Demons:
What is a demon in the Old Testament?
It was a false god; or an idol.
What are demons in the New Testament?
They were false gods; or idols.
Note: In classical Greek, a demon was a god or a small divinity. Jewish tradition depicts demons to be spirits of dead Nephilim.
The meaning for demons has been redefined and revised several times.
The most popular theory is that the fallen angels who descended on earth mated with women, whose children (after they died) became evil spirits.
These evil spirits (demons) are agents of Satan and whose mission is to oppose the work of God and His people.
According to early Christian literature, demons “oppress,” by attacking people from without, or “possess” by entering an individual’s body and attack it from within. They can cause diseases and sicknesses of all kind, (although not all sicknesses may be attributed to demons).
This is extremely different from the Biblical definition.
There are many translations of the Bible, and most translators will deliberately use incorrect definitions of certain words because of their beliefs, ideas, opinions, and/or traditional teachings.
Example: The KJV uses the words ‘devil and devils’ instead of the correct translation of ‘demon and demons’.
It is very important to know the correct word, term, and meaning for one to understand what the Bible says and means.
Was the man in Gerasenes possessed with demons?
Mark 5:12 And the demons entreated Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.”
Note: The theology by many is this: When the pigs died, the demons would have left the pigs and drifted around until they found someone else to enter into.
If these demons were ‘evil spirits’, then why would Christ carelessly send them into a herd of pigs?
Christ healed the sick. Jesus Christ did not, and would not have caused or created a situation that would induce anyone to become ill or to be possessed by demons.
If these demons are evil spirits as theology interprets them to be, then Jesus Christ would have been detrimental to everyone around him.
Was it the insanity or mental illness of this man that was cast into the pigs?
Mark 5:15 And they 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 “legion”; and they became frightened.
Note: He was in his right mind.
Are demons a disease of the body and/or mind?
Matthew 4:24 And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.
Matthew 17:15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water. :16 “And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” :17 And Jesus answered and said, “O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” :18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.
Note: The demon spirit was a mental disease that caused the son to be a lunatic.
Do literal demons exist?
Revelation 9:20 And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;
LXX Isaiah 65:3 This is the people that provokes me continually in my presence; they offer sacrifices in gardens, and burn incense on bricks to devils, which exist not.
Note: The correct translation of devils in the Greek is ‘demons’.
These demons are hand made by men. They cannot see, hear, walk, and do not exist (other than the materials that they are made from).
There are no scripture verses in the Old Testament where anyone was possessed by a demon or an evil spirit.
Contrary to what is taught, King Saul was tormented by an evil spirit sent from God, not possessed by it.
This evil spirit never entered into Saul. The Bible says that he was troubled by it.
This evil spirit was from God, and to state that it was some kind of a ‘supernatural being’ is making God responsible for our problems and sins, and that God is evil as well as Holy.
The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul (it left him).
The evil spirit that tormented Saul was because of his disobedience, his increasing rejection of God and his jealousy and violence against David.
This evil spirit was involved in the psychological aberrations of Saul, not from a pagan entity.
SUMMARY
1. Demons were false gods (devils); or an idol; are a severe disease of the body or the mind.
2. A definition of a demon in Thayers concordance #1139 is: ‘To be under the power of a demon in the New Testament, are persons afflicted with especially severe diseases, either bodily or mentally, such as paralysis, blindness, deafness, loss of speech, epilepsy, melancholy, insanity; etc.
3. The definition of a demon by some theologians and (pagans) is a supernatural being, which is not Biblical.
In the opinion of the religious leaders, demons enter into bodies and hold possession of them, not only to afflict them with ills, but also to dethrone the person’s spirit and take its place with themselves.
Accordingly, the possessed were wont to express the mind and consciousness of the demons dwelling in them, and their only cure was thought to require the expulsion of the demons.’
Note: The meaning of a demon in the New Testament was an illness that could not be explained and/or understood, or a god (idol).
4. The religious leaders in the New Testament taught and believed in supernatural gods, demons, and evil spirits.
All gods, demons, and evil spirits were pagan teachings and traditions, and are not Biblical.
Theological demons do not exist, and they are a myth
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