Demons today?

Demons today?

By Richard P. Joseph

We often hear people today talking about demon possession.  I have never seen it in my life except to say that there have been people who become very agitated by my presence or my words.  So, do demons possess people today or is this something that only occurred in the past?  Are demons real or is there another definition?

There are some that say that the devil, Satan and demons are really a description of any opposing force against God.  There is some truth to that but is there an actual spiritual being we call Satan or the devil?  

Satan is not mentioned much in scripture compared to the existence of God.  However, when he is mentioned, it seems that they assume it is a common belief that he exists in some form or another.  There are also places where Satan is used simply as a term for an opposer of good or in other words the opposition party.  However, the overall concept of Satan in scripture and in extra biblical literature such as the Book of Enoch,  is that he is an actual entity who can tempt, accuse, oppose, and be imprisoned in a real hell.  So is he just an opposition party or a real being?

I have a question for you all;  Who was the first group of people that knew who Jesus really was?  This is a multiple choice question.

1. The Pharisees
2. The disciples
3. The poor
4. The demoniacs

Let’s go to Mark chapter 1;

 23 Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24 saying, “What [n]business do we have with each other, Jesus [o]of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” 28 Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.

Yep, if you guessed #4 then you are the winner.  There are several instances in scripture where demoniacs shouted out that they can identify who Jesus really is, the Christ.  They recognized him immediately and with certainty.  So if the word satan is only an opposition or just the evil side of man then how come those that are “demon” possessed were able to identify Jesus immediately and no one else could?  Can a sickness or a rebel have that kind of discernment?  Of course it can’t.  Only a “personage” can.  That puts Satan into the realm of a real being who had some previous experience with the son of man.  He could identify him with an uncanny accuracy where the scholars could not.  This proves that Satan is an actual spirit that is subject to the power of God. Another example is Acts 19:15. Someone who was not yet a solid Christian attempted to cast out a demon but the demon denounced them and attacked them physically.
 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” The evil spirit readily recognized Jesus and Paul but did not recognize that person as having power over him.
So then I ask are there demon possessed people today? I personally do not think so.  In Revelation 20, Satan’s earthly power was destroyed.

10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and [f]brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.   

Those that follow Satan today are doing it out of choice rather than by force.  In AD 70 Satan was cast into hell where he will stay forever.  He may be shouting orders from hell but you do not have to listen.  That kind of demon possession is over and we are freed from the bondage of sin and death.  Anyone who desires sin and death are in it by choice and not by force.  Satan is no longer the prince of the power of the air but is a defeated foe who is the prince of nothing any more.  Jesus Christ crushed his head and bound him forever.  

Rev 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The [f]kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” 

We could go on and on but I think there is a deeper meaning to contemplate. Many of us are familiar with the music of John Lennon.  Although a great musician and songwriter, he fell into the same trap that many others fall into. He saw Christianity as just another religion and eventually rejected them all. Many of his darkest songs were about his rejection of religion.  Songs like Imagine, God and I found out were types of manifestos of how he saw religion. This is similar to how many young men go to seminary and somehow come out atheists.  As I study the bible and I come across the commentary of so called scholars, I feel the same weight that those young seminary students feel.  If I believed everything that these kooks are saying I will end up just like them where there is no God, no devil, no heaven and no hell.  I sometimes wonder why they are in it at all if it only leads them to the desperate position of “we all just evolved” and there is nothing but survival of the fittest and we all rot in the grave and give back to mother earth.  I was told outright by someone that Satan was really only the concept of opposition to God.  Lennon said it best in his song called God where he says “God is a concept” at the beginning of the song and then concludes the song with  “I just believe in Yoko and Me”.  The fastest way to come to ruins is to believe in yourself.   You can all go down that path but as for me and my family “we will serve the LORD”.  

God is real, the devil is real, heaven is real and hell is real.  The good thing though, is that Jesus has overcome the world.

Ps.  I found this sermon from the Berean Church in Virginia.  It has some pretty good information on it.

https://youtu.be/FRcbzVYIFWY

Heaven and Hell

Heaven & Hell

by Richard Joseph

Most people’s religious view never goes past this simple statement; “good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell”.  Of course when their child molesting perverted uncle dies they totally forget the later part of that statement and proclaim he still went to heaven.  Life would be a lot simpler for me if I could boil my “religion” down to such a simple and naive statement.  I am, however,  a little too high strung to live in such blissful ignorance.  People like me dig and dig and dig until we prove what we believe.  The good thing about it is that we do eventually find answers but unfortunately for every answer we find, ten more questions pop up.  The existence of a true heaven and hell is one of those areas of contention among certain biblical scholars.  Some believe in a literal heaven and hell and some do not.  Some believe in eternal conscience rewards and punishments and some do not.  A healthy discussion can do much good but this is one of those areas that the answer could make or break someone’s faith and that could  be dangerous all together.   It could also lead you to Heaven or Hell!

So, what am I really talking about?  As you know, most Christian outlets believe that our souls are eternal and therefore are not subject to destruction but lives on after physical death in either an elevated state where we can commune with our creator and, conversely,  some believe that we are similar to animals in that we just die and that is the end of it; they believe we are annihilated at death.  This discussion really has far reaching implications and concerns, not all of which I can address in a blog setting.  So what is annihilationism?

