INTRODUCTION.
There is still some in the Church who reject the idea of the existence of Demons, or evil / unclean spirits, who attempt to invade peoples' lives and bring them into bondage. However there is clear scriptural teaching on the work of demons, and modern Psychiatry is at present involved in an in depth study of the reality of this phenomena.
Every NT writer refers to Demons, they are part of the essence of the gospel - "Christ delivers from Demons".
There was a universal belief in Demons in Ancient times, only in the West is their existence questioned today. Interest recently has been sparked by the release of films, such as Rosemary's Baby, and the Exorcist, etc.
Jesus when he referred to them always sought to minimize their power, authority, importance, yet without denying them. He always shifted the emphasis away from Demons to their ruler, i.e. Satan.
This chapter is not so much to discuss the works of demons, but their nature and origin.
THE ORIGIN OF DEMONS.
It is important to understand the origin of demons, as this explains much about their nature. To understand this we need to turn to what appears to be an obscure passage of scripture, but one on which Jewish tradition sheds a great deal of light.
Genesis 6:1-4.
“When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days- and also afterward- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.
They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”
There are two major interpretations of this passage of Scripture so we need to discuss one of them in order to set it aside before considering the other.
(1) Interpretation 1.
This interpretation takes the view that “the sons of God” were the male descendents of Adam through the line of Seth. The “daughters of men” were the female descendents of Adam through the line of Cain. The Line of Seth is considered to be the line of the faithful to God – it leads to Noah. The line of Cain is considered to be an apostate line. As far as we know there was not one descendent of Cain who followed the Lord. Thus this interpretation sees this event recorded here as being the intermarriage of the two main lines of descendents of Adam, and thus leading to the almost total corruption and apostacy of the line of Seth by the time of the Flood, Noah and his family being the only exceptions.
There are several questions which lead me to think this is not the correct understanding.
(a) The last person to be called the “son of God” was Adam (e.g. Luke 3:38). This was a description of him before he fell from relationship with God. It means “one who has the character of God”. It was before he had any children. As his children were all born after the Fall, Cain and Seth included, they were all born already fallen, thus no longer “sons of God”. The character of God had been lost in the Fall. This was as true of Seth as it was for Cain.
(b) So why should we consider the male descendents of Seth to be more “godly” than the male descendents of Cain? The record in Genesis chapter 5 doesn’t give us any hint that they were. In fact the godly line seems to be very narrow: Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. Nine men – and it doesn’t even say that all of them were following God – only possibly Enosh, maybe Methuselah, definitely Enoch and Noah. There is no indication that any of Seth’s other descendents followed God – in fact the opposite was true by the time of the Flood – only Noah and his family were deemed to be righteous. The evidence that the descendents of Seth were a godly line and so worthy of the title “sons of God” is pretty thin. No interpreter has suggested any reason why this should be so.
(c) Why should we consider the female descendents of Cain to be more fleshly or sinful than the female descendents of Seth so that they earn the title, “Daughters of men”? Were the descendents of Seth any less the descendents of Adam than the descendents of Cain?
(d) The Hebrew text implies (and Hebrew interpretation has fairly consistently taken it to be this way) that the “nephilim” (“mighty men” = Giants) were the offspring of the union of the “sons of God” with the “daughters of men”. Why would this be so if all we are talking about here are fallen human descendents of Adam? Again no interpreter has suggested a reason why this would be so.
It seems to me that there are too many unanswered questions for this theory to be viable. Those who hold this interpretation tend to do so because of a specific objection to the alternative interpretation, which we shall now move on to.
(2) Interpretation 2.
This interpretation holds that the phrase “sons of God” means angelic beings, i.e. some of the fallen angels got sexually involved with women. The resulting offspring were thus half human/ half angelic and were thus of superhuman ability, giants, mighty men.
This is in accordance with usage of the phrase elsewhere in the OT, e.g.
Job 38:7.
"When the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
This is clealry a reference to angels. There were no men at this time so it cannot mean "men".
The specific objection that the adherents of Interpretation 1 level at this interpretation is the following:
"Angels are asexual (having no sexual gender), they cannot/ do not have sex, especially with human women – it would be impossible."
When one questions this objection one gets some interesting reactions.
* Who says angels are asexual?
* Who says they can’t have sexual relationships?
* Who says they couldn’t have sexual relationships with women?
When these questions are asked the answer is usually some variation on, “It is obvious they can’t so there!” But is it so obvious? In the final analysis the objector's answer boils down to this, “I say it couldn’t have happened so there!” So it is a matter of personal opinion. The reality is we don't know enough about angels to know if they are asexual or not – it is a guess.
