Demonology

Demonology

Sofia 2011

Copyright (c) 2011 Stephen H Hedges

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Stephen H Hedges

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Smashwords Edition

ISBN - 978-954-9941-54-8

Table of Contents

Introduction

Notes

Chapter One: The Biblical Emphasis on Demons

A. Emphasis on Demons in the New Testament

B. The Terms Demon, Unclean Spirit, and Evil Spirit in the New Testament

C. The Origin of Demons

D. The Theology of Demons in the Hebrew Scriptures

E. Evil and Unclean Spirits in the Hebrew Scriptures

F. Conclusion

Appendix: The Use of the Words Tannim and Tannin

Chapter Two: Casting out Demons in the New Testament

A. How Jesus Dealt With Demons

B. How Did the Disciples and the Early Church Deal With Demons?

C. Conclusions

Chapter Three: Demons, What They Are and What They Do

A. The Difference between the Devil and Demons

B. Correct Biblical Terms for Demons and Demon Influence

C. How Do Demons Differ from the Seraphim, Cherubim and Angels?

D. What are Demons?

E. Words that Describe the Activity of Demons

F. The Purpose of Demons

G. Conclusion

Chapter Four: Setting People Free

A. How Can a Demon Enter a Person?

..1. Demons can Enter Before Birth

..2. Demons can Enter Through Sickness

..3. Demons can Enter Through False Teaching

..4. Demons can Enter Through Sin

..5. Demons can Enter Through Unforgiveness

..6. Demons can Enter Through the Invitation of Another Demon

..7. Demons can Enter Through Occult Involvement

…a. The Life is in the Blood

…b. The Definition of Spiritual Adultery

…c. The Phrase Spiritual Adultery in the New Testament

..8. Demons can Enter Through a Curses

…a. The Concept of a Curse

…b. Curses Sent by G-d

…c. Self-imposed Curses

…d. Curses Received from Others

…e. Release from Curses

B. The Biblical Attitude toward the Deliverance Ministry

C. Who Can be Delivered?

D. How to Keep Your Deliverance

E. Conclusion

Appendix - The Activities of Demons Mentioned in the Scriptures

Chapter Five: Conclusions

Bibliography

Other Titles by Stephen H Hedges

Footnotes

Introduction:

The primary purpose of this book is to teach the average believer how to recognise and successfully expel demons, in him/herself and other believers. Therefore, it is necessary to first open the readers’ understanding to the teaching about demons from both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.

There are many popular misconceptions that some people have about the devil, demons, angels and other spirit-beings and each of these misconceptions must be corrected by looking only to the Scriptures.

It is most distressing to me when I hear Christians portray the devil as being a very powerful entity who is omniscient and omnipresent. If the devil has the ability to read our every thought, see everything that we do, and be everywhere at once, then he would be a real god. But the truth is that the devil is not a god, but simply a created being. Therefore, he cannot be everywhere nor have all knowledge, because he is not a god. So you don’t really have to fear the devil.

The devil does exist, as do fallen angels and demons. They have a spiritual kingdom, but it is merely a counterfeit of the Kingdom of the Heavens.

This book will try to provide you with all the Biblical information that you need to recognise and expel demons. But for you to be successful in the deliverance ministry requires that you hear and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This book, however, is not about your relationship to the Holy Spirit and assumes that you are already a Spirit-led believer.

Notes:

Word Usage:

Throughout this book the term Hebrew Scriptures is used to replace the Christian term Old Testament. The most correct name for the Hebrew Scriptures is the TaNaK, ¹ but very few Christians are familiar with the word (however in some footnotes the word TaNaK is used). In deference to my Jewish roots, the Name of the Holy One is written as G-d. ² The word ADONAI is used to indicate the Four Letter Name. It is common among some people to try to pronounce the Four Letter Name as YHVH (usually sounded as Jehovah or Yahveh). But since we do not know the correct pronunciation of the name, it is preferable to use ADONAI. It is never a compliment to someone if you mispronounce their name, but it is always acceptable to call them by a formal title.

