Biblical Demonology a Study of Spiritual Forces at Work Today Review Dts
ORIGINAL Research
The relevance of Reformed perspectives on demonology for Africa
P.J. (Flip) Buys
School for Ecclesiastical Science, Unit for Reformational Theology and the Development of the Due south African Society, North-West University, Potchefstroom, Due south Africa
Correspondence
Abstruse
In the debates about lacunas in Western theological education and the need to decolonise Reformed theological education in Due south Africa, the necessity of understanding demonology has been pointed out as an of import area for more than research and contextualisation by several researchers. Witchcraft withal causes major social problems in Southward Africa and Africa. On the other hand, there are Reformed theologians in Southward Africa who expressed opinions and even Reformed denominations that take fabricated synodical decisions that the Devil does not exist as a person and that the beingness of demons are myths. Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider the field of study of demonology that deals with Satan and his fallen angels from the perspective of traditional Reformed systematic theology and hermeneutics. This article wants to point out that a Reformed hermeneutical study and estimation of relevant biblical perspectives may enrich the lives of Christians and bring some balance between current extremes in the understanding and application of biblical data on demonology.
Keywords: Demonology; Witchcraft; Satan; Devil; Occult; Demonic Influences; Spiritual warfare; Strategic level spiritual warfare.
Introduction
This article is partly based on an autoethnographic qualitative research methodology. According to Ellis and Bochner (2000:733), autoethnography is a fashion to understand a certain civilisation or a grouping of people through the optics and perspective of a researcher who is personally involved with the objects of the inquiry. My personal experience, observations and reflections over a period of 40 years of cross-cultural gospel ministry building in South Africa and several other African countries contributed to the insights presented in this article. Personal pastoral interaction with many suffering people, church leaders and theologians who volition be referred to in the article, underscore similar findings of other authors also referred to in the article.
The words of C.Southward. Lewis in the introduction to his archetype The screwtape letters (1942) are very relevant for South Africa and Africa:
In that location are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. Ane is to disbelieve in their being. The other is to believe, and to experience an excessive and unhealthy involvement in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. (p. 3)
This timeless caution is particularly true when nosotros follow the history, literature and theological debates on Satan and demons and critically weigh contemporary missions and ministry practices (Buys 2015), and clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col 3:15 - NIV) in the midst of intense suffering and deep pastoral needs of people.
In his thorough treatment of the discipline of demonology, Leahy (1990:vii) bemoans the fact that there is much vagueness and, at times, error in the Protestant ministries when Satan and the demons are mentioned. According to him, nothing of any importance has been written on the subject field from a Reformed standpoint since John Fifty. Nevius, a Presbyterian missionary in People's republic of china, wrote his Demon possession and centrolineal themes in 1894.
What Manala (2004) wrote virtually the relevance of the theology and ministry of the Hervormde Kerk in Suidelike Afrika is too applicable to other types of Reformed churches in Africa.
… the service of the Hervormde Kerk in Suidelike Afrika to blackness African Christians is not relevant considering it is founded on a theology influenced past western idea and philosophy. (p. 1504)
Van Wyk (2004) from the Hervormde Kerk, also pleads for more theological consideration of witchcraft, when he wrote:
I am therefore convinced that the development of theology in Africa will also costless this continent from this savage cycle of fear and murder. When people develop a new agreement of reality and realise that they could handle the complexities of this earth in a unlike, more than constructive manner - then they will as well act differently, speak differently and live differently. (p. 1224)
In an in-depth qualitative enquiry article, Janse van Rensburg (2010) states about the Dutch Reformed Church in S Africa:
While Vergeer (2002:372) shows how a variety of synods of the Dutch Reformed Church building responded negatively toward a ministry of deliverance, Theron (2001:196) is of the opinion that such resistance is beginning to disappear. He refers to 'some decisions of the dissimilar Dutch Reformed Church Synods [that] seemed to exist more than open to the possibility that this ministry holds'. (p. 680)
In a missiological research study on healing ministry among the Zulu speaking people troubled by evil spirits, Sietse Veenstra (2003) explained how the Reformed churches (nickname: 'Doppers') are quite open to do more intensive study on demonology and several theologians called for the equipping of pastors to exercise relevant pastoral ministry in this regard. He besides pointed out how relevant an in-depth knowledge of witchcraft practices is for cross-cultural ministry in KwaZulu Natal (cf. too Vergeer 2002).
Although the main task and desire of the Christian is to grow in amazement and wonder of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus every bit Lord (Php 3:8), it is part of Paul'south teaching that Christians must put on the whole armour of God and so that they may exist able to stand up against the schemes of the Devil (Eph half-dozen:11 - ESV). Geisler (2016) points out that 'Of the twenty-9 references to Satan in the Gospels, Jesus fabricated twenty-v of them.'
Thus, the study of Satan and demons is a major facet of God's revelation that provides noesis, insight and discernment about Satan's character, purposes and spiritual wickedness. That may enable Christians to withstand in the evil 24-hour interval and, having done all, to stand up firm (Eph half dozen:xiii).
