Not A Good Crowd To Hang With
Published on January 23, 2008 By KFC Kickin For Christ In Religion
Along with faithful angels we also have in the spiritual realm evil angels or as most commonly referred to as demons.

Other than Lucifer (Satan) and a demon named Legion I'm not aware of any personal names for demons although in the Hebrew there are names for fallen angels in general.

The Hebrew word for "devils" is shedim. They also are known as sair and satyr. The word "he goat" is satyr in Hebrew and is thought to be tied into demon creatures of some sort. Sometimes in scripture the evil angels are referred to as the Devil's angels. They are also called familiar spirits, evil spirits, wicked spirits, seducing spirits or unclean spirits. Sometimes just the name demon is used.

In the case of Mary Magdalene she was possessed with seven demons. The word for "demon" in Greek is daimon and is found more than 75 times in the Greek NT.

So who are these demons? Some believe they are spirits of deceased wicked men. Some believe they are spirits of a pre-Adamic race. But there are no scriptural support whatsoever for these views.

The most logical biblical conclusion is that these demons are none other than the fallen angels Lucifer took with him when he defected from the side of God. We do know from scripture that there are unchained fallen angels who have a certain amount of freedom and also chained fallen angels who have no freedom at the present time.

There seems to be an organization and rank of these fallen angels. Scripture indicates that Satan's kingdom of evil angels is as organized as God's faithful angels. As we know this is a spiritual battle between the two so organization and rank does make sense.

Fallen angels, like good angels, are invisible spirit beings. However, on occasion they do manifest themselves. In Revelation we see three passages which offer a description of these corrupted creatures. Hideous.

So what are they like? Well we know they have personalities. They have names, they speak, and they are intelligent. They know who Jesus is. They know of a future damnation and they know the saved from the unsaved. They are able to formulate a Satan-centered systematic theology. They experience emotion such as fear and disdain. They possess great strength.

Their activities include their working to oppose God's purpose by executing Satan's program instead. They disseminate false doctrine, and they afflict human beings with all sorts of mental, emotional and physical problems. They can possess human beings and will in the latter days inflict grievous torture upon unsaved mankind during the tribulation.

Their destiny is to be judged by Christ and his church and will ultimately be cast into the Lake of Fire forever. Paul warned us that in the final days of the church age, demonic doctrines will prevail. I believe that is what is happening today. He said:

"Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." 1 Timothy 4:1.

Christ also asked in Luke 18:8 that when he returns "Will I even find faith on the earth?" So I believe when he does return not many living will be true authentic Christians still standing and waiting for him. He won't have that many to rapture out of here. The demons will have been busily making sure as many as can be will be under the grip of their master Satan.






Comments (Page 2)
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on Jan 24, 2008
"Seirim" is the plural of "sair".

To make matters worse, as an adjective the same word means "hairy" or "furry".

on Jan 24, 2008
Satyr: In Greek mythology the satyrs are deities of the woods and mountains. They are half human and half beast; they usually have a goat's tail, flanks and hooves. While the upper part of the body is that of a human, they also have the horns of a goat. They are the companions of Dionysus, the god of wine, and they spent their time drinking, dancing, and chasing nymphs. The Italian version of the satyr is the faun, while the Slavic version is the Ljeschi.

I'm pretty good with my Greek mythology.

Whether or not the satyr/faun/Ljeschi fits into Hebrew, I know not. Though I do know the stereotypical view popularized in media of Satan as the "goat man" is based on the image of a Satyr.

~Zoo
on Jan 24, 2008
To make matters worse, as an adjective the same word means "hairy" or "furry".


well you know it's not that far off I bet. Those demons are pretty nasty and put with zoo's description as well as what we read in Revelation I think it all fits quite nicely.

Read Rev 9:7-10 for a description of the demons. Sounds pretty close to what Zoo is describing.

BTW did you know Satan has his own trinity? Rev 16:13

on Jan 25, 2008
Well, to be quite honest...

