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DEMON ACTIVITY IN THE LAST TIMES

By Arthur C. Zepp



Our Invisible Foes and the Way of Victory

Over Them Through Christ



"Angels our march oppose,

Who still in strength excel,

Our secret, sworn, eternal foes;

Countless invisible!"



Copyright 1921

By Arthur C. Zepp



Eighteenth thousand printing



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Digital Edition 05/23/2000

By Holiness Data Ministry



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CONTENTS



Note



Preface



01 -- The Way Of Victory

02 -- Satan One Demons Many

03 -- Special Periods Of Demon Activity

04 -- God Possessed Or Demon Possessed?

05 -- Types Of Demons In The Physical Universe

06 -- How Demons Enter

07 -- Marks Of Possession

08 -- How Are Demons Benefited By Possessing Mankind?

09 -- Characteristics Of Demons

10 -- Concrete Cases





11 -- The How Of Deliverance

12  -- Remarks

13 -- Devices And Wiles Of Satan

14 -- Concisely Stated Facts

15 -- Spiritualism Is A Form Of Demon Possession



Addendum



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



NOTE:



          It has been thought best to begin this edition with the "Victory Chapter." Whatever the

subsequent revelations of the subtlety, power, or methods of demons, through Christ we have

victory over them.



          The Lord. was pleased to convert, deliver from suicide, sin and asylum many souls through

the circulation of earlier editions, notwithstanding its manifest imperfections. The present edition,

revised, corrected, improved, and enlarged, is prayerfully sent forth. Will those who receive help

from the message please help give it wide circulation?



The Author



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



PREFACE



          This volume seeks to concisely answer the following questions:



          Is the race of men beset by an invisible host of demons who are bent on men's affliction and

destruction? Do they seek by obsession, or attack, to embody or incarnate themselves in the

bodies, minds, and souls of men? And does this embodiment relieve the demon's suffering and

increase that of his victim? Is any one exempt from their attacks? Do they have power to obsess,

attack, harass, deceive, and possess men? And does their discovery and exorcising, or casting out,

or disembodiment, relieve the one demon possessed and torment the demons? Have they power to

affect bodily health, oppress the mind and atrophy the affections? How are they responsible for

indecision? Do they hinder the fellowship of God's people and bring separation among brethren

and loved ones? Me they responsible for the alienation of natural affection, and subsequent

divorce, and the evil and sin of remarriage? Whence came they? Who are they? Does the New

Testament describe their characteristics, know their works, personality, symptoms of possession

and modes of working and give, promise of deliverance? Are there any types of evil spirits in the

physical universe?



          "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith,

giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." I Timothy 4:1. R. V.





           "Put any truth in a false setting and it becomes a lie. Ignore a truth that we ought to know

and it becomes a peril. Suppress a truth of which we have good evidence, and, like the stone of

stumbling and rock of offense, it may fall upon us by and. by and grind us to powder." -- Henry W.

Rankin.



           "The most unpleasant truth in the long run is the far safer traveling companion than the

most agreeable falsehood." -- Emerson.



           The truth about demons, not ignorance, makes free from their subtle deceptions-as all truth

makes free, in proportion to the truth apprehended.



           "Man can not receive, nor God bestow, a greater blessing than the truth."



           Ignoring truth does not alter it.



           "My determination with myself is, to follow neither men nor their opinions, but God and

his word." -- Justin Martyr.



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01 -- MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH CHRIST



           Dr. Weymouth, in his translation of Romans 8:38, says that through Christ who loved us,

we are more than conquerors over the whole demoniacal host: "The higher orders and the lower

orders of evil spirits." More than conquerors: that is, victors or conquerors with a margin. This

implies, that if those demons who were so vile as to merit being now bound with chains of

darkness, were released, there is victory over them through our Conqueror.



           In Philippians 1:28, Paul tells us, "In nothing terrified by your adversaries." Note the

plural; demons are many, Satan is one. There is nothing to fear from evil spirits so long as we look

to Christ the Triumphant One, who, on the cross, threw off the hosts of evil spirits. "And the hostile

princes and rulers he shook off from himself, and boldly displayed them as His conquests, when by

the cross He triumphed over them." (Colossians 2:15, Weymouth translation.)



           John assures us that "greater is He (Jesus) that is in you than he (Satan) that is in the

world." So we need not get panicky because of these evil hosts. Our Champion defeats them for us

as we trust Him.



           Lewis Chafer's book on Satan gives Jude's account of Michael, the archangel, contending

with Satan about the removal of the body of Moses. Moses appearing on the mount of

transfiguration necessitated that his body be resurrected, glorified and removed from its burying

place. Michael, as the angel of the resurrection, had something, under God, to do with that

removal. Michael, though an attendant around the throne of God, and endowed with vast powers,

yet recognizes in Satan, in his fallen state, such dignity and power that he durst not bring a railing

accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke thee." In substance, Michael said, "Satan, you

are too great for me; in my own strength I am not able to rebuke you, but I know One who can --





'The Lord rebuke thee.'" Oh, that we all may learn the futility of trying to fight Satan and his fallen

hosts, the evil spirits, in our own strength, and, following the lead of, the archangel, confess our

weakness, and turn Satan over to God. He assures us, "Ye shall not need to fight in this battle." But

we may witness it -- "The Lord shall fight for you" -- and through Him we shall do valiantly. "For

He it is that shall tread down our enemies before us." "God shall bruise Satan shortly, under your

heel." "In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." "Be strong in the Lord and the power of His

might," was given in connection with the warfare against the evil principalities' and powers

(which refers to Satan and demons) in the heavenly or high places above us. -- Eph. 6:12.



         Jesus only can sustain. Shibboleths, slogans, blessings, or historic experiences,

identification with movements, terms, or modes of interpretation are powerless in the wrath Satan

is letting loose against the church. It can only be met by dependence on Christ. Satan fears nothing

we seek to anchor in short of Jesus.



         "More than conquerors?" What can that mean but conquering with ease and having reserve

power to conquer more? Christ conquering with a margin for us, defeating the whole Satanic host

and able to defeat more if they exist.



         The two aviators who made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic were not

conquerors with a margin. Their oil and gas was gone before reaching the Irish Coast. They were

compelled to volplane to make the landing at all. Had they been in a condition in machine

endurance, fuel, oil, and human power, to start back to Newfoundland, or go on to London, 'they

would have been more than conquerors; they would have crossed the ocean and could have done

more. So Jesus defeats for us the prince of evil spirits and also the "higher and lower orders of

demons" and more than does this -- we are conquerors and "then some" as one Chinese translation

reads. (Romans 8:38.)



         Thank God, and fear not this terrible host. They are defeated and conquered for us by our

mighty Champion. Accept the fact. When Jesus said, "I have won the victory over the world" (John

16:33, Weymouth), He included the world's prince and all the hosts of evil spirits in league with

him.



*     *     *



Victors in the Enemy's Territory



         Satan is the god of this world. He resented Christ's first advent to it, resented His

remaining in it. He hates Christ's followers because of their relation to Christ. He would kill every

one now who names Christ's name if he could get God's permission, as he will, during the Great

Tribulation. God's children are victors in the enemy's country, conquerors in his camp. It is as if,

during the war, an allied officer had walked boldly into the presence of the German General Staff.

They threaten, but are powerless to injure him. An invisible presence gives victory among his

enemies. So we are in the presence of countless demons who are our enemies. They resent our

being on their territory, try to eject us, shoot us, shoot their fiery darts at us, but God has ordained

that we shall not weary where Satan rules. When we lie down to rest, it is in the enemy's

country-territory where Satan's seat is.





          We are surrounded by countless thousands of evil spirits but our life is "hid with Christ in'

God" and into the place of security Satan can not enter. Praise the Lord for victory through Christ

in a hostile country!



          One morning in the post office of an Ohio city a company of little boys and girls were

having great fun pushing and riding around in the revolving door, Finally the postmaster, much

vexed, and annoyed, came out of his office. He did not speak a word. The sight of him was enough

to send them scampering in every direction. We could not repress a smile as we saw the parallel

between those children and the scampering demons who have sought to annoy us. A simple

reference to Jesus, and at the sight of his towering, majestic Presence, they cry out as of old, "We

know thee, Jesus, who thou art," and away they scamper.



          May the blessed Jesus teach us we are not sufficient of ourselves but our sufficiency is of

God in whom is everlasting strength. We are without strength in ourselves but we are strong in the

Lord.



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02 -- SATAN ONE -- DEMONS MANY



          Jesus recognized the existence of demons as separate personalities from Satan and dealt

with them as hindrances to His kingdom. We are well aware of the delicacy and difficulty of the

subject and that we shall overlook vital points, for we have, in fragile earthen vessels at the best,

whatever treasure God gives us but we feel constrained by the Spirit to pass on thoughts God has

blessed to our own heart, and to others, in their present imperfect form.



          As to reconciling demon possession with inbred sin, we can not tell what part of the

manifestations are due to the one or the other. [1] Both are responsible. Men are naturally sinners.

This is good ground for demons to enter and work on. Where demon possession is the recognized

and admitted trouble, exorcising or casting out is the cure. Some out of whom demons were cast

tarried with the disciples for the Holy Spirit. Hence the New Testament teaches exorcising is

equal to conversion, but not equal to the baptism with the Holy Spirit.



          Dr. Nevius, of China, at first had convictions that a belief in demons, and communications

with spirit beings, belongs exclusively to a barbarous and superstitious age, and can consist only

with mental weakness, and want of culture. [2] But facts have developed in recent years which

make belief in the possession of men by evil spirits easy. With Dr. Nevius' later experience in

China, now this subject is so forced upon our attention and observation that it becomes absolutely

necessary to investigate it and write as God shall, I trust, aid, from a deep sense of obligation and

responsibility to my fellow beings, notwithstanding deep consciousness of unworthiness.



          The nations which have claimed the highest culture have been guilty of fearful, wild, awful

atrocities such as the so-called heathen countries, to which demon activity is supposed to be

limited, by the so-called cultured countries, are strangers, and in their present state of development

incapable





of.



       We have indulged in grievous error. We have not believed in demons working outside of

China. But so called heathen countries have not monopolized evil spirits. Satan is not a respecter

of race or geographical location. He is the god of the whole world.



       He conforms his deceptive workings to the characteristic of each nation and. individual.

He is the same Satan working. everywhere but varying his methods. In a diabolical sense, he is all

things to all men that he might deceive the more. In Rome he does as the Romans do.



       Palestine was a very highly cultured land in Christ's time. They had Roman culture, Greek

culture, Hebrew culture, and yet numerous cases of demon possession with which Christ dealt.

Cultured environment exempts not from demon wiles.



       "Evil spirits do in many instances possess or control the mind and will (and body) of

human beings."



       "Hypnotism, making due allowance for a thousand extravagances which have attended it,

does seem to show that one strong and magnetic human will may so control the mind and will of its

subject as by a mere silent volition to direct his words and acts. Who shall say then that a

disembodied spirit (demon), another personality, may not do the same?"



       All right doctrines are subject to perversion, but intelligent people never abandon them

because of this fact any more than they would throw away good gold coin, or bank notes, because

they are likely to be counterfeited. However much the subject may be abused as the people of God

are the special subjects of Satan's deepest wiles, they should have light on the workings of demons

and be forewarned that they might he forearmed for the perilous days of deepening darkness

coming on us. The cry comes from children of God everywhere of all grades of intelligence, from

the humblest believer to the college professor and president, that it never was so difficult to

maintain communion with God and live the devoted life as now; it never was so hard to pray; it

never was so hard to find time to be holy; to read the Bible and meditate on holy things. A college

president was struck by a simple reference to these facts in a sermon and a professor walked

several blocks out of his way to tell us that he had been greatly helped by the suggestion that

demons (working under cover of denial of their existence) were the cause, and that resistance

definitely of them in Jesus' name and the authority He gave the disciples and them that believe,

over them, would defeat them.



       God is all-powerful but His children are coming to these perilous times unequipped with

definite light, not knowing the depths of Satan's wiles in the workings of demons, the executors of

Satan's will. In fact, many of God's children have never heard a sermon or read a book on the

subject of demonology.



       A minister friend told the writer that he was passing through the most weird, baffling attack

of his life. After closing a successful revival he awoke one night with the sense of awful conflict

and terrible Satanic accusation. "He was forsaken of God," but he had not consciously broken with

God. Two other preachers had similar temptations. One was tempted to commit suicide. Another





said, "The devil is turned loose around here," yea around the world, "having great wrath knowing

that he hath but a short time." When these attacks come, a firm refusal to demons of any place in

our bodies, minds or souls, and reliance on the power of Jesus' name over them, is sufficient to

thwart the most powerful attack of obsessing demons seeking entrance in us.



        We do not abandon the helpful fact of the power of thought, or mind, over the body,

because a so-called Christian Science perverts it. "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he," and to

think on whatsoever things are lovely, pure, good, virtuous and praiseworthy is very helpful to

those who have experienced regenerating and sanctifying grace as a means of retaining the victory

given. Trusting these principles to make man his own savior by the power of human will,

independent of God, is wrong. Neither should we abandon the truth about demons because it may

be perverted.



