What Does the Bible say about Demons?
At least some of the angels that sinned long ago have been bound and put away:
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned , but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; (2 Pet 2:4)
And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home - these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. (Jude 1:6)
It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." (Rev 9:14)
Pagan religions "sacrifice to demons":
They sacrificed to demons, which are not God - gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. (Deut. 32:17)
They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. (Psa. 106:37)
Thousands of demons grouped together inside one person begged Jesus:
The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs." (Mat 8:31)
A Christian has spiritual authority to drive out demons:
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. (Mat 10:1)
Some people know this as "exorcism." Note: a wooden cross and/or holy water is NEVER used, in the Bible, to drive a demon out of a person.
Some spirits (demons) are more wicked than other ones:
Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation. (Mat 12:45)
Jesus cast out demons or evil spirits:
The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching - and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." (Mark 1:27)
For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. (Luke 8:29)
Jesus drove out demons by the Spirit of God:
But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God , then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Mat 12:28)
Demons know Jesus is the Son of God, unlike some people:
Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." (Mark 3:11)
Evil spirits can speak through a person! In our dark day, some might call this by the New Age term "channelling" and the person with the (evil) spirit a "channeler." Devotees of "spirit guides" need to ponder what Scripture says about a spirit being speaking through a person.
A fortune teller might be possessed by a demon spirit:
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit,
"In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her. When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone ... (Acts 16:16-19)
When the demon spirit was cast our of that girl, her special powers to predict the future were totally gone. This was also apparent to the owners of that slave.
Unlike some people, demons believe there is a God and "shudder":
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder. (James 2:19)
Mary Magdalene had seven demons in her before she became a Christian:
When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. (Mark 16:9)
And also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out (Luke 8:2)
Evil spirits can torment people:
Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed. (Acts 5:16)
Worshiping demons will be a characteristic of the end of this age:
The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons , and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood - idols that cannot see or hear or walk. (Rev 9:20)
Evil spirits in John's vision looked like frogs:
Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. (Rev 16:13)
This does not mean that a frog is a demon!
Demons can perform miracles:
They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. (Rev 16:14)
NOTE: Demons can produce miracles! See our other article entitled, <a href="http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/miracles.htm">Miracles - Two Sources</a> Not all spirits are from God. Some spirits are deceitful and are trying to mislead us:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. (1 Tim 4:1)
There are many ways in which demons can deceive people, but the more common ones are through occult involvement, Ouija boards and seances. Dear reader, don't ever dabble with such, even out of curiosity or amusement. If you have already, ask God to forgive you and renounce all such behaviour.
Dan Corner