I have never seen a demon. And I cannot read and conclude that any mention of a goat (in a book about a pastoral people no less) has to do with demons just because some translator used a term from Greek mythology in his translation.

I don't believe in Greek mythology. I think it's nonsense, fairy tales people told their children before they knew better.

I also think it is dangerous to mix Greek mythology with a culture that developed on the basis of rejecting goat-demons and little devils.

I'm not sure what Revelations is, but I looked it up in the Luther Bible. I assumed it is "Offenbarung des Johannes". I found the text you are referring to, but I am still not convinced that it is a prose description of actual demons.

I have never seen them, there is no evidence for them, all we have are reports from people who have traditionally written in a very poetic way. I don't know how that applies to the author of Revelations (Johannes?). I did read that Thomas Jefferson excluded the text from his Bible; I don't think it was because of fear.

If you can demonstrate that "G-d's hand" refers to a literal hand of G-d, I will believe you that "angels eat" refers literally to angels as physical beings eating.

But I'm afraid if you do that you will have crossed Maimonides' border between folly and heresy.

The belief in corporeal angels and demons is folly, the belief in a corporeal G-d is forbidden. The problem with the first is that once the case has been made that those texts have to be taken literal, the second is a logical conclusion deriving from the same text.

But we know that G-d is not corporeal, hence whatever other conclusions would lead us to conclude that He is must be wrong also.
on Jan 25, 2008
I have never seen a demon


well demons, for the most part, work behind the scenes anyhow. They are spirit beings. I have seen some humans who I swear are demons in the flesh. . They say the eyes are the window of the soul don't they? I believe Satan or his demons can possess a person. Jesus many times cast out demons when he walked among men. If you want to know more about demons you can just read the gospel. Many accounts can be found there. Jesus and his Apostles spent much time dealing with demons.

We see in scripture that demons can cause insanity, muteness,immorality, deafness, epilepsy, blindness, sucidal mania, personal injuries, physical defects etc.

Some of the people we read about who had a problem with demon possession in scripture are King Saul, Mary Magdalene,Simon, Elymas, and a slave girl among others. I look back over our history and see many others we could add to the list such as Charles Manson, Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Jeffrey Dalmer etc.

I have actually seen the face of a demon clearly twice in the face of what I thought was a Christian. I was absolutely sure I was seeing a demon when I looked into their eyes.

Just like I believe a Christian is indwelt with the spirit of God, so too can humans be indwelt with the spirit of the anti-Christ. That's why John was so careful to warn us to "test the spirits" in everything we do. Test to see which side it's coming from.

on Jan 25, 2008

That's called a hallucination, hun. They have medication for that, but in your case, since you think mental illness is caused by 'demons', I'll suggest an exorcism instead.


The "medication" in this case is simply Christianity (if you believe in it); no funny mythology of corporeal spiritual beings flying around and influencing things outside our control, but focusing on the Creator and His creation.

An "exorcism" is simply an attempt by the Catholic Church to keep these things under their own control, which is fair enough and certainly better than an industry of faith healers like what exists where the Catholic Church has little influence.

Fact is we are all responsible for our own good or evil, and perhaps for those that we influence. There is no "good" or "evil" floating around independent of us, and the sooner we accept that, the better.

When Christianity teaches forgiveness, it does so because there are things to forgive, not because somebody found an explanation that tells us that evil exists outside our control.
on Jan 25, 2008
I guess we can't discuss evil angels and not bring up exorcism...which is the practice of expelling demons from people and places.

The only example in the OT is in Tobit 6:7-18. The Gospels have several exorcisms worked by Christ. Christ exorcises in His own name while He confers on the disciples the power to exorcise in His name. It's my understanding that Pope John Paul II performed 3 exorcisms during his 24 years as Pontiff.

on Jan 25, 2008
Fact is we are all responsible for our own good or evil, and perhaps for those that we influence. There is no "good" or "evil" floating around independent of us, and the sooner we accept that, the better.


How do you know this to be true?



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