As we close out our discussion about Satan and demons, we will discuss how this fits into our world today.
Some people, influenced by a naturalistic worldview that only admits the reality of what can be seen or touched or heard, deny that demons exist today and maintain that belief in their reality reflects an obsolete worldview taught in the Bible and other ancient cultures.
Scripture gives us a true account of the world as it really is, that as Bible believers we must take seriously its portrayal of intense demonic involvement in human society. Our failure to perceive that involvement with our five senses simply tells us that we have some deficiencies in our ability to understand the world, not that demons do not exist. In fact, there is no reason to think that there is any less demonic activity in the world today than there was at the time of the New Testament. We are in the same time period in God’s overall plan for history (the church age or the new covenant age), and the millennium has not yet come when Satan’s influence will be removed from the earth. Much of our western secularized society is unwilling to admit the existence of demons and relegates all talk of demonic activity to a category of superstition. But the unwillingness of modern society to recognize the presence of demonic activity today is, from a biblical perspective, simply due to people’s blindness to the true nature of reality.
Not all evil and sin is from Satan and demons, but some is. If we think of the overall emphasis of the New Testament epistles, we realize that very little space is given to discussing demonic activity in the lives of believers or methods to resist and oppose such activity. The emphasis is on telling believers not to sin but to live lives of righteousness. For example, in 1 Corinthians, when there is a problem of “dissensions,” Paul does not tell the church to rebuke a spirit of dissension, but simply urges them to “agree” and “be united in the same mind and judgement” (1 Corinthians 1:10). When there is a problem of incest, he does not tell the Corinthians to rebuke the spirit of incest, but tells them that they ought to be outraged and that they should exercise church discipline until the offender repents (1 Corinthians 5:1 – 5). When there is disorder at the Lord’s Supper, he does not command them to cast out a spirit of disorder or gluttony or selfishness, but simply tells them that they should “wait for one another” and that each person should “examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:33, 28). These examples can be duplicated many times in the other New Testament epistles.
Thought the New Testament clearly recognized the influence of demonic activity in the world, its primary focus is on the choices and actions taken by people themselves. This should be the focus of our efforts today when we strive to grow in holiness and faith and to overcome the sinful desires and actions that remain in our lives and to overcome the temptations that come against us from an unbelieving world (1 Corinthians 10:13). We need to accept our own responsibility to obey the Lord and not to shift blame for our own misdeeds onto some demonic force.
Nevertheless, a number of passages show that the New Testament authors were definitely aware of the presence of demonic influences in the world and in the lives of Christians themselves. Writing to the church at Corinth, which was filled with temples devoted to worship of idols, Paul said that “what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God” (1 Corinthians 10:20), a situation true not only of Corinth but also of most other cities in the ancient Mediterranean world. Paul also warned that in the latter days some would “depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1), and that this would lead to claims for avoiding marriage and avoiding certain foods, both of which God created as “good” (1 Timothy 4:3-4). In 2 Timothy, Paul implies that those who oppose sound doctrine have been captured by the devil to do his will: “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, and they may escape the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24 – 26).
Jesus had similarly asserted that the Jews who obstinately opposed him were following their father, the devil: “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 has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for his is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
In the lives of Christians, the emphasis of the New Testament is not on the influence of demons but on the sin, that remains in the believer’s life. Nevertheless, we should recognize that sinning (even by Christians) does give a foothold for some kind of demonic influence in our lives. Paul said, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26). Wrongful anger apparently can give the opportunity for the devil (or demons) to exert some kind of negative influence in our lives, perhaps by attacking us through our emotions and perhaps by increasing the wrongful anger that we already feel against others. Similarly, Paul mentions “the breastplate of righteousness” (Ephesians 6:14) as part of the armor that we are to use standing against “the wiles of the devil” and in contending “against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:11 – 12). If we have continuing sin in our lives, then there are weaknesses and holes in our “breastplate of righteousness,” and these are areas in which we are vulnerable to demonic attack. By contrast, Jesus, who was perfectly free from sin, could say of Satan, “He has no power over me” (John 14:30). We may also note the connection between not sinning and not being touched by the evil one in 1 John 5:18: “We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.”
Can a Christian by possessed? The term demon possession is an unfortunate term that has found its way into some English translations of the Bible but is not really reflected in the Greek text. The Greek New Testament can speak of people who “have a demon” (Matthew 11:18; Luke 7:33, 8:27; John 7:20, 8:48 – 49, 52; 10:20), or it can speak of people who are suffering from demonic influences, but it never uses language that suggests that a demon actually “possesses” someone.