The book that is commonly called James in the English Bibles is called by its correct name, which is Jacob.

Translation of the Hebrew and Greek Texts:

The translations of the Hebrew and Greek texts into English are mine and should not be considered to be the best translations. I try to be faithful to the original text, and to give as literal a translation as is possible, but sometimes this leaves the English translation barely readable. When words in the translation of Biblical texts are strung together (by the use of a hyphen) this indicates that these words are translating a single word in the original text.

All Scripture quotations are written in Times New Roman italics. Any quotation from the Hebrew Scriptures that appears in the text of a New Testament passage will appear as Ezra italics. Within the text any words that appear in non-italic form and a smaller font are words that have been added to clarify the text (but are not in the original Hebrew or Greek text).

In many places in the Hebrew Scriptures the chapter and verse numbers in the TaNaK are different from those in the Christian Bibles. Likewise Christian Bibles that are printed in the West tend to use Catholic chapter and verse numberings, but Christian Bibles printed in Eastern Europe tend to use the Orthodox Christian chapter and verse numbering system. Whenever these three systems disagree with each other, I have used the Hebrew system in the Hebrew Scriptures and noted the Catholic and Orthodox numberings in the footnotes.

Since all the writers of the New Testament were Jews, they generally used Greek words within the frame of reference of the Septuagint, which was the standard Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures at the time that they wrote. The Septuagint was produced about three centuries before the New Testament was written. The Jews who wrote the New Testament were not schooled in the Greek classics, so they were not familiar with classical Greek definitions of words. Therefore all rare Greek words in the New Testament are interpreted based on how they are used in the LXX (the Septuagint) and what Hebrew word or words the LXX is translating.

E-Book Issues:

Frequently there are important Hebrew or Greek words in the text of a Scripture. But since most e-Book formats do not recognise non-Latin letters it is difficult show the original words. Therefore in the footnotes a Latinised version of the Hebrew or Greek word is given. If your e-Book reader recognises non-Latin text you can look at the End Notes and find the Hebrew or Greek text there.

Footnotes are also somewhat problematic for some e-Book readers. Each footnote is accessed by a hyperlink from the superscript number following a word or phrase. Since not all e-Book readers have a ‘back’ button the footnote is also hyperlinked back to the original text from the number at the beginning of the footnote.

All endnotes are accessed in the same way as footnotes but from a superscript letter (in other words the end notes are alphabetised).

Hyperlinks:

All chapter titles, subtitles and section headings are hyperlinked from the Table of Contents to the appropriate title and are also hyperlinked from the titles back to the Table of Contents. This can cause some problems since an accidental touching of the screen on a hyperlink will take you away from the text that you are reading. But since this manuscript can be used as a reference book it is necessary to use hyperlinks so that the reader can quickly find the information they are seeking.

Chapter 1: The Biblical Emphasis on Demons

A. Emphasis on Demons in the New Testament

Much of the content of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is centred on how Jesus ministered to people. In these four Gospels approximately one third of the verses that concern His actual ministry focus on how Jesus cast out demons. There are ten times as many verses devoted to Jesus’ ministry of exorcism as there are to His miracles of raising the dead. There are seven times the number of verses devoted to stories of Jesus casting out demons as are devoted to His cleansing of lepers. There are far more verses in the Gospels that tell us about deliverance from demons than there are about salvation from sins. In fact Jesus spends more time casting demons out of people than healing the sick and performing miracles combined. ³ However, from listening to what is preached and taught in most churches today you would not be aware of how great an emphasis the Gospels place on the deliverance ministry.

A major portion of the book that is called the Acts of the Apostles is concerned with how the early church dealt with demons. In fact in the book of Acts no single subject has more verses devoted to it than how the early church dealt with demons. Since this was the major focus of the ministry of Jesus and the early church, it should also be very important to the church today.

