W HY YOU DON ’ T HAVE TO FEAR DEMONS AND EVIL SPIRITS Hereford Christadelphians August 2011

M ARK 9 – A DEMON POSSESSED BOY “...has a mute spirit” (v17) “the spirit convulsed him” (v20) Jesus says “You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him” (v25) “Jesus rebuked the demon” (Matt 17v18)

D EMONS AND EVIL - SPIRITS Do they exist? Should we fear them?

P LEASE READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL CAREFULLY !

E STABLISHING OUR FOUNDATION “the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him” (Deuteronomy 4v35) “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me... that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. ” (Isaiah 45v5-7)

“I MAKE PEACE, AND CREATE EVIL ” Evil is not the same a sin or wrongdoing Adam and Eve Noah Moses and the parting of the Red Sea “Disaster”, “calamity” “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, not detest his correction; for whom the Lord loves he corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3v11)

J OB - “N ONE LIKE HIM ON THE EARTH ” “And he said ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord’... Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!’ But he said to her “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity (or evil)” From Job 1 & 2

J OB - “N ONE LIKE HIM ON THE EARTH ”

T HE F OUNDATION P RINCIPLE – BRICKS 1 & 2

WHAT IS A DEMON? IN THE OLD TESTAMENT “They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons” Leviticus 17v7 “They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they did not know, to new gods” Deuteronomy 32v17 “Then he appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the demons, and the calf idols which he had made.” 2Chronicles 11v15 “They even sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons, The blood of their sons and daughters to the idols of Canaan” Psalm 106v37-38

W HAT IS A DEMON ? I N THE O LD T ESTAMENT

W HAT IS A DEMON ? People could offer sacrifices to them. They were “new gods”. They can be “made”. The “idols of Canaan” were demons. Demon = Idol/god.

W HAT IS A DEMON – I N THE N EW T ESTAMENT “...the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God” 1Corinthians 10v20 “Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other God but one” 1 Corinthians 8v4

W HAT IS A DEMON – I N THE N EW T ESTAMENT

T HE F OUNDATION P RINCIPLE

B ABYLONIAN DEMON Marduk or Bel

P ERSIAN DEMON Shedu (storm demon) - Winged bull - one of the 7 evil deities

G REEK DEMON Zeus

R OMAN DEMON Jupiter!

E PILEPSY “Chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures.” 1 There is “complexity of understanding what seizures are” 2 1,2

M ENTAL ILLNESS THOUGHT TO BE CAUSED BY DEMONS And many of them said, “He has a demon and is mad.” John 10v20 “Now we know that you have a demon!” John 8v52 “But when his own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of his mind…he has Beelzebub” Mark 3v21

M ENTAL ILLNESS THOUGHT TO BE CAUSED BY DEMONS

D EMONS ? fMRI of brain showings areas showing different activity in someone with a certain mental illness. These illnesses can be treated with therapy, change of situation or drugs.

T HE LANGUAGE OF THE DAY – WWW. BBC. CO. UK

J ESUS SPOKE TO... A Fever “So he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.” Luke 4v39 The winds and sea “The he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the waves obey him?”” Mathew 8v26-27 A Fig tree “And seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it and…said to it “Let no fruit grow on you ever again” Matthew 21v19

J ESUS SAID... “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” Mark 9v25

W HAT ELSE ? We don’t need to fear demons because they are nothing. What about our fears & problems in our life? Root cause of our problems is sin/disobedience to God. Jesus conquered sin and gives us hope of the kingdom......and God’s care in our lives now!

T HE K INGDOM OF G OD “God himself will be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things has passed away” Revelation 21v3-4

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A POLLO DEFEATS PYTHON

P OSSESSED WITH P YTHON “Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination (lit. Python) met us” Acts 16v16

T HE F OUNDATION P RINCIPLE – A POLLO /P YTHON

M ENTAL ILLNESS THOUGHT TO BE CAUSED BY DEMONS

B AALZEBUB “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to enquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?” 2Kings 1v3

T HE F OUNDATION P RINCIPLE – B EELZEBUB