Usually in this discussion one will be referred to the following words of Jesus. We shall give the context because it is pertinent:
Matthew 22:24-30.
"Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him.
Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”
The context is important because it sets the scene – the Religious leaders asked Jesus a question about marriage. Taking a law governing marriage in this age in the World they then extrapolated that law into the Coming Age in Heaven to create a dilemma. Jesus answers them with a clarification of the limits of the law of marriage – it does not apply in heaven. Marriage as an institution was ordained by God for man as a foundation for society in this age and this world. It does not apply in the age to come. The apostle Paul says a similar thing in Romans 7:1-3 where he points out that the law concerning marriage only applies while a person is alive. Once a person dies the law no longer applies.
So what did Jesus say? Well he answered the question, “Whose wife will she be?”
The answer is this: “Nobody’s, - because in heaven there is no marriage as we know it. Men will be in exactly the same situation then as the angels are now – they don’t marry.”
But what does Jesus not say?
* He does not say that the angels are sexless.
* He does not say there is no reproduction amongst the angels.
* He does not say mankind will not reproduce in the coming age.
We might assume these to be true but Jesus did not say so. He was answering a question about marriage, not about sexuality or reproduction. It is unwise to draw conclusions about these subjects from his words. Let’s examine these three contentions for a few moments:
Traditionally in human society we have assumed an integral connection between marriage and reproduction. But it is not necessarily so. God ordained marriage as the right place for reproduction in HUMAN society. But it is not true for most other forms of life. For instance, animals, birds, fish, insects, plants and so on all reproduce – in fact all life forms that we know of reproduce. But as far as I know only man gets married. Animals, birds, fish, insects and trees do not get married. But they still reproduce. Marriage and reproduction are not the same thing.
Jesus does not say the angels are sexless or they don’t reproduce – all he says is that they don’t marry. Marriage is an institution for the good of man on earth. It doesn’t apply to angels.
In actual fact the fact that all life forms we know of do reproduce should lead us to wonder if the same is also true of angels. If they did not reproduce they would be an exception to the general rule. We could also speculate that mankind will reproduce in the coming age. God is, after all, a God who likes increase.
Of course all this is speculation – we don’t know if the angels reproduce or not. But then it is equally a speculation to say they do not. We don’t know.
The point of my discussion here is that we do not know. One cannot say, “The angels are sexless so they could not have had sex with women. Genesis 6:1-4 must mean something else!” To say that is pure speculation, a matter of opinion.
And on that note I want to move on to give my opinion on the meaning of Genesis 6:1-4. I admit it is speculation – but I think it has a lot going for it – especially as it is supported by a traditional Hebrew understanding of the passage, as we shall see.
To set the scene I need to note something else: we are talking about the origin of demons. There are:
THREE MAJOR THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF DEMONS:
1. The Pre-Adamic Creation Theory.
Many teachers hold that there was a complete and total creation, including human type beings which God created in Genesis 1:1.
These human type creatures are thought to have identified with Lucifer in his rebellion against God, and were destroyed in the subsequent judgement. Genesis 1:2 is thus translated, "And the earth became void" suggesting it was not so originally, thus this was a destruction, a judgment.
The spirits of these human type beings are said to be the present demons.
Genesis 1:3ff is then said to be a recreation of earth.
This “two creation” theory was discussed in Chapter 5.
In my opinion this view is faulty, as the fall of Satan cannot predate Genesis 1:31, as discussed in chapter 8 on the Rebellion of Lucifer.
The other scriptures used in support of this theory are capable of another interpretation so need not carry the meaning given to them in this interpretation.
As for the question, "Why would God allow the spirits of this pre-Adamic race to remain free as demons?" - no one seems to have a sensible answer. There seems to be no reason why their spirits could not have been isolated somehow, as we shall see some of the fallen angels were later on.
2. Demons are the Fallen Angels.
There are several reasons why I do not think this is so, some of which I will cover when I look at the nature of demons.
The primary reason why I don't agree with this theory is simply because the Bible does not say so - and there are no indications, or hints that it may be so. In other words, those interpreters who insist that demons are the fallen angels are simply guessing and, because of this, their opinion is no more valid than anyone else's.