        The doctrines of demon possession are perverted by those individually and volitionally

responsible for sin and wrong, who when their guilt is forced home by conscience, the Spirit and

Word of God, seek to evade responsibility by attributing to demoniacal agency, that for which they

are responsible. When people deliberately give place to Satan they are wholly responsible for

their subsequent condition, and in their deliverance God will point this place of entrance out to

them for confession and forgiveness. The Pharisees who resisted Christ were doubtless energized

by demons. But their own responsibility in their state of permanent hardness of heart was brought

home to them by Christ in the words, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the

damnation of hell?" The doctrine of demon possession is no excuse for pleading innocence of

moral responsibility. Persistence in sin is the occasion for demons to possess men, and for this

men are responsible.



        "The doctrines of demoniac agency and possession, which form a consistent and integral

part of Biblical theology from Genesis to Revelation and which, as there shown, concern every

period of human history up to its (fast) approaching consummation, have been grievously distorted

and hurtfully mis-applied, alike by devout believers and by wicked men. They have been taken out

of their relation to the entire system of which they form a part and, by perverse isolation and

mischievous misconstruction, have been made to aggravate the miseries which they were intended

to diminish, and against which they were meant to protect mankind. Nevertheless those teachings

of the Holy Scripture have not been invalidated or made untrue by their abuse, and now they are

reaffirmed and reinforced, by such illustration of their significance, for human life in this latest

century as may perhaps convince an honest mind -- both of the danger to which the race of man is

subject, and of the adequate defense provided for all those who choose to take it.



        "And furthermore, when the means of this defense" (which is the truth about demons and

their methods of working) "are rightly apprehended, it makes that very danger seem a privilege

which compels us to seek in Christ a refuge so sublime." -- Henry W. Rankin



        As to how demons can obsess, or attack, and possess, or indwell, the bodies, minds, and

souls of men, we may not know any more than we can know all the mysteries of the Holy Spirit's

indwelling. One may know the Spirit's indwelling by indubitable, undeniable evidences given in

the word of God and by the Spirit's fruit in his own life; so likewise there are certain evidences of

demon possession, given in the Word of God, confirmed by certain well known symptoms of heart,





mind, soul, and body. By the fruit a Christian is known. By his fruit the Holy Spirit's indwelling is

known and by the fruit of the demons' indwelling are they to be known.



           "Jesus may not help to deliverance if we will not trust Him, because He desires sons, not

slaves, and because the very purpose of all our proving is to make us understand our dependence

on His help. By the Holy Spirit, the Lord Christ cast out the demons. The curse becomes a

blessing. His victorious faith makes the believer acquainted with the Captain of his Salvation,

introduces to another army set for his defense, shows him that he is not alone in the awful conflict

with a hidden foe, interprets the purpose of this conflict in the perfecting of that faith which is

necessary to his own complete perfection, brings him to the munitions of rocks and into the secret

pavilion and gracious presence of the Lord of Hosts, the King of Glory, whose Angel encampeth

round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.



           "Many are willing to admit that Jesus plainly taught this doctrine (demon possession) so

obnoxious to their minds, who do not think that his authority adequately guarantees its truth.



           "There are pre-eminent crises of history when the devil seems unusually active and

conspicuous. Are we coming upon such a crisis now? Does Satan know that his time is short?

(John, the Revelator, says, 'Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come

down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.' Rev.

12:12.)



           "We all freely admit, since there is a devil (and demons), to suppress the fact of his (their)

power and existence would go far with the mind of this age towards accomplishing his ends.



           "Put any truth in a false setting and it becomes a lie. Ignore a truth that we ought to know

and it becomes a peril. Suppress a truth of which we have good evidence, and, like the stone of

stumbling and rock of offense, it may fall upon us by and by and grind us to powder." -- (Pages

491-494, Henry W. Rankin, in Demon Possession, by Dr. Nevius, Fleming H. Revell.)



*     *     *



Satan Should Not Be Ignored But Exposed



           We would not in any sense honor Satan. Our aim is to give a condensed outline of the New

Testament teaching on the subject and expose demoniacal subtleties that the truth about their depths

of deception may be known; which is God's prime agency in the deliverance of His people. The

sentiment that we should ignore the devil, in the sense of shedding light on his workings, is from

the devil, to conceal his workings. A sensible general would not ignore the strength and resources

of his enemy! Nay, he sends spies for all the information possible about his enemy's resources.

Paul did not say, "Ignore the devil." He said, "We are not ignorant of his methods." If not ignorant,

they were wise and informed concerning his methods and that implied investigation and study

about those methods that resulted in knowledge, not ignorance. Adam and Eve were perfectly holy,

pure and innocent, but not thereby protected from Satanic deception. It is conceit to think that we

are guarded by virtue of our sanctification, alone, and not also by specific truth with it concerning

demons.





          Satan had a great harvest in the long night of the ignorance of the dark ages.



          But truth, light, blazing light, from God's Word, will burn off the Satanic deceptions under

which men grope. Bedevil is to throw everything into utter confusion by demoniacal power, it is

the work of many demons, not of one devil, but the truth puts the demons to route.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



03 -- SPECIAL PERIODS OF DEMON ACTIVITY



          Demons have never been inactive since Satan usurped the lordship of this world but there

have been, and will be, special periods when Satanic activity is more prominent. One of these

periods was when God placed a holy pair in Eden. When Satan is seemingly idle in the affairs of

men he is but working in a changed form as an angel of light to cover up his workings.



          Another period of demon activity, the gospel of Mark shows us, was when Jesus came on

the scene of earth's activities. The presence of Jesus stirred the demons. Herod's inhuman slaughter

of the innocents, hoping to cut off the Christ child, was demon-inspired and executed. Demons not

only resented Christ's coming into the world, but His staying. He had conflict with demons all

through His life and ministry. His first sermon stirred demon-controlled men so that they tried to

kill Him by throwing Him over the steep cliff. According to Mark, the first act of Christ after

receiving the Holy Ghost was to go into a synagogue, "And there was in their synagogue a man

with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, (i. e., the unclean spirit using the voice of the man he

possessed), saying, "Let us alone; what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art

Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God."



          And when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.

And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is

this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth He even the unclean spirits and

they do obey Him." Mark 1:23-26.



          Casting out demons (devils R. V.) or evil spirits was as much a part of Jesus' work as

preaching the Gospel or healing the sick.



          "And at even when the sun did set they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them

that were possessed with devils." (Mark 1:32).



          "And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and

suffered not the devils to speak because they knew Him." (Mark 1:34).



          Mark gives nearly eighty direct references to demons, used mostly by the Son of God

himself, besides indirect references to Jesus and His disciples casting out many devils. Christ did

not argue to prove demon possession; He accepted it as a fact and constantly delivered men,

women and children who were possessed by them.





        The last chapter of Mark, says, "These signs shall follow them that believe (the promise is

limited to that class only), in my name shall they cast out devils." It is of little use to object that the

last verses of Mark are excluded from the best manuscripts as the facts of the subsequent Acts of

the Apostles and the history of the Church of Jesus from time to time, including the present day,

disprove that He ever recalled from the church this gift of power to cast out demons in His name.

P. W. Wilson says: "When Christ ascended into heaven, He entrusted His cause to certain

followers. These men were to be filled with the Holy Ghost, by whose power Christ Himself had

lived and worked and suffered. To the disciples, therefore, our Lord promised that they also

should cast out devils, speak with tongues, live unhurt if they drink any deadly thing, and recover

the sick by laying on hands. This pledge is recorded in the final verses of St. Mark's Gospel,

which, we are told by scholars, were written as a later addition in the Book. If this be so, we have

a noteworthy corroboration of those events which are narrated in the Acts." -- (The Church We

Forget, page 78.)



        Casting out demons not only occupied a prominent part of Christ's ministry, but it was to be

a part of the work of the normal New Testament ministry. His original commission to His

disciples, never revoked, altered, or recalled,. included (1) power to preach the Gospel, (2)

power to heal the sick, and (3) power to cast out demons. The order is several times stated as,

first, power or authority over all devils or demons, over all the power of the enemy, and then

power to preach and heal; as though, unless they took the authority of faith in His name over the

hindering demons,. they could not successfully preach and heal. They were first to bind the strong

men, and then to spoil his goods. By prayer and fasting, and faith in the power of Jesus' name over

evil spirits, and His gift of definite power to them -- "He gave them power against unclean spirits

to cast them out" -- they were to bind Satan, the strong man, break his power over lives, purify the

atmosphere about them of demon power, so they can make a normal decision for God. This seems

to be the order of doing God's work. Prayer is a wrestling match with Satan and evil spirits,

according to Ephesians 6:10-12.



        There are few, if any, definite references (though there are equivalents) in Mark to pardon

or regeneration or conversion or being born again, though there are many references to casting out

demons.



        Casting out of demons by Jesus was possibly accompanied by the conversion of the soul

and not by the baptism of the Holy Ghost as those from whom demons were exorcised, or cast out,

(as Mary Magdalene), afterwards tarried with the disciples for the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.



        When Jesus cured the sick He forgave their sins. He said to the palsied man, "Thy sins are

forgiven thee. Rise up and walk." To the man at the pool, "Jesus Christ makes thee whole,"

forgiving sins at the same time he healed. James says of healing the sick, "And the prayer of faith

shall save the sick, and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven."



        So, in casting out demons, Jesus forthwith forgave the sin, or sins, which gave the demons

ground to enter.





           It is not said Mary Magdalene, whom He forgave, or whom He converted, or whom He

pardoned, or regenerated, but "out of whom He cast seven devils." But Christ doubtless pardoned,

saved and renewed her at the same time, as the devotion of her life showed.



           The statement of Jesus, "When the Son of Man comes shall He find faith on the earth?"

indicates a great, concerted, Satanic onslaught, with his countless hordes of demons, prior to

Christ's coming for his church, so that little true faith may be found then. Satan intuitively knows

his time is short, has great wrath against the remnant who keep the Commandments of God and

have the testimony of Jesus Christ and makes war on them with the purpose of their utter

extermination.



           There is a very clear passage in First Timothy 4:1, concerning latter day demon activity,

which shows the method Satan uses in destroying faith in Christ: "Now the Spirit speaks expressly

(with special emphasis or force) that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving

heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." I Tim. 4:1. R. V.



           Some depart from the faith? The pure faith for which it is necessary to earnestly contend?



           As to the manner of apostatizing, Paul says it is by (1) giving heed (Satan must have the

consent of the human will to enter) to seducing spirits, and (2) to doctrines of demons-not

doctrines merely of false teachers and preachers, but subtly injected into the human mind by

demons, and thus seducing from the way of faith. The onslaught here as described in A. V. and R.

V. is particularly against God's children who are in the faith, for Paul says by demon influence they

depart from it which they evidently must first have before they can leave or depart from it. This

language has no reference to sinners. Sinners are not in the Faith. Satan is a great economist,

wasting no time on those whom he already dominates. In other words, it is a companion prophecy

of Jesus' words that in the latter days because iniquity or lawlessness would abound, the love of

many would grow cold, which logically was hot. The language points to the fearful apostasy from

the pure faith through the influence of seducing demon spirits, of the Church in the last times, prior

to Jesus' second coming. [3]



           In Revelation 16:13-15 Christ is represented as coming secretly as a thief, while the

nations of the earth are at war. "And I saw three unclean spirits-for they are the spirits of the

devils, working miracles, which go forth unto kings of the earth, and of the whole world to gather

them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty." After this Christ says, "Behold, I come as a

thief."



           Weymouth, Mark 13:8, says in the last days not nation shall rise against nation, as though of

their own accord, but nation shall be raised by demoniacal power against nation. This fixes the

world conflict, in its inception, as demoniacally inspired.



           A court preacher a hundred years ago said almost every sign necessary to Christ's coming

had been fulfilled. Now there is no sign unfulfilled standing between us and the first or thief-like

phase of His second coming. In the words of a great preacher, "There is not the thickness of the

morning mist between us and His secret, thief-like coming for His Church. Demons were





intuitively stirred into great activity at the first coming of Jesus. The demoniac origin of Herod's

interest in the Christ-child is shown in his slaughter of the innocents.



          After Christ received the Holy Spirit He met the Prince of this world in the wilderness

conflict. Before Christ went to the cross there was such Satanic activity and pressure, that He

prayed in agony (some think) for God to save him from death under it, so that He could go to the

cross.



          Now as Christ's second coming draws nigh, demons, headed by the prince of darkness,

assume great activity. The great world crisis was not the time described by John in Revelation --

"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come unto you having great wrath

because he knoweth he hath but a short time," -- but it was easily typical of the hour of universal

sorrow and trouble during the great tribulation. Great demon activity in the earth prior to Christ's

second coming is logical. Satan, prior to Christ's coming. seeks to banish every vestige of pure

faith in Christ so that when He comes, "shall He find faith?" An eminent scholar says this question

requires a negative answer. Christ said prior to His coming the days of Noah and Sodom would be

repeated when exceedingly few were righteous.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



04 -- GOD POSSESSED OR DEMON POSSESSED



          Weymouth's translation of Ephesians 2:1-2 represents all out of Christ as demon

possessed. The soul before the time of accountability (the time when it knows right from wrong) is

neither God possessed nor demon possessed; it is sin possessed, and the battle ground where the

conflict rages for God possession or demon possession. "He that doeth righteousness is of God,

but he that committeth sin is of the devil." And that is by the devil's animating spirit -- "the spirit

that now animates or energizes the children of disobedience." When Christ is recognized in His

claims to possession of the human heart and deliberately rejected, Satan in a fuller sense enters

and dominates it, possessing partially or fully according to the response of the victim to his wiles.

