02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 1 of 12 Christ Community Church of the Nazarene Adult Bible Study Fall 2019 PPPERSEVERANCE ,,, NNNOT PPPERFECTION A Study of the Epistle to the Hebrews Discussion 2 (Excursus): Angels & Demons I. Jesus among Unclean Spirits/Demons (An Introduction) A. Foundational Presuppositions and Propositions 1) The Bible presupposes the existence of beings that are not part of the narrated creation in Genesis 1 & 2 (e.g., angels [non-human messengers], unclean spirits, demons, Satan, etc.). 2) To ask about the nature of these creatures is, in many ways, to step outside of the intention of the Biblical authors/editors and possibly even to step outside of their knowledge (inspired knowledge or otherwise). a) I would argue that the Biblical authors/editors have been inspired to interpret the events which they have recorded and reflected on, and that they have even been inspired to identify correctly the principal actors in those events. * However, short of finding a Biblical author/editor whose intention was to teach the pre-history or essential nature of these creatures, what exactly they are connects merely with a presumption of the Biblical authors/editors and may not be entirely accurate. b) All that is to say that when we attempt to explore what precisely these creatures are, when, how, and why they were created, why they do what they do or want what they want, and so on, we are leaving the realm of inspired Biblical teaching/testimony and we are engaging in pure conjecture. B. Roadmap for Our Discussion 1) Starting where we are and moving backwards… a) How have contemporary, Western European/American readers dealt with the issues of angels, demons, and/or unclean spirits in the texts of the First and New Testaments? b) How has the practice of syncretism influenced the mythology that has grown up around this topic in many contexts around the world? 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 2 of 12 c) How did the major groups in Jesus’ context understand the terms angel, demon, and/or unclean spirit (approximately 200 B.C. to A.D. 200)? 2) Looking to the canonical Bible… a) How do the First Testament and the New Testament seem to utilize these terms generally? b) Do these terms play any significant role in Hebrews? 3) How might we understand the reality of angels, demons, and/or unclean spirits in light of this entire conversation? II. Moving Back Through Time A. The ideas of unclean spirits, demons, and/or angels has had varied treatment in recent decades. 1) In popular Christian fiction, several authors have envisioned a spiritual battlefield which exists around us which has only been hinted at in the Scriptural text. The most notable among these a few decades ago was Frank Peretti. It had arms and it had legs, but it seemed to move without them, crossing the street and mounting the front steps of the church. Its leering, bulbous eyes reflected the stark blue light of the full moon with their own jaundiced glow. The gnarled head protruded from hunched shoulders, and wisps of rancid red breath seethed in labored hisses through rows of jagged fangs. It either laughed or it coughed—the wheezes puffing out from deep within its throat could have been either. From its crawling posture it reared up on its legs and looked about the quiet neighborhood, the black, leathery jowls pulling back into a hideous death-mask grin. It moved toward the front door. The black hand passed through the door like a spear through liquid; the body hobbled forward and penetrated the door, but only half way. Suddenly, as if colliding with a speeding wall, the creature was knocked backward and into a raging tumble down the steps, the glowing red breath tracing a corkscrew trail through the air. With an eerie cry of rage and indignation, it gathered itself up off the sidewalk and stared at the strange door that would not let it pass through. Then the membranes on its back began to billow, enfolding great bodies of air, and it flew with a roar headlong at the door, through the door, into the foyer—and into a cloud of white hot light. The creature screamed and covered its eyes, then felt itself being grabbed by a huge, powerful vise of a hand. In an instant it was hurling through space like a rag doll, outside again, forcefully ousted. 1 1 Frank E. Peretti, This Present Darkness (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1986), 11-12. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 3 of 12 * This sort of view of spiritual creatures and spiritual warfare still persists outside of the world of fiction in many contemporary contexts. 