The 17th century Puritan, Tomas Brookes (1984) formulated equally follows:
Christ, the Scripture, our ain hearts, and Satan'south devices, are the four prime things that should be beginning and nearly studied and searched. If any cast off the study of these, they cannot be safe here, nor happy hereafter. It is my work as a Christian, but much more as I am a watchman, to exercise my all-time to discover the fullness of Christ, the emptiness of the creature, and the snares of the corking deceiver. (p. 10)
The development of secularism in the Western world elevated the secular to the signal where it is believed that nothing exists beyond that which tin can be seen and measured. Leahy (1990:132) quotes several 'liberal' theologians who discount the biblical business relationship of demonic activity. In their view, angels, whether fallen or unfallen, including the Devil, vest to the realm of myth, and reflect an outside and infidel influence on the writers of Scripture. In his dissertation, accustomed by the Free Academy of Amsterdam under supervision of Dr. A. van de Beek, Dr. 50.F. de Graaff (2004) defended the opinion that angels disappeared to a growing extent from Western churches and theology.
The worldview that at that place is nothing transcendent to which the secular is accountable, led to many people being ignorant of the nature and schemes of Satan and therefore they become sitting ducks for his attacks (Sproul 2011:30).1
Some on the other hand go way across the teaching of Scripture and find a demon behind every problem they face up as described by Watkins (1990):
My mom's completely flipped out. I hateful, she sees demons everywhere. Merely this morning the car died on the way to schoolhouse. She got out, pounded on the hood, and yelled, 'In the name of Jesus, I command the foul spirits of engine stalling to come OUT!' (n.p.)
In his sincere pastoral business organisation for young Christians, Paul wrote that we should not be outwitted past Satan because of ignorance of his strategies (2 Co 2:11). Paul likewise warns that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (two Co 11:14, 15).
Merrill Unger (1991:twenty) says that in Early Church building history, writers such as Justyn Martyr, Lactantius and Augustine dealt with this field of study, but 'For near a millennium and a half, for some foreign reason, the true Biblical doctrine of demons was hardly spoken of.' By the 19th century, he (Unger 1994:8) says: ' … the whole subject was sneered at past many every bit a superstitious thought which nosotros had well become rid of, or was quickly passed over in theological circles'.
Problem statement
The historical developments, the realities of struggles with witchcraft in Africa and the ignorance of young people who grew upwardly in Reformed churches, raises the question: What answers may Reformed perspectives, based on traditional Reformed hermeneutics, offering for a balanced pastoral approach in dealing with demonology?two
Cursory historical overview and developments of current trends
In order to exercise the same pastoral concern for the people, God has entrusted to our intendance pastors and theologians who need to know the historical developments and nowadays-day trends of thinking concerning Satan and demons.
Christian thought most Satan remained fairly consistent until the 17th and 18th centuries.
From well-nigh 1850, the ushering in of the Age of Enlightenment (Rath 1999-2003:96) started every bit a outcome of rationalism industrialisation and the rise of modernistic science. Human reason and intellectual proof was advocated equally the master source for legitimacy and authority. Millions in the Western world were influenced to embrace an overoptimistic view of the so-called 'scientific approach'.
Religious persecutions and wars also pushed people toward scepticism about religion. Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud helped to create a worldview co-ordinate to which supernatural powers could not interrupt the natural realms of cause and effect. Since then, a growing number take dismissed the Devil every bit a figment of homo imagination or every bit the 'psychology of the ancients' no longer relevant in efforts to explain evil today. In the radical form, expressed by Nietzsche: God is expressionless, Satan is dead (Hinson 1992:472).
A rapidly growing number of theological and philosophical scholars developed a method of interpreting Scriptures in which they demythologise and allegorise the biblical records on evil spirits. Rudolph Bultmann (1958:17) - soon followed by many others - made an attempt to make the message of the Bible fit a European enlightenment paradigm that, he reckoned, did not share the worldview of the 1st-century Mediterranean people. He argued that the biblical linguistic communication on the spirit world and the miraculous was merely a human way of speaking almost God and not describing what was happening in authenticity.
This kind of theologising, marginalised the Devil more and more to the periphery in Christian thinking and stimulated a worldview with a flaw of the excluded middle (Hiebert 1982; Moyo 1994:59-60).
The growing move of liberal theology in some mainline churches in South Africa is leading to a total denial of the existence of Satan and demons. Janse van Rensburg, a theologian of the Dutch Reformed Church building, highlighted this in his book with the title: The occult argue (1999). He fabricated it clear that epistemological views on occultism within the Reformed tradition have drastically parted their means in S Africa. During the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in 2007, a report on a ministry of deliverance denied the existence of the Devil and claimed that information technology would exist unscientific to embark on an empirical research in this regard (Dutch Reformed Church 2007:18-30). Kirkpatrick (2007:19) expressed a view at the seminary of the Dutch Reformed Church building in Pretoria that any ministry building of deliverance or theological give-and-take on demon possession and other forms of demonic influences are to be perceived as nonsensical (cf. also Janse van Rensburg 2010:679-697).
