Demons.

In the age of science, it is surprising that so many people round the world continue to believe in demons, devils or evil spirits. Christians reading the Bible will find many references in the New Testament to demons and if we believe that the Bible is the word of God, we must believe that demons exist – yet what are they?

• An evil supernatural being; a devil.
• A persistently tormenting person, force, or passion: the demon of drug addiction.
• One who is extremely zealous, skillful, or diligent: worked away like a demon; a real demon at math.
• Middle English, from Late Latin daem?n, from Latin, spirit, from Greek daim?n, divine power.

Clearly, the Bible accounts are not talking about zealous people who work really hard! The fact that the Greek word for demon denotes divine power is interesting, because if we think that demons are some kind of evil spirit, we need to consider where they come from.

If God created all things as the Bible states, did He create demons or are they a corruption of something that God DID create, for example, fallen angels or similar? There is no clear explanation in the Bible and the concept of fallen angels could only be considered if angels CAN fall. We should point out that the term “angel” means messenger and can therefore cover both human messengers and heavenly ones. Therefore we have to look at the context in order to determine which is being referred to.

Let us look at some of the references to demons and see what we can learn.
The word “demon” does not exist in the King James Translation of the Bible, so we will use the World English Translation for references.

Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed to demons, which were no God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up of late, which your fathers didn’t dread. Psalm 106:37 Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

In these two references in the Old Testament, we can see that false gods are being referred to. We will not get diverted from the main theme of the article, but the Bible is full of references to false gods, worthless idols etc and as the Bible clearly teaches that there is only One True God, we need not concern ourselves with these.

Matthew 4:24 The report about him went out into all Syria. They brought to him all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and torments, possessed with demons, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them.

This next scripture really sets the standard for many that are to be found in the Bible; “demon possession” is listed right in the middle of a list of the sorts of healings that Jesus carried out. In other words, those who were “demon possessed” required healing, just as those who were afflicted with a disease or who were paralysed. Here are some more verses that show the same thing.

Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so freely give. Mark 3:15 and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: Luke 9:1 He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.

So we can see from these examples that “demon possession” is a sickness that requires healing, but what sort of sickness was it?

In the Bible, we can identify various diseases and physical afflictions, such as blindness, deafness, being mute, leprosy, lameness etc. What we don’t find are references to mental illnesses and this may be the clue we are looking for. However, before we consider that, let us look at another illness – epilepsy.

Matthew 15: 14 When they came to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him, saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is epileptic, and suffers grievously; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him.” 17 Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked him, the demon went out of him, and the boy was cured from that hour.

We can see clearly the trademark symptoms of Epilepsy; the seizures and the falling to the ground. Epilepsy is a recognized disorder. I am not a doctor and must therefore rely on others to provide the necessary expertise in explaining this affliction. Here is one extract:

“Epilepsy is the most common neurologic disorder in children, adults, and the elderly. The Epilepsy Foundation estimates that over 2.7 million people in the U.S have epilepsy, and an additional 181,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.”

“……it is one of the most common chronic diseases that there are: 0.5% of all human beings suffer from epilepsy, which means that in the U.K. alone around 300 000 to 600 000 people are affected.”

If epilepsy was caused by demons, then this means that there are 2.7 million demons working in the USA and a further 300,000 in the UK, just causing epilepsy.

However, although not all the causes of epilepsy are known, we DO understand that accidents or brain damage can be causes and there are many who are born with it. In such instances, it is as if the brain is not “wired up properly”, causing “short-circuits”. Therefore we can say that at least for this one affliction, the cause is physical or neurological, not the result of some supernatural force.

When faced with medical evidence (and admittedly, Science does not have all the answers), some will point to the other instances of demon possession, such as the case of Legion. Here, Jesus spoke to these “demons” which had possessed this unfortunate man. Supporters of demon possession will point to the great strength that this man apparently had. Anyone who has worked with the mentally disturbed (which I have in a small capacity) will attest to the great strength that many of them have. We will also have heard of multiple personality disorders and some forms of schizophrenia, where a person appears to have more than one personality, sometimes accompanied by “voices in the head”, telling a person what to do.

“Schizophrenia is a devastating brain disorder that affects approximately 2.2 million American adults, or 1.1 percent of the population age 18 and older. Schizophrenia interferes with a person's ability to think clearly, to distinguish reality from fantasy, to manage emotions, make decisions, and relate to others.”

Perhaps this sounds exactly like a case of demon possession, but let us look at the Bible account.

Mark 5:15 They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid.

It seems clear that if this individual was now “in his right mind”, he had not been so before, in which case he was “not in his right mind”, a common term for someone suffering from mental problems.

Those who believe in demon possession will ask why, if Jesus came to proclaim the Truth, he did not correct those who held such beliefs in those days, but rather “went along with it”, even to causing the pigs to run into the sea. Is this consistent with Jesus knowing that such beliefs were empty and false?

As I stated previously, I am not a medical person and can only draw upon the work of others or on my own layman’s experience. I well remember that in her later years, my grandmother suffered from dementia. Most people accept that as people grow older, their brain can deteriorate and “play tricks”. The alternative would presumably be to believe that many people suffer from demon possession in their later years.

When I used to visit my grandmother in her rest home, she would sometimes tell me that there was a cat under the bed. The two choices open to me were to argue with her for hours, trying to convince her that there was no cat or to open the door, say “shoo, Kitty, shoo!” and then close the door, telling my grandmother that the cat was gone. Likewise, my Grandmother would tell me that her husband or other long-dead relative had been to see her earlier in the day. Although this was impossible, to my Grandma, it was as real as my own visit. Either I could argue with her that her husband who had been dead for thirty years could not have been to see her and cause her distress, or I could say “I expect you enjoyed that”. I believe this was the approach Jesus took, when healing the afflicted.

Here is a non-medical explanation from a site for American attorneys:

“Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that interrupts thought processes and is characterized by both positive and negative symptoms. The positive symptoms are present in the individual, but should not be and may manifest themselves as delusions and/or hallucinations. On the other hand, the negative symptoms are missing in the person, but should be present which include apathy, social or emotional withdrawal, and lack of feeling or expression. These initial symptoms of schizophrenia typically present themselves in men between the ages of 16-25 and approximately between the ages of 25-30 for women, with contributing factors having been identified as biological, psychosocial and socio-cultural problems.”

How many of us totally understand that explanation – even though it has been put in layman’s terms? How many of Jesus’ audience would have understood such an explanation? In his short three and a half year ministry, Jesus had more pressing things to accomplish. Jesus did not cure every sick person in Judea or Galilee, let alone the world. His main mission was to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom and many were healed as a foretaste of what the Kingdom would be like. Likewise, Jesus did not raise every dead person back to life. But enough were raised, to give a foretaste of the Kingdom. Neither did Jesus right every wrong. Jesus, after living a perfect, sinless life, died as a perfect sacrifice for the sin of all Mankind, giving us all the opportunity of that “sure and certain hope” of eternal life in the Kingdom to come.

There is a scriptural principle that has strong echoes in the approach of Jesus. Paul talked about “milk” and “meat”. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul states:

“Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready”.

We can see that “babes” were given teachings they could easily understand, whereas only those mature in the faith were able to digest the “meat” of deeper doctrine. There is another parallel with the way that Jesus taught, as we can see in Matthew 13:

10 The disciples came, and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.

Is this not the same approach Christ took with the “babes” of Israel?

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