Question by advait0: Christians, do you believe in demons and principalities serving Lucifer?
Demons and Principalities are mentioned in the Bible, and I hear them regularly mentioned by pastors. Evil spirits are believed in by almost every religion and culture, Shamans of all cultures almost exorcise evil spirits and many other religions believe in them. Every Christian denomination I have studied believed in demons active in the world. Principalities I understand to be more powerful demons or princes of hell. And yet many Christians seem to no longer believe in that or Deliverance ministry (praying to get demons out of people)
Personally I do believe there is some sort of evil force in the world, but I have an Interfaith spiritual view. I believe the Native American shamans, Catholic priests (in some cases), African shamans, and spiritual men across the world did combat against evil energies in people.
Best answer:
Answer by Matthew
I believe in satan and demons and I think most other Christians do to.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Ephesians 6:13
What do you think? Answer below!
What you speak of is very real. The lack of Christian belief can be attributed to poor teaching. Too many modern Christian churches are into feel-good messages that make people all warm and fuzzy inside. We’ve forgotten just who the enemy really is.
Yes I do believe in them, here are a few books on the subject that you may want to read.
Strongman his name Whats his game
By Robeson
Confronting the Powers
by Wagner which is one in a series of books
Spiritual Warfare
by Derek Prince.
Revelation 12:9 is the clearest Scripture on the identity of demons, “The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” The Bible indicates that the demons are fallen angels – angels who along with Satan rebelled against God. Satan’s fall from heaven is described in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-15. Revelation 12:4 seems to indicate that Satan took one-third of the angels with him when he sinned. Jude verse 6 mentions angels who sinned. So, it is likely that demons are the angels who followed Satan in sin against God.
Satan and his demons now look to destroy and deceive all those who follow and worship God (1 Peter 5:8; 2 Corinthians 11:14-15). The demons are described as evil spirits (Matthew 10:1), unclean spirits (Mark 1:27), and angels of Satan (Revelation 12:9). Satan and his demons deceive the world (2 Corinthians 4:4), attack Christians (2 Corinthians 12:7; 1 Peter 5:8), and combat the holy angels (Revelation 12:4-9). Demons are spiritual beings, but they can appear in physical forms (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). The demons / fallen angels are enemies of God – but they are defeated enemies. Greater is He who is in us, than those who are in the world (1 John 4:4).
Recommended Resource: Angels: Elect & Evil by C. Fred Dickason.
Yes, they’re real. I can’t imagine any serious Christian who doesn’t think so.
Yes, they do exist. Bible gives a fair amount of info on them. However, the focus is never the demons and their classifications as much as it is on Jesus Christ who overcame them.
Ok, a little confused, one thing I want to say to you is just because you don’t believe demons exist , that does not mean demons are not real. Let’s see what the bible says.
SPIRIT CREATURES WHO ARE OUR ENEMIES
One of the angels developed a desire to rule over others and thus turned against God. Later this angel became known as Satan the Devil. (Revelation 12:9) During the 16 centuries after he deceived Eve, Satan succeeded in turning away from God nearly all humans except a few faithful ones, such as Abel, Enoch, and Noah. (Hebrews 11:4, 5, 7)
In Noah’s day, other angels rebelled against Jehovah. They left their place in God’s heavenly family, came down to the earth, and took on fleshly bodies. Why? We read at Genesis 6:2: “The sons of the true God began to notice the daughters of men, that they were good-looking; and they went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose.” But Jehovah God did not allow the actions of these angels and the resulting corruption of mankind to go on. He brought upon the earth a global flood that swept away all wicked humans and preserved only his faithful servants. (Genesis 7:17, 23) Thus, the rebellious angels, or demons, were forced to abandon their fleshly bodies and return to heaven as spirit creatures. They put themselves on the side of the Devil, who became “the ruler of the demons.”—Matthew 9:34.
When the disobedient angels returned to heaven, they were treated as outcasts, like their ruler, Satan. (2 Peter 2:4) Although they are now unable to take on human bodies, they still exercise a very bad influence over humans. In fact, with the help of these demons, Satan “is misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (Revelation 12:9; 1 John 5:19) How? Mainly, the demons use methods designed to mislead people. (2 Corinthians 2:11) Let us consider some of these methods.
HOW DEMONS MISLEAD
To mislead people, the demons use spiritism. The practice of spiritism is involvement with the demons, both in a direct way and through a human medium. The Bible condemns spiritism and warns us to keep free from everything connected with it. (Galatians 5:19-21) Spiritism does for the demons what bait does for fishermen. A fisherman uses a variety of baits to catch various kinds of fish. Similarly, wicked spirits use different forms of spiritism to bring all sorts of people under their influence.
One type of bait used by the demons is divination. What is divination? It is an attempt to find out about the future or about something unknown. Some forms of divination are astrology, the use of tarot cards, crystal gazing, palmistry, and the search for mysterious omens, or signs, in dreams. Although many people think that practicing divination is harmless, the Bible shows that fortune-tellers and wicked spirits work together. For instance, Acts 16:16-18 mentions “a demon of divination” that enabled a girl to practice “the art of prediction.” But she lost this ability when the demon was cast out of her.
Another way that the demons mislead people is by encouraging them to inquire of the dead. People grieving over the death of a loved one are often deceived by wrong ideas about those who have died. A spirit medium may give special information or may speak in a voice that seems to be that of a dead person. As a result, many people become convinced that the dead are really alive and that contacting them will help the living to endure their grief. But any such “comfort” is really false as well as dangerous. Why? Because the demons can imitate the voice of a dead person and give a spirit medium information about the one who died. (1 Samuel 28:3-19) Moreover, the dead have ceased to exist. (Psalm 115:17) So “anyone who inquires of the dead” has been misled by wicked spirits and is acting contrary to the will of God. (Deuteronomy 18:10, 11; Isaiah 8:19) Therefore, be careful to reject this dangerous bait used by the demons.
Wicked spirits not only mislead people but also frighten them. Today, Satan and his demons know that they have only “a short period of time” left before they are put out of action, and they are now more vicious than ever. (Revelation 12:12, 17)
Something to think about:
It is important that we worship Jehovah in the way that he approves. Many people believe that all religions are pleasing to God, but the Bible does not teach that. It is not even enough just to claim to be a Christian. Jesus said: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will.” To have God’s approval, therefore, we must learn what God requires of us and do it. Jesus called those who do not do God’s will “workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23) Like counterfeit money, false religion has no real value. Even worse, such religion is actually harmful. Jehovah gives everyone on earth the opportunity to gain everlasting life. To have eternal life in Paradise, however, we must worship God properly and live now in a way that is acceptable to him. Sadly, many refuse to do so. That is why Jesus said: “Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.” (Matthew 7:13, 14) True religion leads to everlasting life. False religion leads to destruction. Jehovah does not want any human to be destroyed, and that is why he is giving people everywhere an opportunity to learn about him. (2 Peter 3:9) Really, then, the way we worship God means either life or death for us.
If you want more information go to http://www.watchtower.org
Truth
Greetings. I’ve always thought of “demons” as spirit/souls who have chosen negativity – ie; a love/life-negating focus – as their prime energy source. Ummm – does that make sense? Wish I knew how to express this concept in more elegant, quantum-physics-speak (all the better to befuddle us even more, my dears – teehee 🙂 )
Simply – evil certainly exists, just watch Fox News. But, like Bush senior and the broccolli, we don’t hafta’ eat if we don’t want to. *bless* SJ