Demon possessed or God possessed! Startling! No middle ground! God's or Satan's! Disbelief or

repudiation of the truth does not alter it.



          "To you Gentiles also, who were dead through your offenses and sins, which were once

habitual to you while you walked in of the power of the air, the spirits (demons) that are now at

work in the hearts of the Sons of disobedience." "Among them all of us formerly passed our lives

governed by the inclinations of our lower natures, indulging the cravings of those natures and of

our own thoughts." -- Weymouth. (Eph. 2:3. "By which we are to understand (marginal reading) the

life and movement of man in the world of sense."



          Satan is the god of this world, i. e., all the people of accountability on it who are out of

Christ are in greater or less extent dominated, controlled, animated by Satan through his demon

spirit co-workers. These are the evil spirits that now work or energize with power all the sons of

disobedience.



          "The evil is on the hearts of those who are on their way to perdition in whom the





god of this present age hath blinded their unbelieving minds, so as to shut out the sunshine of the

Good News of the glory of Christ." 2nd Cor. 4:5. Weymouth.



         James, in contrasting the wisdom from above with that which is demoniacal, wrote that the

heavenly wisdom is first of all pure, then peaceable, full of peace, not contention or argument;

courteous to all men. not self-willed; full of compassion, not of condemnation and criticism; and

kind in actions, free from favoritism and from all insincerity.



         The demoniacally inspired wisdom is described; "But if you have in your hearts bitter

feelings of envy and rivalry, do not speak boastfully and falsely in defiance of the truth. That is not

the wisdom which comes down from above; it belongs to earth, to the unspiritual, or physical or

soulish nature, and to evil spirits." James 3:4-17. Weymouth's Translation.



         This sheds light on much of the bitter feelings among God's children. Demons have

somewhere, unsuspected and undetected, subtly, insidiously, gained entrance and, concealing their

workings on the ground of temptations or so called "righteous" anger, have inspired the attitudes of

some good people toward other good people, which are only explainable on the ground of

demoniacal agency.



         Here is also the explanation of the all but utter impossibility of unity and co-operation

among many good people, and of family wrangles, disagreements, and incompatibilities. Lying

spirits are responsible for ten thousand misunderstandings!



         It does not cover the ground nor cure the disease to say these attitudes of unlove and

criticism and scandalmongering and bitterness and resentment and aversion and inability to bear a

brother's presence or message, is the result of backsliding, though that element enters in. ("We

often see instances in Scripture where the approach of Christ or the Spirit-filled apostle, to some

demon-possessed person would mightily stir the demon in him.") A friend was traveling on the

train seated behind an official of an asylum who was accompanying a lunatic to the institution;

suddenly the insane person turned and spoke to Dr. B., "Oh, I know who you are, you are the

anointed of the Lord." But the recognition will not always be so mild, sometimes violent

opposition will result and efforts to do bodily injury.



         Forgiveness is needed for allowing the deceivers in, exorcising or casting out, and direct

dealing with the entrenched demons is needed-nothing short of their entire dispossession will give

the permanent relief needed. If it be a case of ordinary temptation, it will pass off; if it be demon

possession, the symptoms will persist, like the symptoms of chronic appendicitis, but an attack of

ordinary biliousness will pass off shortly.



         Groundless attitudes, violent opposition and hatred, can well be suspected to be

demoniacal. This possibility will aid us to bear with those who so violently hate; we see the

demons back of, and in control of, the personality, responsible in a large measure for these strange,

unaccountable, unreasonable attitudes.



*     *     *





Dual Personality



          One under demon influence acts contrary to his normal personality. He is driven by some

unexplainable agency. Said one to the writer about her work, "It seems that someone is behind me,

driving, hurrying me about my work, till I work at a frenzied pace and feel as though I could go out

in the road and scream at the top of my voice." [4] How much like the cases recorded in the Bible

They boy cast ofttimes into the fire, and ofttimes into the water, and the man driven among the

tombs.



          "Antecedently to any knowledge of the New Testament, the people of North China believed

fully in the possession of the minds and bodies of men by evil spirits. This belief is a part of that

animism, or spirit worship, which has always existed in China -- as in many other countries from

the very beginning of history or tradition.



          "It has always been understood that the personality of the evil spirit usurped, or for the time

being supplanted, that of the unwilling victim and acted through his organs or faculties. Physical

suffering and sometimes violent paroxysms attended the presence and active influence of the spirit,

and not only of the particular demoniac (the one possessed with the evil spirit) but all his house

were more or less filled with anxiety and distress."



*     *     *



Faith In Jesus' Name Always Brings Deliverance



          "And what is very striking in the accounts given by Dr. Nevius, is their uniform confidence

shown in the power of Jesus, or even of an appeal to His name to expel the spirits and set the

victims free. According to the testimony of many witnesses no earnest Christian believer has ever

continued to be afflicted, although for a time many have been until truth and help came and freed

them.



          "Dr. Nevius and others associated with him have avoided any measures which might lead

people to suppose that they claim the power to cast out devils, even in Jesus' name. Nor does it

appear that any native preacher has claimed any such power. The most that has been done has been

to kneel down and pray to Jesus to relieve the sufferer, at the same time inviting all present to unite

in the prayer, and it seems a well established fact that in nearly, or quite every instance, the person

afflicted, speaking apparently in a different personality (the demon's) and with a different voice

had confessed the power of Jesus and the demon has departed." -- (From pages 4 and 5

Introductory Note to Dr. Nevius' "Demon Possession and Allied Themes.")



          Where people are sensitive about personal dealings in the things of salvation and resent it

as an insult, and cry, "Let us alone," the experienced worker will recall the use of this expression

by demons in Christ's time, and pray the Lord to rebuke the binding demons.



          Any who aspire to power to cast out demons must remember the power is not in the

exorcisers, but only in the appeal to the power of Jesus' name, and not claim to have the power

even in Jesus' name. This a commendable spirit of humility. It is also worthy of note that through





such humbleness of mind God worked in power and in no case where they appealed by humble,

believing prayer in His name did they fail to cast out the devils and many successful cases of

deliverance are recorded by Dr. Nevius.



            Jesus rebuked the returning disciples who were filled with enthusiasm because the very

devils were subject to them in His name. Glorying in this spiritual power, even though they

claimed it by the use of His name, was dangerous. He warned them that in his effort to extend his

power and exalt himself above God, Lucifer fell from highest heaven. The excellency of the power

is of God, we are not sufficient of ourselves to think or do anything, Any power we may have is

given to us by a sovereign God and is maintained and exercised by a lowly dependence on Him

moment by moment. How startling that this subtle desire for power and glorying in its exercise is

so dangerous as to call forth this caution from the Son of God! "In this, your power, rejoice not that

the devils are subject to you, even in my name, rejoice not in your apparent successes in my

service, but ever rejoice because your names are written in heaven."



            Evidences multiply that men are driven, by a malicious, hateful, and hating host of unseen,

invisible spirits, and how sad so few are humble enough to deliver them. Spiritual power is

dangerous; a beautiful archangel once fell from his estate by looking upon himself with admiration;

instead of honoring God for his beauty and power, he sought to usurp God's place. Alas, when we

glory in the spiritual power God gives, instead of rendering all praise to Him! The Holy Ghost and

his consequent power was not given until Jesus was glorified. Oh, for such deep crucifixion that

God can bestow the power needed to deliver men from demoniacal bondage without any

disposition on our part to glory in it!



            There is prejudice against teaching on the subject inspired by demons to cover up their

workings. A belief in demons is attributed to imagination or to ignorance. Their manifestations are

apologized for on the ground of epilepsy, nervousness, insanity, lunacy, heredity, or over-work.

Demons are past masters in the art of camouflage (which is to throw dust in the face to deceive) ;

in other words, "lying spirits" bedevil or utterly confuse.



            Demons are dominated by one motive and one alone in their attitude to the child of God,

and that is to injure. They are interested in and will solicit us to the indulgence of whatever injures

the body, the temple of the Lord, or grieves His Holy Spirit.



            Knowledge of demon's workings is essential; it has a practical bearing on the work of

ministers. Jesus said that the casting out of demons was an evidence of, or equivalent to, the

coming of the kingdom of God. "If I, by the finger of God, cast out demons, then the kingdom of

God is come nigh unto you." Casting out demons in His name is intimately associated with the

progress of Christ's Gospel.



            In whatever realm demons work they agitate and drive. God's leadings are quiet and

restful.



            "Demon possession is thought to be a matter not only of great misfortune, but of positive

disgrace." Satan inspires this attitude to hinder deliverance. Jesus always regarded the poor

possessed one, not as entirely blameworthy, though somewhere, known or unknown, to blame





(except in cases of prenatal influence) for giving demons the desired advantage, or ground to enter,

which, in deliverance, Jesus reveals for confession and forgiveness. For the poor victim of

unsuspected Satanic wiles, what He terms "the depths of Satan" of which some have not known,

Christ has profound sympathy. He always, instead or rebuking the victim, rebukes the demon --

"Come out of him, thou foul spirit!"



          Let us not think of the demon possession as the wild man of Gadarene, or the maniac, or

lunatic, raving in the asylum, or the subnormal defective. Demons work in higher realms, covering

their workings under the guise of advanced learning, modern scholarship, destructive higher

criticism, Universalism, Unitarianism, Russellism, Spiritism, Christian Scienceism. In other

words, evil spirits are religious, desiring worship. Satan is God's competitor for worship. He

offered the lordship of all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus if he would fall down and do him a

single act of homage. "In this realm he works as an angel of light, deceiving men into being broad,

liberal, progressive and abreast of the times." Here Jesus says we have the synagogue of Satan and

his "ministers transforming themselves into ministers of light."



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



05 -- TYPES OF DEMONS IN CREATION



          Outside of the Bible there are abundant collateral proofs of "such beings as Satan and

demons." There are conditions in the material world which typify demons or evil spirits. Paul in

substance (Romans 1:20) implies that in all God's creation He has a moral purpose and by it has

revealed certain important religious truths which confirm similar revelations in His written word.



          "The invisible things of Him are clearly seen by the things that are made." Men who are

disposed to find fault with the revelations of severity in the Bible should also complain at nature,

for as some one says, "She is red in tooth and claw."



          I am indebted to Prof. Townsend's "Satan and Demons" for the following proofs or types of

demons in the physical universe.



          "The study of the Vegetable Kingdom reveals that there is not a tree, plant, shrub, nor

flower in any latitude, that does not have an insect or parasite that under certain conditions preys

upon it."



          "The grub worm, the mole, the beetle, the canker, the cut worms, the rose and potato

beetles keep the gardener busy the season through. Legislative action is invoked to arrest the

progress of the gypsy moth, army worm, California scale (San Jose scale) and other pests.

Successful agriculture and horticulture call for a perpetual fight. Since these imps, tormentors, and

troublers are everywhere, why should one be surprised at the Bible accounts that there are

likewise imps, tormentors, troublers of those who in the spiritual world are trying to cultivate the

vineyard that Providence has committed to their care. The malignant spiritual imp (revealed in

Scripture) is no more strange than the destructive horticultural one," seen in the material world.





        Also, "among animals of almost every latitude are to be found parasites and tormentors

without number." The sheep and cattle-tick, the horse-fly, the small tormenting fly which by the

hundreds bury themselves in the hair of the cattle and are switched off a thousand times only to

return, make life a torment to the poor, dumb brutes. Fleas, flies, mosquitoes, jiggers and ticks,

trouble and pester man and beast. The writer knows of one man who died from the effects of a

single jigger burying itself in his body; and he himself has been tortured by those fiery little red

insects, having as many as fifty buried in his body at one time. Invisible, unseen, almost

microscopic in size, but possessed with an uncanny intelligence, infesting grass and weeds with

tentacles extending to catch and cling to man or beast: they then work their way up and into the

body, there dying, festering, poisoning and torturing their victim.



        A German professor said: "War is the watchword of the whole organic nature: there is a

constant war of all organisms against outward unfavorable circumstances.



        The seed grain which falls into the ground, the worm crawling on the earth, the butterfly

hovering over the flower, the eagle soaring high among the clouds-all have their enemies, outward

enemies threatening their existence, and inward (hidden) enemies eating their life and strength.

With such savage murderers forever prowling among the shadows, life among our singing

meadows is anything but a round of pleasure. Not even the butterfly is safe, but is pounced upon in

mid air, its wings are torn off in mockery, and it then is dragged off to some dark hole in the

ground. The bee returning to its hive is waylaid on the wing and its body is torn open for the sake

of the morsel of a honey bag within."



        "Multitudes of obnoxious pests invade the very homes and bodies of the human

family. In some latitudes they make life a burden, almost a terror.