2) In contemporary psychology (even among Christian psychologists), the idea of demon possession is treated largely as a pre-scientific, superstitious and/or mythological understanding of psychological ailments. a) David G. Myers is the author of a best-selling introductory textbook to psychology which, in its most recent edition, is still used in Psychology 101 courses all over the country. b) He is a Christian (He teaches at Hope College), and he wrote a book called Psychology through Eyes of Faith . For many religious people the ultimate threat of science is therefore that it will demystify life, destroying our sense of wonder and with it our readiness to believe in and worship an unseen reality. Once we regarded flashes of lightening and claps of thunder as supernatural magic. Now we understand the natural processes at work. Once we viewed certain mental disorders as demon possession. Now we are coming to discern genetic, biochemical, and stress-linked causes. Once we prayed that God would spare children from diphtheria. Now we vaccinate them. Understandably, some Christians have come to regard scientific naturalism as “the strongest intellectual enemy of the church.” 2 3) Conservative Christian scholars, such as D. A. Carson, have sought to explain the apparent discord between our contemporary experience and knowledge and the testimony of the Scriptures with a suggestion which might be called eschatological clustering . Now let us take up a question that in most circles in North Atlantic countries would scarcely be a burning issue, but that in many parts of sub-Saharan black Africa is vital and pressing: What does the Bible say about demons, and how are Christians to beat them? In the semipopular Christian literature, patterned after a certain systematic mold, one trawls through Scripture and examines, in the first instance, the exorcisms practiced by Jesus and pulls out texts mentioning “demon” or “demonization” and gradually constructs first a theology, and then pastoral counsel, to help Christians address these matters. But if one places these texts within the Bible’s plot-line, and asks fundamental questions about the nature of the conflict in which we are engaged and the nature of the victory that Christ has won, one soon perceives that there are other themes that are being overlooked. How much of the presentation of demonic activity in the Synoptic Gospels [i.e., Matthew, Mark, and Luke] is bound up with the dawning of the kingdom and the coming of the King? How is such activity related to the End? How much of the proper confrontation of the demonic is bound up with gospel solutions—as in Ephesians 6 and Revelation 12? This is not to say that there is 2 David G. Meyers & Malcolm A. Jeeves, Psychology through Eyes of Faith (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1987), 41. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 4 of 12 no place for explicit exorcism. It is to say, rather, that the framework of the discussion and the priorities that emerge look rather different when the Bible’s story-line, climaxing in Christ and his cross-work, resurrection, exaltation and reign, are taken into account. 3 B. The Influence of Syncretism 1) Syncretism is “the combination of different forms of belief or practice.” 4 a) When we speak of syncretism in Christian practice we are talking about the beliefs and practices that result from a combining of Christian teaching and non-Christian religious beliefs and practices. b) I would suggest that this was happening even in the earliest period of the Church, particularly as the Church became more and more Gentile and less and less Jewish. * However, it has continued to happen throughout Church history, first in Europe and then throughout the world as Christianity spread. 2) Many local beliefs about angels, demons, and/or unclean spirits have more to do with the former non-Christian beliefs and practices of individual cultural areas that they do with Scripture specifically. 3) Examples: C. Angels, demons, and/or unclean spirits in the time of Jesus. 5 1) Roman/Gentile Culture a) Popular Beliefs i) As far as we can tell the basic understanding of “demons” in popular Greek culture was that they were the spirits of the dead. ii) They could appear in varied places, but especially in desolate areas and at night. iii) They often appeared in the form of beastlike creatures. 3 D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 546-547. 4 Merriam-Webster Dictionary; available from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/syncretism ; Internet; accessed 3 December 2010. 5 Most of this material is gathered from Werner Foerster, “ daivmwn, daimovnion, daimonivzomai, daimoniwvdh", deisidaivmwn, deisidaimoniva ,” ed., Gerhard Kittel, trans. & ed., Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament , Volume II (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964), 1- 20. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 5 of 12 iv) They could possess people, and they were seen as responsible for travesties both in nature and in human life.