On the one hand, we recognize that the typical Western Christian image of demons is comical, and tragically misguided. The popular mythology of “spiritual warfare” is a big joke to Satan. It’s another distraction that keeps folks from paying attention to what he’s really up to in our world.
On the other hand, we dare not allow the Western myth of objectivity to drain life from our world. Creation is alive, and most of our environment is full of living beings our society refuses to recognize. It’s more than making friends with trees and birds; there are living influences to deceive the soul. We call those influences “demons.” They are as real as the tangible reality, and far more dangerous, despite having no concrete form.
We must reinforce the message that we cannot trust what we can perceive with mere senses and reason. That’s the substance of our battle. We are not reduced to body and mind, but we can develop a faculty for awareness that is separate from the intellect. When we learn about the heart-mind, we learn to anchor that awareness in a place superior to the intellect. The mind then becomes a servant to this higher awareness.
This is the definition of “mysticism” and it is one thing most troubling for Satan. It’s not the bogus mysticism we see attempting to extend the intellect, so that the net result is chaining the heart to the mind again. The intellect must surrender its primacy. We have to keep telling ourselves that everything that makes sense to our reason is suspect. We have to teach ourselves to “reason” in the heart-mind.
The heart is armed with ultimate truth, the one and only threat to Satan’s dominion in our lives. This is why we study the parables in the Bible, and the symbolism of Hebrew literature. God built that intellectual tradition as the best way to reveal Himself to the world. But the particular human expression of His manifest truth need not form a prison for our souls. It’s the approach, not the specific results. We are called to see through that particular contextual expression and find the ineffable reality of the Spirit Realm. Then we are able to correctly assess in our own context how to give shape and flavor to the same truth.
In our world today, it’s pretty dicey to chatter about demons, because the English translation of the Bible has been hijacked. We have to restate the biblical expressions in a new context so as to redeem Scripture from the darkness. We have to find ways to deconstruct the lies, to dismantle the vast structures of falsehood:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NKJV)
The image here is pulling down enemy forts on the territory of our souls. Paul wrote these words in the context of fighting Talmudic perversions of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Pharisees had hijacked the text and chained it to an entirely false intellectual context (Hellenism). Paul specifically refers to the Judaizers and nascent Gnostics as an influence invading and staking false claims on the gospel.
So quote Scripture when you can, but try to show how it belongs in a different context than might be popular with mainstream Christian religion. This in itself is the very essence of spiritual warfare. We must first turn that Flaming Sword of Revelation on ourselves and begin to claim the divine heritage, manifest it in the richness of His promised blessings. That Sword is not a mere matter of quoting the words of the Bible, but of a radical shift into the moral sphere of existence.
The words mean nothing unless they are first burned into your own soul. There are no magic ritual declarations to make the Devil behave himself; that sort of thinking is another lie from Hell. I’m sure he finds it very amusing when someone tries to wield “words of power” against him. The law in your mouth means nothing unless it proceeds from your heart.
Speaking of demons, I’ve been reading Dante (on the Inferno right now), and it’s nuts how much pagan mythology was stuffed in there…and not just allegorical references. It’s a great read but it’s fairly extra-Christian.
Yes, I recall reading big chunks of that in high school. It came across pretty goofy even then, yet it reflects to some degree official doctrine in some organizations.
Since I’m (still) a nuts & bolts kinda person, I found this page and its description useful: http://montalk.net/notes/dislodging-negative-entity-attachments (under the heading “Demonic Attachments”)
“Demonic attachments can be picked up in several ways. One is through willful invitation, say through practice of black magick, left-hand-path occult systems, or undergoing initiations into questionable secret societies. These all give a person increased power and knowledge in exchange for soul energy and debt to the demonic beings conferring those, which in the long run is a bad deal. But just as people get themselves into a hole through credit cards, some do likewise spiritually through the “credit card” of black magick. ”
What’s your opinion about “spirit guides”, fortune telling, New Age, shamanic and other kinds of spirit interactions? Personally wouldn’t recommend because they probably shouldn’t be needed and you don’t really know what you’re dealing with. God is trustworthy who knows about the rest.
Hello, Mr.T. I suppose debt is a workable metaphor for letting Satan own a chunk of your soul. However, my concern is that it implies we aren’t under his authority by default. But we can provoke additional demonic activity. However, Montalk takes a New Age kind of approach in the first place, which invariably denies our fallen nature. This is a major break point between a genuine faith from the Bible versus just about everything else. Most New Age type of stuff doesn’t deny the Fall flatly so much as proceeds on the assumption that we are okay and need no redemption.
Thus, just about everything you mention in your question participates in this false view. It’s not a question of whether we can posit a biblical precedent that appears to support seeking spirit guides; it’s inconsistent with the broad fundamental message of revelation and its redemptive power. If you can’t recognize something like that as distinctly angelic in nature, then it’s a demon. And if you aren’t walking by your convictions, you can’t know the difference, because it’s not discerned rationally. The single greatest lie we face is that the human mind can be “perfected” in any sense, to include raising our intellect to the capability of moral discernment. You cannot “learn” moral discernment; you can teach your mind to obey the heart and your heart already knows the truth. That learning does allow you to learn patterns that work most of the time, but you always need the reserve of self-cynicism.
“However, my concern is that it implies we aren’t under his authority by default.”
This brings to mind the role of (my) Lutheran (infant) baptism… 🙂
“It’s not a question of whether we can posit a biblical precedent that appears to support seeking spirit guides”
I was more thinking about the “technical aspects” of that if you will. And that some New Agey people obviously think that it can be a good idea.
Yes. If infant baptism serves as a covenant community entry like circumcision under Moses, it’s fine. If there is any pretense for more than that, it’s bogus. I’m familiar with Lutheran teachings.