        "The atmosphere men breathe is loaded with living, though invisible, organisms that under

certain conditions cause disease and death. The water men drink to quench their thirst swarms with

creatures that are so hideous and horrible, when examined under the microscope, that one can

scarcely believe one's eyes: devils could not look more repulsive."



        "The soil conceals the poisonous tetanus bacilli which is in waiting to kill by lockjaw if

one's foot is pierced by a nail or sliver.



        "The human body may become any day the home of billions of disease and death producing

creatures (bacteria).



        "These pests of the physical world are meant to be a symbol of evil, malignant, invisible

agencies, that sometimes by the legion, are said to haunt the footsteps and imperil the lives and

souls of men in the spiritual world."



        "There are myriads of living, malignant, destructive organisms in every realm of nature

that, like Satan and his demons, trouble and torment the innocent as well as the guilty." And if men

criticize the Bible for its revelation of demons they should also criticize the physical universe.





          "Belief in evil demons is persistent and wide spread." It is almost universal. There is a

noticeable constitutional disposition in man to refer certain things to the devil and demons. Hence

we hear, "He is demon possessed," or "Satan seems to be in everything, making all go wrong,"

Men say, "Oh, go to the devil !" without inquiring why it is so natural to say it or why so many do,

or that it is a proof that in the instinctive constitution of man there is belief in Satan and his angels."



          Some offer demon possession as an explanation of the course pursued by fiendish

murderers, of young and old, obstinate swearers, drunkards, harlots, suicides and the young man or

young woman who leave the path of purity for sin and shame. A prominent social reformer says,

"The course which intemperate and licentious men and women are pursuing in our large cities, and

the eagerness with which they rush into vice, though knowing full well the woe that transgression

brings to the body, mind, and soul, are outside of the sacred Scriptures, the strongest possible

evidence to my mind of the existence of malignant and evil spiritual agencies that tempt, lead on,

and then destroy their victims?"



          A man leaves his wife for a "flapper" who swears fidelity only to him, but proves false.

His wife can not believe him anything but an exemplary husband, even after he killed the "flapper."

He had been so exemplary: stayed at home nights with his wife, wrote and phoned he would kill

the girl and himself. The mother-in-law was puzzled too, to know what could have made him do

such a thing? Was it whiskey or drugs?



          The whole world seems to be in the dark about the origin, the animating cause of its

crime-wave and lawlessness. It is clearly engineered by a great Master director, the lawless one

who comes under no numberless demons, evil spirits and lesser devils in his employ, slaves to his

will. Allowing native sin, heredity, environment, acquired depravity, their place in the explanation

of sin and crime, yet there is the spirit that worketh in all the sons of disobedience.



          Not what makes people do things? Who makes them?



          Hear an inspired word for the evil days we are passing through. "For we have to struggle

not with flesh and blood but, with Angelic Rulers, the Potentates of the dark present, the spirit

forces of evil in the heavenly sphere."



          The way of victory Paul points out: "So take God's armor that you may be able to make a

stand upon the evil day and hold your ground by overcoming all the foe." This is not by human

effort but by faith in Christ, who on the cross conquered the entire Satanic host.



          The maniac who blew up the school in Bath, Mich., was demon driven. The truth about

demons might have saved him.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



06 -- HOW DEMONS ENTER -- OBSESSION AND POSSESSION





          The first step on the demon's part to gain possession Is termed attacker obsession. It is

defined as the "state or act of being influenced by an evil spirit, as in demonology." It is also "the

continued or continual recurrence of a fixed idea or delusion."



          Possession results from persistent attack until entrance is gained by the demon. Possession

is the act of occupying.



          Another step in securing possession of the human being for a resting place by the demons is

the use of a well known law of the minds: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The intended

victim is led to dwell much on the desired state. The mind is continuously bombarded with

demoniac onslaughts seeking to intimidate, break down the soul's defenses and secure entrance.

Paul describes it as a process of terrifying by the demon: "in nothing terrified by our adversary" --

singular number. Then he adds, "which is to them (plural) an evident token of perdition." Satan is

the leading adversary but he employs (them) demons, in obsessing, or attacking the world and

harassing the Church.



          When attacked by the strange, persistent obsession, in the first stages, a resolute refusal of

entrance to demons in Jesus' Name, is all sufficient to keep them without. We must not only resist

Satan, but also and especially resist demons.



          Again for demons to gain possession, they must have ground, a point of entrance. Paul

terms it giving place to the devil. "Neither give place to the devils." Disobedience is the great

source of demons gaining entrance. "The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that obey

not."



          Much of the so-called backsliding is by the entering in again of the former evil spirit,

accompanied by reinforcements of seven other evil spirits worse than himself, so that the last state

is worse than the first. Yet the faithful Christ will rescue His own.



          Under the writer's observation a young man was remarkably converted through the

influence of a praying mother. He published broadcast by tongue and pen in most beautiful

language his gratitude to God and glowingly eulogized his mother's character and influence. Today

his widowed mother is left to struggle along as best she may. He hates and repudiates the things he

learned at her knee, and, though receiving a salary of over five thousand dollars annually, refuses

to aid the struggling mother. Who but evil spirits could so harden a human heart to the love of God

and natural affection? This case is more than ordinary backsliding. It is that of demon possession.

Truly the last state is worse than the first.



          To punish the faithful horse, to curse those who willingly bear our burdens, to rail at the

devoted, faithful wife, is doubtless the outcome of a sinful heart plus-domination, possession and

influence of hateful, malignant demons, who have found a home in that heart and drive its owner at

their will. Oh, that all such by prayer and faith may recover themselves from that malicious one

who has taken them captive at his will!



*     *     *     *     *     *     *





07 -- MARKS OF POSSESSION



        All abnormal traits, contrary to the normal or usual personality, may be strongly suspected

as being of demoniacal agency. Their one purpose is to deceive, and to accomplish this they

camouflage or cover their workings like the mysterious, hidden gun which bombarded Paris. One

who was apparently the victim of demon influence, said as we called her attention to the subject in

the word of God and to the confirmatory evidences in her own condition, "Do you take me for a

lunatic or a maniac?" Demon possession is not the far developed case of insanity. To be the

subject of demon possession, influence or working, one need not be in an asylum, though the minor

degrees of demon influence may so develop as to place them there unless the light comes which

brings deliverance. Demons cause many of the world's woes. The general conception of temptation

is that it is of Satan. There is one Satan but many demons. Satan himself has been blamed for many

a result brought about by his colleagues, the demons. The frequency of temptation has been

attributed to his lightning-like powers of locomotion, rather than to his numerous and almost

omnipresent co-workers, the demons.



        Christians must locate the mysterious batteries which cause such havoc and, by truth and

knowledge of their workings, silence havoc-working demoniacal shells.



        Conscious double consciousness, division, separation, or contradiction of another

personality intruding upon the normal personality and constraining to that which normal personality

does not approve, but which in well developed cases is unable to help, is an evidence of

possession.



        Universal depression, groundless melancholy, (e. g., a woman whose husband earned a

large salary annually, worried about what would become of her children) -- great stupidity, and an

inexcusable, unreasoning indecision all come from the binding power of demons.



        Change of character after the entrance of the demon is noticeable -- a complete or partial

change of moral character. Other characteristics of possession are dual personality -- Dr. Jekel

and Mr. Hyde, -- a second self, an unexplainable contrariness. In the language of a sister: "There

seems to be two of me." Still another insisted a certain thing should be done and the obligation on

the one spoken to was very strong and binding; but when the decision was made to comply with the

insistent demand for action they were turned upon and as insistently told not to do it. We once saw

a little boy in this strange state of dual or double consciousness, who said: "I want it!" (an article

of food). On it being handed to him, in a fit of rage, he cried, "I don't want it." And as quickly as it

was put back on the table, again he cried with violent anger, "I want it," and as soon as again

given, "I don't want it." Was it only contrariness? A spell? Ugly disposition? Yes, all of these, but

back of the heart of sin, demon-domination forcing their will on the child. Constant contradiction is

here seen in the child, an involuntary self, another self, contrary to normal self. "There is

consciousness of change or attending personality. The testimony of the fathers, like that of the

Chinese and other nations, shows that these cases are distinct from mania, epilepsy, and other

diseases, and characterized by a new personality quite different and distinct from that of the

normal personality of the subject possessed."





          I recall a little girl, sweet and affectionate, who would throw herself on the floor of an

outside porch, without her outdoor wraps on, when the thermometer was much below zero, and lie

there and kick and scream and throw her hands and pound her head and go through all manner of

angry contortions. Her parents suspected at these times the active agency of demons, but were

powerless to aid her. Praying in Jesus' name for the exorcising or casting out of the evil spirit

quieted her down and she was again normal and sweet. She has been a different child since, and

free from those violent spells.



          Demons are other personalities dwelling in men, single, dual, or multiple, which dominate

the possessed, working out their wills according to the yieldedness of the victim.



*     *     *



A Theory



          Dr. Tyler regards the theory of demon possession in the same light as the generally

received theory of the human soul, that is, "the outward normal manifestations of human life, such

as thinking, speaking, acting, are accounted for by the supposition of a soul-a distinct, separate,

surviving entity, in which man's personality inheres. So the abnormal states which we have been

considering are explained by the supposition that during these states the body is possessed of

another spirit, which also has a distinct entity -- a new personality."



          The symptoms of demon possession have been accounted for by physicians on the ground

of "hysteria epilepsy."



          "While the convulsive movements, bodily contortions, gnashing of teeth, falling into fire

and water, are the ordinary symptoms of epilepsy, in demon possession there are manifestly other

phenomena that do not occur in epileptoid diseases. For instance, those possessed seem to be

endowed at times with a new personality and to have remarkable intellectual powers, shown both

in the speech employed and in the knowledge of things that are beyond their ken before possession

took place and which remarkable powers do not remain after the victim's recovery." -- Satan and

Demons, page 26.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



08 -- HOW DEMONS ARE BENEFITED BY POSSESSING MANHOOD



          But why should demons obsess, possess, and rule the personality of man? Is there any

advantage to the demon? Evidently there is.



          Possession by demons of the body, mind, or soul of man (for we conceive .they possess

either separately or dominate all) relieves or rests the demon. Some unaccountable demon instinct

is gratified thereby. Jesus' contact with the poor Gadarene demoniac shows the advantage to the

demons of possessing or indwelling the human body.





         Hear the demon's language: "I adjure thee by God, that thou torment est not." For Jesus said

unto him, "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit." See here double or dual personality, the

second personality, the demon's usurping the man's normal personality, and dominating it, and

speaking through his organs of articulation. See also the confession of the demon indirectly that he

was resting from torment temporarily while he possessed the man and was undiscovered and that

his discovery by Jesus and calling oat, or exorcising, was torment to him and the end of his rest! "I

adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not." How? By casting out.



         That demons find rest by dwelling in men is shown by Jesus' account of the unclean spirit

being cast out of a man. He, the unclean spirit, goeth about in dry places. What does the demon go

about for? Jesus says, seeking rest. How? In the disembodied state? Nay! In the dry places? Nay!

But by seeking some human being whom he can obsess or attack and deceive into giving him

entrance, or possession.



         Then he finds the coveted rest. And so insistent is the demon on finding the rest that he gets

reinforcements from seven other spirits worse than himself, and beats down or overpowers the

man's defenses, the man's unrest beginning at the same time with the demon's rest. Disembodiment,

or casting out the demon from the man, reverses this state-it torments the demon, ends his rest, and

rests his victim (e. g., the man who, after he was delivered, was found clothed, in his right mind, at

rest at the feet of Jesus). By indwelling men demons gain temporary rest from torment before their

time.



         Again, they possess men for the purpose of having a medium through whom to manifest

their power in spiritistic seances, also in devil worship. Satan is God's competitor for worship.

He offered Jesus lordship of the universe for a single act of worship.



         Paul speaks of the ministers of Satan transforming themselves into ministers of

righteousness. He speaks of offerings to devils and of the table of devils. And Jesus speaks of the

synagogue of Satan. The healings of Christian Science, falsely so called, are demoniacal. Dr.

Nevius gives cases of women in China who had and were offered power to heal through demon

possession. Christian Science is Satan's counterfeit of healings through the prayer of faith in Jesus.



         Another reason why demons seek to indwell men and women is for physical gratification.

Demons are parasitic. In addition to the melancholy, gloom, despair, dejection, lowness of spirits,

and contrariness, demons affect also the physical health of the poor victim indwelt, appropriating

to themselves in some mysterious way the vitality of the victim, thus robbing health, in part or in

full, according to the degree of possession. The demon parasite appropriates to himself or

themselves the vital forces, like the leech. However strange what we write may seem, those who

have had the conflict with demons and have suffered from partial or full possession, will

understand. And, invariably, according to numerous cases which have received deliverance,

health, from the hour of exorcising or casting out of the demon, has improved.



         Dr. Watson says the demons live off the human body forces, absorbing to themselves even

the affection of wife for husband and vice versa, so that they are without natural affection. A sister

who had known Jesus but lost fellowship, was trying to get forgiveness and restoration and,

finding no help, said: "I am so perplexed and bewildered and bound I do not know what the





trouble is unless I am demon possessed. At times a strange power, contrary to my will, seizes me

and at such times against my will, and with no apparent reason, I hate my husband with all the

hatred of hell itself." She was delivered by an appeal to Jesus' name, and later entered the

victorious sanctified life.



