Broken Demonology

The inherent failures of Western Systematic Theology are most evident in Demonology.

In the first place, Systematic Theology is scarcely induced to recognize the divine, so it should be no surprise it handles demons poorly. They do appear in Scripture from beginning to end, though not always by that label. For example, the chief of demons, Satan, is labeled “the Serpent” in Genesis. If you have a poor grasp of Hebrew symbolic logic, you might conclude this is a literal reference to some primordial snake with legs. So Western evangelical teachings are shot through just such a silly notion. It carries them down endless wild goose chases.

Nor should we be surprised at the often comical notions taken by the less orthodox Charismatic notions regarding demons. When your epistemological assumptions undercut a proper grasp of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Hebraic substrate of the New Testament, you leave people dangling, wide open to deception when they can’t quite buy your own obvious mistakes.

Popular forms of demonology arose against the utter failure of old line orthodoxy to take seriously the problem with demonic influences. With the dominance of Enlightenment rationalism, demons were viewed merely as a quaint notion from some primitive past which had to be discarded, or at least downplayed, in order to be serious scholars. The entire field of Neo-Pentecostal or Charismatic theologies is the result of closing off any access to the Hebrew epistemology, but refusing to deal with very real non-rational manifestations of the Spirit Realm. Lacking the clear understanding of the Hebraic logic, and seeing the failure of the orthodox rationalism, the Charismatics were left with little choice but to try using broken logic to process a very experiential religion and come up with something which seems to work.

I say these things because I have been directly involved in both traditional evangelical, and even fundamentalist, orthodoxy as well as the Charismatic movement. Both failed me and my own encounters with spiritual realities. That spiritual reality forced me to engage Hebrew intellectual assumptions with a will.

The truth need not make sense to Post-Enlightenment rationalism. It is ineffable, which is why Jesus taught in parables. The ultimate truth of things cannot be stated plainly in rational discourse and match Aristotle’s categories. They cannot be clinically described, only symbolically indicated. Hebrew logic is symbolic and indicative, not analytical and descriptive. Hebrew texts must be read from the Hebrew viewpoint. Aristotle’s categories only work for as far as they go, which stops dead at the boundaries of observable reality. Reaching beyond into the Spiritual Realm requires a departure, a recognition of things beyond the intellect. You simply must absorb revelation as it is.

Demons are fallen angels. So much is commonly understood, but with such a poverty of grasp of all things spiritual, entirely because of the assumption it can be understood on the human level, we end up ignoring the reality of human nature. That reality includes a spirit which can be brought to life, and put in charge over the intellect. The living spirit “reasons” as it were on a spiritual level, completely outside the boundaries of Aristotle’s assumptions, and far above human intellect. Failure to develop a consciousness of this higher faculty is the primary failure of Western theology. We aren’t supposed to understand angels and demons; we are supposed to implement in our minds a mode of life which assumes their presence and powers by recognizing the limits of what we can know.

The world is fallen. Aside from the Creator Himself, any entity which enters within the fallen realm must of necessity respect the limits placed on that realm by the Creator. Angels and demons don’t lose their power, but are confined by the limitations of the realm itself. Both recognize those inherent limits, but demons will lie about them. Our primary understanding of those constraints comes from the Covenant of Noah. In a sense, demons are bound by the Law of Noah. The entirety of their efforts in our lives and in our world is to seduce us off the path of observing the Law of Noah.

When you embrace that covenant willfully, you gain a measure of immunity from demonic activity. The boundaries are not precise as we tend to think of such things in the West, but they are inescapable for both humans and spirit beings. If you are under grace, you are in a position to gain the authority which comes with compliance with that Law of Noah, but without having to worry overmuch about the provisions of that Law. However, if you lack the Hebraic approach to understanding grace, you are horribly crippled in claiming that authority. You won’t get there, except by accident. Your immunity from demonic activity will have huge holes in it unless you approach things from the spiritual reasoning of the Spirit Realm.

Verbally announcing your authority under the Blood of Jesus and other such incantations are ludicrous is you don’t actually operate in the name of Jesus. The concept of “in His Name” is not native to our Western culture. Spoken words have no authority on their own; it’s not magic. Ritual acts and words mean nothing if they don’t arise from a spiritual reality. It requires diving into the Ancient Near Eastern cultural background to realize what is required to properly use such phrasing with any meaning. If you are under the Blood of Jesus, you cannot claim much if you don’t know what it requires of you. You can’t attack the strongholds of Satan in Jesus’ Name if you aren’t actually walking in His authority as a faithful servant of His Divine Court. Simply because you believe you recognize those terms does not qualify; you have to know them from the biblical perspective, the Hebraic perspective.

It boils down to this: Walking obediently to the Covenant of Noah grants you that authority. You have to understand it all from the Hebrew intellectual culture, so that you will read the Scriptures as they were written, not through some perverted goggles of Western rationalist assumptions. You have to think in Hebrew terms, and process the meaning of the Law of Noah from a spiritual frame of reference. It requires recognizing how your spirit communicates down to your mind, and how you discern what is required of you in any given context. Grace means you will surely fail, and still come out clean, not that you can simply run along whatever path appeals to your Western sensibilities. Charismatics are notorious for mistaking emotional stirring for the move of the Spirit. Even those without a living spirit can choose to embrace Noah and Hebrew logical assumptions and find sufficient forgiveness to obtain a level of faithfulness which restricts demonic power in this realm.

You defeat the demons because you fulfill the Laws of God. If you understand the Law of Moses as a contextual expression of the Covenant of Noah, you’ll be miles ahead of the game. You need not bind yourself to Moses, of course, but use Moses as a particular example of Noah. You can gain the authority of obeying Noah by walking in the Spirit, but you can’t claim that without spiritual thinking. Having a spiritual birth does not itself immunize you from demonic activity in your life. It does remove the final penalty of the Fall in Eternity, but it does not give you a free pass in this realm. Regardless of their lies about it, demons are forced to respect the limits of the Laws of God for this fallen realm. If you don’t understand those Laws as revealed, they have the upper hand, and your witness will fail in many and magnificent ways.