatry. For example, there was a case in which a Christian officer’s little boy in Madras suddenly lost his power of speech and was showing strange signs of fits. Upon investigation it was discovered that the boy was playing under a tree where the Hindus worshipped spirits.
It is important to recognize that demon possession is not a phenomenon limited to the Bible times. There are certainly many cases of demon possession in modern time especially in Africa, China, and India. Missionaries have reported several cases of demon possession. There was the case in Columbia in 1941/1942 where a girl that was demon possessed would enter a kitchen then dishes and utensils were seen flying around as if hurled by unseen hands. Or the case in New York in the 1940s where the hair of a young Indian girl stood straight out from her head just like a huge fan around it and she danced in suspended position in the air several feet above her bed. At this time, I will not go into details of these occurrences. But I have chosen to describe in detail the one case reported to have taken place in Germany in the nineteenth century as given by Dr. Unger. I chose this because it received proper public scrutiny. Let me quote the entire text of Dr. Unger[1]:
Striking is the case of Gottliebin Dittus, a demon-possessed young woman, who became one of Pastor John Christopher Blumhardt’s “prayer cures” in the course of his remarkable gospel ministry in nineteenth-century Germany. Gottliebin saw apparitions and had frequent attacks in which she fell unconscious and demons spoke through her in their own voice and personality. Blumhardt and others conversed with them at length.
Pastor Blumhard opened this case of possession to public scrutiny. He had a woman stay with Gottliebin, and asked a committee of prominent citizens to conduct a thorough investigation. Persons were stationed all around the house, in various rooms, and even in Gottliebin’s bedroom. Noises were heard which gradually increased in violence and seemed to concentrate in Gottliebin’s chamber. Chairs bounced, windows rattled, plaster fell from the ceiling, and objects moved about without any visible explanation. Prayer caused the noises and phenomena to increase. When the victim was removed to another house to live with another family, the noises and telekinetic phenomena continued for a while in her former residence and then began in the new one.
On one occasion, after continued prayer, one of the demons inhabiting Gottliebin cried out, “All is now lost. Our plans are destroyed. You have shattered our bond, and put everything into confusion. You, with your everlasting prayers – you scatter us entirely. We are 1,067 in number. But there are still multitudes of living men, and you should warn them lest they be like us forever, lost and cursed of God.”
Between December 2 and December 28, 1843, complete deliverance from demon possession and restoration to health came to Gottlliebin, including the sudden healing of a deformed limb that had not responded to therapy. But the final battle was fearful. Blumhardt, after hours of prayer, commanded the demon to come forth. With a terrible outcry, penetrating to a great distance, the demon confessed that he was an emissary of Satan. Leaving his victim with the piercing yell, “Jesus is Victor!” the evil spirit and hordes of demons under him departed, never to return to their victim. This was the climax of an eighteen-month-old struggle against stubborn demon spirits.
Be that as it may, in as much as we are not provided any detail of how a person gets to be demon possessed; nevertheless, there are certain facts provided about the activities that demons carry out in a person possessed. We mention six of these. First, when a person is possessed of demons his speech could be impaired by the demon. This impairment is mentioned in Matt 9:32-33
32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel."
You see, demon possession could lead to a person being dumb and unable to speak as indicated here. Recall I had previously referred to a boy who suddenly lost his power of speech in Madras because he was demon possessed. So, there should be no doubt in your mind that demons could affect a person’s speech.
Second, demon possession could lead to seizures in a person as indicated in Matt 17:15-18:
15 "Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him." 17 "O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
The man described his son as having seizures but in the Authorized Version and the NASB the son is described as a lunatic. Well, the word “seizure” is translated from a Greek word (selēniazomai) that literally means, “to be moonstruck,” so means to have convulsions or to suffer epileptic seizures, which in the ancient times were associated with the supernatural power of the moon. The translation of “lunatic” could be misleading since what the man described here deals with epileptic seizures as evident by the fact the son falls into fire or water. A lunatic would not normally fall into water or fire. This activity of falling into water or fire not only reveals that demons produce seizures, but they could also produce suicidal tendencies. In any event, the man did not know the cause of these seizures, but our Lord identified them as caused by a demon so that once the demon was driven out of the young man’s body the seizures stopped. The convulsions that demons produce could also lead to foaming at the mouth as in Luke 9:39:
A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him.
