02 - Demons in the Bible

2. DEMONS IN THE BIBLE

Illnesses

It is most important at this juncture to isolate from our considerations afflictions which in biblical times were commonly attributed to evil spirits, but which today are medically classified. This would include deafness, blindness, dumbness, epilepsy and insanity. see Matthew 4:24Matthew 17:15 Basically, any affliction which was not physical or visible was attributed to demons. Even modern exorcists would not consider such to be demoniacs. What remains is the syndrome we have been discussing, and which would be exactly the same in biblical times as today. The Miraculous Powers of Jesus and the Apostles

It may be smugly questioned by sceptics and also with concern by some students of Scripture, that by explaining demonic phenomena in terms of the human unconscious mind might not the miracles of Jesus and his apostles be simply an example of the same thing? The answer is a resounding No. A careful scrutiny of the miraculous events in both Old and New Testaments of the Bible will reveal many miracles which cannot be explained in terms of the human psyche. Miracles like rivers dividing, fig trees dying overnight, multitudes fed, blind and deaf instantly healed, and even the dead being raised etc.

Jesus of Nazareth had a great following, simply because his miracles were seen to be genuine compared with the so-called diviners and sorcerers of the day. Even Nicodemus, a notable Jewish elder, and of the sect of the Pharisees who were opposed to Jesus, was forced to admit, "no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him." John 3:2.

There were, of course, exorcists in those times, similar to those of today, who were able to ‘cast out devils’ with varying degrees of success. In Acts 19:14-15 an incident is recorded where the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest, were attacked and injured by a demoniac they attempted to cure in the names of Jesus and Paul. Josephus, the Jewish historian, records the exorcising of a demon by one Eleazar in the presence of Vespasian the Roman emperor, by drawing the demon out through the subject’s nostrils! It is also recorded in the gospels that some such operators enjoyed some success in casting out devils by using Christ’s name, and Jesus told his disciples not to forbid it; if they succeeded, it helped his cause, if they failed, it emphasized his superior power. Mark 9:38-40 It should be remembered that, compared with his would-be imitators, both then and now, the healing work of Jesus was always both instant and complete. Very often, such well-meaning healers fail altogether, and sometimes exacerbate the problem. This is particularly the case in exorcist ritual, where the attempt may be repeated several times and yield no results.

Aldous Huxley wrote a most informative, book called The Devils of Loudon, in which he presents a most thorough investigation of the strange happenings at the priory at Loudon in France in the seventeenth century. Arising from a practical joke by one of the nuns (a joke which went sadly wrong as it turned out), several nuns at the priory, including the prioress herself, began to suffer from demonic seizures. A priest who tried several times without success to exorcise the demon was wrongly accused of being the cause of the happenings, and was tortured, then burnt at the stake for witchcraft. The prioress whom he had tried to cure was no better, and it took a succession of exorcist monks many years before the seizures finally abated. In distinguishing between human exorcism and the curing of demoniacs by divine power, a very important principle emerges, and particularly so against the background of wholesale superstition that confronted Jesus in his ministry.

Superstition about devils and evil spirits was initially a serious hindrance to the preaching of the gospel. How were the people to determine which was the power of God and the power of evil? The answer was quite simple, we have intimated earlier that some demoniacs were telepathic; this was certainly so in Christ’s day, and there are several instances of the demons uncannily knowing whom Jesus was, apparently without introduction. We are told that ‘they cried out that they knew him to be the Son of God.’ Hence to the watching crowd, the ultimate proof of Christ’s authority was established. Luke 4:41Luke 8:28Acts 19:15. In order that the ‘gospel of the Kingdom of God’ he not impeded by ignorance and superstition, it was critical at the outset, that the divine authority of Jesus should triumph; and so Jesus taught, ‘and if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the Kingdom of God is come to you! Luke 11:20. A similar example can be found in Luke 10:1-24, where Jesus, having equipped and instructed his twelve disciples to go out and preach the gospel, extended the work by commissioning a further seventy disciples to spread abroad the message. Like the other twelve, they were instructed to preach, and also heal the sick. They returned later, exulting that "even the devils" were subject to them and received both encouragement and a warning from the Master. His response was, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy,. and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject to you; but that your names are written in heaven." Luke 10:17-20.

