THOUSANDS OF DEMONS INFEST EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE

Today the public in general have lost all confidence that the Word of God is telling us the truth on this subject regarding Satan and the Fallen Angels, or, as the Apostle Paul puts it, "wicked spirits in heavenly places."—See #Eph 6:12, margin.

And what has been the result? People have lowered their guard against Spiritism, Occultism, and evil influences in general. They have allowed their curiosity to lead them to investigate such subjects as Astrology, U.F.O.s, Aliens, Psychic Readers, Hypnotism, Magic, Wicca, Ouija boards, so-called "games" such as "Dungeons and Dragons, etc.

Others seek out more "sophisticated" (?) sources of enlightenment and empowerment over self and others. For example, the New Age movement is very popular among the elite, and people turned off by Churchianity. Today "channelers" have replaced spirit mediums of old and "channelers’ weekend retreats" have replaced "spiritualistic seances."

The end result is the same however; they think they are communicating with dead humans, when actually they are being deceived by demons, fallen angels, who impersonate the dead.

Other ways that the demons have found expression in society is through abject and obscene use of horror, violence, sex, and materialism through the various electronic and print media of television, radio, videos, billboards, movie theaters, computer software, 900 telephone numbers, magazines, newspapers, music, pulp novels, and soon, "virtual reality" technology. Yes, sadly enough, Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Entertainment Industry, driven by profits (greed) have mostly left morality, decency, and anything akin to reverence, swirling in the dust of the ever accelerating drive for sensual gratification.

But, are we surprised? Not when we view the situation from the Word of God. Paul tells us that Satan is the god (ruler) of this world (#Ac 26:17, 18; #2Co 4:4) and has blinded the minds of the people. Some serve Satan directly, but the vast majority indirectly, unwittingly, because they are mentally blinded as to the real state of affairs.

Elsewhere, Paul declares it would become worse in the last days, here is how he describes it: "This know also, there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."—#2Ti 3:1-4, New International Version.

Some say history repeats itself. Well, in this case, that is very close to the truth. In fact, Jesus tells us as much: "And as it was in the days of Noe (Noah) so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man (Jesus returned). They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe (Noah) entered into the Ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all...even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. (#Lu 17:26,27,30) Let us learn from history. What did happen in the days of Noah?

In Genesis, the sixth chapter, we read of the conditions of that time. "And it came to pass, when men (humans) began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the Sons of God (angels—#Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. Note: they are different from the men of verses 1 and 2) saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose." (#Ge 6:1,2) Here we learn that during the time from the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, until Noah’s flood, some of the angels materialized fleshly human bodies and became fully involved with mankind. They became enticed with sin, and sinful desires.

"There were giants (Hebrew: Nephilim) in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the Sons of God (angels) came unto the daughters of men (humans) and they bare children to them (a hybrid, mutant race, part human, part angelic) the mutant offspring were giants, physically and mentally superior to humans, yet they were brutish, sensual, violent and immoral, and they were all males. It is likely that the various mythological figures of some ancient cultures are distorted stories of these very Nephilim, and the condition of society prior to the great deluge, which destroyed them all.

#Ge 6:5-7; 11-13 relate to us that the earth was filled with violence and corruption continually, the superiority of the fallen angels in fleshly bodies with their mutant offspring magnified and intensified the degraded condition of the fallen human race.

God intervened by causing the deluge of water upon the earth that destroyed all living creatures except Noah and his family. At that point in time, the fallen angels de-materialized into the earth’s atmosphere, and their offspring were left to drown, thus ending in miserable failure a tragic experiment at government by the angels.

It is the New Testament that informs us what happened to the fallen angels. Please consider #Jude 6-7: "and the angels which kept not their first estate (spiritual, invisible bodies), but left their own habitation (the air, or the spirit realm, dimension), he hath reserved in everlasting (age-lasting) chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." These angels that left or fell from their God ordained domain, to sinfully become involved with mankind, were compelled to return to their "first estate," spirit bodies, by the flood waters, and then God enforced a restriction upon them from manifesting flesh bodies (the chains of darkness) until the great judgment day of our Lord (a one thousand year "day"—#2Pe 3:8-13). Furthermore, verse 7 explains the conduct of the fallen angels which brought about such condemnation: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh." Notice the phrase in like manner. That is, the fallen angels and the inhabitants of Sodom had something in common: they both fornicated with strange flesh. With the Sodomites it was strange in that they were homosexuals. (#Ge 19:1-11; #Ro 1:26-32). With the fallen angels it was strange or unnatural for spirit beings to have sexual liaisons with human beings, and particularly strange because angels have no sex when in their proper spirit nature.—#Lu 20:34-36.

