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DEMONS

DEMONS
Based on a Biblical and Historical Study
by
Barry Van Heerden
of
South Africa

June 2005
The Truth About Demons

As one begins reading the New Testament one is faced with a


problem that doesn't occur in the Old Testament. As we read the
Old Testament from Genesis right through to Malachi we do not find
the problem of demons, devils and demon possession.. The Old
Testament is completely silent about demons and demon possession.
For 4000 years the Jews knew little about it. Some might argue that
because the word "daimonian", translated in the King James Version
as 'devil”, (or more correctly, 'demon') is Greek, this is the reason that
it only occurs in the New Testament. However, the fact still remains
that the terms 'demons' and 'demon possession' do not exist in the
Old Testament. The closest word or phrase we can find to demons
or demon possession in the Old Testament is the term 'evil spirit'. In
both the New Testament and the Old Testament we find this
particular phrase 'evil spirits' (or ‘unclean spirits’) occurring.

Demons and Evil Spirits

1 Sam 16 records the period of Israel's kings, specifically the first


mortal king of Israel's history, Saul, the son of Kish. During this
period of history, Saul was dismissed by God from being king
because of his disobedience. The rival to his throne was the
shepherd boy, David the son of Jesse, who was anointed by the
prophet Samuel:

"Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the
midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon
David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to
Ramah. But the Spirit of the LORD departed from
Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him." 1 Sam
16:13 & 14

Notice those words carefully


"An evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul"

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There's a very important pattern to be noticed here. God's Holy Spirit
was upon Saul. It was removed and placed upon David. The result
was "an evil spirit from the Lord" came upon Saul the son of Kish. In
chapter 19 of the same book we read of a similar situation, but at
that time Saul tried to kill David because of his intense jealousy
towards him

"And there was war again: and David went out, and
fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great
slaughter; and they fled from him. And the evil spirit
from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house." 1
Sam 19 v 8

Further proof that an 'evil spirit' in the Old Testament came from the
Lord is in 1 Samuel 18:10

" And it came to pass on the morrow, that an evil


spirit from God came upon Saul,"

A very important principle again to be noticed here is that God leaves


us in absolutely no doubt that an evil spirit comes from him. He's told
us three times already in the Old Testament. We find that the Old
Testament is silent about demons and demon possession. The
closest phrase, situation or condition that we can find to that in the
New Testament is that of "an evil spirit from the Lord"

In case we think that the evil spirit from the Lord only came upon men
during this particular period in history, let's look at a completely
different period in Israel's history but again the exact same situation.
Judges 9 - the time of Gideon and Abimalech :

" When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel, Then
God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of
Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with
Abimelech:" Judges 9 : 22 & 23

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Good and Evil comes from God

Wherever you go in the history of the Old Testament you'll find that
an evil spirit was brought about by God.. There are literally hundreds
of references in the Old Testament showing that evil came from the
Lord

Let us look at one more - the book of Exodus ch 4. This is an


important reference because it deals with a condition; the condition
of blindness and deafness. This is the time in history of Israel's
Exodus from Egypt, approximately 1500 years before Christ and
about 500 years before the situation we have just read about, in the
time of Saul and David.
God spoke to Moses and instructed him to lead his people out of the
Egyptian bondage into the desert of Sinai:

"And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent,


neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant:
but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue."
Exodus 4:10

God had said to Moses, "Go and speak for me", and Moses said,
"Don't send me because I am slow of speech and slow of tongue" but
notice what the Lord said in verse 11

The LORD said to Moses

" Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb,
or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?"

Clearly we see that these people that believed openly in one God,
believed that evil spirits and infirmities such as blindness, deafness,
etc. all came from God, They attributed all these things to the hand of
their God. Clearly if blindness was created by their God the solution

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to blindness was also in the hands of their God. That's a very
important principle to realize, that if God creates blindness, He has
the solution to blindness : if He creates deafness, He has the solution
to deafness. No wonder the prophet Isaiah would write, some 700
years later that the Lord would open the eyes of the blind, that the
ears of the deaf would be unstopped and that the lame man would
leap as an hart" (Isaiah 35: 5-6)

Clearly the prophet had that same understanding that if God had
created a condition, He also had the solution to that condition

Do we have a God of the Old Testament


and a God of the New Testament?

