by Fr. Jonathan H. Cholcher
Demons are real, and they’re scary. We Christians know quite a lot about demons. This knowledge is crucial for our spiritual well-being and for the salvation of would-be Christians. The major, if not main, aspect of Jesus Christ’s ministry is the exorcism of demons and destruction of the power of the demons’ leader, the devil. “[Christ] Himself likewise shared in the same [flesh and blood], that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (Heb. 2:14; 1 Jn. 3:8).
Here are the chief points of knowledge concerning the demons:
- Demons are personal spirits, fallen angels, not just abstract psychological forces or mental illnesses.
The English word “demon” is derived from a Greek word, daimon (and its adjectival form, daimonion). The ancient Greeks and Latins used this word familiarly referring to divine, or spiritual, beings beyond human experience. Certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers ridiculed the Apostle Paul, saying, “’He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods’ (lit., strange demons), because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). The famous Socrates claimed to be guided by his own personal demon (Plato, Apology, 31d), a warning voice inside him. In Plato’s Symposium (202d-e), the priestess Diotima describes “love” as “a great demon, Socrates. Everything classed as a demon falls between god and human.”
In the Gospels, Christ gave His newly chosen 12 apostles the power to cast out “unclean, evil spirits” along with the power to heal all manner of illnesses; these spirits are identified a little later as “demons” (Matt. 10:1, 8; Lk. 8:2). According to Christ, uncleanness, or evil, is spiritual perversion proceeding from a heart (the darkened will) bent on sin and godless desire (Matt. 5:8; 15:18-19). The demons personify uncleanness and evil in their prideful rebellion against God’s will (Prov. 3:35; 16:2; 17:16; etc.).
The episode of the Gadarene demoniac illustrates this truth clearly. The man “had demons for a long time”; the man possessed referred to himself by the name “Legion” (that is, 5,000-6,000 soldiers) because “many demons had entered him. And they begged [Jesus] that He would not command them to go out into the abyss,” instead to go into a herd of pigs (Lk. 8:27, 30-31, 32). The demons are personal agents who speak to Christ with knowledge of their condition.
Some demons afflict human beings with certain physical, or medical, maladies. For instance, there is the “mute spirit” causing a young man to “convulse, foam at the mouth, gnash his teeth, and become rigid“ (Matt. 9:32; Mk. 9:17-18; Lk. 9:42; 11:14). In Matthew 17, this young man is said to have epilepsy, a translation of the Greek word meaning “moonstruck,” equivalent to the Latin lunatic. Notice how the demons camouflage their destructive activities beneath superstitious beliefs about the moon (hence, astrology and magic). Similarly with the Gadarene demoniac who dwelt in the tombs and was so strong no one could bind or tame him (Mk. 5:1-5), the demons used the cover of supposed restless souls of the dead to hide their possession of the man (hence, seances, mediums, and so-called hauntings).
After healing a demon-possessed blind and mute man, Jesus was accused of casting out demons “by Beelzebub, the ruler (Gk., archon; “prince”) of the demons.” Jesus identifies Beelzebub (Heb., lord of the flies, the Canaanite god of Ekron; 4 Kgm. 1:2f.) with Satan (Heb., adversary; Matt. 12:24-27). Satan is also known as “the great dragon (cf. Isa. 27:1; Job 40:15f.)…that serpent of old (cf. Gen. 3:1), called the devil (Gk., slanderer)…the accuser,” who was cast out of heaven with “his angels” (Rev. 12:8-9, 10). These fallen angels, the demons and their ruler, were cast to earth, but their ultimate destination is the place of the curse, “the everlasting fire” of hell (Matt. 25:41; 2 Pet. 2:4; Rev. 20:10).
- Demons are permitted to exert their unclean, evil influence in order to test human beings, whether or not human beings will live in repentance and remain faithful to God. In this, human beings are shown to be stronger than the demons and more dignified than angels in the grace of God, faith, and love.
A great mystery is revealed in that the devil (Satan, the tempter) was permitted to tempt the Lord Jesus while fasting forty days and forty nights in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11; Mk. 1:13; Lk. 4:1-13). Jesus, true God and true Man, “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Similarly, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
To be tempted is not a sin. Sin consists of agreeing with and enacting the temptation which is contrary to the will of God. Satan’s temptation of Christ demonstrates the three broad categories of demonic enticement to sin: satisfaction of bodily needs as the chief use of our powers (turning stones to bread); exercise of pride under the justification of religion (throwing oneself off the temple); worship of temporal wealth, pleasure, and glory (bowing down to the devil who promises these things). Christ rebukes the devil’s suggestion by pointing out the way of God’s will: the need to first know God’s word, humility before God, and the worshipful service of God alone.
The original sin of human beings is the abandonment of the worship of the true God for the worship of the self, at the instigation of the devil. “[Y]ou will be like gods, knowing good and evil,” the devil told Eve, and Adam concurred when they both disobeyed God in choosing their own course (Gen. 3:1-6).