Theologians of this camp speak about the Devil with a tongue-in-the-cheek mental attitude. They refuse to believe in the existence of the Devil every bit a person and ridicule the whole idea. This deprival of Satan's real personal existence usually takes the form of defining the idea of Satan as the mythical personification of evil, but not really as a existence who really exists. Schleiermacher (as quoted by Viljoen & Floor 2006) wrote:
Christ and the apostles might have said these things about angels without having had any real conviction of the beingness of such beings … equally, for example, we might talk of ghosts and fairies. (p. 40; cf. also Van Aarde 1987:xiii)
Schleiermacher expresses the opinion that believing in the Devil is merely a grade of escapism. However, people who have done research on the field of occultism and people who are involved in a ministry building of deliverance would but not accept such an assumption (cf. De Beer & Van den Berg 2007:24-30; Ouweneel 1978).
Another development is that of Hendrikus Berkhof (1952:25) who, in following Karl Barth, argued that Paul'due south language concerning the powers in Ephesians and elsewhere was an endeavour by the 1st-century person to describe real social, economical, psychological and political structures that afflicted their everyday lives. He also denies the existence of a personal beingness called the Devil, insisting that it is a 'collective symbolization of evil' and 'the collective of weight of homo fallenness'. Rather than personal evil spirits, these forces are the inner or spiritual principles of an institution or nation - the culture, ethos and gestalt that affect how things are run.
Throughout history, overtly evil socio-political systems such equally the idolatry of the Roman Caesars, the anti-Semitism of Hitler'south Nazism, the evil of human slavery, the atheism of the Communists, the dehumanisation of Apartheid, the wickedness of the ethnic cleansing in parts of Africa, racism and terrorism of all forms, and the greed of capitalism have all demonstrated the extent to which the evil powers can influence earth systems and seek to thwart the blessings of humanity.
In covert forms, evil powers continue to influence humanity in the addiction of people in the drugs culture, in postmodern hedonism, the explosion of the pornographic manufacture, the disdain for the sanctity of human being life, and the tyranny of secularism which denies people their true freedom to serve God. In personal pastoral counselling feel, I observed that young people who got involved with satanic covens all became hooked on drugs, pornography and somewhen violent bizarre and troubled behaviour.
Through the tragic history of Western civilization since 1914, the onset of the Beginning World War, the Devil, as a person who is evil, has also made a comeback. The unimaginable evilness of evil in the 20th century convinced many people to believe in the Devil once again. Christopher Nugent (1989:30), a historian at the University of Kentucky, has labelled the period start with the Third Reich 'The kingdom of dark: A century of Satan'. He points out how the Western world has begun to lose its faith not in religion, simply in science and the autonomous human reason. Secularism has produced two devastating world wars; industrialisation has created a serial of mounting ecological disasters, and the West has begun to lose its faith not in faith, simply in science and the autonomous homo reason. The moral crisis of our time, says David Harvey (1990:41), is a crisis of Enlightenment thought. The 'inevitable' triumph of atheistic secularism did non happen. At a briefing of the Europe co-operative of Globe Reformed Fellowship at Utrecht in Oct 2007, Peter Jones (2007; cf. as well Jones 1979), in his newspaper with the championship 'Paganism, the step-child of secularism', pointed out how wide and deep problems like witchcraft, alternative healing and occultism is spreading in Western Europe.three He referred to Andre Malraux who, in the eye of the 20th century at the loftier point of the achievements of secularism, predicted that the 21st century would be religious. Jones as well agreed with postmodern deconstructionist, Mark C. Taylor, professor at Williams College, who observed that the 21st century would be dominated past religion in means that were inconceivable just a few years ago. 'The irony is delicious', says theologian Don Carson (1996:100), 'the modernity which has arrogantly insisted that man reason is the final arbiter of truth has spawned a stepchild that has arisen to slay it' (cf. also Lovelace 1976:65-90).
I example is that, in postmodern New Age circles, ane finds an obsession with and many speculations about angels. With regard to angels - which overlap with the doctrine of demonology - Noll (1998:11) makes the following remark: 'To theologize about angels is a most dubious undertaking in our twenty-four hour period. Simply to ignore the subject of angels is to miss ane of the comeback stories of the century.'
In postmodern circles, the view is propagated that one should seek to communicate with angels in low-cal of a belief that every homo existence has a guardian angel. Such a guiding spirit is regarded as more approachable than God and therefore you should pray to your guardian angel. They also believe in healing angels and comforting angels (cf. Joubert 1997:53). The New Age Movement also encourages people to discover their psychic abilities. Interest in spiritism, witchcraft and clairvoyance (predicting the hereafter) has drastically grown among all layers of gild. Celebrities, receiving amusement awards, publicly credit their 'spirit guides' for their success. The contemporary question for many today is non the medieval query about how many angels can trip the light fantastic on the head of a pin, only how ane may contact, antipodal with and 'hug' one'due south guardian affections.
