Beware of Demons - 3
How to recognize "demons."
A reader writes:
Very interesting, there are many demons such as sadness and fear. Also lust, vices and corruption of our own character. Since benevolence determines the dedication to the mission, I wonder what drives malice?
This question seems like a good starting point for this post on “demons.”
If we define "demonic possession" as "destructive thoughts" in today's terms, then we have to put them in the context of “productive thoughts.” Productive thoughts and destructive ones share certain common characteristics. Both types of ideas can dominate our thinking, make us want to communicate them to others, and drive our actions. How then do they differ? What makes a destructive thought different from other types of thoughts? In other words, what makes a mental meme into a "demon" in the terms of Jesus’s era.
First, let us talk about how we recognize a biblical “demon” in our lives or the lives of others in a practical way using Jesus’s guidelines.
People controlled by "demons," i.e. destructive thoughts, must tell lies.
Whether they are an alcoholic or a committed ideologue to some destructive form of society, if they are willing to lie for their "cause", the thought that is driving them is, by definition, a demon. If you are lying in service of an idea, you are working for a demon, the snake in the garden, the dragon in myth, the adversary to used Jesus’s term. If the thought tells you that it is more important than the truth, it is a demon. It is destructive. The lies are necessary because no one will buy what you are selling, your service to the demon, if you are honest about it. This is why the adversary, satanas, (see this article) is described as the "father of lies."
Demons are fueled by the host’s desire for easy, immediate self-gratification.
As I said in the previous article, addiction starts from a simple idea: that you can satisfy yourself with physical pleasure. This idea also covers lust and many other vices. Other forms of demon “malice” are driven by other forms of gratification. The desire to feel lucky or smarter than others drives the desire to gamble. The desire for social approval or peer approval lures many into other destructive behaviors such as smoking. Some can find pleasure in the freedom of violating the established norms. All these pleasures are fleeting. Once the demon gets a hold on a host, the goal changes to satisfy the demon.
A "demon" is clearly destructive over time.
The “demonic” bears no permanent fruit in the material world except more misery. It tears down rather than builds up. When people are inhabited by demons, their lives are poorer and poorer over time, by every measure, both physical and emotional. People controlled by demons grow less capable over time. The demon satisfies itself, not the host. The demon consumes everything as a sacrifice to itself. Ideas are true. Our lives are the fruit they bear. (Matthew 7:17 Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit…).
People controlled by "demons" are eventually unhappy and want those around them to be unhappy as well.
Destructive thoughts hurt. Any pleasure they give is temporary while the life they create is painful. We can say that people are "self-destructive," but what we are really saying is that they are being destroyed by a demon. The demonic trap is to create pain so that the host will seek pleasure in a way that creates more pain. This is how the demon "ties up" its victim (Matthew 12:29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house…).
When "a demon" is "driven out," it will return if nothing better takes its place.
The human mind must be occupied with something. If it is not occupied with productive thoughts and habits, it will be inhabited by destructive ones. This was, of course, one point of the previous post on demons, though the main context was alcoholism. People return to the same poison again and again, no matter how clearly they understand that it is bad for them. People do not vow to quit productive behavior and then return to it. It is only destructive behavior that they try to escape from.
Conclusion
Jesus’s ideas on “demons” are far from outdated. By choosing to separate ourselves from the “demon,” thinking of them as non-physical beasts who want to feed on us, we are much better prepared to fight them. This raises the question: do “non-physical entities” really exist? We live in a materialistic society. Science wants to pretend that non-material things do not exist in reality. However, all of science must use “non-material beings” in order to work at all. This is what I will discuss in the next article.