The problem with the terms demon possession and demonized is that they give the nuance of such strong demonic influences that they seem to imply that the person who is under demonic attack has no choice but to succumb to it. They suggest that the person is unable any longer to exercise his or her will and is completely under the domination of the evil spirit. While this may have been true in extreme cases such as that of the Gerasene demoniac (see Mark 5:1 – 20; note that Jesus cast the demons out of him, he was then “in his right mind,” verse 15), it is certainly not true with many cases of demonic attack or conflict with demons in many people’s lives.
So what should we say to the question, “Can a Christian be demon possessed?” The answer depends on what someone means to be “possessed.” Since the term does not reflect any word found in the Greek New Testament, people can define it to mean various things without having a clear warrant to anchor it to any verse of Scripture, and it becomes difficult to say that one person’s definition is right and another one’s wrong.
Before answering this question, we should note that it is similar to a question about sin: “How can a genuine Christian let his or her life be dominated by sin, and still be a born-again Christian?” It is difficult to answer that question in the abstract, because we realize that when Christians are not living as they ought to live, and when they are not benefitting from regular fellowship with other Christians and from regular Bible study and teachings, they tend to stray into significant degrees of sin and still can be said to be born-again Christians. But the situation is abnormal; it is not what the Christian life should be and can be. Similarly, if we ask how much demonic influence can come into the life of a genuine Christian, it is hard to give an answer in the abstract. We are simply asking how abnormal a Christian’s life can become, especially if that person does not know about or make use of the weapons of spiritual warfare that are available to Christians, persists in some kind of sin that give entrance to demonic activity, and is outside the reach of any ministry that is accustomed to giving spiritual help against demonic attack. It would seem that in such cases the degree of demonic attack or influence in a Christian’s life could be quite strong. Therefore when someone asks, “Can a Christian be demon possessed?” but really means “Can a Christian come under quite strong influence or attack by demons?” then the answer would have to be a positive one but with the caution that the word possessed is here being used in a confusing way. Since the term demon possessed is a misleading one to use in all cases, especially when referring to Christians, we should avoid using it altogether. It seems better simply to recognize that there can be varying degrees of demonic attack or influence on people, even on Christians, and to leave it at that. In all cases the remedy will be the same anyway; rebuke the demon in the name of Jesus and command it to leave.
How can demonic influences be recognized? In severe cases of demonic influences, as reported in the Gospels, the affected person would exhibit bizarre and often violent actions, especially opposition to the preaching of the Gospel. When Jesus came into the synagogue in Capernaum, “immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, ‘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’” (Mark 1:23 – 24). The man stood up and interrupted the service by shouting these things out.
After Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, a man brought his son to Jesus says, “He has a bumb spirit; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.” Then they brought the boy to Jesus, “and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.” The father said, “It has often cast him into the fire and into water, to destroy him” (Mark 9:17 – 18, 20, 22). Such violent actions, especially those tending toward destruction of the affected person, were clear indications of demonic activity.
It is interesting to note that in one case when Jesus healed as epileptic he did by casting out a demon (Matthew 17:14 – 18), but elsewhere epileptics are distinguished from those who are under demonic influence: “They brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them” (Matthew 4:24). So it is with other cases of physical sickness; in some cases, Jesus simply prayed for the person or spoke a word and the person was healed. In other cases there are hints or implicit statements of demonic influence in the affliction: a woman who had “a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years” (Luke 13:11) was healed by Jesus, and then he explicitly said that she was “a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years” (Luke 13:16). In healing Peter’s mother-in-law, Jesus “rebuked the fever, and it left her” (Luke 4:39), suggesting that there was some personal influence (probably therefore demonic) that was capable of receiving a rebuke from Jesus.
In other cases, the Epistles indicate that demonic influence will lead to blatantly false doctrinal statements, such as exclaiming, “Jesus be cursed” (1 Corinthians 12:3), or a refusal to confess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2 – 3). In both instances, the context deals with the testing of people who may be “false prophets” and who what to use spiritual gifts to speak in the assembly of the church (1 Corinthians 12) or specifically to prophesy (1 John 4:1 – 6). These passages do not indicate that all false doctrine should be thought to be demonically inspired, but blatantly false doctrinal statements made by those who profess to be speaking by the power of the Holy Spirit would certainly fall into this category. When at Corinth there was active, entrenched opposition to Paul’s apostolic authority by those who claim to be apostles but were not, Paul saw them as servants of Satan disguised as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:13 – 15).
