Demonism Possession and Demon Influence. Acts 16:16-20
Why is it that this was such a major issue in the
Gospel period as well as in the period of Acts. There
are a number of people who were presented to Christ—a number of stories,
only about eight or nine distinct episodes that we are told about—and we
are also told in some general statements that people brought the sick and the
lame and the blind and the demon possessed to be healed. That word ÒhealedÓ was
generally a broad word and it covered the Òcasting out of a demon,Ó a technical
phrase that should always be used. Not exorcism because exorcism is a word only
used of the pagans who were using forms of magical incantation or ritual to
free somebody from demon possession. Exorcism was never used in any context
related to Jesus or the apostles in casting out a demon.
The issue in demon possession is one of fear. We fear
losing control. As we get older there are a lot of things we lose control over.
We live through life in a lot of circumstances around us that cause us to be
fearful because we are not in control of many circumstances. And to have a
being that we are totally unfamiliar with somehow enter into our body and take
over has to be one of the most scary, frightful things anyone could encounter.
And yet what we see is that Jesus is in complete control. He has authority over
even the most evil forces of Satan, and He can deliver us. If Jesus Christ can
deliver the unbeliever from these most horrible circumstances then there is no
other circumstance that we are going to face as believers that we should be
fearful of. Because this demonstrates the power and authority Jesus Christ has
over some of the most extreme types of things that can happen to human beings,
and therefore the kinds of things we face on a day-by-day basis pale in
significance. So it is an a fortiori argument: If Jesus can have control over the demons and
over Satan, and can cast out demons, then Jesus has the power to deal with any
lesser issue in our lives.
Behind much of pagan religions and pagan idols is a
demon. There is an association there. The views, theology of
the idol and the false religion, is the theology of the demon. Demonic
thinking is equivalent to human viewpoint thinking or religious thinking that
is contrary to the Bible. This idea that for something to be demonic it has to
be overtly associated with the occult or witchcraft or something like that is
extremely superficial. Anything that is expressing a human viewpoint utopian
mentality is expressing a demonic or satanic viewpoint. It is just packaging it
in a very attractive package and it doesnÕt have to be something like The Exorcist
for it to be demonic. In fact, the liberation theology of the Reverend Jeremiah
Wright preached from the pulpit when Barack Obama attended that church in
Chicago was some of the most perverse forms of demonic philosophy and thought
that could come out of any pulpit. All liberation theology is because it is
grounded in Marxism. It is a Marxist distortion and counterfeit of Christian
theology. It is at the very root of replacement theology as well as it is
expressed in Palestinian theology.
When God and His control of history is rejected, then
idolatrous humans seek other avenues for control of their chaotic life, and
they turn in one form or another to that which is demonic. All forms of
divination somehow connect to a demonic worldview, a demonic concept where
somehow man can control his destiny and find out about the future totally apart
from God.
Another form of divination that is exposed in the
Bible is necromancy—getting in touch with the spirits of the dead in
order to find out what is going on in the other world, find out the future, and
find out things that are unknown to us either through divine revelation or
through rationalism or experience. This is described in Isaiah 8:19 NASB
ÒWhen they say to you, ÔConsult the
mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,Õ should not a people consult
their God? {Should they} {consult} the dead on behalf
of the living?Ó
Another verse which tells us about the operation of
these spiritists, the mediums and witches, is Isaiah 29:4 NASB ÒThen you will be brought low; From
the earth you will speak, And from the dust {where} you are prostrate Your
words {will come.} Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the
ground, And your speech will whisper from the dust.Ó
Both of these passages are in context where Israel is being
condemned by the prophet Isaiah because they have become so involved in
demonism, witchcraft and mysticism that they have completely become spiritually
blind and darkened. Speaking out of the ground was the role of the demon. The
medium would call upon the dead person and (like a ventriloquist) a voice would
come up out of the ground. This was called an Ob demon, translated into the Greek as engastrimuthos.
This brings us to one of the key episodes in the Old
Testament with King Saul and the witch of Endor. SaulÕs devotion to God was
rather short-lived. It wasnÕt long before Saul got involved in a lot of
carnality and disobedience to God. He refused to completely destroy and
annihilate the Amalekites and so the prophet Samuel came to him and said that
his sin was like the sin of rebellion and like the sin of witchcraft, and
because of that God was going to take the kingdom from him and give it to
somebody else. In the very next chapter Samuel anointed David to be the next
king of Israel. But being anointed as king doesnÕt
mean being installed as the king. So there is a period of about ten or fifteen
years between the anointing of David and the death of Saul, during which time
Saul is constantly attacking David.
