The Reality and Origin of Demons

On our Wednesday evening Bible studies we have been for some weeks now, been doing a study of what the Bible teaches about angels and we've spent a good bit of time looking at angels in the typical sense of the word, good angels, the angels that serve God in heaven and our ministering spirits that minister to us at his bidding. We've been looking at good angels for some time. Then we kind of turned a corner in our study and we began to look at Satan, the evil angel, the chief of the evil angels, the one who was a guardian cherub in heaven and the fell from that position. We've been looking for the last several weeks at what the Bible teaches about Satan. We're still under the broad umbrella of angels and we turn another corner tonight to begin talking about demons. So good angels, Satan and demons are all under the broader umbrella of angels. They're all angels. It's just which camp they're in, which side they're on. So we're going to begin tonight to talk about and for the next several weeks we'll talk about demons. We want to begin with the reality of demons in our world that they are real beings. They do exist and there is abundant evidence in the Bible that demons do exist. So we'll talk about that tonight and then we will start talking about their origin. That is more hotly debated. Where do demons come from? Where do they originate? And so we'll hopefully tonight, if we get that far, begin talking about that. We probably, well, I know we won't get through all of the views tonight of where demons come from, but we'll get started hopefully. Okay, so let's jump in. The reality of demons, the Bible, again, as I said, has abundant evidence from several different avenues. There is great evidence of the existence of demons. First of all, we're going to look at the proof of the reality of demons from the existence of angels. I'm going to look at the broader picture of angels and again recognize that demons are kind of a subset of that larger category. So the proof for the existence of demons overlaps with the proof for the existence of angels because as we have already seen briefly and we'll look at it in much more detail next week, demons were originally good angels. And so if angels exist as real personal beings, and we've already seen that in our study, then we would expect that demons do as well. Now we have already established in our study of angels and Satan that the highest of all the cherubim, remember cherubim are those angels that are around the throne of God leading in worship of Him and the anointed cherub, the one installed or initiated into what we would think would be the highest position of all the cherubim was the one who fell from that position and became an evil angel, Satan. So if one angel fell and became an evil angel, you would expect that there were probably others as well and and we've already established that there were others as well who shared in Satan's fall. Let me just remind you of a couple of verses that we've looked at extensively before, but we'll put them on the screen just to kind of tie these loose ends together. First of all, Ezekiel, chapter 28 and verses 15 and 16, speaking of that anointed cherub who became Satan, says, you were blameless in your ways till the from the day you were created, till wickedness was found in you, through your widespread trade. Now hang on to that concept for a second, through your widespread trade, you were filled with violence and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God and I expelled you guardian cherub from among the fiery stones. Now we've looked at that passage quite extensively before, but the phrase that I'm interested in if we could back it up Tim one slide there is that phrase through your widespread trade. Remember we talked about that being him persuading by selling a bill of goods to others. That's the concept here. It's not trading in goods or materials. It's trading in ideas. It's selling people on what you think. That's the concept here. And so he was he was selling his program, his rebellion. And so we saw that there are other angels that were pulled into his rebellion. Revelation 12 also talks about them verse four, it's tale. Remember that's the passage about the dragon that's out to try to devour the child of the woman. Very symbolic chapter. The dragon is Satan. The woman is Israel. The child is Christ. And so the tale of this dragon who has identified, then in verse nine as Satan, the tale of this dragon swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. And we've seen before that that probably is referring to other angels who followed Satan in his rebellion because a little bit later in this chapter they are called his angels. Michael and the good angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And so obviously the stars that went with him are his angels. Now the only the only beings that that would fit would qualify for being the devil's angels are the beings that are also called demons in the Bible. Because we'll see as we go through this study a very close association between demons and Satan is the prince of demons. And so there seems to be proof from what we've seen about angels that demons really exist. And we can kind of fit them into the whole picture. What category they fit in. They're evil angels under the leadership of Satan himself. So that's one of the proofs for the reality of demons. It's from the existence of angels themselves. Comments or questions there before we move on. Okay. The second proof is this is not a biblical proof but it is a reasonable proof and that is proof from heath and religions. Belief in Satan and demons is universal. Archaeologists have uncovered on various documents that they have unearthed. They've uncovered spells incantations, magic texts, exorcism rights, lots of occult articles and so forth in practically every major world civilization all the way back to Sumeria and Babylon. And so it's very well documented in the archaeological record that other religions, heath and religions were very much into belief in the spirit world and dealing with evil spirits. There's also a lot of evidence for the fact that demons were worshipped as deities in Egypt, in Assyria, in Greece and in Rome and we're going to find in other Old Testament nations as well, God warned Israel against this very thing. And so there's abundant evidence even from the historical archaeological record of the existence of demons recognized by