            By alienation of natural affection the adversary works to ruin husband, wife, and home.

Many divorces are demoniacally inspired. It is Satan's way of destroying the sanctity of the home.

Satan has affinities cross the path as the first step of the after crash. Demons incite sensuality. The

world lust wave is demoniacal.



            A sister, naturally amiable, of sweet disposition, even tempered, who had known the life of

the sanctified, was partly paralyzed. At certain times there would be the consciousness of another

personality overmastering her personality, forcing her contrary to her will into violent paroxysms

of uncontrollable anger toward her devoted ones, which she and they deplored but were powerless

to help.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



09 -- CHARACTERISTICS OF DEMONS



            Distinctive features, marks or peculiarities are given in the New Testament by which

demons may be recognized. It is believed that demons are fallen angels who were associated with

Lucifer in his rebellion against the most high God and were cast out with Satan from the heavenly

places.



            Demons are personalities -- Mark 1:25. "And Jesus rebuked him (the demon) and said (to

the demon), Hold thy peace and come out of him." The following pronouns, indicating personality,

are used when applied to demons: he, him, us, we, they, them, thou, my. These words refer, not to

influences, but to personalities.



            Demons have the sense of ownership. -- "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he

walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none he saith, I will return unto my house

whence I came out." My house indicates the demon's sense of ownership which he was loath to

give up though he had been cast out. Demons are loath to give up territory which they have

conquered and occupied. The momentum of possession is strong in their consciousness.



            Strategy. -- "I will return to my house whence I came out." And when he returns he finds a

surprise. His former house is cleansed, swept and garnished, and alone he is conscious of inability

to re-enter but, nothing daunted, he thinks on the desirability of reinforcements. "Then goeth he and

taketh to him seven other spirits" (the reinforcements needed on the line of his attack) "more

wicked than himself." The demon is successful. "And they enter in and dwell there: and the last

state of that man is worse than the first." Luke 11:24-26. Note the intelligence the demon exhibits,

the reasoning, the wise planning of his counter attack, the going for reinforcements, the recognition

of his inability alone to re-enter, the calculation of how many reinforcements would be needed to

successfully re-enter, the breaking down of the man's defenses, and the successful re-embodiment

in the demon's former home, the man's heart.





           Will Power. -- Strong will power is ascribed to the demons in the above narrative: "I will

return" to my house. There is such persistency of will power that all obstacles are carried before

it. The strong, stubborn self-will that will not give up, even when clearly shown to be in error, is

demon inspired.



           Demons are represented in the gospels as having the power of speech, "And the unclean

spirits when they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried, saying, Thou art the son of God."

They cried, that is, the demons use the voice of the one possessed.



           This same reference gives them the power of sights: "And when they saw Him." The

philosophy of it we can not explain. We believe the record. But there is no more difficulty in

believing that demons can see, than believing that the eyes of the Lord, who is without body or

parts, who is a Spirit, can run to and fro through the earth beholding the evil and the good:

"Thou God seest me." The fact is, Jesus addressed demons as seeing, hearing, intelligent

personalities, with powers of judgment, discrimination and memory, like any other personality. He

charged the demons not to make him known. To fulfill such a charge they must be intelligent

personalities, with powers of mind and communication. Demons are not mere Satanic influences.

They have all the characteristics attributed to them that go with personality. The replies of the

demons to Jesus were couched in intelligent language. Matt. 8:29.



           Demons have sensibilities of fear: "And they besought Him that He would not command

them to go out into the deep." There is shrinking fear denoted here on the part of the demon.

Whether they dreaded the casting out into the deep or just the fact of being exorcised, or cast out, is

not said. I rather think they dreaded being disembodied, losing their home or place of refuge or rest

in the man indwelt because in the conversations held between Jesus and the demons frequently they

reveal the dread or fear of disembodiment, terming it "tormenting us before our time." They

preferred embodiment even in the lower animals, the swine, to being cast out to roam in the dry

places.



           Demons Have Desire. -- So the devils besought him saying, "If thou cast us out, suffer us to

go away into the herd of swine." Matt. 8:31. Here we have definite place of abode. "The

Scriptures reveal other characteristics of demons as their intelligent power of decision, Matt.

12:44, their power of agreement with other spirits, their degree of wickedness, Matt. 12:45; their

power of rage, Matt. 8:28, their strength. Mark 5:4, their ability to possess a human being either as

one (Mark 1 :26), or a thousand (Mark 5:9), their use of a human being either as their medium for

divining the future (Acts 16:16) or as a great miracle worker by their power." This last reference

lets light on the apparent power in Christian Science and Spiritism, and all fake healings and

manifestations.



*     *     *



Destructiveness



           The demon teareth him, throweth him into the fire, and into the water and driveth into

violent, unreasonable rage (it may perchance be about some very trifling matter). The Garadene





illustrates the destructiveness of evil spirits. He was forced to lacerate himself. Again, demons

lack the sense of decency and inspire their victim to go nude, to wear no clothes. This fact may

throw some light on nudity in modern dress and styles, as also the nudity in so-called high art,

which is low art. Demons are unclean and lustful. Christ calls them "foul spirits," "unclean

spirits." Thus they work in the realm of lust.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



10 -- CONCRETE CASES



           Demons oppress body, mind, soul, spirit. The Church, intimidated and terrified by her

adversary and adversaries, the devil and his demon co-workers, has not risen to her full power in

Jesus' name over all the power of the enemy.



           Said a sister in recent meeting, to several earnest disciples of Jesus, "O friends, pray for

me. I believe demons have gained entrance and control of my nerves, and I want deliverance." She

was a woman of high order of intelligence. She was instructed to refuse all place in body, mind

and soul to Satan, and to give all place in body, mind and soul to Jesus. Instant relief came through

prayer in Jesus' name. Let him scoff who will. Christ dealt frequently with demons as the source of

bodily and mental oppression and disease -- going about "healing all that were oppressed by the

devil."



           Jesus never inspires to any wild, weird action, or fierce expression of countenance, or

screaming tones of voice. These belong to the adversary.



*     *     *



Two Remarkable Deliverances



           Pastor Blumhardt gives an account in his biography, of an interesting case of the healing of

the Dittus sisters in Mottlingen, Germany, who were strangely and unaccountably affected for a

period of two years. Blumhardt had them constantly on his mind, and presented them to God in

prayer. But all this time they grew worse and the attacks became more frequent. To careful

observers the symptoms appeared to coincide with those of the demoniacs in the time of Christ.

All medical treatment was unavailing, and at last the physician, appalled by the manifestations,

exclaimed, "Is there no clergyman in this village who can pray? I can do nothing here !" With

characteristic modesty Blumhardt wished to retreat, but some of his people said to him, "If you do

not want to shake our faith in your preaching, you can not retreat before the evil one." After a little

he replied, "You are right., but to be in accord with the word of God you also must unite with me

in supplication, according to James 5:14:" Prayer was made and the fulfillment of the promise

claimed. But Satan would not give up without a struggle. Katarina's symptoms became terrible,

almost beyond belief. Several strong men were obliged to hold her in a chair, and even their

efforts were unavailing to control the frightful convulsions and contortions which racked her body.

Through an entire night this continued, Blumhardt praying unceasingly and with rising faith. An

unnatural voice, not her own, would speak from the poor woman's throat and strive to engage the

pastor in an argument or conversation; but he steadily prayed on. This voice steadily proclaimed





its Satanic origin, and at intervals gave utterances to a horrible cry of fear (of being cast out and

losing rest) which issued from her mouth, without any intermission for a quarter of an hour at a

time. Again the voice addressed Jesus, demanding that, as he was a high minister of Satan, Christ

should not compel him to leave this woman in the ordinary way, but that He should cast him out by

some wonderful and mighty miracle. Still the pastor prayed, and toward morning the struggle

culminated, the demon was vanquished and cried out, with a great and terrible cry, heard by almost

the entire village,, "Jesus is Victor!" When the sun arose the afflicted one was whole. During the

whole of Blumhardt's life, the humble, grateful woman, who was afterwards happily married,

labored with the pastor for the souls and' bodies of the hundreds who came to Bad Boll. And now

upon her tombstone we may read the words that marked her marvelous deliverance, "Jesus 1st

Sieger," (Jesus is Victor) -- From Pastor Blumhardt, pages 13-16, year 1884.



        As might be expected in confirmation of the words of Jesus when demons are cast out by

the finger of God, the kingdom of God will come nigh. Nearly the whole village heard that night

the cry, "Jesus is Victor," which marked the deliverance of Katarina Dittus from the direct power

of Satan. The country, for scores of miles around, was shaken by the wonderful revival which

followed.



        So startling an occurrence created a marked sensation. The newspapers spread the story in

every direction. But Blumhardt's chief anxiety was for the souls of his people. About a week after

that trumpet call, "Jesus is Victor," had rung through the village, a man of the most depraved and

deceitful character, came to the pastor with the unexpected question: 'Sir, is it then possible that I

can be pardoned and saved? I have not slept for a whole week, and if my heart be not eased, it will

kill me." Blumhardt held up Jesus to him as a Savior for the vilest of sinners. But not until he,

following the Lutheran form, as an ambassador, of Christ, solemnly assured him of God's mercy,

did light break in upon his soul.



        This man immediately went from house to house, telling every one of his experience, urging

them to go to the manse, and even dragging some by main force into the presence of the pastor. In

this way about twenty were brought to a saving knowledge of the truth. On the monthly day of

"humiliation and supplication," Blumhardt preached from the text, "The right hand of the Lord doth

valiantly." This seemed to be the signal for a general breaking down. The pastor says himself that

from that day he was actually besieged in his own house, from seven in the morning

till eleven at night. Men who had never cared for their souls sat in the parlor for hours patiently

awaiting their turn. In two month's time there was scarcely a score of persons in the parish who

had not thus come in humble confession and sincere repentance.



        A boy was brought to Bad Boll in a state of violent lunacy. 'He was perfectly naked and

would not tolerate clothing for an instant. Of course he had to be confined and closely watched.

The pastor visited him and prayed with him repeatedly, but he was very violent, and finally injured

Blumhardt by a severe kick. After this the lunatic suddenly became attracted by a child playing in

the garden, and manifested a strong affection for him. By means of this affection he was much more

easily controlled, and finally permitted himself to be dressed, as a condition to being allowed to

play with his little friend in the garden. Before he had been long in the open air he encountered the

gardener's son and got into a violent altercation with him, which was terminated by a heavy blow

upon the head, inflicted by a mallet in his opponent's hand. The poor lad was taken up and carried





into the house, when an examination revealed a fractured skull, and his case was pronounced

hopeless. Another member of Blumhardt's family, who had visited the boy after the pastor had

received his injury, went to his bedside and prayed earnestly for his recovery. In a very short time

he was entirely well, and clothed in his right mind.



          Similar results can be witnessed if God's children will unitedly refuse to retreat before

Satan and boldly, persistently, in humble faith in the power of Jesus' name, insist that He who is

the same yesterday, and today, and forever, is still Victor.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



11 -- THE HOW OF DELIVERANCE



          Admit to self, to God, and to those near and dear, who have suffered with the perversities

of the demon possessed, and to some one who has power in prayer, what you suspect as the

trouble.



          Somewhere the demons were given a point, known or unknown, of entrance, as Paul says:

"Neither give place to the devil lest Satan should get an advantage over us." 2nd Cor. 2:11. After

admitting they have gotten in, address them firmly in Jesus' name, deny them place, and order them

out. As one says, "Say they shall have place no longer; that you deny all place you gave them,

known or unknown -- prenatally or postnatally. Say it over frequently as the struggle for

deliverance may be long and terrible, according to the degree of possession. Say that you refuse all

place in your body, mind, soul and spirit to demons, in the name of the Lord Jesus. That you give

all place or ground now occupied by demons to the Lord Jesus in faith that He accepts it."



          Prayer and faith in the power of Jesus' name will completely deliver. Of the many cases of

exorcising, or casting out, or deliverance recorded in "Demon Possession," the most the workers

ever did was to kneel down in Jesus' name and implore Him to relieve the suffering victim in the

belief that the power of His name and Word would avail as 2,000 years ago. Sometimes they were

immediately successful; or at other times experienced great difficulty. Sometimes fasting, prayer,

and persistent faith are essential to deliverance. But nothing is so potent in deliverance as the

truth." [5]



          The subject ordinarily is gruesome, repulsive, distasteful, obnoxious, disagreeable,

objectionable, but we would sound a note of joy: Jesus, sovereign and omnipotent, loves so well

that He will not suffer such an outrage on His children, without bringing them light and

providential help and truth. And "if God be for us who can be against us?"



          Ordinarily the hold of demons, when once secured, is so tenacious that the individual may

not break through to liberty alone, without the co-operation, in prayer, of Sympathetic friends.