This is the end of that period. Saul has now been in
profound carnality and rebellion against God for a long time. By this time
Samuel had died. Whenever things became really bad and desperate and Saul was
having these panic attacks, couldnÕt rest at night and was being oppressed by
demons, Saul could always go to Samuel. Like a lot of people who when things
get really bad they will go to Bible class for a few weeks, and then when
things straighten out they go back to living their life on the basis of their
sin nature. They donÕt stick with it. That is how Saul was.
1 Samuel 28:3 NASB ÒNow
Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah, his
own city. And Saul had removed from the land those who were mediums and
spiritists.Ó According to the Mosaic Law being a medium, a witch, a spiritist
was a death penalty offence. But Saul was a bleeding heart liberal who didnÕt
want to have the death penalty, so he just expelled them from the land. There
were a few that were covert and stayed in the land, one of which was the witch
of Endor. Saul had hit rock bottom as he was facing this battle with the
Philistines.
ÒOh the road to En-dor is the oldest
road
And the craziest road of all!
Straight it runs to the WitchÕs abode,
As it did in the days of Saul,
And nothing has changed of the sorrow in store
For such as go down on the road to En-dor!Ó
Rudyard
Kipling
We need to pay attention to the vocabulary of demon
possession and demon influence. This is very important. The word possess, as we
have seen, has the connotation of ownership, and that is not the meaning of the
Greek term at all. The words that we have is the
phrase en pneumati akatharto (akatharsis is the word for unclean, and pneuma is the word for spirit)Ówith an
unclean spirit.Ó A person who is said to be demon possessed (daimonizomai) is described as having or
is with an unclean spirit.
The way to understand a vague word like daimonizomai is to look at the other
words used in the context that are more precise. If a word is vague then those other
terms define it for the reader. Today people come along and say this word daimonizomai, a present passive
indicative, simply means, if you break it down etymologically, to be acted upon
by a demon. Well somebody could be acted upon by a demon in a very mild way. If
you are living in the devilÕs world you are being acted upon by a demon. That
affects everybody through the world system. Or sometimes being acted upon by a
demon could be something of an extreme thing like we have portrayed in
Scripture. It is amazing how many people are buying into this very bad
exegetical approach today. The reality is the word daimonizomai is only used of these certain extreme kinds of
activity of demons. It is never used of the milder forms.
Some of the other words that are
used to describe that. Somebody who is Òwith an unclean
spiritÓ, Mark 5:8-13. These are from the same passage describing the Gadarene
demoniac. An Òunclean spiritÓ –daimonizomai, literally being acted upon by a demon. But the same man in Luke 8:27, describing the same event, Òhad an
unclean spiritÓ—echon daimonia.
That verb echon, meaning to have,
is the same word used of the slave girl is Acts 16.
Whenever Jesus, the disciples, or Paul in Acts cast
out a demon the words in the context are these three: a) exerchomai. The root word erchomai means to come or to go. The prefix ex means
out of. So it means to go out of or to come out of;
b) eiserchomai. The preposition eis means to go somewhere, into
something. So that means to enter into; c) ekballo. ballo
is the word to cast or throw. But when it is ekballo,
ek means out of, and so it is
pulling something out or casting it out. That is what is used of a demon.
These are the terms that are used as synonyms for daimonizomai, a general term which could just mean being acted upon by a demon. But
what the words around it describe are someone who has a demon in them, who has
entered into them, and in order to relieve them of their state of daimonizomai the demon has to be cast
out of them. Then we are told the demon goes out of this man and goes into the
herd of pigs. So demon possession doesnÕt mean being
owned by a demon, it means to be controlled internally by a demon.
WasnÕt Saul demon possessed? Absolutely
not. 1 Samuel 16:23 NASB ÒSo it
came about whenever the {evil} spirit from God came to Saul, David would take
the harp and play {it} with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well,
and the evil spirit would depart from him.Ó Satan and the demons canÕt do
anything unless God gives them permission. We learn that from Job chapters one
and two. So whatever happens in terms of satanic or demonic involvement in
human history, it is under GodÕs permissive will. He allows that to happen for
His purposes because God is omniscient and knows what will happen. God has
allowed this divine discipline upon Saul for his sin of rebellion and He has
allowed this demon to oppress Saul. But the word used here is
ÒuponÓ Saul, it is not in him. It is external,
not internal. 1 Samuel 19:9 NASB ÒNow there was an evil spirit from
the LORD on [upon] Saul as he was sitting in his house with his
spear in his hand, and David was playing {the harp} with {his} hand.Ó
Whereas the language we see in the New Testament is language related to
something internal, something going in somebody that has to be taken out of
them.