We learn of a further restriction upon these fallen angels through the Apostle Peter in #2Pe 2:4,5: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness..." The Word translated into English "hell" is in the original Greek language "tartaroo" and only appears here in the New Testament.

It denotes an act, not a place, and it refers to God’s confining these disobedient "sons" to earth’s atmosphere, no longer allowed to return to the heavenly courts of the Almighty. These are the "spirits in prison" to whom Jesus preached at his first advent.—#1Pe 3:18-20.

Now we can understand many Scriptures better than before. For example, some people were possessed of demons. Jesus cured many of these. (#Mt 4:24; 8:16, 28-32; 9:32-35; 12:22-29) Since the flood, these imprisoned demons have had to operate through humans to exercise their evil influence. Other people have been under the influence of evil thoughts, like Judas Iscariot (#Joh 13:2,27), Ananias (#Ac 5:3), Elymas the sorcerer (#Ac 13:8-10), some Pharisees (#Joh 8:44), and even some christians. (#1Ti 5:14,15) And many have been deceived into believing false doctrines.—#1Ti 4:1-4; #1Co 10:20,21; #2Th 2:9-12.

What can I do to be safe from the influences of these demons?

1) #Jas 4:7,8: "Submit yourselves therefore unto God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh unto you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts ye double minded."

We must first humble ourselves before our Creator. Reverence God, acknowledging our own lonely and hopeless sinful condition. Sincerely seek forgiveness and acceptance with Him through the way He has arranged, through faith in the sacrifice of His Love, through the death of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as our Redeemer.

(#Joh 3:16) We will want to abandon our sinful habits to be cleansed from selfish and degrading conduct, and further, to consecrate or dedicate our lives to serve Him and His cause at the expense of our own earthly goals, ambitions, desires and preferences. In other words, to become an actual disciple of Jesus.—#Lu 14:25-33.

2) #1Pe 5:8,9: "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world."

We need to be aware of what is going on around us in the world, to realize the source of many of our trials and temptations. We need to have a studied faith supported by Scripture, and to develop sanctified common sense which will enable us to control our emotions, our thoughts and feelings, so that we can best determine how our heavenly Father would have us act, and not be deceived or enticed into sinful patterns of thought, conversation, or activity. The truth shall free us from false doctrines which tend to dull our spiritual senses. An accurate understanding of God’s entire Plan for all mankind and angels is essential to our being well-grounded in the faith.

3) #Mt 26:41: "Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation (or yield not when in trial), the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak."

We need to be aware of what is going on around us in the world, to realize the source of many of our trials and temptations. We need to have a studied faith supported by Scripture, and to develop sanctified common sense which will enable us to control our emotions, our thoughts and feelings, so that we can best determine how our heavenly Father would have us act, and not be deceived or enticed into sinful patterns of thought, conversation, or activity. The truth shall free us from false doctrines which tend to dull our spiritual senses. An accurate understanding of God’s entire Plan for all mankind and angels is essential to our being well-grounded in the faith.

Prayer is reverentially communicating with God. It is an expression of our faith that He is, and that He cares for us. It is our faith in Him. And watching relates to our accompanying activities of faith.

We watch our various daily environments, habits, conversations, relationships, in fact, every aspect of our lives to be alert to conduct ourselves properly.

4) #2Co 10:4,5, NIV: "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

Yes, our warfare is spiritual, yet the real battle ground is in our minds.

We have to remove old entrenced habits of reasoning or reacting that continually fail to give us the victory we are longing for over sin. By increasing the habit of thinking holy, pure, goodly thoughts, we gain divine power to discipline and direct our thinking patterns. In order to bring every thought into obedience to Christ we must think about Jesus, to know what he would approve, and we have to think about what we are allowing ourselves to think about.

We do well to realize the consequence of a selfish current of thought.

Some of us explode impulsively, others simmer and brood, some lash out, and some covertly manipulate.

Some will verbalize their emotions, and some imply through body language. Some cut off communication, and others continually "stir the Pot." Whatever our mental weaknesses, let us continue to fight the good fight of faith, and, as the great Apostle Paul, determine to serve the law of God in our minds and gain the victory over the forces of darkness.—#Ro 7:14-25; ##Eph 6:11-18.

Courtesy of The Oakland County Bible Students