Let us contrast our findings in the Old Testament to what we find now
in the New Testament.
About 450 years lapsed between the last prophet, Malachi and the
coming of Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is here in the New
Testament that we find the phenomena of demons, devils and demon
possession, a situation previously unknown in the Old Testament
writings. How strange! When God himself says, " I am the same
yesterday, today and tomorrow" Did God change his mind? Or is it
a different God that we worship? Do we have a God of the Old
Testament and a God of the New Testament?

He believed that the Messiah could heal him. So we see light and
darkness coming face to face. The light of truth as it is in Jesus
Christ on the one hand, and the darkness of superstition on the other
hand.
Let's examine a few passages in the NewTestament and see whether
we can solve the problem.

Look at Luke ch 8 . Notice the close association between demons


and infirmities and evil spirits. They are all synonymous terms.

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A small aside here, when we read the word 'devils' in the KJV (King
James Version) it is translated from a Gk word 'daimonian' and
should read 'demon' and not 'devil' The word for devil in the New
Testament comes from the word 'diabolos', Therefore, from this point
on, the word 'demon' will be substituted for the word 'devil' wherever
applicable.

New Testament Demons

"And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every


city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the
kingdom of God: and the twelve were with
him, And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits
and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went
seven demons," Luke 8:1-2

Notice those three terms, evil spirits, infirmities and seven demons
Let us then, try and identify the nature of one of these demons - not
the demons as we have seen them now in Luke ch 8, but in Luke ch
11 where we are told a little bit more about the nature of a demon.
Now as we go through the New Testament, we find that although the
nature of demons is different, it is nearly always associated with an
infirmity or a disease. Sometimes the word demon is related to
human governments, but in most occasions we find that the word
demons is related to infirmities and diseases.

Remembering that we read in Exodus 4 that dumbness is an infliction


brought about by God, look at Luke 11 verse 14

"And he was casting out a demon, and it was dumb"

Notice it was the demon that was dumb, that is the terminology we
now find. The 'demon' not the man - but the demon was dumb.
That's what the scripture says,

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Who actually spoke? That's the question we have to ask ourselves,
Was it the demon that spoke or the man that spoke? Clearly it was
the man that spoke, because if the demon, that had really been cast
out, spoke, then clearly the man was not healed: but if the demon that
was dumb was cast out and the man spoke, then the man was
healed. Very simple. Clearly it was the man that spoke. We find here
therefore, that the manifestation of demon presence depends entirely
on their having a host. There is no such thing as a demon outside a
body. It's not to be found in scripture. Wherever we find a demon, it
has to have a host. It has to have a body in which it dwells. When
demons are able to speak we find again, that it is the man that does
the speaking, not the demon. Although the text here says that it was
the demon that spoke, clearly it was the man that did the speaking.
Either that, or the man was not healed. We can choose. So here we
find a demon described. The nature of this particular demon was a
dumb demon.

Demons, Diseases & Infirmities

Let us look at another characteristic of a demon, in Luke chapter 13


Although the word demon is not actually found in this passage, we
find the phrase, "the spirit of infirmity" Which brings us into the
bounds of our subject. As we read, see if you can identify the nature
of this woman's infirmity

"And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of


infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, (that
means she was buckled up- she was bowed) and could in
no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her
to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine
infirmity. And he laid his hands on her:
and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God."
Luke 13:11-13,

Notice the language at the end of v 12 " thou art loosed from thine
infirmity." She was loosed from her infirmity - by inference before that

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she was bound by her infirmity. Do you agree with that? Well, you're
wrong! Look at verse 16, Jesus speaking says,
"And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from
this bond on the sabbath day?" (not the spirit of infirmity - but Satan)

What does Satan mean to you? Well simply Satan means in the Old
Testament 'satan' - adversary - This woman was in an adverse
situation. She had arthritis - she was buckled up, she couldn't
straighten up. So can we see that the spirit of infirmity is
synonymous here with the term 'satan'? She was bound by her
infirmity, she was bound by 'satan' and the nature of this satan was
arthritis, she had been bent up with arthritis, and now she was made
straight.
So as far as the natures of demons was concerned we have a few
natures that we've looked at: one a dumb demon, and the other an
arthritic satan. Although that might sound a little humourous that's
essentially what the scripture has told us.