1 Samuel 28:1 NASB ÒNow it
came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for
war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, ÔKnow assuredly that
you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men.ÕÓ Philistia is located
far in the south west, down where the Gaza strip is
today. For Achish to have penetrated as far north as the northeast side of the
Valley of Esdraelon, about seventy to eighty miles
inside of IsraelÕs territory, indicates that the Philistines have control of a
large amount of the territory, especially in the north in Galilee. They are
going to go into battle against Saul and his army and Saul has to figure out
what he is going to do. Samuel is dead and God isnÕt speaking to Saul through
Samuel anymore. He decides he needs to get information and so the end justifies
the means; he is going to go find out whether there are any witches hiding in
the land that he can go and see.
1 Samuel 28:5 NASB ÒWhen
Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled
greatly.Ó What motivates us to sin is usually
emotional sins. We are scared, frightened, arrogant or angry. This then is the
mental attitude sin that motivates the overt sins.
1 Samuel 28:6 NASB ÒWhen
Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by
prophets.Ó The Lord hadnÕt been talking to him for a long time because he was out of fellowship. (Psalm 66:18 NASB
ÒIf I regard wickedness [lit. when we see sin in our
heart] in my heart, The Lord will not hear.Ó) [7] Then Saul said to his
servants, ÔSeek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and
inquire of her.Õ And his servants said to him, ÔBehold,
there is a woman who is a medium at En-dor.ÕÓ They had to find one because Saul
had already run them out years earlier. [8] Then Saul disguised himself by
putting on other clothes, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to
the woman by night; and he said, ÔConjure up for me, please, and bring up for
me whom I shall name to you.ÕÓ He doesnÕt want to be known and identified.
1 Samuel 28:9 NASB ÒBut the
woman said to him, ÔBehold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off
those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then laying a
snare for my life to bring about my death?Õ [10] Saul vowed to her by the LORD,
saying, ÔAs the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.ÕÓ
See how far down he has gone in his carnality. Now he is going to swear in the
name of Yahweh
that he is not going to entrap her. When we get into carnality we start using
religion for our own purposes.
1 Samuel 28:11 NASB ÒThen
the woman said, ÔWhom shall I bring up for you?Õ And he said, ÔBring up Samuel
for me.ÕÓ She goes through her normal ritual thing and she probably had some
sort of affiliation with an engastrimuthos
demon, and all that has ever happened before has been this disembodied voice
comes out of the ground. Either she is a fraud and is doing it like a ventriloquist
or there is a demon that is in association with her—probably a demon in
this particular case. But what happens in this particular case is that Samuel
appears to her in his intermediate body. Samuel comes up from Sheol, the
Paradise compartment, and as soon as she recognizes him she is scared. She
knows that this is the real thing. She has never seen the real thing before.
Samuel sounds a little irritated. Why in the world
have you brought me out of Paradise to come back to this nasty earth [paraphrase]?
[15] ÒAnd Saul answered, ÔI am greatly
distressed; for the Philistines are waging war against me, and God has departed
from me and no longer answers me, either through prophets or by dreams;
therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do.ÕÓ
He tried to approach God but not on His terms. That is why God is not talking
to him. This is like a lot of Christians. They want divine guidance but they
donÕt want to go to the Bible, the donÕt want to go to Bible class, they donÕt
want to get in fellowship; they just want to send an email to the pastor to get
some idea real quick as to what they ought to do. They have refused for weeks
and months and years to build doctrine into their soul to give them the
framework for decision-making.
1 Samuel 28:16 NASB ÒSamuel
said, ÔWhy then do you ask me, since the LORD
has departed from you and has become your adversary?ÕÓ Saul is a believer. He
is in rebellion, but in the early years God gave him a new heart, performed several
miracles to validate his appointment and the fact that Saul was anointed to be
king. This is all over with. Samuel said,
[19] ÒÉ tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Indeed the LORD
will give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines!Ó They are
going to be together. They are not going to be separated. Saul is not going to
go to torments while Samuel is in Paradise; they are going to be in the same
place. That is why we know that Saul was a believer. But he was a disobedient believer
and he has become an enemy of God. This is what happens when believers go into
carnality.
1 Samuel 28:17 NASB ÒThe LORD
has done accordingly as He spoke through me; for the LORD
has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David.
