Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
DEMONS
Based on a Biblical and Historical Study
by
Barry Van Heerden
of
South Africa
June 2005
The Truth About Demons
"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
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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
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
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
" 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
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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There are four points that we want to draw to your attention
here:-
3. "Oftimes he fell into the fire and oftimes he fell into the water"
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.
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:
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.
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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.
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
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"
12
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
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.
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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
"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 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.
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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.
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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
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.
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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"
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
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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.
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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.
"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.
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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
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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