Third, demon possession leads to a person being jerked, shaken, or even tossed about on the floor not because of epileptic seizures but as a demonstration of demon’s power. It is this kind of jerking of a person possessed by the demon that is described in Mark 1:25-26:
25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
Fourth, demon possession could lead in hijacking of a person’s vocal cord so that the individual speaks the words that demons would put in that person’s mouth. This is evident in Luke 4:41:
Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.
Do you see that demons recognized that Jesus is the Son of God, and they used the voices of people they possessed to shout out this truth? There is no way that these demon-possessed individuals could have known this truth. Therefore, it must be the demons in them speaking, using their voices. In case there is doubt that demons speak through people possessed, we cite two other passages to prove this. A first passage is Acts 16:17-18:
17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
You see, this slave girl did not know anything about the apostle and his team, but it was the demon in her that knew that Apostle Paul was a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ who has been commissioned to preach the gospel of salvation. Therefore, when this girl spoke it was not her speaking. The demon that possessed her hijacked her voice and spoke through her as if she were speaking on her own. Apostle Paul himself certainly filled of the Holy Spirit commands the demon to leave the girl. A second passage concerns the experience of the sons of Sceva in Acts 19:15-16:
15 One day the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
Here again, it was not the man that was demon possessed that spoke to the sons of Sceva, for he could not have known of Jesus and His apostle, Paul, but the demon in him knew Jesus and Apostle Paul hence declared what is recorded here. So, you get the idea that demon-possessed individuals could say things that they have no knowledge of. In this case, it is the demon that possessed the individual that speaks through the person’s vocal cord.
The examples we have cited should be enough to convince you that demons do hijack human voices to speak through them. However, because many think that these things happen only in Bible times, let me cite a testimony of a missionary in more recent time. This missionary, W.E. Wright served in West Africa. He narrated of how witch doctor spoke in a voice that was clearly not his own. Let me quote this testimony:
As I rode on horseback along a country path, I was overtaken by a witch doctor. Curious, as always, I made inquiries as to the contents of the leather bag hung over his shoulder on a miniature axe (the emblem of his profession). He drew from his bag a bundle of papers on which were green and orange markings, an imitation of Arabic writing by an illiterate. He volunteered to read to me from the book, and before I could stop him, for I had seen enough, he began nonsense reading in an ordinary voce. Then suddenly his voice changed. He was possessed, and I hear a demon through his lips telling me that I had a sick little girl in my house. (My daughter had been sick for several days, and as he was a total stranger it was unlikely that he would have heard it.) I silenced him as quickly as I could, reading to him from my Book.[2]
We could cite more examples, or I could even give you my own personal experience with this sort of thing but this one is sufficient to indicate that demons could take over a person’s voice so that he speaks of something he has no knowledge of.
Fifth, demon possession could lead in unusual possession of strength in the individual possessed and in an unusual conduct. This fact is demonstrated in Luke’s description of one of the persons that Jesus drove evil spirits from as we read in Luke 8:27-30
27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torture me!" 29 For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. 30 Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him.
You must agree that it requires an unusual strength for a person bound with chains to break the chains in order to free himself. Furthermore, it is unusual for a person to want to live in a cemetery as this individual did. It is not only this incident that illustrates the unusual strength possessed by those who are demon-possessed. There is another incident where a demon possessed individual was able to beat seven brothers as Luke recorded in a passage we have cited previously, but let’s take another look of that passage once more, that is, Acts 19:13-16:
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15One day the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
How could one person beat seven men to the point that they bled? It must be because this person possessed an unusual strength. Hence, it should be clear that a person that is demon possessed could have unusual strength. I have read a case of a demon possessed skinny woman that required more than seven able bodied men to restrain her when under demon possession. Of course, it does not mean that all who are demon possessed have unusual strength, but certain demon-possessed individuals do have unusual strength. It is for this reason of unusual strength that some demon-possessed individuals are usually violent as described, for example, in Matthew 8:28:
When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.
Sixth, demon possession leads to mental illness. We can state that all demon-possessed individuals must of necessity have some form of mental illness at the instant of actual demon possession for the simple reason that the demons control their minds. This mental illness is evident in that the person possessed loses self-control and is prone to act irrational. So it is because of this situation that people were astonished at the calmness of a person who had once been demon possessed but delivered by Jesus as described in Mark 5:15:
When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.
The expression “right mind” is translated from a Greek word (sōphroneō) that also means “to be sane, to think straight, to reason correctly” or “to have sound judgment.” Thus, a person who is demon-possessed is usually insane or incapable of sound judgment. Having stated this, we must be careful to understand that not every mental sickness is a result of demon possession.