African people treat demonology with bang-up respect. Their worldview has given much space to these phenomena. Therefore, when the West meets the non-West, there has previously been difficulty in reconciling differences. Demon activity is very real for African people as being pointed out by several scholars from South Africa and Africa (Kathide 2007; Kato 1975; Manala 2004; Mbiti 1975; Nyirongo 1997; Turaki 1999).
In Southward Africa, the HIV pandemic has led to a new explosion of witchcraft, steeped in occult rituals and practices, and witchcraft medications (cf. sociological research of Ashforth 2001). People are so desperate to find healing from HIV and AIDS that witchdoctors and wizards have grabbed the market to advertise potions and rituals for healing. Enquiry projects have revealed that muti shops around Soweto accept become a major economic endeavour (Gossmann 2012). I have personally been at the sickbeds and deathbeds of terminally ill AIDS patients who were mixing sangoma muti [witchdoctor or traditional healer medications]4 with antiretroviral (ARV) medication that cost them around R2000 - more than the ARV medication - with the reasoning that information technology will telephone call on ancestral spirits to rescue them from the 'bad luck' of demonic spirits.
In significant parts of African Christian circles, there is no difficulty at all in accepting the existence and reality of the influence of evil spirits. Confusion in this regard in Nigeria and the Congo is and then bad that Pentecostal pastors demand large amounts of money to exorcise evil spirits from vulnerable children to assist their parents or caregivers to be liberated from all sorts of illnesses which are caused - according to their beliefs - by children who are possessed by a demon (cf. Ellison 2018).
Whatsoever first-time visitor to an African initiated church building service in any of the cities of W, Central and Southern Africa volition be most impressed past the frequent reference to the Devil and his demons. I observed prayers for exorcising demons binding Satan and delivering the oppressed in several church services. Non only are the worshippers conscious of the battle confronting evil spirits, only many church building members and preachers specialise as 'prayer warriors' who wage spiritual warfare against evil spirits.
A number of African scholars have argued that the situational context of Africa demands a contextualisation that regards specific teachings as special cases for Africans. As eloquently put by Emmanuel Asante (2001:358), 'Understood as deliverance not but from i'due south sinful selfhood but also from evil forces, conservancy must accost the concepts of evil and sin in the African context.' Information technology makes no sense to the African to deny the presence of evil powers or to accept a Saviour who could not provide a complete and decisive victory over such powers.
Asante (2001) further explains:
The African reality demands a Saviour who has the power non only to deliver the believer from evil powers but as well to transform the lives of the bewitched and the dehumanized, enabling them to live actively in the community. (p. 358)
The concept of generational curses is an owned worldview in parts of Africa (Makashinyi 2019). In Christian circles, information technology is based on an invalid understanding of Old Testament phrases such equally 'visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the third and fourth generations of those who hate God' (Ex twenty:5; 34:7; Nm 14:18; Dt five:9). Marilyn Hickey (2000:13) defines it as 'an un-apple-pie iniquity that increases in forcefulness from generation to generation affecting the members of that family and all who come into relationship with that family'. A failure to emphasise God's sovereign grace and the complete victory of Christ over such generational spirits, only fosters a mentality that paralyses believers.
What Joseph Quayesi-Amakye (2015) states about phenomena in Ghana is typical of many African countries:
In this regard exorcism/deliverance, prayer and prophetic negotiation/rituals become a major exercise in many Pentecostal prayer services. Perhaps, such spiritualization helps to show the impingement of the Akan traditional religion on Ghanaian Pentecostal contextualization of the Gospel. Maybe it reveals the extent to which such understanding becomes normativein Ghanaian peripheral Pentecostal theology. (p. 1; cf. also Mbewe 2013 virtually phenomena in Zambia)
The same teachings virtually deliverance became very popular in the US through Frank Peretti'south two spiritual warfare novels, This present darkness (1988) and Piercing the darkness (1989), which captivated so many readers that more than than 3.5 one thousand thousand copies have been sold.
In riveting storytelling, Peretti manages to excite imaginations on how evil spirits may operate to influence the daily happenings in villages and towns across the USA and in the globe at big.
Although simply novels, Peretti'southward creative accounts have quickly influenced a theological worldview in some evangelical circles that they at present see demons underneath most every mug in the kitchen or table in the study and behind every bush-league. Without intending to do so, he has facilitated a systemisation of the evil powers in the world far across what the Bible teaches (encounter Guelich 1991:33-64 for assay of Peretti).
Somewhat contemporaneous with the publication of Peretti's works, Peter Wagner (Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church building Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary) became a leader of a growing spiritual warfare movement that promotes direct power encounters with demons and territorial spirits as a vital attribute of effective missions. Wagner (1993:200) says: 'The existent battle for both earth evangelisation and social justice is a spiritual boxing and our principal weapon of spiritual warfare is prayer.'