There is another reason why I don't think it is true. Those who have been involved in the deliverance ministry (freeing people from the power of evil spirits, i.e. demons) tend to end up convinced that demons are a different life form to fallen angels. In fact the comparison between demons and fallen angels is a bit like comparing pop guns to H-Bombs. Though Deliverance ministries regularly encounter demons, they rarely encounter fallen angels - and when they do they know the difference. Because of what is a pretty strong witness from deliverance ministries that they are different I go along with that conclusion. There are times when those with experience have to be allowed to provide expertise and understanding to those who have not had the experience or who, as in my case, the experience is fairly limited. (I have had some experience in Deliverance ministry, but not enough to be able to make a personal judgement on this sort of issue.)
Actually it is my observation (again limited by the fact that I am human and haven't had vast experience of the area) that those who argue most strongly that demons are fallen angels have never been involved in deliverance at all. In other words, their arguments are head knowledge with only their own opinion to back it up.
So I disagree with the theory that Demons are the fallen angels.
3. The Classic Jewish Theory.
This theory was the popular view around the time of Christ, and is found in the Jewish writing, the book of Enoch. It is largely reflected in the NT and there is nothing inconsistent with it and scriptural statements, as far as I can tell.
This view holds that certain of the fallen angels (not all of them) had intercourse with women (recorded in Genesis Ch 6). The resulting offspring were wicked giants who sought to destroy the whole of mankind. In response to the cries of men God judged the world to destroy these giants, and this was the primary cause of the Flood. The angels who sired these children were cast into the pit, but Enoch informs us that the spirits of their children, the Nephilim, were allowed to remain free as evil spirits.
Why their spirits were allowed to remain free is not said, but I can offer an opinion:
These spirits were not just "human spirits" as our spirits are, but were in some way a mixture of human spirits and angelic spirits. Thus there were possibly protocols in God that we do not know or understand that prevented their spirits from being thrown into the pit as the angels were that sired them.
Excerpts from the Book of Enoch.
(The book of Enoch can be viewed at:
http://reluctant-messenger.com/book_of_enoch.htm
Or you can buy it from Amazon.)
It is well worth reading for the light it sheds on other passages in the NT, particularly the Book of Revelation.
Ch. 6.
"And it came to pass that when the children of men had multiplied in those days that beautiful daughters were born to them. And the angels, the children of heaven, lusted after them, and said to one another, "Come let us choose wives from among the children of men and beget us children."
(Some discussion of the proposal follows and they bind themselves by oath to do this and to take the blame mutually. There were about 200 of them altogether).
Ch. 7.
“And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives... and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants (herbalism). And they became pregnant, and they bore great giants, whose height was 3000 ells, who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and consumed mankind. And they began to sin against (i.e., destroy) all creation.
(It seems as if they taught mankind all sorts of things that men didn't really need to know.)
This picture seems to tie in well with some obscure NT references that defy meaning unless understood against the background of Enoch. These NT writings show clear knowledge of Enoch; in fact Jude quotes him directly. Revelation alludes to him many times.
Jude 14 is a direct quote of Enoch 1:9. Thought not attested to here as being scripture Jude gives Enoch status as being inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Jude 6,7.
“And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home- these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”
Note the context is one of sexual sin. The angels acted "in a similar way" to Sodom and Gomorrah in sexual immorality.
Note: There are those who argue that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not sexual, and they even argue that the Bible never says it was. I don't know how they overcome this verse which plainly says they "gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion".
1 Peter 3:19,20. “The spirits in prison.”
“… through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,…”
2 Peter 2:4-6.
“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; …”
Note the context again is sexual sin.
These three NT scriptures clearly allude to the events recorded in Enoch and support the interpretation Enoch gives.
It seems as if there were two groups of fallen angels - one group was involved in this sexual endeavour, the other group did not. This determines their later activities. Those that did not commit sexual sin still dwell in the second heavens and exercise influence from there. Those who committed sexual sin were cast into the pit and are bound there. They are unable to do anything much. Presumably they are those beings released in the last days as recorded in
Revelation 9:1-12.
“The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions'
teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.”
These “locusts” are clearly spiritual forces and presumably are the fallen angels committed to the pit at the Flood. They are released again and continue their evil work. I suspect the limitation of their activities to “five months” is to stop any offspring being born to them again. This event clearly happens only 5 months before the Second Coming of Christ.
Back to Genesis 6.
As a result of this sexual activity a form of "half-breed" being came into existence - half man and half angel. These beings seem to have been gigantic in size, but were of totally evil nature and imposed violence on mankind.
Genesis 6:4 calls them the Nephilim, meaning "the Fallen Ones".
At the Flood their bodies were destroyed, but for some reason, unknown to us, their spirits were allowed to remain free to roam the earth as evil spirits.
Enoch 15:8.