many different people and even worshipped in many different heath and religions. Okay. Comments or questions about that before we look at some of the more biblical texts. Bill? There does seem to be some biblical evidence of supernatural power exhibited by demons. In fact we're going to see an example of that a little bit later but you'll remember the story the demonic of Godera and the unusual strength that he had. Of course he had a legion of demons and him too but there does seem to be evidence of supernatural strength attributed to demonic powers. It's difficult to quantify that but certainly more than we would have. Okay. And we will actually look at a biblical example of that just a little bit. Good question. Any others? Then a third proof for the existence of demons is proof from the Old Testament. The Old Testament regards demons as really existing. I'm going to put a couple of verses on the screen and one of them from Deuteronomy 32 in verse 17. This is from the newer version of the NIV. I don't know if you realize the NIV was redone in 2011 and they updated some of the language and so forth and that's what is on the screen because when you go to Bible Gateway and pull up the NIV that's what you get now. So this is the more recent addition. They sacrifice to false gods. If you check the Old NIV which is a 1984 edition or the ESB or most other current translations this translated false gods here would be translated demons. And there's a reason why the NIV has changed it to false gods because that's what those demons represented in the heathen religions as you see on in the verse. They sacrifice to demons or to false gods which are not God. Gods they had not known. Gods that recently appeared. God your ancestors did not fear. So in the Old Testament demons are associated with idols and false gods. They were worshiped and and the Old Testament views the worship of idols as actually the involvement in the occult and demonic world that demons are actually behind that. There's a passage also in the book of Psalms Psalm 106 verses 36 and 37. They worship their idols and again the other translations will have demons right here. They worship their idols which became a snare to them. They sacrifice excuse me it's the last part that has demons. They sacrifice their sons and their daughters to false gods. That's where in most translations and translated demons. Now the indication here is this is Hebrew poetry book of Psalms. It's a parallel type of poetry where the first part of the verse is saying the same thing is the second part of the verse or should really flip that second part saying the same is the first part just using different words for emphasis. So they worship their idols. Well how did they do that? They sacrifice their sons and their daughters to false gods. So the idols are false gods or demons. So there's a very real interaction of demons with idolatry and what the Old Testament considers and identifies to us as false gods. You'll you'll find this throughout the Old Testament for instance not going to look at these verses but in Leviticus 177 you'll you'll read a warning about goat idols in 2 Chronicles 1115 calf idols. Idols that were made in the form of a goat or a calf and they are seen as being demonic or used by demons to ensnare people in in false religions. First Kings chapter 22 let's look at this passage. This is an interesting story. This is the story of Ahab the king of the northern kingdom of Israel and Jihashaphat king of Judah where they are going to go together to go to war and against the foreign power and the prophets of Bale are all giving advice to Ahab. You go you know man you've got this thing you this is your battle and you'll win and Ahab has enough sense to ask for a prophet of God you know Jihashaphat's a believer knows the Lord and so so my my kaya is the prophet of God that is brought in and this is what he says he's been prophesying verse 19 he continued therefore here the word of the Lord I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left and my kaya is saying that this is what this is the message I'm getting from God and the Lord said who will entice Ahab into attacking Raymoth Gilead and going to his death there once suggested this and another that finally a spirit came forward stood before the Lord and said I will entice him by what means the Lord asked I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets he said you will succeed in enticing him said the Lord go and do it now this is really quite a fascinating story and it's been a bit of a puzzle to commentators those who study and write commentaries on the text of scripture who is this deceiving spirit and there are basically three ideas as to who it would be some say well it's a it has to be a good angel he appears before God and he's with the the group in heaven that's there around the throne has to be a good angel what's the difficulty with that view okay all right I'm gonna I'm gonna start with what Karen said how could a good angel become a deceiving spirit wouldn't that make God the author and even an angel who cannot sin a good angel tied with evil so that that has some serious issues with it now I want to jump to what Walt said would you say it again Walt okay there that's the second view of what what maybe happening here and that this this spirit is actually the leader of the evil spirits Satan who obviously is a deceiving spirit and would love to be doing that kind of work and does appear before God as we have seen he did in Job he does in other places as well Zachariah and Revelation 12 so so we know that that can happen so some say well this must be Satan and that that I think has a lot to be said for it and then others say well it's it's a demon and that could just as easily be as if it were Satan the only difficulty with that view is we don't have any other evidence that demons go into heaven and appear in the presence of God the only evidence we have in the Bible of an evil spirit appearing within the presence of God is Satan so whether or not this is actually a reference to demons we don't know but it does use the term spirit is a spirit being which of course Satan is as well so anybody help us come to a conclusion here if this is Satan it's a good example of that isn't it and I think really of the three views the the best one the one that fits the most with scripture would be Satan and so this would be a good example of him actually having to get permission from God to even