At the International Lausanne Two Conference in Manila in 1989, the spiritual warfare movement gained an official hearing from evangelical leaders when a 'Spiritual Warfare Track' was established under the direction of Charles Kraft. The establishment of the AD 2000 United Prayer Runway and the Spiritual Warfare Network under Wagner's leadership further strengthened the movement. Since so, conferences on spiritual warfare take been held throughout the US. This fixation on our supernatural enemy has given rise to a phenomenon of books on 'spiritual warfare': by terminal count, over 400 books take been published on this subject in the 1990s!
Clinton Arnold (1992) challenges usa to 'become the upper hand on [demons] before they get information technology on us'. He evaluates such aspects of contemporary spiritual warfare every bit 'demolishing strongholds', 'demon possession', 'binding the stiff man', 'strategic level spiritual warfare' (SLSW), 'warfare prayer', 'territorial spirits', 'spiritual mapping', 'identificational repentance', the 'genealogical transmission of demons', 'deliverance ministries', 'power encounters' versus 'truth encounters', et cetera. Some of the claims fabricated by spiritual warfare writers are alarming.
This approach fits well with traditional African worldview and is embraced in parts of Africa. With regard to the concept of territorial spirits, Opoku Onyinah (2004:337) points out that it is 'the notion that the demons assume a hierarchy with powers of greater and lesser ranks, and having specific geographical assignments'. Derived from Daniel 10, the didactics emphasises that territorial spirits wield their influence over detail geographical regions, tribes, people groups, neighbourhoods and other significant social networks. The result of their influence is to modify the class of the social, economic and political situations in the earth.
Systematising this instruction further, some interpreters on the continent of Africa take speculated that these demonic powers take specific names that are required to be known if spiritual warfare is to be successful. In all the same a further interpretation, the concepts of ancestral spirits are merged with territorial spirits to produce a doctrine that requires nations to exorcise the demons of economic mismanagement and corruption earlier the African continent may begin to prosper (Asamoah-Gyadu 2004:389-406).
All these extremes create the necessity for a comprehensive understanding of a biblical and valid hermeneutically based perspective on demonology.
As David Powlison says: 'A great deal of fiction, superstition, fantasy, nonsense, nuttiness, and downright heresy flourishes in the church under the guise of "spiritual warfare" in our time' (quoted by Taylor 2012).
Information technology often distracts the attention from the real warfare which we need to wage and mislead Christians to bypass the most of import issues for the church building and God'due south kingdom.
The authorisation of Scripture and hermeneutical practise
In considering the publications about Satan, demons and angels, it is credible that paths within theological approaches and church practices effectually demonology separate on opinions most the dominance of Scripture and valid hermeneutics.
It seems that those who deny the ontological beingness of Satan and demons, and those who become obsessed with the Devil and demons have one thing in common. They practice non take the authority of Scriptures seriously and, every bit a outcome, they employ a hermeneutical arroyo in their interpretation of passages and its applications on phenomena that, in fact, denies the unity of Scripture and the basic Reformational rule that Bible passages should be understood within their context, that the goal or scopus of a text should make up one's mind the meaning of a passage, and doctrine should be formulated through comparing various passages that deals with the aforementioned truths (Sacra Scriptura sui ipsius interpres). Equally Berkouwer (1975) formulates:
Nowhere was the relationship betwixt authority and estimation and then conspicuously expressed equally in the Reformation confession of Scripture, which, based on sola Scriptura, offered a perspective on the real relationship between authorization and interpretation, and expressed it in its hermeneutical rule: Sacra Scriptura sui ipsius interpres [Sacred Scripture is its own interpreter]. (p. 127)
Heyns (1978) formulates the same principle as follows:
Die sleutel vir dice verstaan van hierdie kernprobleem ten opsigte van die ontstaan van die Skrif, en tewens ook vir dice verstaan van die ganse Skrif na sy vorm en boodskap, mag nie van buite-Bybelse oorsprong wees nie. Ons mag nie met 'n sleutel in ons hand na dice Bybel gaan om and so sy diepste geheime te ontsluit nie. Vir die verstaan van dice Bybel gee dice Bybel self aan ons die sleutel. Die diepste bedoeling van die bekende Reformatoriese slagspreuk sacra scriptura sui ipsius interpres was dan ook nie net dat elke Skrifgedeelte in die lig van die geheel verklaar moet word nie, maar dat die Skrif cocky moet sê wie, wat en waarvandaan hy is. Die Bybel en niks anders nie, is die norm en die bron vir die verstaan van die Bybel. Insig in die openbaring is alleen moontlik in die lig van die openbaring. (bl. eighteen)
This inevitably leads to the epistemological question of how ane comes to the truth. Crucial questions that should exist asked are the following:
1. Is the use of anecdotes sufficient to establish a doctrine and justify new practices? Davis (2007:97) refers to research of Priest, Campbell and Mullen on 'Missiological Syncretism', who seriously question what they call the 'epistemological underpinnings of these doctrines'. Aside from the lack of Scripture support, they fault modern-day SLSW leaders for basing these 'new' doctrines on:
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interviews with demons resident in demonised persons;
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information about demons gathered from practitioners of occult and animistic folk religions (and assuming it corresponds to reality);
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ofttimes told and retold anecdotes and missionary testimonies;
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pragmatism: the SLSW method 'works';
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their ain 'spiritual' discernment (they phone call information technology 'inner Geiger counters');
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personal revelations from God (special 'words of noesis').
ii. Should we accept information from the spirit earth and claim to receive authentic information from demons? Charles Kraft (1995:98) defends himself and Peter Wagner, relying on animist beliefs in dealing with the spirit earth and suggests that animists are non as ignorant equally some may retrieve, and possess reliable knowledge concerning principles that govern the spirit world.