Deliverance from demons is not a minor ministry. Deliverance from demons was at the core of Jesus’ ministry to the needs of the people and was in fact His most important public ministry. Most Christians know that Jesus came to bring salvation, but I think most Christians usually construe salvation to mean that we will go to heaven when we die. But the fact is that most of the salvation that Jesus provided applies to the here and now, not to the future. Salvation from sickness, salvation from leprosy ⁴ and salvation from demons are three types of salvation that apply to our lives now, not after we die. As He travelled about the land of Israel, the primary salvation that Jesus provided for the Jews was salvation from demons. Most of the people whom Jesus ministered to were Jews; they were people in a covenant relationship with G-d. In fact we only have two cases where Jesus cast demons out of Gentiles (unbelievers). Furthermore, it was generally not ‘crazy’ or dysfunctional people who Jesus cast demons out of. In most cases the people we see Jesus ministering deliverance to were people who attended the synagogue, regularly worshipped G-d, and from all outward appearances were quite normal.

The Hebrew Scriptures (the Christian Old Testament), contain a lot of teaching about demons. Because of their knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, the people to whom Jesus preached and ministered were familiar with and understood the Biblical teaching about demons. Most of this knowledge is lost to Christians because they rarely read the entire Scriptures and do not understand much of what they read.

Before we study the subject of deliverance from demons in the New Testament, we must understand the Biblical concepts of demons that began in the Hebrew Scriptures so that we have the same pre-understanding of demons and deliverance that the Jews had during the time-period of the ministry of Jesus.

B. The Terms Demon, Unclean Spirit, and Evil Spirit in the New Testament

In the New Testament we find three separate terms that are used as complete synonyms: demons, evil spirits and unclean spirits.

Some obvious examples of how these three words are related can be seen in the following passages in the Gospels, starting with Matthew.

Matt. 10.1 And calling His twelve disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits ⁵ (so as to cast them out), and to healing every sickness, and every weakness.

Matt. 10.8 "Infirm - heal, dead - raise, lepers - cleanse, demons ⁶ - cast out; freely you did receive, freely give."

In most translations of the Bible Jesus refers to unclean spirits in verse one, but calls them demons in verse eight. So we can see that Jesus uses the words demons and unclean spirits interchangeably, as synonyms. It is important to note that in verse one, before He mentions healing the sick and every disease, Jesus instructs His disciples to cast out demons. This is because we frequently see in the New Testament that deliverance from demons was a prerequisite to healing.

Mark 6.7 And He calls the twelve. And He began to send them out two by two. And He gave them authority over the spirits, the unclean.⁷

Mark 6.13 And many demons ⁸ they cast out. And they anointed with oil many infirm, and they healed them.

Chapter 6 of the Gospel of Mark contains the same story that is found in Matthew chapter 10. Although in Mark 6.7 Jesus gives His disciples authority over the spirits that are unclean, in verse 13 Mark records that they cast out demons. So you can see that Mark uses the words interchangeably, exactly the same way that Matthew does. Jesus gives His disciples authority over unclean spirits and then they cast out demons. Therefore, both Matthew and Mark see the terms unclean spirits and demons as synonyms.

When we examine the story of Mary Magdalene in Luke 8, we see that Luke alternates between the terms demons and evil spirits.

Luke 8.2 And certain women, who were healed of evil spirits ⁹ and infirmities, Mary who is called Magdalene, from whom seven demons ¹⁰ had gone forth...

First Luke says that these women were healed of evil spirits, but then Luke says that Mary Magdalene was delivered of seven demons. So Luke agrees with Matthew and Mark that the terms evil spirits and demons are synonyms.

In fact when you read through all the parallel accounts in the Gospels concerning evil spirits, demons and unclean spirits, you will see that throughout the Gospels these words are used completely interchangeably.

