Time for class. Today: Demonology 101.
What exactly are these “demons” or “devils” as they are referred to in the King James Bible? Put away your flashlights and EMF meters. No need to call Ghostbusters. All you Charismatics out there, binding and loosing demons- take another glance. ‘Binding and Loosing’ was a common term amongst the Hebrews meaning “To declare guilty or innocent.” I’d like to present for your researching pleasure a fascinating consideration not taught in today’s whitened sepulchers.
Daimonian comes from the root “daio”, meaning “to distribute fortunes.” This word “daimonion” is our word “demon”. Jesus says that “demons” are “self”. We need to pay attention when reading whose talking and whose saying what. There is a controversy about “demons” because you had two views about what demons were: Jesus’ view and the world’s view.
The world said everything was due to demons. They called their gods by the title of ‘demon’. They said when a person was sick, that it was a god that moved into them (inhabited their body) and made them sick. Their gods were Hercules, Venus, Adonis, Tammuz, Jupiter, Zeus, Ceres, Cybil, Ates (meaning tree) etc. according to the different city-states. These were the “demons” of the old world. The Jews called them “Demons” and the Arabs called them “Geniis”. Genii comes from the word “gene”, and our “genes” are our make-up, our ancestry. It is is ancestry worship, which is the same as a totem poll. We also get the word “Genius” from this. Genius is what the Romans called ‘Geniis’. The Romans viewed them as guardians. The Greeks thought of them as guardian angels. The Celts called them fairies. They believed there were good fairies and bad fairies, just as the Jews thought there were good demons and bad demons, and the Arabs thought there were good geniis and bad geniis. Trolls were bad fairies that lived under bridges and devoured people. Pixies were evil fairies that were sometimes monsters. If you believe in “demons”, then you have to also believe in Geniis, Genius, guardian angels, and fairies. Geniis give you wishes. The Jews called them Demons and the Arabs called them Geniis, but all distributed fortunes, some bad and some good.
How many wishes do you get from a genii/fairy? Three. 1 John 2:16 says, “For all that is in the world, 1. the lust of the flesh, and 2. the lust of the eyes, and 3. the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” When Eve looked at the tree, she saw that the fruit was 1. pleasant to taste, 2. pleasant to the eyes, and 3. would make her wise. Eve got her 3 wishes. Everything that you can think of that is sin falls under one of these three headings.
Jesus said that either you had just a sickness (not that a demon/genii inhabited you) or that you were full of self. It was said that the man in Luke 8 was possessed with devils. The phrase “possessed with devils” is only one word in the Greek and the word is “daimonizomai” And it is a form of “daimonion” and it means literally “to be insane.” The next logical question is: what is this daimonion then that was driven into the swine? Jesus said it was “self”. Jesus is on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He goes into a land that was not in Israel. This man couldn’t have been an Israelite because he owned all these swine, pigs, that were unclean to an Israelite. He lives amongst the tombs and he’s cutting himself all over, acting crazy. Jesus asks him, “Ti (an interogative: to interrogate someone) soi (plural) ononoma (authority) estin?” (It literally translates “What is this authority that you are fellowshipping with?” And the man answers, “Legion. (feminine plural)” (I’m talking to my dead ancestors, which explains why he was in the graveyard.) He got his answer from the culture. He literally tells Jesus he is full of 3,000-6,000 (which was the amount of a Roman legion of soldiers) feminine demons. He believed he was communing with his ancestors. They even deified Noah as an ancestor (which became the fish god (Dagon: dag was the Hebrew word for fish) of the Babylonians. Freea (sp?) meaning fish, where we get the word Friday from, which is why they eat fish on Fridays, it’s fish god worship!). In Mark 1 Jesus rebukes a man with an unclean spirit (pneumati, Greek for breath) by rebuking “auto” which means ‘self’ (auto-mobile, self-mobile, etc.). The same is said in Matthew 8:32 to the insane man amongst the tombs, Jesus rebukes “auto” “self”. The man pleads that Jesus wouldn’t send away what he thought were his ancestors, so asks that he send them into the swine. The same thing happened to the swine that happens with any person totally obsessed with self: death. The Bible then says that after this the man was in his right mind “sophroneo” meaning ‘sane’, previously was naked but was now sitting clothed, listening to instruction. Jeremiah 31:18 tells us listening to instruction means you’re repentant.
He believed he was keeping familiar spirits (owb, Hebrew: meaning bottle, or a goat’s stomach, they would use to store their juices) near him. Interestingly, when the original translators of the Septuagint translated the word now translated in English as “familiar spirits” or “demons”, they actually used the word “engastromuthos” meaning “a myth within the stomach of the goat.” These amazing scholars knew there was no so thing as demons, they knew it was a myth in the stomach. Where do Genies live? In bottles! Where did they deliver vampires to? Bottles!
