Saturday, February 14, 2009

Demons in the Bible

What is a better source for demon information than the original source, the Bible? Since I am a Roman Catholic in the United States, I read the New American Bible.

Some demon stories include:

Genesis, Chapter 3, The Fall of Man: "Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made. The serpent asked the woman, 'Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?'" (Genesis 3:1)

Notice the Bible says that the serpent is a creation of God, not the equal and opposite of God, a common misconception. Satan is a subordinate to God. He can only do what God allows him to do. He is finite in power. A priest once told me, "If God were a hurricane, the devil would be a fart."

Genesis, Chapter 6, The Sons of Heaven: "...the sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose." (Genesis 6:2) and "At that time, the Nephilim appeared on earth (as well as later), after the sons of heaven had intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown." This sounds a lot like the alien abduction story where the aliens have sex with women and sometimes men.

Job, Chapter 1, Satan bets with God that he can break Job's faith (Job 1:6-12).

The Letter of Jude, St. Michael the Archangel defeats the devil by simply saying, "May the Lord rebuke you!" while fighting over Moses' body.

Demons in the Gospels: The devil tempts Jesus while he fasted in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights.
Jesus exorcises demons (Matthew 8:16)

"They cried out, 'What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?" (Matthew 8:29) The demons declare that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I noticed that Jesus talks and exorcises demons by His very Word. Psychiatrists and psychologists have often compared mental illness with demonic possession described in the Gospels. However, Jesus talks while psychiatrists need to prescribe drugs to treat mental illness. Jesus has supernatural power to drive out demons. In Mark, Jesus drives out an unclean spirit by speaking. "(He had been saying to him, 'Unclean spirit, come out of the man!')" (Mark 5:8)

Demons in the Gospels made people mute, insane, deaf, have seizures, and suffer a host of other maladies.

Revelation: In the Apocalypse, Jesus Christ ultimately defeats the devil and his demons. "Then the devil was thrown into the lake of fire and burning sulphur along with the false prophet and the Beast. There they shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever." (Revelation 20:10)

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