Demons

 
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Demons are sometimes an abstract part of Christianity.  Are they real, or are they a metaphor that the Bible uses to get a point across?  An example can be found in Luke:

Luke 11:14 - "And he [Jesus] was casting a devil, and it was dumb [i.e. mute].  And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered.  But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils...And if I [Jesus] by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out?...But if I [Jesus] with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you."

Jesus was the son of God, (If there is any doubt, see the section called Deity of Jesus) and he obviously didn't cast out devils through the power of Beelzebub (Which is another name for Satan).  So, if Jesus got rid of a devil of muteness, what did He truly cast out?

It has been said that demons and devils are bad things that happen to people.  This cannot be true because demons are spoken of in a personal sense throughout the Bible.  If demons were occurrences or bad happenings then God would not be speaking of them As actual beings.  The main points of scripture are numbered below.

  1. Demons have names

    (The Demoniac of Gadara) - Mark 5:9 - "And [Jesus] asked him, What is thy name? And [The Demoniac] answered, saying, my name is Legion: for we are many."

    The demon was called Legion, and therefore has a name.  Why would an occurrence have a name and say what it was?  An occurrence has no personality, it just is.
     
  2. Demons are individuals

    (Mary Magdalene) - Luke 8:2 - "...Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils."

    The number demons was counted in this instance.  If demons were part of a whole, then they couldn't be counted individually, but in fractions.  It is never said that it takes two apples to make a whole one, but two halves does.  Each demon is an individual in itself.
     
  3. Demons believe in God

    James 2:19 - "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well the devils also believe, and tremble."

    If demons believe in God, then they must have some sort of intelligence and be an individual spirit of their own.  The fact that they are able to fear God proves this even more.  How could an event fear God?  An event has no mind to think with and no emotions to feel with.  This proves that demons are beings and not just things.
     
  4. Demons can possess us (control us and our actions)

    (The Demoniac of Gadara) - Mark 5:1-16

    Throughout the first 5 verses of Mark 5 it is spoken of how a demon possessed man acted.  He was crazy "neither could any man tame him" and the demoniac "always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones."  This is not the way a sane person acts, and this means that the man was not in his right mind.  He was being controlled by something; in verse 13 it is discovered that the demons were the cause for this man's insanity because once Jesus had cast the spirits out of the man into the swine, the man was "in his right mind" (verse 15).

To sum everything up a definition of what a devil is can be:

A devil is a former angel, a spiritual being, created by God for His glory, but now in a corrupt and fallen state.  Devils are the angels that were cast out of heaven for rejecting God and attempting to overthrow his kingdom (1/3 of the total angels fell alongside Lucifer when he rebelled against God).  They each have a major sin they are taken with (just as some sins may tempt certain people more than others), but all are corrupt and try to tempt mankind into falling away from God in any way they can.  As humans have more than one weakness to sin, demons have them as well, so a particular devil may have fallen for the sin of lust, but can also tempt humans in other areas of sin as well.  Demons are individuals, have personalities of their own, and are intelligent beings that can well surpass humans in many ways, except for the fact that we can have a personal relationship with God and have been redeemed by the saving power of Jesus' blood.  Demons can never be saved, and their ultimate end is hell and the Lake of Fire.  Any attribute (such as having a personality, a face, a body style, etc.) an angel has, a demon also has since they are former angels themselves.  Demons are not weak nor stupid, and no human can ever defeat one except through the power of Jesus Christ.