Let us take one more example of how demons are associated with
infirmities and diseases. Matthew 17
Again, as we're reading from this particular passage let us see
whether we can diagnose the problem. Let us see if we can identify
this young man's demon- because this man is demon possessed.

"And when they were come to the multitude, there came


to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore
vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water."
Matt 17 :14-15

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There are four points that we want to draw to your attention
here:-

1. "He was a lunatic" The word lunatic simply means that he


was affected by the moon

2 "He was sore vexed"

3. "Oftimes he fell into the fire and oftimes he fell into the water"

4. "Jesus rebuked the demon; and he (that is, the demon)


departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very
hour." Verse 18

Notice the result - "He was cured" Before that he had a demon, when
the demon left he was cured. By inference, he was sick, he had an
infirmity. When that infirmity was healed, the scripture tells us that
he was cured.

How would you diagnose that particular problem? A person that was
'lunatic' that often fell into the fire and often into the water? Most
doctors would say that child suffered from epilepsy. Anyone who's
ever experienced epilepsy would say that often, when a person had
an epileptic seizure, he would suddenly fall on to the ground. He
would have literally no control and sometimes he would “froth at the
mouth” when he had a seizure. This condition, to these people was
'lunatic, sore vexed, often falling into the fire and often into the water'
The child suffered from epilepsy, and when the epilepsy departed
from him he was cured.

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The three situations that we've looked at:-

A
• a man is dumb
• the dumbness is cast out
• the man is healed.
B.
• a woman suffers from arthritis,
• she is loosed from her arthritis
• the woman is cured
C.
• a boy suffers from epilepsy
• the epilepsy departs out of him
• the boy was cured.

Demons, then, are often associated with or synonymous with


diseases and infirmities.

Personification & Language of the Day

The next question that we have to look at, and it's possibly one of the
most difficult is why then, does the language of the New Testament
suggest that demons were actual creatures - or actual people...or
whatever we'd like to suggest they were? Why or how is it that
demons could talk? The reason is twofold. The first suggestion I'd
like to make is that it is a figure of speech. In English we have a
figure of speech called personification. When we take something that
is inanimate and we make it alive by making it sound as if it is a
person. We must be very careful not to restrict figures of speech to
English only. Greek and Hebrew are both very colourful languages
and both in Greek and Hebrew we find this figure of speech of
personification.

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Reading from Proverbs we find a delightful personification of wisdom:
Pay attention carefully to these words:

"Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth


her voice? She standeth in the top of high places (she
referring to wisdom) She crieth at the gates, at the entry
of the city, at the coming in at the doors" Proverbs 8: 1-3.

And again at verse 12

"I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge


of witty inventions."

Here we see in the Old Testament that wisdom and prudence and
their characteristics are personified as if they are real people. In this
particular case, wisdom is given the feminine gender. She standeth
at the top of high places...She crieth at the gates - I wisdom dwell
with prudence...etc.

In the New Testament we find words just as expressive. This time


listen to some words from the book of Revelation... The apostle John
writes:

"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs" - (what a


description for unclean spirits, "like frogs"!) come out
of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.. For
they are the spirits of demons," Revelation 16:13,14

There we have it....the spirits of demons look like frogs! Nobody in


his right mind is going to say that an unclean spirit, or an evil spirit is
a frog! We find the language of the New Testament and the Old
Testament colourful in that they are trying to describe something to
us. They are trying to describe a situation to us.

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Let's draw an analogy in English. If someone says to you, "Father
Time has taken his toll on George"., you know that George is
suffering from the effects of old age. That person is personifying the
effects of age on George. He is not saying that time is a man. It's
much more colourful than saying, "George is getting old"

We can also see that this kind of language belongs to the Old
Testament as well as to the New Testament; to Hebrew as well as to
Greek.

That's the first reason we would suggest that we find the


personification of demons in the New Testament.

Why is there a difference in terminology


between Old and New Testaments?