Medical scientists speak of various kinds of mental illness ranging from so-called “affective disorder (i.e., a mental illness that affects a person’s moods)”, “mania (mental illness that involves extreme optimism and excessive energy, often accompanied by uncontrollable irritability and anger),” to “schizophrenia (a mental illness characterized by unpredictable thoughts and behavior and a withdrawal from reality).” The term “schizophrenia” means a splitting of the mind. These medical scientists describe various causes of mental illness as due to physical changes in the brains due to damage or disease, chemical imbalance, childhood unpleasant experiences, and emotional stress. But they generally do not ascribe any form of mental disorder to anything outside the physical realm. This is to be expected because science deals with the physical world and not the spiritual world. However, from the Bible it is clear demons do cause mental illness. But regardless of the cause of any mental sickness, we can confidently assert that every mental illness is a result of spiritual malady in a person that is, that mental illness is an indication of the effect of sin in a person’s life. Diseases are present because of the presence of sin in the world. Had Adam not sinned there would be no diseases so that diseases are consequences of sin.
Interestingly, medical scientists unwittingly have indicated that sin is one cause of mental illness. How is that you may ask? Well, when medical scientists identify emotional stress as one cause of mental illness, they have indeed accepted that mental illness is a result of sin. They say that stress may be due to overwork, financial or other family problems. In other words, they are admitting that stress is a result of worry. But you see, to worry is to sin, for the Bible is clear that we should not worry. Our Lord Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount clearly forbade worrying about anything of this life, as we read in Matthew 6:25:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Apostle Paul writing to the Philippians issued the command that they should not worry as we read in Philippians 4:6:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
The expression “be anxious” is the same Greek word (merimnaō) rendered “worry” in Matthew 6:25. Apostle Peter puts the command not to worry in as slightly different way in 1 Peter 5:7:
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
But then Peter followed this command with an explanation in 1 Peter 5:8:
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
One way Satan can devour a person is to cause mental illness. Therefore, if a person worries the individual has in effect disobeyed God and therefore has invited Satan to cause suffering and destruction on the person. There is no doubt that excessive worrying could lead to mental illness, but this type of mental illness is due to a failure in one’s spiritual life. So, you see, that mental illness regardless of the cause is due to sin either of the individual or of the original sin of Adam that has brought diseases and death to mankind.
The point that we are stressing is that not every mental illness is associated with demon possession. However, every mental illness is certainly a result of sin. There are mental illnesses that are clearly God’s discipline on a person but because many do not recognize that God could discipline a person with mental illness, they assume that it is either a physical condition or a result of demon possession. The reality is that God can discipline a person with mental illness as a disease of the mind just as He could with any other kind of illness. When God gave the law to Israel through Moses, He indicated that if they obeyed it they would be blessed but if they disobeyed, they would be cursed, according to Deuteronomy 28:15:
However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
One of these curses involves mental illness as described in Deuteronomy 28:28:
The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind.
The word “madness” is translated from a Hebrew word (shaga˓) that means to be mad, to act like a maniac that is, to think irrationally and not be in a right state of mind. Although the Bible did not say directly that Nebuchadnezzar was mad or mentally sick but that was exactly the case with him in order for him to live with wild animals as we read in Daniel 4:32:
You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes."
Along with madness, God afflicts a person with confusion of the mind. It is this madness that God would inflict on the soldiers who would attempt to destroy Israel just before the return of Christ as Prophet Zechariah wrote about in Zechariah 12:4:
On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness," declares the LORD. "I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations
So, you see that a person could have mental illness that is directly because of God’s judgment and not as a result of demon possession. Because of this observation, it is important to emphasize then that not all persons who exhibit the activities that we have mentioned so far are demon possessed. For example, a person under the influence of some drugs might have unusual strength or energy but that does not necessarily mean that the person is under demon possession although it is often difficult under such condition to be certain that a person has not given himself over to Satan because of drug abuse. We say this because there is the case documented in Ecuador of an Indian, Pablo, who after partaking of certain narcotic roots would go into a trancelike state under which he did strange things that reveal demon possession.
It is difficult to single out one of these manifestations of demonic activities in a person possessed as the most indicative of demon-possession since demons are deceptive spirits. But if there is an undeniable evidence of demon-possession, it is the hijacking of a person’s voice to speak things that the person has no way of knowing. My point is that one must be careful in labeling a person as demon-possessed but when majority of these other activities are apparent in a person and that person is an unbeliever, it is much easier to identify that person as demon-possessed.
08/27//21