Demons

Most people assume that the Bible has a lot to say about devils and demons, and that's somewhat true, but while the Bible frequently mentions demons, there isn't as much detail as you might expect. So, in this video, you'll learn what demons actually are, from the Bible's point of view.

So, most references to demons occur in the New Testament. There are four references in the Old Testament that start to paint a picture of what demons actually are. For example in Deuteronomy 32, it says that, instead of worshipping the true God, God's people sacrificed to demons that were not gods, to gods they had never known. To new gods that had come recently whom their fathers had never worshipped. In this case, the demon gods and new gods are all referring to the same thing. Pagan gods that weren't actually real unlike the true and almighty God of the Israelites.

However, by the time we get to the New Testament Gospels, we frequently read about Jesus healing those who were possessed with demons. And this is where most people will tell you that demons are the evil spirits who can enter into people's bodies to control and deceive them. But it's interesting to note that whenever Jesus heals someone possessed with a demon, he never made a point of giving further instruction to the people that he healed. You would think that if demons are the supernatural beings from the devil's underworld to have the power to control and deceive people, that at the very least Jesus would have wanted to teach people how to protect themselves from them.

You'll also notice that whenever these possessive demons are mentioned, they're always mentioned alongside a mental infirmity or sickness. They're also never mentioned causing any sins to occur or being punished for sins that have been committed. In fact, the Gospel writers describe demons in such commonplace terms suggesting that they saw demons to be somewhat ordinary and unremarkable. It was the healing not the demons that was the extraordinary part.

So, it seems that Biblical demons are better understood as references to the various infirmities that people faced. And this would make sense if you take into account the general lack of understanding that people in Jesus' time would have had when it came to mental illness of which science today has a much better grasp. This would also explain why Jesus chose to heal those with unclean spirits. Jesus never healed anyone except to prove that he also had the power to forgive people's sins. His healing was a tool to bring attention to his real power of forgiveness and salvation and not just a means of conquering so called evil spirits.

Now you might say, if demons are better understood as physical or mental illnesses, then why did Jesus speak to them, how were they able to respond, and why does it say that when Jesus cast them out, that they departed from the people they had possessed.

And this is where we start to notice superstition in the record. Even before the Bible pagan superstitions in religion have thought that demons were these supernatural beings of evil. And so clearly these doctrines have been introduced to Israel so that if someone had a mental illness and was told it was because a demon was possessing them, well then that's how they would come to understand the sickness. And so, what Jesus was doing was speaking to the infirmed on their level. He simply came, he spoke, and he healed. With what we know today about mental health problems it certainly is miraculous that Jesus was able to communicate with these people so clearly. But again, this was so that we could believe that he ultimately had the power of forgiveness and salvation and not just the power to heal.

As we move on from the Gospels it becomes very clear that belief in demons had become a very abstract concept from the time of the Apostles. For example, Paul warns Timothy to watch out for those who have departed from the faith because they had given heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. Once again, you can see how someone could construe this to mean that demons are able to trick people into believing false doctrine. Essentially what Paul is saying though, is that deceitful false doctrines are just as dangerously superstitious as a belief that a demon possessed the sick.

This is further emphasized by the fact that again there's no teaching on how to fight the demons but rather on how to fight the false doctrines themselves. Overall Biblical demons are related to false beliefs. In the Old Testament times, it was just another term for an idol or a false god. And in New Testament times with the introduction of Greek thought, the idea of a demon had morphed so that it was seen as the beings who brought about sickness and disease. But once again they functioned as a false god. These supernatural beings who somehow had power apart from the one God who rules everything. In reality there is only one God, and one source of power. As God explains through the prophet Isaiah:

"I am the LORD and there is no other, beside me there is no god. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the LORD who does all of these things."

So, once you understand God's centrality in the universe, there's no place for supernatural demons. Just like the false gods of the Old Testament they simply don't exist. The lesson of demons in the Bible can become a fantastic source of hope and truth for us, if we read the scriptures carefully. We can see the true message of God and His ultimate power to forgive and to save us.