Apart from the lesson imparted by this passage, that salvation is more important than healing; the rather colourful language raises the question of whether the enemy referred to was an intelligent all-powerful evil entity, or simply a personification of sinful human nature, essentially always in opposition to God. The only other clear biblical reference to Satan falling from heaven is found in Revelation 12:9; which apart from being in a highly figurative context, is expressed as prophecy not history. It broadly depicts God’s ultimate triumph over sin-power, which one day will no longer have dominion over His creation. Those seventy disciples had experienced in their own lifetimes, the beginnings of a victory foreseen as early in Scripture as Genesis 3:15; where the seed of the woman, though bruised in the heel, was to fatally wound the serpent in the head, prophetic of the conquering of sin-power through the sacrifice of Christ. The Gadarene Demoniac The record of the curing of the demoniac of Gadara appears in all three synoptic gospels. Both Mark and Luke concentrate on the man who believed himself to be inhabited by so many demons that he called himself ‘Legion,’ the Roman term for an army division. (Matthew records that there was another demoniac also, but we shall concentrate on ‘Legion’ since he figures more prominently of the two.) The narrative in Mark 5:1-19 and Luke 8:27-37 leads us to the eventual confrontation between Jesus and the tormented individual, Jesus having recently arrived by boat from the other side of the sea of Galilee. Until then, all attempts to exorcise the devils had failed, even though the poor man had been restrained by chains and fetters, and with characteristic demonic strength had always broken free. It was probably his fear of such well-meaning treatment which had driven him to take refuge amongst the tombs in the area. This only served to increase the fear of the superstitious local inhabitants, who linked his place of abode with their suspicions about evil spirits and the dead.

It should be carefully noted that Jesus cured this man instantly, and required no elaborate ritual or regalia. One authoritative command was all it took for this man to be, as Luke puts it, "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind." Luke 8:35 Yet the cure had to be related to Legion’s own understanding of what had happened, so that he might believe that never again would the obsession take hold of him; the devils were out, but how could he be made to understand that they were gone forever?

Legion himself voiced the answer on behalf of the so-called devils, which he concluded would now be homeless. Let them enter into the herd of swine feeding in the field on the cliff tops and when the swine then rushed over the cliffs into the sea, the demoniac was convinced that never again would they trouble him.

Whether Jesus intended from the outset that the swine should behave in that way it is impossible to know, but certainly the stampede was part of the cure. Some consider it a rather wasteful means of effecting Legion’s cure, whilst others point out that it was illegal for Jews to keep pigs anyway, and the disposal of them was a just punishment upon the owners for disregarding the law. No doubt the bystanders also believed that the devils had transferred to the swine and perished with them in the ocean and for them likewise, the cure was complete and final.

Jesus consistently drew spiritual lessons from incidents in life and once, at least use the concept of casting out demons as parallel to casting out sins. It is just possible that the miracle was intended to bring to mind a passage from Micah 7:19 "Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea," for with Jesus the lesson was always more important than the miracle.

It would be interesting to discover whether modern believers in evil spirits accept that such can be transferred to 2, 000 swine, and whether such spirits can in fact be drowned; but it seems fairly clear that the whole process was important for the humouring of the demoniac and to demonstrate to all present the divine authority of Jesus.

Biblical Use of Figure and Metaphor.

There are sections of the Bible where almost everything written is figurative. For example the book of Revelation, and parts of Daniel’s prophecy. A beast with many heads and horns, obviously, should not be taken as literal. There are also instances where figurative expressions occur in the literal narrative; hence, when Jesus called the Pharisees "serpents" and "generation of vipers," it is plain that he is colourfully describing their insidious teachings and practices. It would be impossible to properly interpret Scripture without accepting that it contains this sort of language.