When the victim gets to the place of recognition of his malady, confesses it to himself, God, and

perhaps some close spiritual friend, the battle for deliverance is more than half won. Confess to

God definitely somewhere, you may not now know where, ground or advantage was given demons

to enter, and you have discovered them and mean, by Jesus' help, to be free, though the battle be

long, fierce, and terrible. And it will be terrible in proportion to the greater or lesser usefulness of





the victim to the kingdom of God in getting deliverance to others. Generals are desired by the

enemy, for when captured the planners or executors of strategy are cut off.



          Christ recognized unbelief to be the greatest hindrance to casting out demons. To the

baffled disciples who questioned, "Why could not we cast him out?" He replied, "Because of your

unbelief." And then He told them that some cases are of such long standing, and so deeply

imbedded that fasting and prayer are essential. After discernment or recognition of the trouble and

confession of it to God there should be recognition of and faith in the power of Jesus' name to

deliver. Great resistance of demon pressure, forcing the unnecessary confessions, is needed here.

All sins need not go to the publicity committee or be blazed abroad. Where sin is against God

only, it need only be confessed to him; where against some one, it should be confessed to that one;

when of a public character, public confession. Temptation to sin which is inhibited or restrained

before its culmination in the act, as the look or thought of lust, need only be confessed to God.

Those, however, of extremely conscientious type, may in general terms make confession of sin,

failure, and unworthiness, as the soul is led of God. Confessions which are not God inspired, but

demon inspired, work more harm than good. There should be clear leading from the Spirit to

confess. Our sins are to be confessed to God only, our faults to one another. By confessing sins to

men as a merit to forgiveness grievous demon power is secured over the soul. Martin Luther

prostrated himself before cardinal De Vio and then repudiated it as an act of abominable idolatry.

We should use great care in submitting to the will of men, none of whom can at all redeem his

brother. The only hand full of righteousness is the hand of the Lord who alone has found a ransom.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



12 -- REMARKS



          God is just as able now to work His mighty works of deliverance in soul, spirit and body

as though demons never existed. But He does this work through faith in His truth.



          When services are bound by an oppressive atmosphere, a simple, united pleading of the

power of Jesus' name is enough to purify the atmosphere of demon presence and influence.



          Our attitude toward Satan and demons should be an aggressive, fearless one. We should

never retreat before him. We might as well expect to conquer Germany by Revolutionary methods

and equipment as to expect to cope with Satan's tactics now by the use of some of our former

methods. We need cantonments for Christians where they can be trained in the art of modern

warfare on the new depths of Satanic wiles now prevalent in demon activity.



          There is but one thing a bully fears, and that is superior force. Satan is the bully of the

universe. The only being whom he really fears and dreads is Jesus. Demons always cried out when

they saw Jesus and confessed His power over them. Carnal war ends when one side marshals an

overwhelming force of arms and men. So in spiritual war on Satan. Until we realize that the

overpowering spiritual force to defeat Satan is in Christ and not in us or any of our movements, or

churches inherently, the sooner will we turn the bully over to Christ, who will defeat him for us.





         Satan and demons, the hinderers, may be exorcised out of communities, churches, revivals,

families and individuals as the spiritual of the church come to see the power of the name of Jesus,

in the conflict against the prince of the power of the air. But Christ alone can, and will at His

coming, exorcise Satan and his minions from earth and air and sky and sea, and purify all so that no

trace shall be left.



*     *     *



An Error



         "The devil is not now in hell." How we wish he were there! How much better off we

would be from temptation's standpoint if the accuser were locked in the bottomless pit! Satan is not

even in the earth as to position now, but in the upper atmosphere shooting his fiery darts at God's

children, venting his spite on them because of their relation to God.



         No great degree of power is needed to exorcise demons. Jesus cast them out with a word

and "by the finger of God." The disciples had power even before Pentecost to cast out demons.

The seventy returned with joy and reported that even the demons were subject to them in His name.



         "You may talk against deviltry as you like. You will not get rid of it unless you can tell

human beings whence comes that sense of a tyranny over their own very selves, which they express

in a thousand forms of speech, which excites them to the greatest, often the most profitless and

senseless indignation, against the arrangements of this world which tempt them to people it with

objects of terror and despair," and which draws them into a rage over the most trivial affairs --

insignificant, worthless trifles. "Then Satan taketh him and driveth him oft times into fire and

temper and anger unreasonable, or moods devilish or dispositions ugly." If men could be led to see

in addition to the natural perversities that driving demons, entering through habitual yieldedness to

temptation, are responsible for many of their unholy moods, they would turn on them with rage and

refuse them place any longer.



         A mother writes of a boy, "He does not want to be bad. He is bad in spite of himself." If

she had said he was demon-possessed and driven, she would have been nearer the facts.



         Demon agency is seen in Mormonism, Mohammedanism, in the Crusades, in the

persecution and execution of innocent victims at Salem as a result of false demon-possessed

witnesses, who in after years remorsefully confessed the demon inspiration of their false

accusations. Or demon agency may assume a more optimistic, instead of diabolical or hurtful form,

as Spiritism, Russelism, Christian Scienceism.



         Blumhardt gives the following confession of a demon after prayer had continued longer

than usual: "All is now lost. Our plans are destroyed. You have shattered our bond, and put

everything into confusion. You, with your everlasting prayers, scatter us entirely. We are 1,067 in

number; but there are still multitudes of living men, and you should warn them lest they be like us,

forever lost and cursed of God." The demons attributed their misfortune to Blumhardt's prayers,

and in the same breath cursed him and bemoaned their own vicious lives, all the time ejaculating,





"Oh, if there were only no God in heaven." May the present Church learn the power of prayer in

His name to scatter and shatter demon power as did Blumhardt.



       That Christ recognized demons as the peculiar peril of his followers is seen from the

prayer he taught them to pray: "Deliver us from the evil one" (R. V.) and not merely from abstract

evil, as the A. V. reads. For manifestly if we are delivered from the evil one, the source of all evil,

we are delivered from evil.



       The facial appearances of the demon possessed are, expressionless, drawn, pinched,

uneasy, anxious, hunted look in eyes, pallid, corpse-like complexion, the sense of pressure within

registered without.



       "As to the outward appearance of persons when possessed, of course, they are the same as

to outward form; but the color of the countenance may change, the demon may cause the subject to

assume a threatening air, and a fierce, violent manner, our counterfeit ecstasy.



       Whenever demons speak through the organs of articulation, the countenance of the

possessed immediately and strikingly changes, and each time presents a truly demoniacal

expression. A woman said her daughter cursed her, and she could see the demon gleam from her

eye. A brother betrayed into unbecoming feeling toward another, and to language of undue severity

in his reproof, "looked perfectly dreadful."



       "And behold a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my

son; for he is mine only child. And lo, a spirit taketh him and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth

him that he foameth again, and bruising him, hardly departeth from him. And I besought thy

disciples to cast him out; and they could not." (How said!) And Jesus answering said, "O faithless

and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as

he was yet coming, the devil threw him down and tore him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit,

(he did not rebuke the child), and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father. And they

were all amazed at the mighty power of God." Luke 9:38-43.



       The alienation of affections and the lustings toward the opposite sex, sometimes confessed

by married persons, have the familiar demoniacal stamp on them. Then they drive them from home

to seek and find the affinity of the unaccountable attraction and similar experiences. Soon there

follows divorce and remarriage, which is a sinful union before God and man.



       Demons drive to the tombs; they drive to self-laceration; they endow with superhuman

strength; they drive to lunacy, insanity and maniacy; to crying and cutting with stones; to fierceness;

to immodesty and indecency in dress; and to the shameful, sinful exposure of the person. The

Gadarene wore no clothes. Hordes of unclean, lustful demons are now loosed in the world, gaining

possession of the evil men and seducers who wax worse and worse. They say there are millions of

mothers out of wedlock in war torn countries, and increasingly large numbers of seductions in our

own and other lands. It is said that the nude heathen, as soon as they find Jesus, repudiate the

demoniac origin of nudity and forthwith dress up. Modern styles are rapidly coming to par with

heathen styles which are demoniacally created.





        Demons drive to lust; to evil concupiscence; to incontinence and excess in legitimate

spheres; to lasciviousness or over desire and the lack of self control.



        They drove the boy ofttimes, causing him to fall into the water and into the fire; they tore

him and threw him and caused him to wallow and foam; they bruised arid rent him; they grievously

tormented.



        Demons drive to violent rage about trifles; to fierceness, to undue vehemence, even in

preaching if they be given ground, to paroxysms of anger; to foulness and uncleanness; to evil; to

narcotics and drugs, booze, and to injurious indulgence in stimulants; to over eating or gluttony; to

dissipation; to harlotry; to dare-devil recklessness; to a frenzied nervous, restless, fussy way of

doing things.



        Demons drive to hard-hearted selfishness which leads to the oppression of the poor in

starvation wages. They oppress and bind. Jesus recognized their agency in the binding of the

woman who had been bound, "lo, these eighteen years." He was especially anointed to heal all that

were oppressed by the devil. Back of the oppression, Jesus recognized the oppressor, Satan, and

rebuked him as the cause of the oppression.



        Satan first entered Judas and then Christ's betrayal followed. In a sense, as God must do

His spiritual work by making the Word flesh, and having men behold Him, and thus through

God-possessed men advance His kingdom, so Satan seeks incarnation in men to advance, through

the devil-possessed, his interests,



        Satan betrayed Peter to resist Christ's cross after his remarkable confession and testimony

through direct revelation from the Father, of the divinity of Jesus. Jesus recognized Satan's agency

in Peter's act and rebuked Satan in Peter. "Get thee behind me, Satan," he said to Peter. None are

exempt from Satan's wiles.



        Later Peter recognized the same agency at work in Ananias and Sapphira, "Why hath Satan

filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?"



        Satan hindered Paul. "We would have come once again unto you but Satan hindered us,"

thus illustrating one of his names, Blockader, Hinderer. Thus Daniel's prayer is hindered

twenty-one days by the Prince of Persia, the demon-prince, appointed over that district. Each

country and community and family and individual in the world doubtless has its demon prince and

demon underlings appointed by Satan to resist them,



        Demons hinder God's work; we must take an aggressive, fearless attitude toward them.

Paul's injunction, "Neither give place ( lower the guard) to the devil," is vital. He shoots his fiery

darts at God's children eventuating in possession if they are ignorant of his devices. But He who is

faithful and true, who can not deny Himself, will eventually deliver every demon harassed soul

who for love to His has great conflict with the evil principalities.



        Demons can not live in mankind without man's consent. Satan himself recognizes man's

freedom of choice and that he must secure man's consent before possession. He said to Jesus, "If





thou wilt fall down (deliberately) and worship me." Thank God all the combined power of hell is

not sufficient to force us if we will not choose to fall down and worship Satan!



         Positive refusal to Satan and demons of any place in body, mind, soul, spirit, nerves,

faculties, passions, appetites, is a sure way to victory over all the power of the enemy. Christian

parents should take an attitude of opposition toward demons entering the home or the members of

the family. Jesus did not rebuke the demon-possessed child, nor the father for bringing him for

deliverance. He rebuked the demons!



         When the agency of evil spirits in oppressing and driving man is recognized, how our

compassion is increased and how earnestly we pray God to make us channels of deliverance.



         The unbelief of His disciples hindered the deliverance of the boy-demoniac and grieved

Jesus: "Oh, faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?"



         Jesus had no more devoted followers than those out of whom he cast the devils. The poor

Gadarene demoniac, though the community prayed Jesus to depart from their coast, came running to

Him and prayed that he might be with Him; but Jesus sent him home to tell how great things God

had done for him, and had compassion on him. He so published, in Decapolis, how great things

Jesus had done for him that all men did marvel. Mary, out of whom he cast the seven devils,

showed her devotion to Jesus at the cross and tomb.



*     *     *



Demon Agency In Revivals



         It is evident Satan will aid, abet, assist, foster, promote and help any type of revival work

which will lead men to rest their faith on the wisdom and power of men rather than in the power of

God. Jesus spoke of false apostles transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness built in

human merit and works rather than on the blood of the Son of God.



         Demon agency in revival work makes the human leader the center of attraction. Divine

power in revivals exalts Christ as supreme. No one who is full of the Holy Spirit will constantly

exalt the singular number, egotistical, perpendicular, first personal pronoun, I. If men blindly

would sacrifice to him, like Paul, he would rend his garment, saying: "See thou do it not" The

surface appeal, seeking to please and be popular with men more than to be faithful to God, the

compromising note, the sinful respect of persons, the hypocritical partiality for the rich and gaily

clad, the fawning upon those of place and power, the snubbing of the lowly, reveal the cowardly

soul yet under demon service.



         Mob-psychology, mesmerism hypnotism, sex or personal magnetism, the stronger will

dominating the weaker, suggestion, emotionalism, appeal to self-interest, or any other un-Christian

advantage over our fellows will not be employed by the servant of God. He will preach the

Gospel as the only power of God unto salvation to every one that believes it; he will not seek to

bolster it up by any sensational modern clap-trappery. God's presence solemnly impressing men

with the gravity of sin leaves little room for cheers.





          God wants permanent decisions. Demons influence to surface decisions which leave the

awful fortress of evil, the will, untouched; and the victim is soon back to the old ways.