influence a wicked king yes yes even if even if he doesn't actually appear in the presence of God to ask permission for every evil thing he does this would indicate there are limits put on Satan okay other comments questions so technically this passage may not be referring to demons but it is an evil spirit a deceiving spirit and and whether it's Satan or one of his demons kind of in the same category right there is one other passage I want to mention though in the Old Testament that clearly refers to demons and that would be our passage we've looked at before in Daniel 10 remember when Daniel's praying the angel has sent the give him an answer to the prayer and that angel encounters prints of the Persian kingdom but the Prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days then Michael one of the chief princes came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia and then verse 20 he said do you know why I've come to you soon I'll return to fight against the Prince of Persia and when I go the Prince of Greece will come now this Prince of Persia we have seen before is a is a demonic spirit who is is influencing the government of Persia and also there's one who's influencing the government of Greece as this passage would indicate Greece is not on the scene yet in Daniel's time but this angel says that the the Prince of Greece will come in the future and we'll have to do battle with him as well remember this is the passage we've used so much to talk about spiritual warfare between good angels and evil angels and so the good angels are being opposed and they battle with with evil angels in the heavenly places spiritual powers behind world powers that's what this passage is talking about so that's a sampling of the proof from the Old Testament that demons really exist any comment or question further on those okay now let's move to the proof from Christ's teaching and ministry and there is amazing abundant evidence in the New Testament of the reality of demons in Christ's ministry just one sample that we'll put on the screen then we'll look at a couple of passages Matthew 10 verse 1 where Jesus is sending out his disciples Jesus called the 12 disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness so one of the things that the disciples did through the power of the Lord was to cast out demons to cast out evil spirits so Jesus certainly recognized the existence of evil spirits now I want you to look at this passage let's look at at Matthew chapter 12 Matthew chapter 12 we're gonna look at a couple of passages in Matthew that have a lot to say about demons and Jesus interaction with them Matthew chapter 12 verses 22 to 29 then they brought him a demon possessed man who was blind and mute and Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see now in this kind of healing the healing is accomplished by casting out the demons so those two miracles are one and the same in the case of the illness being brought on by a demon so verse 23 all the people were astonished and said could this be the son of David they're questioning whether or not this is the Messiah but when the Pharisees heard this they said it is only by beels of wool the prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons I remember they they cannot deny that miracles happen they cannot deny that a demon has been cast out and this man shows the evidence of that by being healed so they go after Jesus on another basis they say okay yes cast out demons but he does it by the power of the prince of demons Satan himself well verse 25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined and every city or household divided against itself will not stand if Satan drives out Satan he's divided against himself how then can he's kingdom stand in the words Satan would not cast out his own demons he can't work against himself verse 27 and if I drive out demons by beels of wool by whom do your people drive them out so then they will be your judges there were others evidently who drove out demons and Israel and Jesus says well how do they do it verse 28 but if it is by the spirit of God that I drive out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you or again how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man then he can plunder his house so Jesus does not deny the reality of demons here he does not rebuke the people or the religious leaders for believing in demons he admits the reality of demons the argument is over by whose power are they being cast out so Jesus in this very discussion assumes the existence of demons and never questions that never rebukes anybody for believing that look over at Matthew 17 Matthew chapter 17 verses 14 to 20 Matthew 17 verse 14 when they came to the crowd a man approached Jesus and now before him 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 I brought him to your disciples but they could not heal him you 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 Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy and he was healed at that moment and then the disciples asked why they couldn't do it and Jesus talks about faith the the relationship of faith to what they were doing and their inability to do that so Jesus speaks about demons and casts out a demon here but never rebukes the disciples for believing in demons he rebukes them for not having enough faith in doing the work of God but no rebuk about believing in demons so Jesus obviously believed in the reality of demons interacted with them and attributed them categorized them as being a part of Satan's kingdom that Satan cannot work against his own his own kingdom so never corrected anyone for believing in demons never hinted that they were not real and this is just a sampling throughout the gospels you have interaction with demon possession there are many who believe and I think this is probably correct there many who believe that demon possession was was on the increase there was a real spike if you will in demon possession and demon activity during the ministry of Jesus you would expect that while the son of God is on earth Satan is going to do his best to promote his kingdom and do everything he can on every front to fight against God's King being on planet earth and so there does seem to be a real spike in the number of demons and the occurrences of demon possession and so forth during the ministry of Christ you get into the the book of Acts and there's still some of that but you just don't read of that in the epistles