What does the Bible say about demons?

The evil spirits that possessed so many persons when the Lord was on earth were demons, and from the instances given we learn much respecting them. The Pharisees said that the Lord cast out demons by Beelzebub the prince of demons. The Lord interpreted this to mean 'Satan casting out Satan;' by which we learn that the demons were the agents of Satan; and that Satan as a strong man had to be bound before his kingdom could be assailed. Matt. 12:24-29. The demons also were strong ones, by the way they handled those they possessed, and by one overcoming seven men and making them flee out of the house naked and wounded. Acts 19:16. We know also that they were intelligent beings; for they knew the Lord Jesus and bowed at once to His authority. They also knew that punishment awaited them: for some asked if the Lord had come to torment them before the time. Matt. 8:29.

It must not be supposed that demon-agency has ceased: the exhortation is, "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1. With this agrees the declaration that "in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons." 1 Tim. 4:1. Spiritualists and Theosophists carry on intercourse with such, and are taught by them. In a future day also, when God will be pouring out His judgements on the earth, men will not repent, but will worship demons and all sorts of idols. Rev. 9:20. The spirits of demons also, by working miracles, will gather the kings of the earth together to the battle of that great day of Almighty God. Rev. 16:14. And mystical Babylon will become "the habitation of demons, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Rev. 18:2. The world and the professing church are evidently ripening for these things; and some, under the plea of investigating phenomena, are unconsciously having to do with the wicked spirits themselves!

There is another class of fallen angels, in Scripture called demons, who evidently are allowed a range of activity in this world. We have ample proof of this in the four Gospels. That these unclean spirits have the power to enter and possess the bodies of men and animals is evident. We read:

A Demoniac. — Arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which was over against Galilee, there met the Lord on His disembarkment one out of the city who had demons. Afflicted as he had been for a long time, his case seemed hopeless; and as the prey of those demons, he wore no clothes, and dwelt in the tombs. A pitiable object indeed! When rulers, or great people visit a place, crowds assemble to see them and to welcome them. The Son of the Most High God set His foot on shore among the Gerasenes, and but two people, and those demoniacs, as Matthew states (8:28), came to meet Him! Was He to be there unrecognised? They at once proclaimed Him as the Son of God, whose power over demons was absolute. The power demons could have over men was patent. Those two poor sufferers displayed it. And the length of time that they had been possessed, manifested the inability of any in that region to exorcise their tormentors. But a word from Christ effected their deliverance. And in response, as it was, to His word of command, those wretched subjects of demoniacal possession at once opened their mouths, "What," so writes Matthew, "have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of God? art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?" (8:29). Terrible words indeed — the confession of hopeless despair. No future to contemplate but one of torment, the righteous desert of a wicked creature. But who uttered those words? The demoniacs. Whose words did they, however, really utter? Those of the demons. The demons possessed them, and spoke through them. And the two men gave utterance to their thoughts, and expressed them in their words. Those men were the mouthpiece of demons. Why should it be difficult to believe, that men can be the mouthpiece of the Spirit of God? What power, too, those demons possessed! A poor creature energised, and indwelt by one or more of such creatures, can become incapable of restraint by his fellows. For, if guarded and bound with fetters and chains, the chains and fetters can be snapped like tow; and as a free man, but at the same time really the sport of a superior power, the wretched creature can be, as those demoniacs were, driven into the wilderness, and made to speak what demons wish him to say.

Demons. — There is an order of malicious beings, hostile to God and to man. Of their existence we have full proof. Of their origin we know nothing. But their future they themselves have declared. Torment under the hand of God, and that without hope of deliverance, is the only prospect before them. These beings can dwell in men, and make such their tools. They can speak by them, and tyrannise over their hapless victims (Luke 9:42). But to Divine power they must submit, and to those of God's people to whom power over them has been given they have to be obedient (Luke 10:17; Acts 16:18; 19:15). To the abyss, or bottomless pit they belong, and that seems to be their prison-house (Rev. 9:1-11). Moreover, they have a king over them, the angel of the abyss, or bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon (i.e., destroyer). Into that same pit Satan, when bound, will be cast, and confined therein for a thousand years (Rev. 20:2-3), previous to his being cast into his final place of punishment, the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). As, then, the abyss is their prison-house, it explains the point of their urgent request to the Lord, that He would not then send them there, for that is what they said in Luke 8:31. How conscious were they that One was there who had absolute power over them! Forced to leave their victims by the word of command, they owned they could go nowhere except by Divine permission. First, therefore, beseeching the Lord not to send them into the abyss, for His word is a law to them — a law, a power, against which they cannot rebel — they next besought Him to allow them to enter into a herd of many swine, feeding on the mountain. Not one step could they take without His distinct permission. To both their requests He assented. He did not send them into the abyss. He did allow them to enter into the swine, which, under their power, rushed madly down the steep into the lake, and perished in the waters — a proof, had the Gerasenes been able to perceive it, of the hostility of those demons to man and to his interests. A contrast to the Lord Jesus, they destroyed the swine; He delivered men from their thraldom.