C. The Origin of Demons

The Bible does not actually tell us where demons came from. The purpose of the Bible is not to inform us about all that ever was or ever will be; otherwise we would have a multi-volume Bible larger than the largest of encyclopaedias. The purpose of the Bible is to tell us what G-d has provided for us in this life. So the Bible tells us almost nothing about the pre-Adamic period and very little about the post-millennial time period. It may be acceptable for people to speculate about these matters, as long as it is understood to be merely speculation and not to be considered truth. However, such speculation is never profitable to our faith or our ability to obey the purposes of G-d in our lives.

Genesis 1.2 contains a very important statement. And darkness was on the face of the deep. G-d had existed from eternity prior to this point and what we read about in Genesis chapter one was not His first work. But Genesis chapter one tells us nothing about the eternal pre-existent works of G-d. We cannot say that G-d existed eternally but never did anything until the moment that He created the heavens and the earth. G-d is not a G-d of eternal passivity. To put it more bluntly, G-d has existed for untold billions of years and He did not spend all of prehistory doing nothing, but we are not told what He did do.

We are told that darkness was on the face of the deep, but darkness is not a substance; it is not something, darkness is in fact the lack of something. Darkness is the lack of light. Darkness actually has no power (although Christians often think that darkness is a rival power to light). Conversely, light is a substance and is powerful in its own right. This is true Biblically and scientifically. As an example: if the ionosphere were to be covered with some form of a thick blanket so as to exclude any light from reaching the earth, and if all light sources on the earth were extinguished, then we could say that a darkness covered the earth. If you then were to go to the end of the fishing pier at the beach and light a single candle, the light from that candle would be visible all the way to the horizon. Only an obstructed view of the end of the fishing pier would limit the visibility of the light. The light of one candle has more power than all the darkness, because darkness is not a substance, but the lack of light.

The very fact that Genesis chapter one says that darkness covered the earth means that something was acting as a blanket over the earth at that time. It could be safely said that G-d had not existed in darkness prior to that moment, because where G-d is there is light. Yet the Bible tells us almost nothing about this time period, even though that time period is much longer than the time period that stretches from the creation of Adam until the end of this age.

Now we have an interesting fact. What we think of as the supernatural world existed prior to Genesis one, but we are not told when G-d created this supernatural world, nor are we told when He created the world we live in now. In Genesis 1.1 the heavens and the earth are portrayed as being pre-existent; then at some point in His eternal existence G-d covered the earth with a blanket and darkness fell on the surface of the earth. Starting from Genesis the chronology of the Bible seems to trace a period of about 6,000 years. But we know that the earth is much older than 6,000 years and that the light we see coming from the stars has been travelling to us for at least tens of thousands of years. So these elements were not created six thousand years ago. But because the creation of the earth and the creation of the other heavenly bodies are not relevant to our salvation, the Bible does not comment on their history.

We can speculate that the evil spirits are the disembodied spirits of beings from a pre-Adamic time period. But we can only speculate about that. The theological assumption is that at some point before the creation of Adam the angel Lucifer rebelled against G-d and took with him 1/3 of the seraphim and these spirits from the pre-Adamic creation. Then in Genesis 1.2 we find the words tohu v bohu, ¹¹ which indicate that a judgement came upon this pre-Adamic race; after which G-d started a new creation with Adam. But spirits exist eternally. In fact a spirit could be likened to an algebraic mathematical ray. A ray has a starting point, which is the time when it is created, but it has no end point. This is in contrast to G-d, who in algebraic mathematical terms is a line. In algebraic terms a line has neither a starting point nor an ending point. A line continues forever in the past and forever in the future.