Annihilationists have much in common with Deists, Universalists and Eastern mysticism.  One explanation is that there is a god but he only concerns himself with the perpetuation of sensible life on earth (eternal life), not with the after life.  They continue with the idea that our good deeds and the proper upbringing of our children is the eternal life that God meant, not the eternal existence of our souls.   This is not any different than Buddha or Confucius giving us good advice to spread our good karma to the next generation.  This places Jesus squarely in the same camp as other religious philosophers.   I hope I don’t have to explain why this is a serious misconception of what Jesus Christ is.  I also hope I don’t have to explain to anyone that, that type of hippie philosophy is a complete failure.  So, what does the bible actually say about heaven and hell?

Admittedly there are no scriptures that plainly say “good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell”.  That, however, does not mean that this subject was not discussed or even commonly believed throughout biblical scripture.  The very concept of “God” necessitates that there is a heavenly abode.  God is not man and does not live on earth; so this begs the question “where is he”?

He is in heaven, of course.  Jesus plainly teaches us in Matthew chapter 6;

9 “Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.  10 ‘Your kingdom come.

Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

This verse tells me that God’s abode is different than ours.  I have heard by some annihilationists that heaven really only means a higher authority.

The problem with that is that Jesus didn’t say “our father who has authority over us”.  That was already assumed.  Jesus said “who is in heaven”.  Heaven has several meanings which could include any of these:

1. Authority.  

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways

And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)

2. Physical.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  (Genesis 1:1)

3. Abode.

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen  (Acts 1:-2)

4. Governmental state of affairs.

7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:7)

When Jesus said “who art in heaven”, he was talking about God’s abode.  Let’s look at Matthew chapter two where angels suddenly appeared out of nowhere to the shepherds.

13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace among men [g]with whom He is pleased.”

15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”

My questions are this; where did the angels come from and where did they go?  Did they come from a higher authority?  Even though a higher authority sent them, they didn’t come “from” there.  Did they come from the sky (as in the air, clouds, sky).  No.  Did the government send them?  No.  That leaves the idea that they came from the very abode of God.  They came from a different dimension.  What I am really saying is that if there is a real God then there is a real abode that he really dwells in.  It is a spiritual realm as far as we are concerned but it is a physical realm as far as God is concerned.  Verse 15 above said the angelic host had gone away from them into “heaven”.  My point is that there is a different dimension that we as humans cannot understand.  When Jesus ascended he was in essence transferred from one dimension to another.  He didn’t necessarily “float” away but was taken up into a cloud back to his father.  The cloud represented the power of God himself.  The crux of this is that Jesus is really “somewhere”.  It also appears that our souls are somewhere also.

The book of Revelation is the announcement proclamation that the Parousia of Christ was about to begin.  The scroll that Daniel was forbidden to open was opened at this time.  The resurrection that Daniel was told about was about to occur also.

2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake,these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting[a]contempt. (Daniel 12:2)

13 But as for you, go your way to the [n]end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the [o]age.” (Daniel 12:13)

Try as you may but these verses cannot be successfully twisted into meaning a resurrected state of Israel.   They are very personal and direct.  It clearly states that Daniel himself will rise again at the resurrection event.  It clearly talks about those that are dead in the ground.  Of course it is their souls that will rise, not their physical bodies.  That is what sheol is all about.  At the beginning of the Parousia, Jesus emptied hades out and each person was given a new body suited for their new abode in the realm of God.  This makes our faith very personal and sacred.  God is not just about a philosophy of love and tolerance and peace.  That is what the hippies were about and that didn’t work so well.  God is about eternity, truth and justice.  So, yes we are to live in the New Jerusalem on earth and rule the earth by the justice of Christ but there is an ultimate state of being for our souls.  And make no mistake about it, we will not be just floating around on some cloud; there is work to do in heaven.  Idleness is not a part of God’s vocabulary.  We will have real work to do and real pleasure doing it.  Revelation chapter 20 is the chapter that concerns itself with our eternal state.  

Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of[b]their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand. (revelation 20:4)  Beheaded people are not just regular people who lived after AD 70, they are dead people.  Their bodies have been killed but their souls were now under the auspices of God himself.  There are many other verses that make this type of statement.

At the last supper, Jesus comforted his disciples by saying;

36 Simon Peter *said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”

(John 13:36)

Jesus did not appear on earth after AD 70 so he could not have been talking to them about that.  Besides none of the disciples made it past that date either.  So, when would the disciples follow Jesus “later”?  It would have to be in his heavenly abode.  

“Do not let your heart be troubled; [a]believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.(John 14:1-3).

I very much realize that there was a new order after AD70 but that does not negate a heavenly realm.  This was assumed throughout the bible and is also heavily  expressed in other extrabiblical accounts such as the Book of Enoch.  If Jesus was talking to his disciples about them being where he is, then how can anyone stretch that to mean that the disciples are with Jesus on earth now?  How did Paul tell the Thessalonians that they will meet Jesus in the air along with the risen dead?  There is no way to interpret that into Israel’s resurrection into the church age.  

In conclusion, I can go on and on and quote one scripture after another but the real point I want to make is that it was already assumed that there is an afterlife.  Infact that was one of the big arguments that the Pharisees and Sadducees had.  Jesus put the Sadducees to shame when they asked him about which man would have the woman that they all married.  He informed them that there is no marriage at the resurrection.  If the resurrection is, like the annihilationists say, the church age then why are we getting married now?  Jesus must have been talking about the resurrection of the dead.  The resurrection of the dead apparently occurred about AD 66 when Jesus emptied Hades and then cast it into the pit.  So, yes, I do believe in heaven and hell and a real judgement and account of our lives on earth.