Seeing the Unseen- Week 5
DEMONS
 

This week we continue our study of the key players in Spiritual Warfare. Our next characters involved are DEMONS. This week will be uncomfortable, unsure and controversial for some. Know that up front, buckle up….and let’s go for a ride!!!

What is a demon? Give me your best attempt at defining one. This very question sparks MUCH controversy. Let me say before going any further….THAT I AM NOT AN EXPERT HERE. Some of the views we will discuss today contain speculation….educated speculation…but still it is not pure fact. I want you ultimately to take some ideas and then study and decide for yourselves.

There are many different theories of what a demon is. Two of the most prevalent are they are either: FALLEN ANGELS or SOULS OF THE DEAD. MOST people think that it is the first option…many of you included. Today, we are going to discuss the latter option.

I suggest to you today that DEMONS in the Bible are souls of the dead who have come back to Earth. Freaked out yet?????? What are your thoughts on this?

OKAY…hear me out: If we intend to understand what demons are, let’s begin with an awareness of what the folks in Jesus times believed them to be. This may be the ONLY way to fully understand them correctly. One of the basic principles of interpretation is that we must assign the same meaning to any word that was assigned by the people in whose time and place it was used. This is used universally accepted in all areas of literature. Dictionaries, grammar volumes etc are based on this fundamental law of interpretation.

Here is a good Biblical example: MATTHEW 25:14-30—Most of you has heard a sermon or lesson on this story of the talents. The preacher always carefully explained that a talent then was a measure of money. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT??? Because the message would be totally lost if we assigned a meaning to talent that we use TODAY. One guy was NOT given 5 times more ability or aptitude than the other…he was given $ to be responsible for. The story is about being brave enough to live up to responsibilities assigned to you, not having more ability than another…assigning a 2006 interpretation would change it entirely!!!! Make sense to you?

The same principle applies to our discussion today of demons. I propose that in Jesus’ days, people understood demons to be souls of the dead! Let’s look at the history of the word DEMON.

According to some etymologists the word came from a very ancient verb meaning “to discriminate or to know”. In its earliest usage, it was used to refer to a person of great intelligence. Eventually it evolved into referring to a human spirit that had vacated its’ body at death and therefore had been made privy to secrets of another world that Humans have no knowledge of.

Most folks then believed that the departed spirit became a deity of sorts, but not supernatural. They were deity only in the sense that they were now more intelligent and powerful than humans….or SUPERHUMAN. Let’s look at different writings of Biblical times that help reinforce this:

PAGAN WRITINGS- many writers of that era used the word demon to refer to spirits of dead people. Here’s some examples, (though if you’re like me most mean nothing to you) Hesiod, Aristotle, Zenocrates, Thales, Pythagorus etc….all used this meaning

JEWISH HISTORIANS- Josephus, a historian better known to all of us, wrote that “Demons are the spirits of wicked men who enter into the living and destroy them…”

EARLY CHURCH FOUNDERS- Many, including Justin the Martyr believed this. Justin says: “Those who are seized and tormented by the souls of the dead, whom all call demons and madmen”.

O.T. WRITERS- Many of these writers understood that people of their day believed the souls of the dead could and were contacted for superior knowledge.

READ DEUT. 18:9-13
ISA. 8:19

The OT at least refers to the belief that the dead have extraordinary knowledge. Even if you doubt the fact that demons are souls of the dead, you HAVE to agree that the Jews of the OT made sacrifice s to the dead and made sacrifices to demons. They also believed in using mediums to contact the dead. This belief was prevalent in the days of Jesus and neither He nor His apostles EVER ONCE refuted this!!!!!! So…we can assume that when they spoke of demons (and they did!) the folks they were talking to believed these demons to be the souls of the dead! What do you think?
 

Scriptural Support
Let’s rehash the story once again of Legion. This story is told in Matthew 8, Mark 5 and Luke 8.

I want you to consider the following facts of this story:
One- Demons can inhabit bodies (human and animal). They even seem to DESIRE to do so! These demons didn’t ask Jesus to let them run free, but to let them enter the pigs. They seemed to have a fondness for body.
Two- They asked Jesus not to torture them. And in Luke it sounds as if leaving the body was a means of or towards torture.
Three- The begged Jesus not to send them to The Abyss.
Four- The demons were numbered in their thousands. (Legion was a Roman term for a unit of 3-600 men)
Five- The demons hated their host’s body and wanted to harm it.
Six- They kept the man near the tombs.
Seven- The demons possessed supernatural knowledge.

I think these 7 points help to pose a very strong argument that demons are souls of the dead. Think about it, they wanted a body and could enter one and control it. They SO craved being enclosed in flesh that more than 2000 were crammed into one fella’. They feared leaving the body and had an even greater fear of the bottomless pit. They seemed to want to be near tombs. They punished their hosts.

See my my drift?????

I think this story ALSO makes a strong argument that demons ARE NOT angels! There is little example of angels entering human bodies. Why would they when they can take the form of one? (one exception is John 13:27) I don’t think an angel would crave living in a human body. Why would thousands of them want to be JUST ONE human body, when they are superior to humans????

TWO MORE QUESTIONS

1- CAN THE DEAD COME BACK TO EARTH?
What do you think about this?
Let’s read I Samuel 28:11-15
And Matt 17:1-8
Matt 27:52-53
The Bible tells stories of dead who DID come back!

2- DO THE DEAD HAVE KNOWLEDGE THAT LIVING FOLKS DON’T?
What do you think? (one can make a STRONG argument for NO reading Eccl. 9:5-10)
Let’s read I Samuel 28:15-19- Samuel, though dead told Saul exactly what would occur the next day. He had awareness, wisdom and knowledge.
Let’s read Luke 9:29-31- The 2 men back from the dead knew that Jesus was about to leave earth. They knew where it was to happen.

I think that maybe YES, the dead DO have knowledge that we do not!

I am going to stop here. In the grand scheme of things, it may not matter at all what EXACTLY you believe demons to be as long as you acknowledge that they exist. But on other levels it seems like maybe we should AT LEAST try to understand it as fully as possible, as increased knowledge brings strength and power to help make us more effective in our battle against Satan.

I want you to all reach your own conclusion on this matter. Be honest with yourselves and be open.


Know this: demons are real, they exist, and they DO want to work against us and God at all costs! Next class we will look at them a little more, and just HOW they work. We will address the question of whether or not they can still inhabit people in today’s world!!!!