3. What is the relation between the authority of Scripture and guidance of the Holy Spirit? Wagner (1996:20) claims that God told him to take leadership in the area of territorial spirits and claims to take apostolic authority and a divine date to reshape Christianity, which is primarily based on extra-biblical revelation. He and Kraft merits that they take special guidance from the Holy Spirit, as the 3rd wave of the Holy Spirit revival has been ushered in. Nevertheless, even other charismatic theologians fiercely reject this doctrine.
Scott Moreau (equally quoted past Van der Meer 2008:28) rightly states: 'As Evangelicals we can never allow personal narratives to replace the investigative methods of history, the social sciences and theology which take stood the examination of time.'
Reformed Christians have ever primarily put their faith in the Lord who has revealed himself in his Word. Information technology is his Discussion that has the authority in our lives. This means that our personal experience is never the potency upon which we base our beliefs on Satan and demons.
The words of the Holy Spirit in Scriptures teach, rebuke, correct and railroad train Christians. Personal experiences or the experiences of anyone else, no matter how wise or learned they may appear, may never become chief sources of faith.
Biblical teaching on Satan and demons
The existence or reality of Satan
Satan is not merely an evil, impersonal influence, simply a very real person - a fallen angel with supernatural powers. 5
The nature of Satan
Satan is a fallen angel. Therefore, all that is true of angels in general is true of Satan and his fallen angels (demons).
He is a creature
Like all angels, Satan is a animal, created by Christ, the Creator of all things as information technology is written in Colossians 1:fifteen, sixteen:
He [Christ] is the epitome of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on globe, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him (cf. also Jn 1:1; Ps 148:1-5).
Dunn (1996:90) rightly states that in the final clause of the verse, if 'everything ( τὰ πάντα ) was created and exists [perfect tense] through him and for him, that presumably also distances Christ from creation equally creation's ways and cease'.
He is a spirit being
Hebrews i:14 describes angels equally spirits. Demons are called unclean spirits (Mt eight:sixteen; 12:45; Lk seven:21; viii:2; 11:26; Ac 19:12; Rv sixteen:14). The fact that we are told that: we do not wrestle with flesh and claret, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, confronting the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places (Eph vi:12), also propose that Satan and his demons are spirit beings. Finally, the fact that Paul describes them every bit invisible, also shows that they are spirit beings (Col 1:xvi).
Satan has limitations
Although extremely powerful, Satan is non almighty, omniscient or omnipresent. He simply cannot be everywhere at one time. Nevertheless, as the chief of his forces of demons or as the 'prince of the power of the air' (Eph two:2), he is primary of a vast host of demons who are and so numerous every bit to brand Satan'due south power and presence seem to be practically ubiquitous or everywhere at once (cf. Mk 5:9).
Considering of this limitation, many references to Satan or the Devil include his whole kingdom. The person of Satan does not personally tempt each of united states, for he but cannot practise that. He is only able to do and so through his influence in world systems and hosts of demons.
Summary of gospel demonology
Because all the data in the New Testament demonology, it may briefly be summed up as follows (Oesterley 1906:442):
one. Demons are under a head, Satan; they form a kingdom.
2. They are incorporeal and generally, although non necessarily invisible.
3. They inhabit certain places which they adopt to others.
iv. They tend to live in groups.
5. They have names and are sometimes identified with their victims and at other times differentiated from them. They are the cause of mental and concrete disease to men, women and children.
vi. They can pass in and out of man beings and even animals.
7. More than ane tin can take possession of a human being at the same time.
8. Christ made it one of his chief aims to overthrow this kingdom and set upward his own in its place.
9. Christ bandage out demons through his own name or by his word.
10. Christ could delegate this power which was regarded as something new.
11. Christ never treats the possessed as wilful sinners which is in strong contrast to his words to the scribes and Pharisees.
