| DEMONS What are they? How do they affect us? by Alvin Mitchell Copyright 2005 by Alvin Mitchell |
| This study is the second of two thus far inspired by students working on writing projects for one of their school assignments. The first, for young Ashraf Farrassati, titled "Had Jesus not Come", was instrumental in helping her to earn an "A". Let us pray that this effort will be equally a blessing to Stephanie, as she strives to fulfill her obligations as well, and that our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ of Calvary will be uplifted and honored in the process. |
| Hello, Stephanie: We here at the BibleStudyHour.net are grateful that you took the time to visit with us on yesterday. In answer to you question: 1) demons are a class of spirit beings (similar to the God who made them), so called because of their present vicious, hostile natures toward both God and humanity. They are angelic type creatures who incurred their rebellious attitudes when they joined forces with the highest ranking, strongest and most intelligent of all God's creatures--namely Lucifer, aka, Satan or the devil--when he rebelled (he is a creature of such strength and power that he has dared challenge his Maker for the right to rule the universe!) Hence, they are enemies of God (though even with the devil by their side, no match for Him), and so therefore, they are enemies of all God's Christians (and of the Jews, because of God's affinity for them--although they to are rebels, in that they persist in their long standing refusal to serve Him). 2) demons can affect us in two primary ways a) the first is via our thought life, by trying to influence our minds and to control our thinking through infiltration thereof with ideas and thoughts that lead us into conflict with what we know to be the will of God. They can only do this if we allow them to. They cannot take control of our minds unless we yield to their temptation. b) the second is by gaining control of others, which allows them to act out physically what they can only suggest to us spiritually, thereby leading us astray, if, again, we are not careful, alert, and attentive to the things, and Will of God the Almighty, Father of the Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. They cannot themselves materialize, and take on physical form so as to do us harm (there are people, of course who will swear to the contrary but, where the biblical narrative is concerned, they cannot; at least not randomly, in and of themselves.). In addition, it should be noted that the demons of this world do not act alone. They are organized and subdivided into groups or “ranks”, more or less, and as such they have over them a boss or supervisor, if you will. That boss or supervisor, as we saw earlier, is the devil (aka, Satan, or Lucifer). Because he is the most powerful of all God’s created creatures, and because Adam’s fall in the beginning transferred ownership of this world from mankind to him (more or less), he is often referred to as the prince or god of this world (John 16:11; I Corinthians 4:4). While he is not the sole cause of unbelief among those who do not trust, or accept Jesus Christ as the only born Son of the Living God, Lord and Savior of the world, he is credited with being a force for continued disbelief in their midst, encouraging and driving them further away from the things of God for fear they might actually turn and thereby be saved—forgiven for all their wrongs. In Matthew’s gospel, the devil is—no doubt, working through his demons—portrayed has one who continuously does all he can to disrupt the work of God. He does this in part in different ways, by catching unwary new Christians, as well as some old ones, at various points of their development, penetrating and affecting their minds—and indirectly, their lives--with doubts; elevating trials and troubles of life; cares, concerns, lustful desires for the things of this life more than for the things of God, so that ultimately they turn their backs altogether, and by planting “fake” or phony Christians among us to spread false doctrine and thereby mislead the saints (Matthew 13:18-23; 24-30, 37-43). Satan is also said to be constantly on the prowl, like a hunger lion, looking for saints—careless or otherwise—whose lives he can destroy, thereby wrecking their relationship with God (I Peter 5:8). He is able to do this quite effectively by not only affecting a transformation of himself so as to emulate (feign) what is good and right, but those who occupy in churches as false apostles and fake preachers throughout this country and around the world are said to be his servants (not God’ s), through whom he works by means of his many demons (II Corinthians 11:13-15). Moreover, the time is coming, we are told—if it is not already upon us—when deceiving spirits and doctrines from demons will cause many to fall and turn away from the faith of Jesus the Christ, as men speak lies to each other hypocritically, having no conscience (thinking nothing of the wrongs they do one another; I Timothy 4:1). God Himself will actually allow the demons to step up their activity among fallen Christians and unbelievers at this time, causing them to give hear and acceptance only to lies and falsehoods, just prior to the Lord Jesus’ own second coming in the physical (II Thessalonians 2:1-17). Please note that neither the devil nor his demons are omni-present; that is, they cannot be everywhere at once, hence, much of his dirty work is carried out by them, working in the lives of false ministers and false Christians toward the common goal of derailing the work of God (Ephesians 2:2). The Christian journey in scripture is often likened to earthly warfare. Whatever the part of godless humanity in this battle for the souls of men, our ultimate enemy whose base of operation is from behind the scenes, is Satan himself. Guided and controlled by him, his demonic forces are organized and stratified (shall we say) or structured so that there are divisions or ranks, i.e., we Christians are in combat with (spirit or demonic) rulers, potentates, rulers who control the godlessness of this world, spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies (Given that this a warfare, the Christian’s best defense is the complete armor furnished, tailored, and fitted by the Master Himself: 1) a girdle of truth, 2) righteousness for a breastplate, 3) the gospel of peace for foot protection, 4) faith for a shield, 6) knowledge of salvation for a helmet, 7) the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of the God Who Lives). One might say, Stephanie, that Satan and his horde of fallen spirits represent a class of demons all to themselves, having a relatively fair amount of freedom and autonomy, for now (that will come to an end, sometime in the future). There is, on the other hand, that class which have no freedom. Rather, the scriptures say that these are kept constantly imprisoned in chains consisting of darkness in a place called Tartarus (II Peter 2:4; Jude :6), also known as the Abyss or bottomless pit (not to be confused with hell, which will not be occupied or populated by its eternal guests—both demonic and human—until after the final judgment of the wicked: Revelation 20:8-15; actually, by that time, two world class anti-God characters known as the “beast” or anti-Christ and his side kick the false prophet will already be there: Revelation 19:19-21). In general these are said to have been so wicked, that they could not and cannot be allowed to roam free, in which case one guesses you might say, they are the worst of all the bad angels. The risen Jesus, through John the revelator, has informed us that their prison will be opened during the Apocalypse, so that God can use them to inflict punitive affliction upon rebel men and women living during that terrible time of judgment, killing many of them over a period of five months (Revelation 9:1-11). They no doubt are also structured and ordered, in which case they have a chief whose name is Abaddon (in Hebrew) or Apollyon (in the Greek). In the end, all the demons, including Satan and all his hellish host. Angels in the Bible have been known to take on physical form, usually that of men, many times. No doubt, demons can do this as well, but only as God permits. There is no biblical evidence, since the flood, that God has ever allowed any demon to materialize. Not even the chief, and most powerful of them all can do so except as God gives the "ok" (observe that when Satan came to tempt Eve in the Garden of Eden, he did so through the medium of another of God's created creatures, namely the serpent--which means that he could not, in and of himself take on a physical form all his own; that would be because God wouldn't allow him to.). Let me know if this helps your curiosity any, ok, Stephanie? Bye. In His Service, Alvin Mitchell |
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