"And now the giants who are produced from the spirits (angels) and flesh, shall be called evil spirits on the earth and on the earth shall be their dwelling. And evil spirits shall they be called."
Enoch 15:11.
"And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble. They take no food yet hunger and thirst and cause offenses. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women because they have proceeded from them."
This seems to fairly well sum up the works of demons.
THE NATURE OF DEMONS.
1. They are not Fallen Angels.
Many believe that demons and fallen angels are the same thing. On this matter the scripture is not totally clear. There is a relationship between them (as we have seen) but it is probably best to understand them as being different from fallen angels in origin and nature.
It seems as though there are two main differences between demons and fallen angels:
(i) Fallen Angels live in the Heavenlies (the Second Heavens), Demons live on Earth. Demons carry out the wishes of the Fallen Angels. It seems as if the Fallen Angels have very little desire to come down to earth, there is a tremendous power play going on in the Heavenlies, and their absence may mean some other angel will take your place. Hence Fallen Angels only come to earth rarely and unwillingly.
That fallen angels live and operate in the heavenlies is attested to by several scriptures. Here are two:
Ephesians 6:12.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Revelation 12:9.
The great dragon was hurled down- that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
However we must remember that this is not all of the fallen angels, because some were cast into the pit at the time of the flood, as we read earlier.
stjohnrevelation.blogspot.com
See chapter 12.
(ii) Fallen Angels, like other angels, were created without a body, and have no real desire to inhabit them. To inhabit a body would be restrictive to them. Demons originally had a body and earnestly desire to have one again. Fallen Angels, therefore, do not normally inhabit human beings. There are few notable exceptions, Judas (John 13:27), and the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2) being two, but this seems to be rare.
It seems that angels can take on human form if this is required in their carrying out of the service of God. Two Bible examples of this are:
a. The three angels who visited Abraham on the way to Sodom (Genesis 18,19), they appeared to be men to Abraham until they revealed their identity.
b. The exhortation to be hospitable (Hebrews 13:2) because we may entertain angels unawares.
This is not their normal state however, they return to being “spirit beings” when the task is finished. Presumably fallen angels can do the same but this is different from inhabiting another person or being as we find with demon possession. The rebellion of the angels was, in part, a result of their determination that man as a physical being was inferior to them, so they are not enamoured with the idea of being localised in a body.
The passage from Enoch quoted above fairly well describes them. They are evil, unclean, violent, and destructive.
References in the Bible indicate that demons have access to vast knowledge and intelligence. They are often tremendously powerful.
However one thing is consistent in all of then, they are in total rebellion against God.
The fact that they at one time had a physical body is extremely important. This facet of their personality drives them to want to inhabit the bodies of other creatures, particularly men. This phenomena we call "demon possession", where a demon enters into the life of another being and brings part, or all, of that creature's life under its control.
This desire to have a body is so strong that the demons Jesus cast out of Legion would rather go into a herd of pigs than be without a body (Mark 5:1-13).
It is important to understand this about their nature as it dominates their desires totally and hence their works.
WORKS OF DEMONS.
Enoch again fairly well describes this. Demons attack, destroy, and bring into bondage peoples lives.
Some interpreters feel that different demons do different things, and that the particular area of activity a demon involves itself in is defined by its name. There is some support for this as demons seem to have names, and the Jewish idea of a name being a character would go along with this.
However it is equally likely that a demon seeks to inflict a person IN ANY WAY HE POSSIBLY CAN. Hence the name a demon might give could only be a clue to the area he is presently afflicting in a person's life. I personally think that demons are not too fussy as to how they make us suffer, only that they do.
Demons can cause many things in our lives:
Mental torment,
Sickness,
Accidents,
Deception,
Bodily destruction,
Failure and frustration,
Bad emotional conditions,
Excessive reactions to situations,
Broken relationships.
There are many misconceptions as to the nature of demonic possession. Demonic possession does not always imply mental illness or instability, or insanity. There are other things demons do.
How do they work in our lives?
Demons, like Satan, can only initially work in our minds with ideas. If we accept the idea that they implant into our minds then they receive "ground", i.e. a right to act further in our lives. Continued giving of ground in an area can result in possession.
Demons cannot normally affect our lives unless we, in some way, allow them to by our will. There are exceptions to this rule - where other people have caused demonic problems to come on us. Normally, however, Demons have to either trick us into allowing them room or in some way bypass our will in order to invade our lives.
Demon possession occurs when a demon manages to obtain permission from us to dominate an area of our life. There are many forms of possession, and it comes in many degrees. This is beyond the scope of this series of studies so we will leave it there.