          To hypnotize may help the evangelist's reputation and offering, but when he is gone, who

will sustain the hypnotic spell? God does not want hypnotized, duped followers, but intelligent

choice and deliberate decision. Men who are building for eternity will not accept the proffered aid

of demons to aid in duping and deceiving and hypnotizing and mob-mesmerizing the crowd; nor

will they make merchandise of the souls of men by feigned words, having men's persons in

admiration for the sake of gain.



          It is a startling fact that just as men, by abandoning themselves to God in faith, may be

filled with His Holy Spirit and be channels of His supernatural (divine) power to illuminate, bless

and deliver men held captive by sin and Satan, so may men and women surrender to Satan and be

possessed by his spirit and preternatural (Satanic) power and be channels of all deceivableness of

unrighteousness in them that perish because they love not the truth.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



13 -- DEVICES AND WILES OF SATAN -- By P. R. Nungent



          In Eph. 6:10-19 Paul speaks of the Christian's conflict, or wrestling as being with four

classes of wicked spirits, and in this conversation speaks of the "wiles of the devil." Possibly the

mention of the devil's wiles alone is because he knows and practices all the wiles that any of the

rest practice, so that to know his would be to know all. In 2 Cor. 2:11 he speaks of not being

ignorant of Satan's devices -- the word meaning also counsels or purposes.



          Hence we see that a knowledge of the devices and wiles of wicked spirits is a practical

need in a Christian's life -- as much so as it is for a wrestler to know the methods of his antagonist,

or a soldier those of his foe. Ignorance tends to defeat, and often God's people are deceived, or

defeated, by their, adversary, and do not even know it.



          In one of Paul's early epistles he speaks of Satan hindering him (2 Thess. 2:18). Probably it

came through some device with which, at that time, Paul had not become acquainted, for we do not

find him speaking again of being hindered by Satan. The Lord Jesus was not hindered by Satan

from doing God's will at any time, and it is evident that the ideal for us all is to be as He was on

earth -- never hindered by Satan. There are times when we who do not know God as our Lord did,

have to be restrained by Him as we see in the Acts 16:7, but trustful prayer and patience will bring

God's enlightenment as to whether the hindrance is from Him or from Satan.



          How does Satan, or evil spirits, hinder? Sometimes by sickness. I have known of an

evangelist giving up a meeting on account of sickness at home. In another case a preacher became

sick, stopped his meetings and went home, Satan hindered.



          They also hinder the effectiveness of preaching by creating disorder in a meeting through

careless or reckless people. They have interrupted a sermon by stirring up a drunken man to come





forward and ask for prayer. 'The preaching stopped in order to try to help the supposed penitent,

but he received nothing and the meeting was hindered for that night.



        And how often have dogs come into a meeting and hindered it by distracting attention! On

one occasion there was a cat fight just outside of a tent meeting.



        And there are hindrances in the home -- times when things get into a tangle, and the inmates

get out of fix badly. This may be due to natural causes, which of course God controls.



        A Christian may be hindered in money matters by these evil spirits detaining, or turning

aside, money that is needed for personal needs or for God's cause.



        Some years ago I was invited to go to a place and when the time came I had not money for

the trip. So I wrote saying the Lord seemed to will otherwise, though I was not conscious of any

divine favor in writing this. My friend replied that he thought it was Satan's hindrance. In a few

days some money was handed me that had been needlessly delayed and I found that what I thought

was, on my part, submission to God's will, was really submission to Satan's and that I should have

trusted God for help and protection.



        And these evil spirits hinder prayer. They do this by stirring us to work when we should be

in prayer; or they cause wandering thoughts; or they interrupt prayer by sending someone in; or the

door bell, or phone bell, may ring. Or they may direct opposition so that it is difficult to pray.



        Another of their wiles is to get a hearer to criticize the preacher's manner, appearance, or

speech instead of listening fairly to what he has to say. Or they may get the preacher into a hard,

abusive, impatient method, or into extreme statements. And they get people to eyeing and

criticizing each other, and so hinder them from receiving God's blessing. A spiritual work was

once almost entirely ruined because the people in it were deceived into "discerning" each other's

condition.



        They work on people's fear or prejudices to keep them from getting the benefit of God's

truth. Or they may misrepresent the truth. How many people have a wrong view of the teaching of

those who uphold the truth of sanctification by faith!



        And Satan can help as well as hinder when his help is to hinder the right. He helps the

cause of Christian Science by some deliverance from sickness. If a modern Jonah decides to avoid

the way of obedience he can easily help that person along by making it easy to go the wrong way.

Jonah found a ship at Joppa to take him to Tarshish when he wanted to disobey God. There are

"doctrines of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1 R. V.) by reason of which even some true servants of Christ are

injured in their usefulness and do positive harm, for a wile of Satan is to get false doctrines into

people's minds and then make them think it is their duty to God to diligently spread the doctrine.

Some of these errors are ruinous to the soul. Demons are back of the doctrines of no hell, no devil,

annihilation of the wicked, soul sleeping, sanctification by hell fire, Christ a mere creature and not

God, sickness and sin not a reality, Divine Healing a delusion, no salvation from sin.





       These spirits stir people to bigotry, intolerance and persecution, so that they think everyone

not in this movement is on the way to hell, and they say so. They work on spiritual people to get

them into reform or political work instead of giving their energy and money to spread the gospel

and save souls.



       As regard one's attitude towards an offending brother or sister, they tempt us either to wink

at and slur over sin, and be compromising or to be inconsiderate, impatient and hard, making no

allowance for any purpose or possibility, on the part of the offender, to do right, and being

faithless towards God as regards His power to restore and save.



       Another method of these spirits is to hinder, or destroy faith in God and in Christ. They do

the former by getting people's attention on themselves and their feelings. Anyone who is looking

and waiting for feelings before trusting in Christ, will never trust in Him until they give up that

delusion of Satan for the purpose in it is to hinder faith, and it does so effectively. We never

believe on Christ by looking at ourselves. For the same purpose Satan and his aides magnify

difficulties and get people to practically believe that their case is too hard for God and that He

will not keep His promises. They also accuse and misrepresent God.



       These spirits work, too, in the realm of the affections, awakening improper affinities

between men and women. A correct married man once told me that he had had a strange drawing to

a woman, but could not describe it. "Was it affinity?" I asked. "Yes, that is it," he said, and I was

glad to tell him where it came from.



       The body also is worked on sometimes by causing disease; sometimes by causing abnormal

desire for food, and thus leading to gluttony. They also stir up lust and thus lead to many of the

crimes of the day. Immodesty in the fashions of women's clothes is traceable to the same unclean

spirits, and women who dress immodestly are aiding the immoral tendencies of our time.



       Demon spirits delude people into religious fanaticism. A friend once told me of a man in a

tent meeting who leaped from the platform, and putting his hands together in front of him, ran down

one side of the tent, and up the other to the platform. Why? He said he was chasing the devil from

the meeting! In reality, the devil was chasing him.



       As regards speaking in tongues, while some of it is evidently of God, some is also the

work of evil spirits, for they imitate the work of the Holy Spirit in more ways than one.



       Finally, a method of demons is to stir people up against a servant of God to try to break

him down, or at least trouble him. Unconsciously a Christian may lend himself to demons to be

used against another Christian.



       A friend once urged me to go to a Christian worker and correct what appeared to be a

mistake. I went to God about it, and never went to the worker. The stir did not come from God, and

to take part in what does not come from God is to lend ourselves to Satan. If I had gone to that man

I would have only increased his trial, and possibly he was already much tried.





          Our attitude and course in regard to all these matters should not be one of fear, but of faith

in God to guard and teach us so that we shall be kept from the paths of the destroyer. As regards

doctrines, we need to prayerfully and patiently search the Scriptures, allowing plenty of time for

God to teach us. We should also trust Him to deliver us from the "snare of the fowler" if we are

unconsciously in it, for of course Satan does not tell us of his snares. "The whole armor of God"

(Eph. 6:11) is also necessary, and that we be "sober and watch unto prayer" (1 Pet. 4 :7). Christ

has defeated these "principalities and powers" (Col. 2:15; Eph. 1:21), and can easily instruct us as

to their activities and lead us on in victory.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



14 -- CONCISELY STATED FACTS



          I am largely indebted to Dr. Townsend for the following concise quotations.



          It is now a general belief that "there is no personal devil (or demons): that the devil is only

evil personified: that whatever devil there is, is in man himself," but the Scripture recognizes

Satan and demons as being personalities with all the characteristics of personality.



          "That Bible writers themselves were either mistaken (about Satan and demons) or else they

adapted their speech to the prevailing notions of the time when devils, witches, and ghosts, with

all their kindred, were things of common belief." If they were mistaken they were not inspired and

if the Bible is not inspired in its account of Satan and evil spirits, it is not to be trusted in its

revelations of God and good angels. Both stand or fall together. New Testament writers believed

equally in the essence of both.



          The present skepticism or unbelief in God because we can not see Him is unreasonable, as

men believe in the air, gravitation, electricity, the brain, with memory, will and judgment, all of

which they have never seen. How the process of digestion by which the same food is transmuted

into brain power, muscle, blood, hair, teeth and bone, we can not see, but we believe in this

unseen power and eat the food.



          There are certain results produced by unseen agencies. Belief in these invisible agencies is

as rational as belief in other powerful, invisible agencies.



          The Bible describes, "Satan, who is said to have for associates, other invisible, spiritual,

and wicked agents called demons or unclean spirits."



          "No one who reads the New Testament can doubt that its pages abound in representations

showing that its writers intended to teach that invisible and malicious agencies exist; that they

watch mankind with evil intent day and night, and always have done so since Adam, and

particularly do so now, and will continue to do so until the end of time."



          "Demons, according to the teaching of the Bible, once belonged to the hierarchy of good

angels, but through voluntary disobedience, forfeited their high estate, and became malicious and

unclean spirits." 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6.





         "They are represented as having great power and are said to control the elements of

nature." Eph. 6:11-12.



*     *     *



Their Abodes



         "They are represented as taking up their abode sometimes in the air, Eph. 2:2, sometimes

on the earth, John 14 :30, sometimes in the sea, Isa. 26:1 -- sometimes in the bodies of men, Luke

22:3, sometimes in swine, Matt. 7:31-32, sometimes in the kings of the earth, 1 Samuel 16:14."



         Demons were endowed with exceptional power in Judea at the dawn of the Christian Era,

and will be with increasing power until the end of the age: they took possession of human bodies

and minds; they often worked in them great injury. Our Lord discerned them, spoke to them, and

cast them out, so that men who had been raving maniacs were made sane and well the moment

Christ spoke His word of healing."



         Demons recognized Christ and good men and were stirred to cry out in fear in their

presence. They knew Paul. They said to the false exorcists, "Jesus we know and Paul we know,

but who are ye, and leaped on them and overcame them." Woe to the one who attempts exorcising

in Jesus' name without his character! If Christ were here today in person, or sufficiently in His

followers, and should go through an asylum of the insane, there would doubtless be a great crying

out by evil spirits who are doubtless tormenting the poor victims.



         "Demoniacal distempers will continue to afflict mankind in one form or another, varying

with the changing condition of human society, and during the last days of the Christian Era demons

will be especially active and mischievous.



         "They will lead men astray by means of false views of theology and by distorted ethics.

Such crimes as suicide, murder and impurity under their instigation will be extolled into virtues.

Men will be so far deceived by demons that they will practice iniquity and think they are doing

God's will. There will be preachers, who, while they do not deny the Scriptures, will be led to

interpret them in a way to mean precisely what is not intended. And men and women will be

strongly religious while utterly godless ;" e. g., an assignation housekeeper told the writer God

was her chum. When the Spirit broke her heart with conviction, she saw which god was her chum!



         The loose unscriptural views about the sinlessness of divorce and remarriage at caprice,

are demon inspired, though advocated by so-called high class magazines.



*     *     *



Thoughts On Demon Possession -- Luke 2:1-26



         Much teaching is given on demon possession, and much is given on the casting out of

demons, in the New Testament. Jesus' commission originally given to his disciples and never





revoked, or altered, included power to cast out demons. Power to cast them out was

pre-Pentecostal; before Pentecost the disciples rejoiced that the demons were subject to them in

Christ's name. Jesus cast out demons by the "finger of God." No great degree of power is needed.



        In casting out demons, the demons are to be addressed and commanded to come out. Jesus

rebuked the foul spirit that possessed the boy.



        Demons dread dispossession; it tortures them. They term it, "tormenting us before our

time." They work in the mind realm though they also seek to get possession of the body. They seek

to blind the mind: "The god of this world has blinded the mind of them that believe not." Unbelief

is the point of their entrance. They never give their victim rest until he is driven to despair and

ruin. Doubtless if many who are in asylums had understood how demons work and resisted them,

they would have been saved from so dire a fate. Whom demons can not destroy they will annoy.



        Anything for some little concession or place in the life! It is suggestive that Jesus,

immediately following His teaching on the baptism of the Holy Ghost, warned how demons work,

as though this crisis were a dangerous time favorable to their operation. Those who come into the

realm of the supernatural may be deceived by Satan as an angel of light working to substitute foil

the Holy Ghost's work -- to change sources from God to Satan -- to substitute false

preternaturalism for pure supernaturalism. Errors come in a time of low spiritual life or deception

from a high state.