Paul doesn't talk about it in these epistles he doesn't you know talk to pastors about this is what you need to do to cast out demons he talks to him about a lot of other things and managing the church but that that doesn't seem to be highlighted in the epistles but it is a focal point in the gospels and I think it's because Satan is fighting as hard as he can while Christ is here on the earth to undo what Jesus is doing so proof from Christ teaching and ministry it's abundance all through the gospels comments or questions there okay one other proof then and this is just a kind of a summary proof from the rest of the New Testament there are more than a hundred direct references to demons in the Bible most of which are in the New Testament there's scattered references in the Old Testament most of those 100 references are in the New Testament every author in the New Testament mentions demons except the author of the book of Hebrews so every other author not every book but every other author mentions demons so throughout the New Testament there is the recognition and evidence of the existence of demons so that's that's where we want to start is when you talk about demons they do exist they are real abundant evidence throughout the Bible and even throughout history and archaeology that demons are real they're not imaginary they are very real okay now we're gonna move to the origin of demons where they come from where they originated from but before we do let me just pause and see if you have any other question about the reality their existence the origin of demons there are a number of ideas as to where demons come from and I'm gonna start with some speculative theories these are not biblical theories they are speculative theories taken ideas that are promoted in false religions or ideas that are promoted just in the world at large sometimes by unsaved people couple of ideas as to where demons come from from that category of persons one is that demons are really superstitious designations for certain natural diseases now what we mean by that obviously is that there are people who say really there are no such things as demons they're not real they don't exist that's just superstition and people who talk about demons that's just superstition what's really happening is just natural diseases and people attribute that to demons in the Bible because they were so superstitious and you know there are connection with connections with physical ailments in the New Testament and demon possession we saw a couple of the night didn't we the man that was blind and mute that was caused by a demon the young boy who had seizures that was caused by a demon now you have to be careful with that sometimes physical ailments can be brought on by demon oppression but not every evidence of physical ailments is related to demons okay see have to be careful with that that isn't an unwise extreme to go to but the other extreme is to say well there is no such thing as demons what people describe to demons is all just physical in nature and so they dismiss the existence of demons as personal evil forces who are real the problem with that view is it cannot account for the real phenomena the real evidence associated with demons and demon possession and we're gonna look at one passage that has some pretty powerful evidence for the existence of demons that cannot really be explained on physical grounds mark chapter five mark chapter five this is the passage was talking about earlier in response to Bill's question the healing of the demon possessed man in the tombs of good-dara and there's several things that happen in that encounter that just really can't be explained by normal natural physical processes we're just gonna read through the story and as we go along I'll point out some of those phenomena that are not physical in nature verse one they went across the lake to the region of the garrisons all so can be called Ganeserite or Gatorines that's where the the demonic of good-dara comes from verse two and Jesus got out of the boat a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him this man lived in the tombs and no one could bind him anymore not even with a chain where he had often been chained hand and foot but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet now what we have here is supernatural strength this is not normal human power to be able to break chains and irons on your feet to be able to break those that's not normal human strength this is supernatural strength and so that's an evidence not of normal physical processes this is an evidence of something greater than that read on verse five night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones the the extreme isolation and self-mutilation extreme self-mutilation would indicate not a normal physical process or even mental process this this would indicate demonic influence but read on verse six when he saw Jesus from a distance he ran and fell on his knees in front of him he shouted at the top of his voice what do you want with me Jesus son of the most high god in God's name don't torture me his recognition of who Christ was there's no indication they'd ever met before but he knows who he is and he is fearful of him he's fearful of being tortured by Christ now this is not this man speaking he's never met Jesus he has nothing to fear from Jesus obviously this is demonic powers demonic influence demons actually speaking recognizing who Jesus is recognizing not only that he is Jesus but he but that he's the son of the most high god and they are fearful of being tortured by Jesus we'll see later that they're fearful of being cast into the abyss or the pit read on verse eight for Jesus had said to him come out of this man you impure spirit then Jesus asked him what is your name my name is Legion he replied for we are many again the demons are speaking Legion a large number of demons inhabiting this man we are many they say so this conversation between the man and Christ is not a normal natural conversation from this man and then what happens next verse 10 he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area a large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside the demons begged Jesus send us among the pigs allow us to go into them he gave them permission and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs the herd about 2000 and number rushed down the steep bank into the lake and we're drowned okay that's not a normal physical process