Introduction
Demons is the final installment of "The Players" section of the Essentials series which also covers Satan, the holy angels, and higher orders of celestial beings. If you have not already, I recommend reading Holy Angels - Part 1 prior to this.
Origins
Angels are (exclusively) male spirit beings (that do not have wings). When God originally created the angels they were all the same. They were all holy. However, one-third of the angels joined Satan (the dragon) in his rebellion against God (Revelation 12:4). This sin transformed them into unholy angels or demons. Adding confirmation to the fact that holy angels and demons were originally one and the same, both holy angels and demons are sometimes referred to as "sons of God" in the Old Testament. Also, the demons are sometimes referred to in the Bible as angels, such as in the following:
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Revelation 12:7-9)
That Satan's angelic troops are indeed demons, Jesus made clear:
But he [Jesus], knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub." (Luke 11:17-18)
What is interesting is that even after the rebellion, Satan and his demons still gathered before the throne of God (Job 1-2; 1 Kings 22). Let us examine one of the passages that reveal this:
And Micaiah said, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came and stood before the LORD, saying, 'I will entice him." And the LORD said to him, 'By what means?' And he said, 'I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And he said, 'You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.' Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has declared disaster for you." (1 Kings 22:19-23)
We are told that "all the host of heaven" gathered before the throne of God. Because an evil spirit (lying spirit) came out from among them, we can ascertain that this "all" was not just the holy angels but the demons also. Perhaps one group was to his right and one group was to his left.
There is deep revelation in this heavenly insight.
Holy and unholy angels can exist alongside each other without conflict because they both are under the subjection of God. They are opposed to one another but focused on their assigned roles and seemingly do not fight the other side unless commanded which is still under the authority of God's heavenly sanctions. There really is no battle of good versus evil. Everything exists under the control of Almighty God and functions according to His Word. Ahab's wickedness had filled up to the measure. God allowed a demon to deceive him so that he would be led to his appointed end. God uses demons for His purposes.
The fool goes around fearing demons. The wise man fears God.
Nature and Role of Demons
The English translations of the Bible typically refer to the fallen, unholy angels as demons or spirits. The Hebrew word, shed, translated in the Old Testament of our English Bibles as "demon," means "lord" or "master." The Greek word, daimon, translated in the New Testament of our English Bibles as "demon," means "a god" or "evil spirit." Putting these definitions together, we get a description of demons as evil spirits intent on ruling over man as gods. However, given what we have already learned about the origins of the sons of God, we can take this one step further.
In Holy Angels — Part 1, I wrote:
"The Hebrew word for angel, mal’ak, and the Greek word for angel, aggelos, both mean “messenger”. Angels primary role is that of messengers commissioned by God to serve His people."
Although demons are now corrupted, unholy angels, they have not lost their original nature as messengers. We can see this in the earlier section where the demon went out to be a lying spirit to deceive Ahab's prophets. The definition of demons in the previous paragraph describes intent but lacks insight into their nature. By understanding that they are, by nature, messengers we can expand our definition of demons to the following:
Demons are evil spirits, communicating lies to support their desire to rule over men as gods.
With this complete definition in mind, our understanding of the Scriptures concerning demons is enhanced. The key is to recognize that demons teach lies to humanity. Jesus once rebuked a Jewish crowd, declaring:
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)
Satan is a liar and the "father of lies." His minions (demons) took on his character as a liar and deceiver when they joined his rebellion. At the same time, Jesus is "the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Everyone in Him is in the truth. Everyone outside of Him lies in the darkness of deception. The apostle John taught:
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:19-21)
John wrote that "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one [Satan]" and he warned immature believers ("little children") to keep themselves from idols.
Demons have a global network of deception. They perpetuate Satan's systems in the hearts and minds of those who do not know Jesus Christ. They create other gods and/or belief systems for people to devote themselves to that often manifest themselves in idol worship. John warned immature believers to "keep themselves from idols" since these are outward entrapments of the demonic system. Moreover, idol worship, especially in ancient times, entailed rituals of child sacrifice or sexual immorality.
Concerning the Hebrews in the wilderness, the apostle Paul wrote:
Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things have happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. ...
... I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. (1 Corinthians 10:7-11, 20-21)
Concerning the Hebrew settlement of the Promised Land, the Psalmist wrote:
They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds. (Psalm 106:34-39)
Moses, in his farewell song to the Israelites, declared concerning them:
"He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the LORD alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat—and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.