The second, and we think far more important reason, is something


happened in Jewish history between the time of Exodus, Samuel,
Moses, some of the prophets, and the coming of Messiah.
Something extraordinary happened in Jewish history, and that was
the fact that the Jews, who inherited the land from their fathers, were
temporarily taken out of that land to Babylon, and there they served
the king of Babylon for a period of some 70 years. It wasn't only the
king of Babylon they served for 70 years, because they also served
the kings of Media and Persia for a period of time. The point is, that
the Jews now found themselves in a situation of being in the
Babylonian exile. The Babylonians practiced a religion called, Zoro-
Astrianizm.

This religion featured prominently during the period after the exile,
especially during the 2nd century B.C. and its effects are with us to
this day. Why we say that is because most people who claim that
they are Christians believe that when they are 'demon possessed'
the angel of the devil, or the angel of satan is within them. We would
like to show you that that idea comes from Babylon. It does not come
from scripture.

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God is in Control

The big difference between the Zoro-Astrianizm belief, which the


Babylonians practiced, and the mono-theistic belief which the Jews
practiced, was that the Zoro-Asrtrians had two gods. They had a god
of light and a god of darkness. The god of light was called Ahura
Mazda. The god of darkness was Ach Rimmon.

There was a man, Cyrus, king of Persia. He was Zoro-Astrian. He


believed in two super-natural powers vying for control in the heavens.
He believed in a good god and a bad god; a god of light and a god of
darkness.

In this context. Isaiah chapter 45 is a very important scripture, written


by Isaiah, approximately 750 years B.C. (and 150 years before Cyrus
king of Persia was even born.)

"Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose


right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; "
Isaiah 45: 1

Cyrus wasn't to be conceived for another 150 years - and here he


was, mentioned by name in scripture, and God was going to raise up
this man for a special purpose. That purpose was to send the Jews
back to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple.

"For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I


have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee,
though thou hast not known me". Isaiah 45:4

Cyrus never came to know the God of Israel, NEVER! But God had
called him by his name, and surnamed him, "though thou hast not
known me"

"I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no


God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not
known me: (BUT ) That they may know from the rising

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of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside
me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the
light, and create darkness:" Isaiah 45:5-7

There's no god of light and god of darkness. God is saying


specifically to this Zoro Astrian "I form the light - I create darkness - I
make peace, I create evil. I the Lord do all these things"

That's the answer to anybody who believes that there are two
supernatural powers vying for power in the heavens. God is in
control of everything!

Although God sent the prophets to his people Israel, "rising up early
in the morning", the problem with human nature, as it is this day, is
that people never listen. The Jews never listened. They did not
hearken unto the prophets that God sent "rising early in the morning"
They got involved in pagan worship.

"They served other gods, yea gods of wood and stone, which neither
see nor hear, nor think", as the prophet Moses had prophesied about
so many years before. They corrupted themselves and they began to
believe in the pagan gods of Babylon; two gods - a god of light, and
a god of darkness vying for power in the heavens.

The people to whom Jesus preached

It is to this superstitious, apostate Jewish people that Jesus came to


preach the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. So we find the Jews,
during the time of Jesus attributing their infirmities and their diseases
to demons and to devils. That's what they believed and that belief
came from Babylon.. At this time they didn't call this particular god,
Ach Rimmon, because that was too pagan orientated. They called
him Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. It's interesting to notice that
Beelzebub was the god of the Philistines, a pagan god. So we find
that they attributed their infirmities to Beelzebub, in fact they accused
Jesus of casting out demons in the name of Beelzebub, the prince of
the demons.

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"And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said
, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth
he out devils" Mark 3: Verse 22

In other words they were saying, "This man, Jesus of Nazareth is


mad. He has got a demon and because he is possessed with evil, he
casts out evil"

Quite a distorted argument. It needs a distorted belief to come up


with a distorted argument like that. Look at the logic of Jesus' answer
in verse 23

"he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables,
How can Satan cast out Satan?" Mark 3:23

In other words " If what you believe is true, and that there are
supernatural forces trying to destroy what is good and what is right,
how can they achieve their ends by destroying one another?. Surely
if I were the Prince of the demons, or if I were possessed by the
prince of the demons, how then would the demons try and destroy
themselves?
Surely the demons would rather have destroyed the victim, and by
so doing achieve their own ends? How can evil cast out evil? It
cannot. Therefore their own argument recoils upon themselves and
can no longer stand.