Also, interestingly, look up “lycanthrope: werewolf” it literally means moonstruck. Bram Stoker didn’t come up with the idea of the moon turning someone into a werewolf, it comes from cultural traditions and beliefs from the ancient world! In Matthew 17:15, the man cries out that his son is a lunatick. Lunatick comes from the word ‘lunar’ and ‘lunar’ is the word ‘moon’. He’s literally saying that his son is “moonstruck.” Did Jesus believe he was struck by the moon? No, again, look at whose talking and the culture they were in. Even pagans believed demons were gods. Acts 17 speaks of these “daimonion”. Verse 16 says the city of Mars Hill was wholly given to idolatry. They say, “What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods.” “Strange gods”- “diamonion”.
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” “Thing” in this verse is neuter gender. Remember when the man said he had “Legion” in him, he used a feminine plural. The verse ends with, “because many daimonion were entered into him.” The initial part of that verse (when the man is speaking) uses the feminine gender but the verse ending (when the Bible is speaking) switches to a neuter gender. If it’s neuter, it means it’s not male and it’s not female: they don’t really exist. The point is, whenever the Bible speaks about demons, it’s a neuter gender- it’s a “thing”. But considering, Jeremiah 17:9, the heart is deceitful above all things, then even if demons were real, the heart would be more wicked than those. There is nothing as wicked as a man’s heart.
So, if demons are ‘self’, how then do we cast out “self”?
In Matthew 12, there’s a man possessed with devils (daimonizomai). The Pharisses are accusing Him of casting out demons by Beezlebub. He asks, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?” because the Pharisees were the evil ones. Verse 28 says, “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” Luke’s account of the same story in 11:20 says it thus, “But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.” “Finger of God” “The Kingdom of God is come unto you (into our hearts) “Cast out devils by the Spirit of God.” The Spirit of God is Truth. The Word of God is Truth (John 17:17 “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.) If Jesus casts out “self” by His Word, the Truth, and the Holy Spirit is Truth, He is casting out “self” by writing His Truth upon our hearts (Hebrews 8:10 and 2 Corinthians 3:3. Deuteronomy 9:10 shows this was originally done with His finger.) He kept the tables of stone referenced in Deut 9 inside the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was sprinkled and now our hearts are sprinkled (Hebrews 10:22). He writes upon fleshy tables of our heart with His finger. Now, if He casts out “self”, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you. But He must first cast out “self” or bind the strong man. This is the lifelong battle between the inner man and the outer man. The outer man is self and has a lot of “distributing fortunes” within him: pride, striving, jealously, hatred, wants his own way. It’s all self. In fact, all sin is self. I is “ego” in the Greek. “I” is sin. Self is driven out through fire, trials, and Truth. This is how the Kingdom of God is come. Kingdom of God was a given term for Israel (we are spiritual Israel.)
So, Matthew 12:29 says “Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.”
Who lived in our strong man before Jesus set the Kingdom of God in our hearts?
We did! Full of “self”! Our problems are “self”. Why else would Jesus say, If any man will come after me, let him deny him’self’ and follow me. He didn’t say, Let him deny his demons.
Bind “dio”: meaning forbid. God forbids us from ruling this house (our bodies). Christ is the King in us and He demands that He rule, because we are not going to keep ruling. He will not allow us to be crazy over the things of the world: cars, houses, stuff. He is the inner man. He must spoil our goods and bind (forbid)our strong man “self”.
We are told in the latter times, there would be seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Seducing is the Greek word “planos” meaning imposter, misleader, deceiver. Only imposters masquerading as ministers of righteousness can seduce men by this devil’s doctrine. The devil’s doctrine started in the Garden of Eden. The Serpent preached it to Eve beguiling her. He did not come breathing fire and smoke saying that God was not God. He just said that God didn’t mean what He said. She could have all that the world had to offer. There are two Greek words for devil- one we’ve discussed “daimonion” and the other is “diabolos” meaning slanderer or false accuser (Satan accused God of lying about eating of the tree). It is a construct of two words: dia- meaning the channel of an act, through, or thereby and ballo- to throw, cast out, strike, or throw down. When we fast forward to Matthew 4, we see the devil tell Jesus that if He is the Son of God, He should “cast thyself down.” Diabolos- to cast down! When a man listens to the devil’s instructions, the devil becomes his god. The word God or god is the following in the Greek and Hebrew: Hebrew: elohiym meaning judge or magistrate and Greek: theos meaning judge or magistrate. The title God (or god) is the office of judge executing a particular law. The god (God) you serve is the one whose law you follow.
Fast forward a bit further in the 4th chapter of Matthew, and we see the devil take Jesus up to an exceeding high mountain, promising Jesus all the things in the world if only He will fall down and worship him. Here we see the second construct of devil- daimonion: to distribute fortunes!
Wow! Chew. On. That.