But Jeshurun [Israel] grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. They stirred him to jealously with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. (Deuteronomy 32:10-18)
All these Biblical recordings make it clear: demons stand ready to supply people who do not follow Jesus Christ with false gods to follow after instead. These false gods are embedded in Satan's world system. Worshipping these false gods keeps people ensnared in the bondage of sin.
Demonic Invasion
Let's go back to the garden of Eden for a moment. Recall that after the serpent deceived Adam & Eve, God said to the serpent:
... "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15)
Notably, the New King James Version translates it like this:
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." (Genesis 3:15; NKJV)
Satan (the serpent) was warned that he would be put under the foot of the offspring of the woman. The woman was going to have a child—her "Seed" as the NKJV translates it—that would crush him. We know now that the woman is Israel and her Seed is Jesus Christ (Revelation 12), but at the time, it was reasonable to conclude that Eve was soon going to give birth to the Seed, to the Messiah. Satan did not know all that this prophecy would entail. He launched a scheme to try to genetically corrupt the offspring of the woman. In his deception, he thought that he could overcome God. The following passage describes what his demons did:
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God [demons] saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:1-9)
Having the proper framework in mind on angels, namely that they are all young men without wings, makes this historical account easier to reconcile. The "sons of God" here were the fallen angels or demons. The Scripture says that they "saw that the daughters of man were attractive," however, after examining the Hebrew word ṭôḇ, translated here in English as "attractive," there is good reason to conclude that it would have been better to translate this as "fertile," especially given the greater context. What happened here is that these demons chose to leave the angelic realm for the human realm. Jude confirmed this when he wrote:
And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 6-7)
Notice here that Jude likened the actions of the demons to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah (and the surrounding cities) "which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire." These demons left their angelic habitation and pursued unnatural sexual relationships with women. I suspect that master Satan led them to do this with the intention of trying to genetically corrupt the offspring of the woman. The wording of the passage, "they took as their wives any they chose," implies that they did this forcefully.
This demonic alien invasion worked. It led to a hybrid offspring known as the Nephilim. However, many English Bibles errantly translated Nephelim as "giants." On this point, Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum's comments from Demonology: The Doctrine Of Demons are insightful:
In some translations, the word Nephilim has been translated to the word "giant." ... But the word in Hebrew does not mean giants, rather, it means, "fallen ones." The word does not refer to giants in the sense of huge beings, but to a race of fallen ones. The reason it was translated as giant is very interesting. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament done about 250 B.C., the Jewish scholars translated verse 4 by the Greek word gigentes, which means "Titan." Our English word "giant" comes from this Greek word, gigentes.
"But what were the Titans in Greek mythology?" They were part-man and part-god, because they were products of gods and men. When the Jewish scholars in 250 B.C. translated the word Nephilim to Greek, they used the Greek word for Titans, because they recognized this to be a union, not of two types of human beings, instead, they correctly viewed it as a union of angels and humans, which produced a being that was neither angelic or human. These Jewish scholars, who lived so much closer to the time when Moses originally wrote this passage, clearly understood this to be an intermarriage between angels and human women. As a result of this union, a new race of beings called the Nephilim, a race of fallen ones, came into being. They were gigentes, super, human, but not in size. They had human characteristics but were, at the same time, super-human. They had extra capacities both mentally and physically, though they may not have been any larger than normal human beings.
It is from the events of Genesis 6:1-4 that the source of Greek and Roman mythologies was derived. These mythologies record how gods from Mount Olympus intermarried with human beings on earth and produced children who had super-human characteristics, and were greater than men but less than gods. Thus, the Book of Genesis details the true history of what happened, while Greek and Roman mythologies give the corrupted account. In Greek and Roman mythologies, the human perspective is given, and what happened is elevated to something special and glorified; but God called it sin.
What was God's response to this alien invasion? The Lord said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years" and by this He meant that mankind had 120 years left. The Hebrew word, din, poorly translated here in English as "abide" means "judge, contend, plead." Coinciding with (apparently) or enhanced by (seemingly) these events "the wickedness of man was great in the earth ... and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." God had had enough and decided to destroy everything since man had become unsalvageable. However, "Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD" because he "was a righteous man" that "walked with God." Moreover, the Spirit included the critical fact that Noah was "blameless in his generation" or, as other quality English Bibles (e.g., ASV, NKJV) translate this phrase, he was perfect in his generations. (The Hebrew word, tāmîm, translated here in English as "blameless," means "complete, whole, entire, sound, perfect.") What this means is that Noah's lineage was not genetically corrupted by the sons of God. His lineage was most likely not corrupted because of his righteousness. In other words, his righteousness protected his family from the evil works of the demons.