[18] As you did not obey the LORD and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so the LORD
has done this thing to you this day.Ó How many years before did that happen?
Twenty-five. Now Saul is going to receive the divine discipline for disobedience
of 25 years earlier. [19] ÒMoreover the LORD
will also give over Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines,
therefore tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Indeed the LORD
will give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines!
[20] Then Saul immediately fell full length upon the ground and was very
afraid because of the words of Samuel; also there was no strength in him, for
he had eaten no food all day and all night.Ó
What we learn from this is something
about the operation of this kind of fortune-telling spirit. In this case it was
a legitimate thing, and the witch at Endor is not unlike this servant girl in
Acts 16 who has the puthonos
spirit.
Mark 5:2 NASB ÒWhen He got
out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met
Him.Ó The first description of this man is that he has an unclean spirit. [3] Òand he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able
to bind him anymore, even with a chain.Ó In this particular case the demon gave
him a supernatural strength and ability to break the chains.É
[6]
Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him.Ó Who is
control of this man? It is the demon. The word Òworship [in some versions]
means to bow down. So he is not worshipping in a positive sense, because the
demon knows who Jesus is, the second person of the Trinity and the sovereign of
the universe. The demon had to show his obeisance to the sovereign God. So the
demon who is in control is bringing this man to Jesus.
It is not a sign that the man is exercising positive volition because the man
is not in control. The demon is in control.
The man cries out with a loud voice.
The reason for making a point here is, he ran, he worshipped, he cried out with
a loud voice. But when you get to what is said it is the demon speaking. So the
ÔheÕ here is describing the man but the actions of the man—his speaking,
his running, his bowing down—are really the action of the demon
controlling him.
Mark 5:7 NASB Òand shouting
with a loud voice, he said, ÔWhat business do we have
with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You
by God, do not torment me!ÕÓ What is he saying? DonÕt send me into torments.
DonÕt send me into the abyss with all those other demons. Remember the Òsons of
GodÓ that were sent into the chains of deep darkness until they are judged at
the end of the Tribulation period? These demons donÕt want to go through that.
[8] For He had been saying to him, ÔCome out of the
man, you unclean spirit!ÕÓ That is the word exerchomai—come
out. [9] ÒAnd He was asking him, ÔWhat is your name?Õ And he said to Him, ÔMy
name is Legion; for we are many.ÕÓ
What we see today in Ôpop demonologyÕ
is, if you are going to cast out a demon you have to know their name because
that gives you power over them. That is the pagan way of doing an exorcism.
That is not what Jesus is doing here. What Jesus does by asking his name is
exposing the fact that there is not one demon; there are several thousand,
showing that many demons can control one person.
A legion in the Roman army involved two
or three thousand. So there are two or three thousand demons here. They start
begging Jesus not to send them out of the country. Mark 5:11 NASB
ÒNow there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain.Ó This is a
gentile area. They wouldnÕt have the pigs in Israel because pigs
are an unclean animal. So they going
to send the unclean spirit into an unclean animal. [12] Ò{The demons} implored
Him, saying, ÔSend us into the swine so that we may enter them.ÕÓ The word
ÒenterÓ is the Greek word eiserchomai,
they want to go into them.
Mark 5:13 NASB ÒJesus gave
them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the
herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand {of them;} and
they were drowned in the sea.Ó The unclean spirits went out and entered. So the
first word is exerchomai (they
came out). And then they entered into the swine.
Mark 5:15 NASB ÒThey came to
Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed
and in his right mind, the very man who had had the ÔlegionÕ; and they became
frightened.Ó The man is described as the one who had been demon possessed [daimonizomai]. So daimonizomai is defined as somebody who
had a demon inside them. All of this tells us that these words exerchomai and eiserchomai are so important. Because if they are not the
interpretive crux of this passage then we get real problems later on when we
talk about Judas Iscariot because it says, ÒSatan entered in to him.Ó Some
people have made the terrible error of saying that just means demon influence
or Satan influence. No. If we say that that word mean influence over in
John 13 then we are going to destroy our whole demonology and the whole
argument for why Christians canÕt be demon possessed, because we canÕt define
demon possession. This is critical. These are technical words, and they have to
mean the same thing in the same context every time or language doesnÕt really
mean anything and we are just perverting the use of language, which is
something that most liberals do. Every word of God is authoritative and we need
to pay attention to it.
So what we have seen here is this
important concept that when one has a demon then that demon is inside
controlling the person. So what delivers this woman in Acts 16 is the fact that
the demon is cast out by the apostle Paul.