Occasionally, ‘Belial’ crops up in both Testaments of Scripture, yet on examination it turns out to he a personification of worthlessness and nothing more. When the apostle Paul asks the Corinthians 2 Corinthians 6:15 "what concord hath Christ with Belial," it was understood that he was comparing a literal person with a metaphorical one, which is not uncommon in Scripture. Similarly, the enemies of Jesus accused him of casting out devils by "Beelzebub the prince of devils." Luke 11:15 Beelzebub was a heathen god of flies, and though, since the return from exile the Jews had ceased to believe in idolatry, he was retained in their folklore. It was meant as an insult to Jesus who, in reply, simply took on board the concept and turned it against themselves, showing the absurdity of their charge. "If Satan is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?" The parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:1-31 is another example. It speaks of ‘Abraham’s bosom’ and of a fiery torment, with both the rich man and Lazarus having bodies (one had a ‘finger’ and the other a ‘tongue’) and being able to see and converse with Abraham. From the writings of Josephus, the Jewish historian, we learn that this was a Jewish belief at the time. It was quite foreign to their Scriptures and is traced to Hellenistic superstition adopted into Jewish folklore. Jesus simply used the concept in parabolic form, and devastatingly turned the tables on the Pharisees who had earlier been deriding him, thus sending them a stern warning. When therefore such terms as ‘Devil’ or ‘Satan’ are used in Scripture it is untenable to automatically assume that literal beings are intended. Just as the idiom of the day personified worthlessness, and concepts from outside Judaism were in common use, it is not in the least surprising that sin itself is personified as a cruel master, which, wrote Paul, "shall not have dominion over you." Romans 6:14. A good example of the use of this hyperbole by Jesus in the matter of ’evil spirits’ is to be found in Matthew 12:43-45 "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none. Then he saith, ‘I will return to my house from whence I came out’ and when he is come he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." Even a firm believer in the existence of evil spirits would not accept such words in full literality. Yet it is clear that the simple message behind them is this: for a repentant sinner to forsake the teaching of Christ, and revert to his old ways makes it difficult for him to do so a second time, and places him in a much worse state of responsibility. It is what James calls being ‘twice dead,’ and further supporting passages spell it out even more clearly (Hebrews 10:26-30 and 2 Peter 2:20-22). In the case of the parable of Matthew 12:1-50 quoted above, the clue to its understanding is in Matthew 12:38-42, which speaks of the blindness of the Jews to the sacrificial work of their Messiah. The figurative use of the restless spirit returning with other wicked ones, must be seen in the light of the concluding words of the passage, "even so shall it be unto this wicked generation." The sinfulness of the nation which led to the period of reformation initiated by John Baptist, and continued by Jesus, was surpassed by their crucifixion of the Messiah, and the subsequent widespread persecution of his followers. Thus their latter sin was worse than their original one.

Perhaps these examples are sufficient to show the use of figurative language in Scripture, and how it must be taken into consideration in the light of its immediate context. Since in our own language we are familiar with Mother Nature, Father Time, Jack Frost etc., it is not at all surprising that the Jewish nation at the time of Christ used similar idiom considering that for 500 years they endured Babylonian, Persian, and Grecian domination.

’Who maketh his angels spirits" The only clear information to be found in the Bible about intelligent spirits, is concerning angels. In the epistle to the Hebrews we learn that the angels of God are "ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs to salvation," Hebrews 1:14 and from the Psalms, that they do God’s will. Psalms 103:20 Significantly, there is absolutely no information about any such ‘spirits’ being in opposition to God. In the King James version of Scripture there is one lone reference to ’evil Angels’; it is to be found in Psalms 78:49. The context speaks of them punishing Pharaoh king of Egypt by means of the ten plagues, so they were obviously working for God. In modern versions the text is more correctly translated ‘angels of evil’.

’Evil’ in Scripture simply means trouble, and both good and bad agencies can bring it about ‘Hence, when Amos 3:6 says, "shall there be evil.. and the Lord hath not done it," or Isaiah 45:7 announces that God "makes peace and creates evil," it is the evil of God’s chastisement which is indicated. Wherever God’s ‘ministering spirits’ are employed in the affairs of mankind, their work can be to protect, Psalms 34:7 to test, 1 Kings 22:22 or to oppose. Numbers 22:22 Although their duties may be either good, or evil, in no way can it be said they are wicked or opposed to God.

Spirits as Expressions of Human Thought The Apostle Paul exhorted the Thessalonian believers not to be troubled "by spirit nor word nor by letter as from us that the day of Christ is at hand." 2 Thessalonians 2:2 He is clearly using the word ‘spirit’ as belief or expression of human thought. Similarly John warns his readers to "try the spirits" in his, concern that they be not seduced by false teaching. 1 John 4:1 This particular use of ‘spirit’ has to do with human thinking and belief; it does not refer to any supernatural influence. In 1 Corinthians 5:4; Paul, advising those believers on a critical issue, commands that they consider the matter together with ‘his spirit.’ The Greek word pneuma translated ‘spirit’ in these and some other passages simply means the expression of human thought, and must not be confused with supernatural ‘spirits.’(See also Romans 12:11;Ephesians 4:23;1 Peter 3:4)