And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that


kingdom cannot stand." Verse 24

And neither could theirs. Their argument on a false belief was self-
destructive.

Here then we see the light of this world expelling the darkness of this
world. The Son of God healing the sons of men.

What conclusions can we draw from our


considerations so far?

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On the one hand we find that there was a people, the Jews of the Old
Testament. They believed in one God, and one God only and they
attributed everything to their God; life, death, light, darkness,
sickness, health, good, evil - everything was attributed to their God.
On the other hand we have people that believed in two gods, as did
the Zoro-Astrians in Babylon, and they attributed everything that is
good to one god on the one hand and everything that is evil to
another god, on the other hand. We may call that god whatever we
wish, we may call that god 'Ach Rimmon', we may call that god
'Beelzebub' we may call him 'Satan' and we may call him 'The Devil'
Whatever we may call him, it boils down to the same thing, that we
have two forces in heaven: one good, one bad. The other conclusion
we can draw is that in Old Testament times the Jews were mono-
theistic

"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with
all thy strength and with all thy might"

On the other hand, in New Testament times these same people, the
Jews of the New Testament had followed the ways of the Gentiles.
No longer did they attribute evil to their God, but this time they
attributed evil to the gods of the Gentiles, Beelzebub, Satan and the
Devil. So we find that the problems concerning demons only
occurred after the exile and was manifested well and truly in New
Testament times, during the life of Christ. We find too, that demons
are often personified because people believed that they were real.
They believed that if they were sick, or dumb or deaf that they
possessed a demon. Also because this personification was accepted
as a figure of speech and was the vernacular of the day. it is often
found in the New Testament that if the person afflicted, or the people
in his company, believed in supernatural demons, the language of
demons is then found.

"And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out,


the dumb spake"

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We also find in the Old Testament, on the other hand, that if
someone did not believe that they were demon possessed, and the
people in their company did not believe in demons, then the language
of demons is not used

Jesus rebukes a fever

Let's illustrate this point in Luke chapter 4 - this time the healing of
Simon's mother in law. To further illustrate this point of the language
of demons not being used, the apostle John records all the miracles
of Jesus without ever referring to the casting out of demons, which
substantiates the point, and that is that the language used to describe
the healing is of a secondary matter. Some spoke of afflictions as
being possessed by demons, and others did not; and it depended
upon the individual's belief. We feel here, that Simon Peter's mother
in law did not believe that she was possessed by demons. Therefore
the language of demons is not used.

"And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into


Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken
with a great fever; (not a demon - a great fever) and they
besought him for her. And he stood over her, and rebuked
the fever; (he did not rebuke the demon - but rebuked the
fever) and it (that is the fever) left her and immediately she
arose and ministered unto them" Luke ch 4 : 38 -39

Here we find the affliction is addressed as though it were a person,


but clearly the affliction was not a person. This is very, very
important. The affliction is addressed as though it were a person but
the affliction is not a person - neither is wisdom,- neither is prudence.
It is a “personification”. Notice here that because Simon Peter's
mother in law does not believe in demons the language of demons is
not used. He rebukes the fever. If Simon Peter's mother in law had

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believed that she was possessed by a demon, v 39 would have read
, "Jesus rebuked the demon and the demon left her"

Points covered so far.

1. Before the Jews went into Babylon, they attributed good and evil to
one God. We've looked at some cases: 1 Samuel16: 14 and Exodus
4:11

2. Zoro Astrianizm - the belief in demons and demon possession


comes from Babylon, where they believed in 2 gods, two supernatural
forces, Ahora Mazda the god of light and Ach Rimmon, the god of
darkness and it was to Cyrus, king of Persia, who believed in these
two gods, that Isaiah wrote, "I form the light and I form the darkness.
I create good and I create evil. I the Lord do all these things"

3. We only meet the problem or the phenomena of demons, in the


New Testament.

4. The Greek word for demon is 'daimonion' not to be confused with


the Gk word 'diabalos' which is the word rendered 'devil' or 'the
Devil" in the New Testament.