This sin and enticement of the demons has become so normalized that having abandoned the worship of God, human beings in their self-will now worship the demons who tempt them away from God. “They sacrificed to demons, and not to God, to gods they did not know, new ones, recent gods arrived, which their fathers did not know” (Deut. 32:17; 1 Cor. 10:20). “For the Lord is great, and is greatly to be praised; and He is to be feared above all the gods; for all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens” (Ps. 95:4-5).
Our Lord refers to the devil as “the ruler of this world” (Jn. 12:31; 14:30), whom the Apostle calls “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4). Demons operate by deception, by trickery, and by lies. As witnessed in the original sin of Adam and Eve, the devil and the demons can only exert their evil influence in and over the lives of human beings by human cooperation with their schemes. “The last state of that man is worse than the first” (Matt. 12:43-45). The acceptance of this influence only leads a person further into spiritual blindness, habitual ungodliness, and complete delusion.
“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thes. 2:9-12; bold mine).
God will send them strong delusion? Yes, indeed, God uses even the demons to test human beings, because of the higher dignity of human beings created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-27), not because God wants people to fail the test and be condemned, but that we might prove ourselves genuine in our faith and love of God.
When the kings of Israel and Judah considered going to war, they summoned the true prophet Micaiah who counseled them not to go, contrary to the advice of all the other false prophets. Micaiah recounted his vision of the Lord surrounded by the angelic host: “Then the Lord said, ‘Who will deceive Ahab the king of Israel that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ One spoke one way and another spoke in another way. Then a spirit came forth and stood before he Lord and said, ‘I will deceive him…I will be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ The Lord said, ‘You shall deceive him, and you shall prevail. Go and do so’” (3 Kgm. 22:20-23).
In a similar, but opposite way, God permitted the devil to afflict His servant Job. First, the devil was permitted to destroy Job’s children and property. Then, the devil was permitted to destroy his bodily and emotional health. Yet “in all these things that happened to him, Job did not sin with his lips against God” (Job 2:15). After a painstaking process of moralizing, accusation, and speculation by his four friends, the Lord revealed the reason for this treatment: “Do you not reject My judgment? Do you think I have dealt with you in any other way than might appear to you to be righteous?” (Job. 40:8). And Job, who never lost his faith in God or his understanding that despite all God only did what was best for him and his salvation, persisted in the righteousness of this faith and had all his earthly possessions restored two-fold.
The Apostle Paul was given “a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan,” lest he become prideful of the revelations of paradise given him. The Lord said to him, “’My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness”…Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities (including those brought on by the demons), in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9, 10).
- The devil and his demons (fallen angels) cannot harm the children of God; rather, knowledge that the demons are bound within limits contributes to the confidence of the life of the faithful.
Saint James writes, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (4:7). Saint Paul exhorts: “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph. 6:11-13).
Jesus would not permit the demons to confess that He is the Christ (“Anointed One,” the Savior; Lk. 4:41). Why this limitation? The demons know the truth and believe in God (Jam. 2:19), but everything they do and speak is to deceive. Therefore Christ does not want us listening to the devil and demons no matter what they say. Notice, even the devil knows the Scripture and quotes it (to Jesus at that!), but always with a twisted meaning (cf. Lk. 4:10-11).
Therefore the demons are described as bound by God. They are permitted by God to exert their influence in the lives of human beings, but only with certain limitations. Like a ferocious beast on a chain, the beast can only move so far. It may snarl and bark and aggressively posture, but as long as a person remains beyond the reach of the chain, the beast cannot harm that person (see Rev. 20:1-3; the 1,000 years [millennium] is a symbolic number denoting the entire time period between Christ’s Ascension and His return in glory on the Last Day).
This binding of demons gives us tremendous confidence in our life of faith in God. The demons are cast out “by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21). In other words, by continuing in a life of genuine prayer to God and self-control, the demons cannot control us. Likewise, the demons cannot control us when we continue in repentance and forgiveness. “For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one (who truly repented) for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Cor. 2:9-11).
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome [many false prophets and the spirit of the Antichrist], because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world…We know that whoever is born of God does not sin (lit., keep on sinning); but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one (i.e., the devil)…Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen” (1 John 4:4; 5:18-19, 21).
Through Baptism into Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, through the fear of God in the relentless practice of righteousness in the keeping of God’s commandments (godliness, reverence), through prayer and fasting, through repentance and forgiveness, through humility, discernment, faith, hope, and love, the devil and his demons do not touch us! Through their relentless, fruitless pursuit of us in their hopelessly evil efforts, Christians are only purified and strengthened in our resolve to serve and worship God who gives us eternal life. We follow Christ who became one of us to restore us by His Crucifixion and Resurrection. Christ defeated the evil tyrant and triumphed over him for our sakes, and we continue in His indestructible life.
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of god which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).