12. Just on the rarest occasions does, Christ come into direct contact with the possessed.
13. Christ'southward divine and human natures are recognised past demons.
14. At Christ'south 2d coming, the members of Satan'southward kingdom are to exist condemned to eternal fire.
The divergence between gospel demonology and Jewish beliefs in the times of the New Testament
It would exist most unscientific to ignore the fact that, in spite of many points of similarity and even of essential identity, the demonology of the Gospels offers something sui generis and differs significantly from Jewish beliefs in the times of the New Testament. Oesterley (1906) points the following differences out:
In the one at that place is zip eccentric, nothing done for issue, or for self-glorification, there is no casting out of demons for the sake of exhibiting power, at that place is none of the 'wonder-working' which characterizes other systems; i object, and one only, runs through the whole of the accounts of the casting out of demons, namely, the consolation of human suffering. To requite in any detail the points of difference between the general field of study of demonology and Gospel demonology would be impossible here, but, when the slap-up mass of facts has been studied, the contrast betwixt the 2 tin be compared only to the contrast between folly and seriousness. … It is well as well to remember that the advance of Modern Science, especially in the domain of Psychology, has revealed problems whose most important consequence is to show how extremely piffling we know almost such things equally 'secondary personality', the 'subliminal cocky', 'change of control', etc. etc. - in a word, how subconscious still are the secrets of the region of the supersensuous.
… Christ saw in the case of every 'possessed' victim a upshot of sin, not necessarily through the co-functioning of the victims; sin He saw embodied in 'Satan', who is identified with 'demon' (see higher up); he was the personilication of the principle of Evil, which was manifested in men in a variety of ways. When Christ 'exorcized' a 'demon', He, past His Divine ability, drove the evil out, and at the same time obliterated the visible results of sin. (p. 443)
The work of demons in the lives of non-believers
Not-believers who are worshipping faux gods are in fact worshipping demons. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:twenty: ' … what pagans cede they offer to demons and not to God'.
When God deputed Paul, he sent him to plough the Gentiles, the unsaved, 'from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God' (Ac 26:xviii).
Not only does Satan hold the unsaved nether his reign, but he likewise blinds the minds of unbelievers and so that they cannot come across the calorie-free of the gospel (ii Cor 4:4).
By worshipping demons, participating in practices of divination, telling fortune or interpreting omens, or being a magician, a charmer, a medium, a necromancer or ane who inquires data from the dead, people open themselves up to demonic control. Such things are an abomination to the Lord so that eventually their thoughts, their deeds and their identity more than and more than become dominated by an alternate personality - by another beingness (Koch 1986; Ouweneel 1978).
Demonised people are not just hallucinating when they say that they are hearing voices. They are actually hearing voices. They are not but manifesting another personality that they invented from trauma to cope with suffering. This is what some people exercise, merely maybe they take rather opened themselves up through lies, temptations, accusations, spiritism, demonism, occultism and habit to the betoken where they actually have demons - unclean spirits at work in them and through them to destroy them. Richard Gallagher (2016), a board-certified psychiatrist and a professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College recently stated in an commodity in Washington Post:
… careful observation of the evidence presented to me in my career has led me to believe that certain extremely uncommon cases tin can exist explained no other style. I believe I've seen the real thing. Assaults upon individuals are classified either as 'demonic possessions' or as the slightly more mutual just less intense attacks usually called 'oppressions'. A possessed individual may suddenly, in a type of trance, voice statements of astonishing venom and contempt for religion, while understanding and speaking various strange languages previously unknown to them. The discipline might also exhibit enormous strength or fifty-fifty the extraordinarily rare miracle of levitation. (n.p.; cf. likewise Collins 1976:237-239)
Medication tin can help for some who have a concrete status, simply those who are demonised, demand Jesus. They also need repentance and truth, and the indwelling presence and power of God the Holy Spirit and then that they will be controlled by the ability of God and not the ability of the enemy.
The set on of demons in the lives of believers
Demons do not own or possess whatsoever Christians. A Christian is God'southward sole possession. However, Christians can open themselves up to demonic influences. Even though they belong to God, they can participate with Satan as Peter does on 1 occasion where Jesus had to say to him: 'Get behind me, Satan' (Mt 16:23; Mk viii:33). Satan did not fill up and control Peter, but Peter was listening to him, speaking for him, working for him. So Jesus rebuked Satan and ultimately Peter's piece of work with him. An unbeliever can end up similar the demonised man who was totally controlled. Believers can cease up like Peter, participating in the enemy's work fifty-fifty though they belong to Jesus.
The devices Satan uses to attack people
Pride
The Bible oftentimes makes it clear that pride is not only the reason for Satan's autumn, but as well the source of all that is demonic.
That is why James specifically refers to pride when he instructs Christians how to resist the Devil.
'God is opposed to the proud, only gives grace to the humble. Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he volition abscond from you' (Jm 4:6-7).
Hanging on to grudges
In Ephesians 4:27, Paul warns believers against giving Satan a foothold. Bitterness, pride and the lack of self-control during acrimony give the Devil a half open up door through which he attacks. A want for retaliation is instigated by Satan.
The full armour of God
The almost important fact about Satan that Scripture gives us is that he is a defeated foe. Colossians 2:15 tells united states of america that Jesus Christ disarmed the powers and regime, and 'made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross'. Satan has lost the big war. He is now engaged in guerrilla warfare against u.s. and we tin defeat him in this day-to-day struggle. Paul's educational activity to put on the full armour of God is a control.