5. Demons are often associated with diseases and infirmities. We


looked at the reference in Luke 8 :2 "there were certain women
which had been healed of evil spirits, infirmities, of which Mary
Magdalene was one, out of whom was driven seven demons"

6- The nature of some of these demons. We looked at a demon that


was dumb (Luke 11:4), ,a woman that was 'bound by Satan' (she
was an arthritic -Luke 13:11), and a boy who was an epileptic, (Matt
17:14). You will never find in the scriptures, a demon without a host,
that is without a body to dwell in. When a demon spoke, the speech
came from the one possessed and not the demon itself. No demon
ever spoke without a host - conclusion: the person had to do the
speaking. Luke 11:14

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7. Beelzebub, the god of Ekron. - actually called the Lord of the Flies,
or the god of the flies, and you can read it for yourself in 2 Kings 1:1-
16. Notice that Beelzebub, in actual fact, had nothing to do with
demons. If Beelzebub came from Ekron, or was the god of Ekron in
the Old Testament and the Old Testament knows nothing of demons,
clearly then Beelzebub also has nothing to do with demons - although
that's what they substituted in the New Testament. It was the
Pharisees that did it, by the way.

8. The last case that we considered, depended upon the belief, or


superstition of the person involved, Jesus would either rebuke the
demon or he would rebuke the fever. In Luke 4:38 we read that he
rebuked the fever; but exactly the same terminology is used as
rebuking a demon in Luke 9:42.

The Healing of Legion

With this background in mind, let us then consider the healing of


Legion, recorded in Mark 5:1-20

Here then we'd say is a possible interpretation of the healing of


Legion.
In Mark 5 we find a man who was insane. He was deranged. Verse
3 tells us that "he had his dwelling among the tombs and no man
could bind him, not even with chains" The man himself, believed the
superstitions that came from Babylon which were cultivated and
taught by religious leaders. The Jews, mainly the Pharisees,
believed that his condition was the result of demon possession. That
was what this man believed, because that was what he was taught to
believe. He believed that his condition was as a result of sin.

In this connection, consider the situation in John chapter 9 where a


man was born blind, and they brought him to Jesus, asking

"Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was


born blind?"

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What a strange situation! They believed that this man was
possessed by demons either because he sinned, or his parents did.
This is the same situation. This man believed that his condition was
a result of his sinful nature. He also believed that the only one that
could cast out his insanity was the Messiah. Now while the
Pharisees taught the people that when they were ill or deranged they
were demon possessed, on the other hand they taught that when
Messiah came, he would rid them of their evil.

In Mark 5 Verse 6 & 7 we read:

"But when he ( that is the man, not the demon) saw Jesus afar off,
he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said,
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? "

Jesus said unto him (verse 8), "Come out of the man, thou unclean
spirit." Or in other words, "Come out of the man, insanity" And
because of this man's superstition, because of the simplicity of this
man's belief he needed a physical, literal illustration of his insanity
coming out of him otherwise he would never have believed at all that
he was cured. So Jesus took the insanity that existed in the man and
he transfered it into the pigs.

Remember what happened (in 1 Samuel 16: 13 & 14) when the Spirit
of God was upon Saul.? God took that Spirit from Saul and placed it
upon David, and an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul.
This is the same type of situation. Jesus took this condition of
insanity and put it upon the pigs, to give this man a literal illustration
that whatever he believed he suffered from had now been inflicted
upon the pigs. But Jesus took the precaution here against further
contamination of superstitious religious teaching, Those pigs ran
into the lake and were drowned. They were destroyed .and so were
the demons. That's the important point. The demons were destroyed
with the swine.

Conclusion: there can be no such thing as a supernatural demon.


Supernatural things don't die.

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Notice the condition of the man after his experience:

"And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with
the devil, and had the legion, sitting,
and clothed, and in his right mind:" Mark 5 V 15

In the parallel version in Luke ch 8 of the healing of Legion - we


read that this man was naked. He had no clothes - and now he
was clothed.

Doesn't that remind you of Eden where we find a man and a woman
in a situation where they had sinned they had transgressed against
God and were naked? They were ashamed of their
nakedness, and
They hid from God in the garden. What happened? God
clothed their
nakedness with coats of skins. Here was Legion, clothed
upon with the
righteousness which comes by faith in Christ.

How's your clothing? Are you clothed with Christ? Have you put on
Christ? Because it is only if you have put on Christ, like Legion, that
you can sit quietly, clothed and in your right mind.

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