for for demons to come out of someone and enter an animal and all of a sudden create violent behavior on the part of the animal this is not normal stuff this is not just physical occurrences there is obviously evil happening here verse 14 those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside the people went out to see what it happened 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 why because they realized this is not normal this man that has been living in isolation in tombs naked they tried to chain him but he keeps breaking the change with a supernatural strength this man is now seated with Jesus fully clothed in his right mind and they realize this is something supernatural that's happened here this is not normal this is this cannot be explained by normal physical processes of suddenly getting better from a disease the interest thing thing about their response verse 16 those who had seen it told the people what happened to the demon possessed man told about the pigs as well then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region is that an interesting response they don't want him around what do you think they were thinking they were big farmers they want to lose him more pigs and and maybe some other things they were afraid of losing yeah isn't it interesting though how the human mind apart from God and understanding his ways works you'd rather keep your demon possessed man out there than lose your your income you'd rather he continued to suffer than to lose your pigs and interesting could be Elizabeth maybe they did not want them to deal with him maybe they are afraid of the impurities they know within them and wondering if they're an axe that could be yeah okay interesting story but I think there's enough here to discount the idea that demons don't really exist those are all just natural processes that people are superstitious about that's certainly not what's described here what it could be or some some translation we use evil evil spirits yeah and the idea of evil is it does carry the connotation of moral impurity and they are not clean they are impure impure in the way they motivate people to act think speak everything so it's all unholy evil impure all kind of the same idea different nuances of the idea so some some would say no no real demons no real personal evil spirits just that's just superstition well that certainly is not what's happening in mark five I think we've got time for this this next one a speculative theory and that is and again this has held by false many false religions that that demons are really the spirits of wicked men deceased in the words evil people who died their spirits are demons that's where the demons come from by the way that is very common in animism animistic religions across the world and most eastern religions involve some kind of animism and lots of African religions involve animism animism is the idea that there are spirits in all living things plants trees animals and so this this common life force in all living things if it manifests itself as evil then animism basically says it comes from the spirits of evil people who've died that's what happens to their spirit they they go into you know an animal or something else but the whole idea animism basically teaches that there is a life force that is the same as hours basically in all living things and that is endemic in in in Eastern religions and has found its way into our culture in a lot of ways too so it was it was a part of Greek thought the Greeks also thought this very same thing but there's no foundation for it at all in the Bible the Bible sees evil people unsaved people let's call them that unsaved people who die where do their spirits go this is not a trick question it's pretty easy their spirits go to hell right they they they go to hell Luke 16 describes the the spirit of an unsaved man and remember the story there's a great golf you cannot cross over to those who are in paradise but also you cannot go back remember the the man in Hades wants Abraham to send Lazarus back to his brothers to warn them of that that place called hell the place of torture and and Abraham says no they have Moses in the prophets so that would indicate that there is there is no relationship between the spirits of evil people coming back to have any interaction with humans so whatever demons are they're not the spirits of unsaved people are evil people who've died there's no foundation for that at all in the Bible people when they die without the Lord are in conscious torment in hell that's the only place the Bible locates them there's no no allowance at all given for some kind of reincarnation or spirits coming back to indwell from the dead other living things on the earth there's no no place for that in the Bible all right our time is is up but do you have any question you want to ask before we leave that's a that's a good question and I think the the fascination of demons with a body we're actually going to get into this a little bit next week I hope to tonight it actually factors into another view but I think the fascination is evidently demons derive some kind of sensual pleasure from being able to fulfill their desires through a body even an animal will do and by sensual I'm not talking about sexual I'm talking about the senses the the senses of touch and taste and and hearing and and all of that evidently demons get some kick out of that that's the only way I can explain it whether or not that's right I don't know there's nothing really in the Bible to suggest that but but it's quite possible that's the reason why they want to possess so that they can they can feel that that sensual pleasure of being a part of that person's senses being fulfilled okay all right let's pray father we're grateful that you've given us information about our enemy help us to be careful with that Lord to to study what your word teaches to learn the wiles and strategies of our enemy but not to be intrigued by the world of evil spirits so that we want to go investigated further help us to stick with your word and find out what your word teaches knowing that's all you have intended for us to know Lord we know that many have gotten into trouble by wanting to learn more about the spirit world and actually dabbling in the occult to find out so Lord deliver us from that kind of fascination with the realm of demons but we pray that we will be also alert and sensitive to what your word teaches we ask in Jesus name amen