Christians clearly have the identity (being in Christ), the dominance (being seated with Christ) and the mandate to resist Satan and his demons. They practise so non based on their own goodness, but because of Christ'due south finished work on the cross. Because the Ane who is in u.s. is greater than the one who is in the world (one Jn four:4), Christians can successfully stand against demonic schemes. Their weapons in this ongoing struggle include their authorisation as seated with Christ at the right hand of God, far above every power (Eph one:15-two:6), the proper noun of Jesus (Phlp 2:ten), their spiritual armour (Eph 6:eighteen), prayer (a must in all cases - Mk 9:29), simple resistance (Jm 4:vii), forgiveness (Eph four:26-32), and exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit (Gl 5:22-23; Eph 4:22-29; 6:ten-18).
I agree with Collins (1976:239), Gallagher (2016) and Quayesi-Amakye (2016) that information technology is necessary to 'demystify' demonic activities. People demand to exist assured of God'due south sovereign control over all satanic hordes, including witchcraft. They besides demand to be taught to know what the Bible says nigh the Devil and his strategies that thrives on Christians' ignorance of their position in Christ. Pastors must take upwards their roles as spiritual shepherds of the church building and then that unwarranted prophetic excesses can at least exist minimised. In order to help pastors and Christian counsellors to practice proper discernment when they counsel people suffering from demonic possession or warning signs of occultism and witchcraft, they should opt for teamwork including psychological and psychiatric experts too every bit prayer support of spiritually mature Christians
Paul notes that, through the church building, 'the manifold wisdom of God' will exist made known to the principalities and powers. Equally the church, as the bride of Christ, extends the gospel, the very presence of the church is a declaration of the manifold wisdom of God to these evil powers. John Stott's explanation (equally quoted by Asumang 2008:8) of this poetry is non just poetic, 'The multi-racial, multi-cultural community is like a beautiful tapestry … History is the theatre, the world is the phase, and the church building members in every land are the actors.'
Decision
The testimony of the Scriptures regarding Satan and demons is clear and cohesive. They are celestial entities who oppose God's sovereign command. They seek to work out their unholy rebellion by influencing people to alive in a way reverse to God'south expressed intentions. At the same time, they remain nether his sovereignty and can exist used by him to affect the divine plan. Christians must submit themselves to God and resist the attacks of Satan and his hosts. To do then, they must be enlightened of the basic truths presented in Scripture concerning not just the ontology of Satan and demons, just their methods, as they attempt to influence people's lives. Once aware, they are to take their stand in Christ and oppose the working of demons, whether personally, corporately or in the structures and systems of society.
Acknowledgement
Competing interest
The writer declares that no competing interest exists.
Author contributions
I declare that I am the sole author of this enquiry article.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-turn a profit sectors.
Data availability statement
Information sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do non necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated bureau of the authors.
Upstanding consideration
This commodity followed all ethical standards for conveying out enquiry without direct contact with human being or animal subjects.
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Flip Buys
buys.flip@gmail.com
Received: 31 October. 2018
Accepted: 29 Apr. 2019
Published: 31 July 2019
1 . I often counselled young people and university students who grew up in Reformed churches who, in full ignorance of demonology, in their search for solutions to cope with struggles of real-life problems such as the processing grief, unresolved conflicts and bitterness, got pulled into spiritism, the utilise of drugs, satanic rituals and somewhen became members of secret satanic covens. In my cross-cultural ministry building, I experienced isiZulu and isiNdebele people who were izangoma or experiencing the 'call' to get isangomas radiating bizarre behaviour, shouting and screaming when the name of Jesus Christ was mentioned in teaching or in personal pastoral counselling sessions.
2 . One of the main goals of In die Skriflig is to promote Reformational theology. Therefore, this article is written from the perspectives of Reformed hermeneutics that accepts the Bible as the authoritative Word of God. I associate myself with the views of Jordaan, Janse van Rensburg and Brood (2011:225-258) on the character of Reformed hermeneutics. Compare also Vanhoozer's defence (1998:210) of 'the possibility, in the vale of the shadow of Derrida, that readers tin legitimately and responsibly achieve literary knowledge of the Bible … that in that location is a significant in the text, that it can be known, and that readers should strive to exercise so'. Besides compare how Vanhoozer (2005) convincingly points out how the bedrock of hermeneutical criteria are grounded in the canon itself, the patterns of God's story, the revelation of God's graphic symbol through the story and, most particularly, in the culmination of God'southward theo-drama in Jesus Christ.
iii . At the end of the session of Peter Jones, I asked Dr. Victor Cole, the academic dean of the NEGST (Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology) who was sitting adjacent to me: 'Then, what tin can we, coming from Africa, now say to the Western world later on this paper of Peter Jones?' His tongue-in-the-cheek answer was: 'Welcome dorsum.'
iv . In Southern African order, the Sangoma acts as a therapist for problems of wellness, luck, love, dream estimation, sexual problems or business organization ventures (Chichi African Culture 2015).
5 . This section of the article summarises insights of De Bont (1948) and Emanuel (2014).
Source: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2305-08532019000400006
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