As to these demons, we learn from the Gospels that they take possession of human bodies, even the bodies of beasts. When an unclean spirit was asked his name, his reply was, “My name is Legion: for we are many” (Mark 5:9). Out of Mary Magdalene seven were cast. The demons were subject to Christ’s commands, and after His resurrection to the power of His name as we learn from the case of Paul and the damsel of divination in Acts 16. They know their doom, as is evidenced by their cry: “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God, art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?” (Matt. 8:29).

Why Satan and evil spirits are allowed liberty to act upon mankind is one of God’s secrets. Evidently it is for some wise reason, that they are held in restraint and not permitted to do all they would is clear from the fact of God’s Holy Spirit being in this world. But as the present dispensation draws to a close demoniacal power is allowed to increase. Especially will this be true after the church is caught up at the Lord’s second coming.

— “That they should not worship demons,” not “devils” as in the Authorised Version. Demon worship is here distinguished from that of lifeless idols made of various materials. Demons are living spiritual beings who dread a judgment to come (Matt. 8:28-29). The abyss is their proper home (Luke 8:31, R.V.). They are a class of wicked spirits (Rev. 16:14). Satan is their leader, “the angel of the abyss” (Rev. 9:11). The demon host of the pit is worshipped. Gentile idolatry, so sternly denounced by Paul (1 Cor. 10:20-21), will yet be openly and universally practised within the bounds of the lands termed Christian.

These passages prove that demons know and recognize the authority of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God—a Divine Person—that they are aware of their future, and dread it. Yet they seduce their victims into a belief that the Lord Jesus was and is not divine, and that there is no hell to dread.

Of course God never created any being or intelligence sinful. Sinfulness was acquired by self-will. As Satan fell and became the destroyer, Apollyon, so his angels fell and became demons. All through the four Gospels we get constant allusions to demons. These are clearly those fallen angels who are not under everlasting chains.

These demons are often designated as "unclean spirits," for it has ever been Satan's aim to pollute men's minds to destroy their souls, and to bring about evil diseases to destroy their bodies. That these hordes of evil spirits are highly organized we gather from Scripture.

Demon-possession is a great reality. Let none deceive themselves as to this. More than one can enter into a single person (Mark 5:9; Luke 8:2). Demons can adopt a fair exterior as well as a repulsive one. Seeing that Satan himself can play the role of "an angel of light," his ministers are able to act the part of "ministers of righteousness" (2 Cor. 11:14-15). They can fill pulpits and speak therefrom as well as mutter in seances. They can also tell the truth when it suits them. The demon who said to the Lord, "I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God," spoke the truth (Mark 1:24); as also did the demon-possessed girl who cried after Paul and Silas through the streets of Philippi, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show to you the way of salvation" (Acts 16:17). But when these malignant beings speak the truth, it is with a view to gaining the confidence of their victims in order to ensure their everlasting ruin.

Coming to the other side He is met in the country of the Gergesenes by two possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs, the place of death, exceedingly dangerous, so that no one was able to pass by that way. They could not be bound, not even with chains and they cut themselves with stones (Mark 5:1-7). Not one demon, but many demons had entered into them; their name in one of them was Legion (Luke 8:30). What awful witnesses, these naked, bleeding, raving and tearing demoniacs were of the body and soul destroying power of the enemy. When our Lord appeared in the land the evil one had by the demons taken possession of large numbers of people and was driving them on to perdition. It will even be worse before His return. Satan and his angels will be cast out into the earth and his angels with him. This will be during the great tribulation. And even now those possessed by demons are continually increasing. The ever changing, as well as new forms, of insanity, many of them at least, if not all, must be connected with the influence of these evil spirits. The so-called "mediums" of Spiritism and adepts in occult "sciences" are undoubtedly demon-possessed. Surely our days, the days long ago predicted, are the latter times in which some apostatize from the faith, giving their mind (it is the mind where these evil workings begin) to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons (1 Tim. 4:1). And opening the soul to the deceiving spirits and teachings of demons means their dreadful entering in and taking full possession. We cannot follow here this dark theme, much as it is needed in our days. And, He, the Son of God has come to destroy the works of the Devil, and through death annul him, who has the might of death, that is, the Devil. And here the demons confess Him, that He is Son of God. "And behold they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Son of God? Hast thou come here before the time to torment us?" It is the first confession of Him as Son of God we have in the Gospel. They give Him His right title. The demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). They see and know Him as their future Judge, but they argue that the right moment for the punishment is not yet. The knowledge of the demons according to this is threefold: They know Him as Son of God, as their Judge and that the judgment will take place at a certain time. But Satan with his lies drives his countless victims on in unbelief to deny every one of these facts that Christ is Son of God and the Judge, and the most striking thing is that the father of lies succeeds to put himself down as a myth.

He shows Himself next as the one who has power over these demons and that they may well fear Him. They cried out and then asked, "If thou cast us out send us away into the herd of swine." He said: "Go!" What power over these legions is His! Can they ever touch Him or harm Him? No, never! And Son of God, declared by resurrection from the dead as all power in heaven and in earth and the day will be when all things shall be subjected under His feet. Then "at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings." And we are linked with Him, His victory is ours, we too can triumph over these evil beings. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. "For the rest brethren, be strong in the Lord, in the might of His strength. Put on the panoply of God, that ye may be able to stand against the artifices of the Devil; because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies" (Eph. 6:10-13).