Since these rebellious (i.e. evil) spirits of a pre-Adamic creation are deathless, they have continued to exist into our time period, seeking physical bodies to inhabit. The reason they seek to occupy bodies is because these beings are very limited in their completely spiritual state. Creation is incomplete without a physical state. We tend to think of the physical world negatively, and the spiritual realm as being more important. But in fact the Bible tells us that in the future G-d will live forever with us in the physical realm, after He has created the new heaven and the new earth. ¹²

The fact that the spiritual world is eternal is confirmed throughout Scripture and we will not take much time to explore the subject. However, even science has shown that the spiritual world is eternal. Because both the Hebrew and Greek languages have only one word that is interchangeable for wind, spirit and breathe, we can know that to G-d there is no difference between these three concepts. It is a scientific statement that matter cannot cease to exist. As a result every time you breathe (that is: every time you take in wind or spirit), you are inhaling molecules that were breathed out by Jesus at creation. Every breath you take allows you to partake of the Spirit of Jesus.

D. The Theology of Demons in the Hebrew Scriptures

Let us begin by looking at the concept of demons in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament). The study is not going to be very easy because the word demon does not exist in Hebrew. It is a Greek word that occurs in the Septuagint. When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek (the Septuagint - LXX) there were several places where the Rabbis ¹³ chose to use the Greek word demon to translate various Hebrew words. This Greek word demon has been transliterated into English and many other languages. So in order to understand the word demon in the Hebrew Scriptures we must use the Septuagint as our guide.

The Septuagint is the best guide to the rabbinic understanding of demons prior to the time of Jesus. From examining the Septuagint, we can see how the people listening to Jesus understood His use of the word demon. Jesus did not preach in Greek, He preached in Hebrew, so what we will come to understand is how Hebrew thinking relates to the Greek language of the New Testament. In other words, the Greek text of the New Testament is based on how the Septuagint used Greek words to translate Hebrew thought.

The LXX Text: Deut. 32.17 They sacrificed to demons, ¹⁴ not to G-d! To gods they have not known. New, fresh ones came in, whom their fathers knew not.

The Hebrew text: Deut. 32.17 They sacrificed to rulers, ¹⁵ not gods. ¹⁶ Gods ¹⁷ they knew not. Recent ones from near came. Their fathers feared them not.

This is part of the Song of Moses. In verses 15 through 18 Moses is telling Israel what will happen in the future when they forget both G-d (Elohim) and the Rock of His salvation. We know that this word of knowledge came to pass in the time of the latter prophets (from the period of Isaiah to Jeremiah), when Israel started to worship the gods of the nations around them. Paul tells us (1 Cor. 8.1-5) that the gods (idols) of the nations are nothing. These idols just represent demons, who are not really gods, but worthless demons. Demons are not powerful sub-deities, they are just cheap imitations. But whatever you fear will rule over you, so most of the power of demons comes through the fear that people have of them.

Many Bible translators actually favoured the Greek and not the Hebrew text in Deut 32.17. That is because the term rulers, in the Hebrew text, does not really give the sense of the text. But the Greek text says they sacrifice to demons. The creatures called rulers in the Hebrew text were not actually creatures, just as the Indian or African gods do not represent real creatures. They ruled only in the sense that people submitted to them in worship, they have no power of their own. These rulers were simply representations of what their human creators imagined these gods would look like. Their depictions were no more accurate than a man-made drawing of G-d would be. We create images not of actual beings, but of weird or wonderful versions of ourselves. We make idols (and demon images) in our own image.

The LXX Text: Psa. 90.5-6 ¹⁸

5 You shall not be afraid from the terror by night, or from the arrow flying by day,

6 of the thing that walks in darkness or the demon ¹⁹ at noon-time.

The Hebrew Text: Psa. 91.5-6

5 Do not fear the terror of the night, from the arrow that flies by day,

6 of the gloomy plague going in the darkness, or sting that destroys at noon.