Confined Demons
Like Jude, the apostle Peter told us that these demons—those who almost eliminated the human race (genetically)—were chained in hell until the final judgement.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly ... (2 Peter 2:4-5)
These demons have been permanently confined until the final Great White Throne Judgement. (For more on the Great White Throne Judgement, see the Essential teaching Death & Resurrection.) Interestingly, Paul noted that the saints (believers of all Biblical eras) will judge the demons at this time (1 Corinthians 6:3).
The underlying Greek word which Peter used here that was translated in English as "hell" is Tartarus. This is the only time Tartarus appears in the Bible which has led commentators to conclude that it is a subsection of Hell (the portion of Sheol or Hades for the unrighteous dead). This conclusion is supported by Jude 1:13 where he referred to the same "gloom of utter darkness" for people going to Hell as Peter did the "gloomy darkness" of Tartarus (we know that the place Jude referred to is also Tartarus because it was referred to in the same context). Still, we do not know definitively that Tartarus is not located somewhere else.
Perhaps it is because of this confinement that the remaining demons fear the same judgement. This was revealed in the following gospel account:
Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion," for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. (Luke 8:30-31)
The abyss means "bottomless, deep, or unbounded pit" and refers to Hell as "the pit" is an Old Testament name for Hell.
It is worth recognizing that the demons know that they could be sent to Hell at any time.
The Spirit of the Antichrist
Consider the following Biblical facts:
Jesus told us that God is a Spirit (John 4:24).
The angels are spirit beings.
The demons are unclean spirits.
Man was created with a spirit.
The nature of the human spirit—be it either still corrupted by sin or pure through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit—determines the type of life than can be revealed through the soul and body of a person. God created man in His image which means He designed him to show forth the person of God (the 2nd person of God's Triunity—the Son of God) through a spiritual union with him. The spirit of man was corrupted through sin but every person who believes in Jesus Christ has his or her spirit renewed enabling the image of God to be reflected in his or her life (a return to God's original intent).
This is helpful background for understanding the intentions of Satan. Next, consider what Paul plainly prophesied in the following passage:
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness [sin] is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)
The Son of God, the 2nd person of God's Triunity, became a man (Jesus Christ) who will rule over the earth for 1,000 years upon His return. Copying God, Satan has plans for his pseudo-son—the son of destruction—who will be his man ruling over the entire earth for only a few years. This man is referred to as the Antichrist. Jesus is truly God. The Antichrist will be a liar who will proclaim himself to be.
Notably, Paul referred to the Antichrist as "the man of lawlessness" or " the man of sin," as most English translations render it. Jesus took on sin "so that in him we might we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21b). Furthermore, John explained:
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he [Jesus Christ] appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. (1 John 3:4-5)
In Jesus Christ there is no sin. The Antichrist is the man of sin, the exact opposite.
In his letters, John wrote about "the spirit of the antichrist" several times. Consider the following:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6)
When John used the word "spirit" in this passage, he was referring to the (human) spirit of a person. Every person on earth who is old enough to choose (often referred to as the "age of accountability") is either spiritually regenerated (spiritually born again) or spiritually dead in sin. The heart of a man is connected to his spirit. (I explained this in great detail in The Architecture of Man.) The words of man come from his soul—from the heart along with the influence of the mind. John was instructing believers to scrutinize what people say to discern whether they are under the influence of the Spirit of God or the spirit of the antichrist, the Spirit of truth or the spirit of error.
Now consider what Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit:
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12-15)
Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit would speak to believers on His behalf. God meets man through Jesus Christ so the Holy Spirit reveals what is in Christ to believers. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus Christ as Jesus said, "He will glorify me."
John wrote, "This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already." The apostles taught the early church that the antichrist was coming and elucidation was eventually given through John's Revelation of Jesus Christ. The early church was expecting the antichrist to eventually come. This antichrist will be Satan's counter to Jesus Christ. As Jesus is fully God and fully man the antichrist will be a man fully possessed by Satan. John wrote, "This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already." He was telling the church that the spirit of the antichrist is actually already here in a way similar to how Jesus Christ is here through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus Christ (God). The spirit of the antichrist glorifies the antichrist (Satan), the man of sin. Holy angels serve the will of God in Christ. Demons serve the will of Satan.
The Holy Spirit regenerates and unites with the spirit of every believer in Jesus, ensuring that the spirit is permanently free from sin (righteous). Jesus empowers His disciples with the Holy Spirit. These are literally possessed by God, as John described above, "he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."