Jesus gives all believers authority to rebuke demons and command them to leave. When Jesus sent the twelve disciples ahead of him to preach the kingdom of God, he “game them power and authority over all demons” (Luke 9:1). After the seventy had preached the kingdom of God in towns and villages, they returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to your name!” (Luke 10:17), and Jesus told them, “I have given you authority…over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). When Philip, the evangelist, went down to Samaria to preach the gospel of Christ, “unclean spirits came out of many who had them” (Acts 8:7), and Paul used spiritual authority over demons to say to a spirit of divination in a soothsaying girl, “I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her” (Acts 16:18).
Paul was aware of the spiritual authority he had, both in face-to-face encounters such as he has in Acts 16, and in his prayer life as well. He said, “For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3 – 4). Moreover, he spoke at some length of the struggle Christians have against “the wiles of the devil” in his description of conflict “against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”. James tells all his readers to “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Similarly, Peter tells his readers, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8 – 9).
Though Christ won a victory over Satan in the wilderness, the New Testament epistles point to the cross as the moment when Satan was decisively defeated. Jesus took on flesh and blood, “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). At the cross God “Disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him (Colossians 2:15). Therefore, Satan hates the cross of Christ, because there he was decisively defeated forever. Because the blood of Christ speaks clearly of his death, we read in Revelation of those who overcame Satan by Christ’s blood during conflict in this world: “Any they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11). Because of Christ’s death on the cross, our sins are completely forgiven, and Satan has no rightful authority over us.
Also, our membership as children in God’s family is the firm spiritual position from which we engage in spiritual warfare. Paul says to every Christian, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:26). When Satan comes to attack us, he is attacking one of God’s own children, a member of God’s own family; this truth gives us authority to successfully wage war against him and defeat him.
If we as believers find it appropriate to speak a word of rebuke to a demon, it is important to remember that we need not fear demons. Although Satan and demons have much less powers than the Holy Spirit at work within us, one of Satan’s tactics is to attempt to cause us to be afraid. Instead of giving in to such fear, Christians should remind themselves of the truths of Scriptures, which tell us, “You are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4), and “God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). What Paul says about the Philippians in their relationship to human opponents can also be applied when facing demonic opposition to the gospel; Paul tells them to stand firm and to be “not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear omen to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God” (Philippians 1:28). He also tells the Ephesians that in their spiritual warfare they are to use the “shield of faith” with which they can “quench all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). This is a very important, since the opposite of fear is faith in God. He also tells them to be bold in their spiritual conflict, so that, having taken the whole armor of God, they “may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Ephesians 6:13). In their conflict with hostile spiritual forces, Paul’s readers should not run away in retreat or cower in fear, but should stand their ground boldly, knowing that their weapons and their armor “have divine power to destroy strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4).
This authority to rebuke demons may result in briefly speaking a command to an evil spirit to leave when we suspect the presence of demonic influence in our personal lives or the lives of those around us. We are to “resist the devil” (James 4:7), and he will flee from us. Sometimes a very brief command in the name of Jesus will be enough. At other times, it will be helpful to quote Scripture in the process of commanding an evil spirit to leave a situation. Paul speaks of “the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). And Jesus, when he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, repeatedly quoted Scriptures in response to Satan’s temptations (Matthew 4:1 – 11). Appropriate Scriptures may include general statements of the triumph of Jesus over Satan (Matthew 12:28 – 29), but also verses that speak directly to the particular temptation or difficulty at hand.
Jesus issues a clear warning that we should not rejoice too much or become proud in our power over demons, but that we should rejoice rather in our great salvation. We must keep this in mind or we become proud and the Holy Spirit withdraw his power from us. When the seventy returned with joy saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” (Luke 10:17) Jesus told them, “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
If we believe the scriptural testimony to the existence and activity of demons, and if we really believe that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), then it would seem appropriate to expect that even today when the gospel is proclaimed to unbelievers, and when prayer is made for believers who have perhaps been unaware of this dimension of spiritual conflict, there will be a genuine and often immediately recognizable triumph over the power of the enemy. We should expect that this would happen, think of this as a normal part of the work of Christ in building up his kingdom, and rejoice in Christ’s victory in it.