In the Hebrew text of these verses we have two sets of parallel synonymous statements, where the first and last parts of each verse compliment or are equal to each other. So the arrow ²⁰ that flies by day (in verse 5) is paralleled by the sting which destroys at noon (in verse 6). In the Greek text the first verse is identical to the Hebrew text, but in verse 6 they translate the sting that destroys at noon as the demon at noon-time. The rabbis translated this verse into Greek as the demon at noon-time because they understood that a demon can penetrate into you like something that stings. If you have ever been stung by an insect, you know that sometimes by the time you feel it the insect has gone, but has left something inside you that causes irritation. The rabbis are saying that the nature of a demon is like that.

In the first part of verse 6 (in Hebrew) is the word plague. The English Bibles tend to use the wrong word here; the Bulgarian Bibles usually use the correct word. The Hebrew word that is used for plague in verse six is not the same word that is found in Exodus (which literally means touch). The word used in Psalm 91.6 is qatab, ²¹ which only occurs three times in the Bible (the other two times are Deut. 32.24 and Isa. 28.2). There is a variation of the word that is spelled the same way, but is pronounced qotab, and is used only once, in Hosea 13.14. In each case the Hebrew word is used to mean cutting off. Therefore a demon is something that can cut you off in some way. So we have the Hebrew wording of this text that literally says the cutting-off that destroys in the darkness being replaced in Greek by the words the thing that walks in darkness.

So we are to understand from the text that the rabbis thought that demons had the power to terrify people (especially in the night) and cause them to walk in darkness. The effect of a demon on a person was similar to the sting of an insect. The sting of an insect can produce discomfort in one victim, while for another it can bring on partial paralysis; some insect stings can even leave its victims in a catatonic state. In many cases the same type of insect sting can drastically affect people in different ways.

The LXX text: Psa. 95.5 ²² For all the gods of the Gentiles are demons. ²³ But the Lord made the heavens.

The Hebrew text: Psa. 96.5 For all the gods ²⁴ of the peoples are idols, ²⁵ but ADONAI made the heavens.

Some Bible translations of the Hebrew text say the gods of the Gentiles are worthless or nothing. ²⁶ Other translations say the gods of the peoples are idols. It is an interesting combination and both translations are correct. Remember that Paul stated that idols are nothing. ²⁷ So one translation speaks of idols and another translation speaks of nothing, meaning something insignificant. But the Greek translation says the gods of the Gentiles are demons.

Psalm 96.5 says that all gods (except the G-d of Israel) are actually demons. This includes all the gods of the people of India, Africa, etc. So anything that people worship (other than the G-d of Israel) is a demon, whether it is represented by an idol or not. But we must remember that people fashion idols out of their own imagination. The demons do not actually have physical bodies; it is just that many heathen people need to have physical images of whatever they worship. But even if their god is not represented by an actual image it is still a demon since all the gods of the Gentiles are demons. This includes the god of the Moslems, because they do not worship the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The LXX text: Psa. 105.37 ²⁸ And they sacrifice their sons and their daughters to demons.²⁹

The Hebrew text: Psa. 106.37 And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the destroyers.³⁰

The Hebrew text uses the word shadim, which is usually translated as destroyers. But in Modern Hebrew shadim is the normal word for an evil spirit or a demon. In Hebrew this word is also related to the word for Satan, since he is understood to be the destroyer. When the Hebrew text was translated into Greek, the rabbis chose to translate shadim as demons. So we know that the Modern Hebrew definition of shadim was also used at the time of Jesus. Therefore we understand that demons are agents of destruction, although we are not told in this text exactly what they destroy.

On many occasions the Jews fell into the practice of sacrificing their newborn children to Moloch, ³¹ an Ammonite god who required the sacrifice of babies. Although this sounds horrible to us, the practice had a certain attraction for people. In those days a woman had no safe means of aborting an unwanted pregnancy. But she could use the religious pretence of sacrificing her baby to god. In effect the worship of Moloch sanctioned the killing of babies for spiritual reasons. Although it may seem very strange to us that people would sacrifice their children to a god, it is a very common form of worship in the modern world, but called by another name, abortion. Women, who have abortions,