Satan is not a triunity and does not have a spirit that is fully him in the way that the Holy Spirit is the 3rd person of God's Triunity and thus fully Jesus Christ. Instead, Satan imitates God's spirit through the use of his demons which facilitate the spirit of the antichrist. Satan's demons are collectively behind what appears as the spirit of the antichrist. Many falsely attribute events or movements in our world to conspiracies not recognizing the reality of the underlying, organizing influence of demons. Demons deceive unbelievers who remain in darkness (spirit of error) and may also possess and (demonically) empower those who give allegiance to the man of sin.
Understanding Demonic Possession
The real spiritual conflict is for the possession of the souls of men. Possession—either by the Holy Spirit or unclean spirits (demons)—comes down to allegiance and authority. This conflict is not a "battle" in the standard sense because God has no competition, but rather, a powerful gathering of lost sons and daughters back to their heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit has absolute authority over demons because there is One God in control and, as we learned earlier, actually manipulates and uses demons for His purposes. Jesus' disciples—living in Him and empowered by His Spirit—have the authority to cast out demons.
Shortly after Jesus was baptized and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Bible provides the following account from the beginning of His ministry:
And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, "Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent and come out of him!" And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, "What is this word?" For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!" (Luke 4:31-36)
Jesus' word has authority and He demonstrates it with power as takes back the souls of men. The demons do not question His power and authority. These declared, "Have you come to destroy us?" In another gospel account, a demon named Legion declared, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me" (Mark 5:7). Notice also, even though the demon threw the man down on its way out, it did him no harm. The Bible makes it crystal clear: Jesus Christ is God and He has supreme authority over demons—an authority that they do not even think to question.
Consider the following passage from the gospel of Luke:
Now he [Jesus] was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul [Satan], the prince of demons," while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided house falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first."
As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" (Luke 11:14-28)
Demons desire to possess people and destroy their lives. They desire to corrupt the souls that were designed to reflect the image of God. Some demons bring particular afflictions to people. Luke described the demon that Jesus cast out as a "mute demon" that could cause a person not to be able to speak. Matthew went a bit further describing this event, noting that the demon made the man both mute and blind (12:22).
Jesus said, "if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." Then He proceeded to liken His casting out a demon to conquering the palace of an armed strongman with the soul of the person being the spoil. This affirms what I wrote earlier: the real spiritual conflict is for the possession of the souls of men.
Jesus summarized His lesson in the first paragraph with the black and white declaration: "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." On the landscape of the spiritual battlefield, there are those in Jesus Christ and those in the world. There are no other categories. The key word to describe what triggers the spiritual authority that one falls under is allegiance.
The true believer who gives his allegiance to Christ is spiritually regenerated and God puts His Spirit in his heart. Such a believer can be led astray by a demonic influence or teaching but demons have no access to possess his soul—they have no authority due to the allegiance of the believer. Then there is the man who God delivers from a demon but who does not give allegiance to Jesus Christ. Because the spiritual battlefield is black and white—one is either with Christ or against Him—such a man is not out of the woods when it comes to demons having the authority to once again access his soul. Jesus described how a demon may return to the individual that it previously possessed. Matthew recorded Jesus saying here, "And when it comes, it finds the house empty*, swept, and put in order." Jesus described the individual who is delivered from a demon but who does not give his allegiance to his Deliverer as one who ends up in a worse position. This reminds me of what Jesus warned concerning the faithless person who does not really know the Master in His parable of the talents:
He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.' But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 25:24-30)
Talk is worthless on the spiritual battlefield. What matters is allegiance and authority. I left in the last paragraph to show what the demons next move will be when faced with the presence of the real Jesus—religion. The woman cried out, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" which is a total distraction and presages the false religion of Roman Catholicism which worships Mary. And what is the Divine response? "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" In stern exclamation, Jesus made it clear that spiritual victory comes through being aligned with Him.
One day in Ephesus, some religious Jews tried to exercise authority without allegiance. The end result was not pretty, as Luke described here:
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims." Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?" And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (Acts 19:11-16)
The demons recognized the authority of Jesus and the authority of Paul through Jesus, but the sons of Sceva were driven off because they did not have the authority that comes through the righteousness of God in Christ.
Finally, note that Luke wrote, "God was doing extraordinary miracles" through Paul. The mission of demons is to keep people in darkness and derail the works of Jesus Christ Who is now reconciling the world to Himself.