        I am more and more convinced that demons are back of much that we call by other names.

They produce the most baffling results, shoot from ambush, work all manner of havoc in the

experiences of the children of God. These sappers and sharp shooters must be detected and routed

in Jesus' name, the name they dread above all names. Pardon and even holiness may be obtained,

but the bewildering conflict goes on until its real cause is detected and victory claimed. What folly

foil the Russians to deny the existence of secret batteries which were picking off hundreds of their

men! It is equal folly for the church to deny the existence and the sapping type of the operations of

the demons.



        We are likely to attribute to perverseness of character, or disposition, what is, in reality,

demon possession.



        As the time for Satan's casting out and binding draws nigh and his time is short he will

marshal all the reserve force of demons to the attack of God's children. Jesus said that at the time

of the end the love of many would wax cold because iniquity should abound -- demons animate the

lawlessness which dampens love.



        We have the following testimony in our own time: A minister felt a peculiar pressure on

his mind and after much crying to God was relieved. It seemed it would kill him. In desperation he

cried out, "Oh, God take it off, take it off." A woman said about her house work there seemed to be

some strange presence driving her to the most furious pace of work until she would be exhausted.

Nervousness we call it, but how much like that case is the Bible account of the poor boy who was

torn and driven by the foul spirit which possessed him into various abnormal acts until Jesus

recognized his state and called the demon a foul spirit and commanded it to come out of him.





         That the deeper Christian experience is one of special peril Jesus proves. When the

unclean spirit is gone out of a man he "goeth about seeking rest" and, being baffled in his search in

this disembodied condition, he returns to the man from whom he went out with sevenfold strength

over his former occupancy and succeeds in beating down his defense, and entering this cleansed

man. Much of the abnormal recognized in humanity is the product of demon possession -- the

abnormal conditions they produce lead to abnormal thinking and this in turn to abnormal acting.



         Admission of demon possession is justified by the example of the parent of the young boy

who came to Jesus and told Him that this was the condition of the child: also the woman, who said

her child was grievously vexed of the devil.



         The next step is to apply to Christ to cast out the demon, with faith in his pity and power to

deliver.



*     *     *



Satan



         Satan offers the world to men: "It is mine (Jesus did not deny this) and to whomsoever I

will I give it." Satan prospers to doom. One under his spell said, "I made no attempt to resist the

singular attraction which now possessed me for this man (Lucio) whom I had just met." Satan is a

mesmerist, a hypnotist. His subjects are infatuated, captivated, bewitched; Satan has cast a spell

over them.



         Satan has willing subjects: "If thou wilt fall down and worship me." "I am glad that you

yourself have decided that we are to be comrades, for I am proud, I may say very proud -- and

never stay in any man's company when he expresses the lightest wish to be rid of me."



         Satan tempts men to buy fame with gold. He has the world corrupted by the money

standard. All Satan gives leaves a dismal vacuity without God: a millionaire testifies that there are

no happy multimillionaires: "I could not honestly say that I was happy. I knew I could have every

possible enjoyment and amusement the world had to offer, I knew I was one of the most envied

men, and yet I was conscious of a bitterness rather than a sweetness in the full cup of fortune. Many

things I had imagined would give me intense satisfaction had fallen curiously flat." Satan blinds

men of means to the hundreds of starving wretches -- men and women on the brink of suicide --

because they have no hope of anything in this world or the next; he justifies selfishness, shuts out

griefs and miseries. He leads to the restraint of all good impulses. He tells the well-off that the

poor are to blame; unworthy, undeserving, etc. If they are going to be kind hearted to them Satan

parts company. Wealth selfishly made and hoarded dries up the foundations of sympathy and

benevolence, hardens the heart to the interests of all but self.



         Satan exalts some men to worldly success to doom them. He casts others down -- ruins

them -- so that from their bitterness they shall curse God and die.





        Satan blinds the minds of men to truth, the no ill of God, to true values, to the final

outcomes of a life spent in his service. May God turn on the light and show men with whom they

are yoked up! Show Satan in all his diabolical hideousness! Show his designs on us! Whom men

are obeying! if men could see, they would be terrified at their master. He mocks, scorns, and

despises the victims he dupes. Satan covers his real identity: he is not what he seems.



        Satan may give revival phenomena to divert from God. All revival phenomena are useful

only in so far as they lead to Christlikeness.



        Satan has the world at his feet: he has blinded the minds of them that believe not: he is the

spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience. Satan is a universal favorite -- the most

popular god the world ever knew -- everything is coming his way; he dictates the policy of the

world. He is especially busy as he knows the time is short and that his end is near.



        Satan counterfeits all that God does, the INCARNATION, the RESURRECTION, AND

MIRACLES OF HEALING. He will incarnate the man of sin, resurrect him, energize, give him

power, and work miracles through him.



        Satan employs music to intoxicate his victims, making them insensible to the realities of

life. He employs art to seduce from virtue. Doctrines of demons are injected into song, literature,

and sermon.



        Satan plans many marriages. This fact is a sidelight on the many incompatibilities,

affinities, and divorces resultant.



        His impressions and leadings are agitating and impulsive, impelling to things our better

judgment repudiates.



        He leads the poor to envy and condemn the rich; and when they, through unexpected

inheritance, are exalted to wealth, he leads them to ape the ways they so bitterly condemned.



        He tempts to jealousy of our successful contemporaries and to acts calculated to ruin their

success, and then embarrasses us by bringing them into our presence to face our faithlessness. He

deceives by accepted ideas, opinions, public sentiment and opinion, which are generally mistaken.

He tempts to questionable procedure to gain fame.



        Satan does not doubt the existence and authority of Christ; and in this faith he is more

consistent than men who deny His divinity and authority over their lives: "The devils believe and

tremble."



        He constantly changes, to distract brainless folks of fashion, ease, and wealth. Money is the

devil's pass key. God terms it the great hindrance to His kingdom; Satan makes it the criterion of

worldly success.



        His program for the world is the Edenic knowledge without God. Satan's spell, and the

curse of God, is on the ungodly. Satan deludes by the spell of suggestive literature. literally





leading millions to read their way to hell. He has all luxuries at hand to help lull the soul to sleep.

He weakens the will, works in the mental realm. A sister said that Satan had so weakened her

will that she was powerless to choose what she really desired, the will of God.



          His program for the world is knowledge without Christ, Christless knowledge. Satan was

the first higher (?) critic, all others are echoes of the devil. "Hath God said?" He was the first to

question what God has said. In hell Satan's remorse for what he might have been, had he not

voluntarily left his high state, will be shared by his poor dupes, forever.



*     *     *     *     *     *     *



15 -- SPIRITISM IS A FORM OF DEMON POSSESSION



          Little do men of science realize the influence of Satan in their inspiration to study the

possibility of communicating with the spirit world -- the soul's appearance in a tangible form

before mortals -- that the unsanctified curiosity which leads to these explorations or investigations

is the condition favorable to demon possession.



          God has clearly said they may not pass into nor from the realm of the dead -- there is a

wide impassable gulf -- "The rich man also died and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes

being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said,

Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, (whom he had before despised) that he may

dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But

Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things, and likewise

Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and thou art tormented. And besides this between us

and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot; neither

can they pass to us, that would come from thence." Luke 16:22-26. See also verses 27-31.



          The abode of the departed is so fixed that they can not pass from thence to heaven or earth.

Spiritism's pretended communication with the departed dead is in direct conflict with the Word of

God that they can not leave their fixed abodes. For example see David's reference to the death of

his child in 2nd Samuel 12 :23, "But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back

again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."



          When not faked, the apparent communication with the departed loved ones is the work of

demons, counterfeiting and impersonating them. Satan is greatly reviving Spiritism through the

desire of broken hearted parents to communicate with their departed loved ones who were killed

in the great war. But little do they dream the source of these communications and that obedience to

them is the ground of surrender required by Satan for possession by evil spirits. Working as an

angel of light, Satan deceives them into belief that they are highly favored of God by superior

revelations. All communications with our departed dead, like consciousness of their nearness,

sweet sense of their presence and fellowship, should be refused as the counterfeit and cheat of

Satan intruding into realms God has forbidden.



*     *     *





Tell-Tale Characteristics



          There are certain tell-tale marks of Spiritism which reveal its Satanic origin.



          Many of the mediums are renegade professors of Christianity, apostates from Christ, who

have sinned against great light and resisted great strivings of the Spirit and then, instead of humbly

and penitently returning to Christ, they have given heed to the latter-day seducing spirits and

doctrines of demons and have become mediums for Satan. Demon obsession and possession is the

condition for making a good Spiritist, Christian Scientist, New Thoughtist, etc. Hence the

prevalency among them of divorce, remarriage, and affinity. Irreverent views of God's holy

institution, matrimony, has the familiar stamp of him who hates God, His Son, Word, and all

Divine institutions. In a recent number of the Metropolitan there was an account of the seances of a

prominent medium in Paris.



          To be most effective the medium must be nude. How familiar this is to students of the

Bible! The poor demoniac of Gadara, kin to the medium, also wore no clothing.



          Again there must be perfect darkness. "He that doeth evil hateth the light," Jesus said, "and

loves darkness because his deeds are evil," and need the cover and protection of the darkness.

Light is intolerable to evil, it is insufferable. Some one thoughtlessly turned on the lights and the

medium cried out in the pain. Satan, his cause, and emissaries have little use for light. "A strong

light caused her to cry out."



          A strange substance exudes from the medium's body -- note the serpentine characteristics of

this substance -- "The substance could be felt. It was cold, damp, and sometimes slimy."



          John wrote that the whole world is lying in the wicked one; asleep, reposing in the arms of

Satan, its god. He frequents the various haunts of men, club, hotel, cafe, dance hail, gambling

houses, vice halls, places of business and pleasures, where society assembles, victoriously

directing the affairs after the counsel of his keen will -- mesmerizing and hypnotizing by his

seductive spell: lulling to sleep where duty to God and man is concerned;, fascinatingly drawing to

the wrong, sinful, and questionable.



          In the conclusion of "The Sorrows of Satan," Marie Corelli gives a suggestive description

of the activities of Satan in circles of state.



          "At last, just as 'Big Ben' chimed the quarter to eleven, one man whom I instantly

recognized as a well-known Cabinet minister came walking briskly towards the House     then, and

then only, He whom I had known as Lucio, advanced smiling. Greeting the minister cordially, in

that musical rich voice I knew of old, he took his arm, -- and they both walked on, talking

earnestly. I watched them till their figures receded in the moonlight, the one tall, kingly and

commanding   the other burly and broad and self-assertive in demeanor; -- I saw them ascend the

steps, and finally disappear within the Hose of England's Imperial Government, -- Devil and

Man -- together!"



*     *     *     *     *     *     *





ADDENDUM -- JUST BEFORE GOING TO PRESS



          Just before going to press a woman murders her husband, a policeman, near our flat. He

returned from duty exhausted and lay down on the couch and soon fell asleep only to be awakened

by death agony from a shot from his own pistol. The murderess rushed to the street crying: "My

husband is shot! My husband is shot! My husband is shot!" Alas, she had shot him! In the climax of

anger, after brooding over recent quarrels, urged on by demons, in a frenzy she nerves herself to do

the terrible deed and immediately after bewails the terrible crime.



          The multiplicity and manner of crime shows the work of invisible evil spirits who after

bedevilment of the mind (to throw into utter confusion), lead on to the commission of crime, then

torment the victim with their own fear of the wrath and punishment God imposes.



          Although tabooed now by the medical profession largely, and 'through ignorance or

otherwise, ignored in the prosecution of crime, I predict the day will come when the influence of

evil spirits will be taken into account in the treatment of both disease and crime. Belief in these

destructive agents is no more incredible than belief in other invisible agencies which are none the

less harmful because unseen.



          So rapid is the increase of divorce in America that every other marriage ending thus is seen

in the offing. Holy marriage, home and obedient children are the marks for the most malignant

Satanic attacks The new freedom, when disillusionment comes, is seen to be license and the

ground often for demon possession. True liberty is synonymous with subjection to all law. Paul

enjoined submission, subjection and silence upon the woman not because he was narrow, but

because in that direction lay her greatest freedom, health, happiness, longevity, and salvation. Thus

holy women of old found meekness and peace, subjection better than assertiveness, obedience

better than rebellion. God save men and women from the prevalent spirit of lawlessness with its

fearful potentialities for evil and awful penalties hidden from the victim in the schooling stages

prior to possession by the demon.



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ENDNOTES



1 Demon possession is the active presence of another personality influencing or dominating the

normal personality of the victim to evil. Sin is a state and an act the remedy of which is

forgiveness and cleansing. But demons are cast out.



2 Dr. Nevius was forty years a Presbyterian Missionary in China, a scholar of rare ability,

accomplishing what few ever do, the complete mastery of the Chinese language, spoken and

written.



3 Moffat's rendering of this passage intimates those who R. V. says depart from the faith were

never really in it but were "certain men" illuminated by it but drawn back from it by demons before





any evangelical experience of it, thus confirming the position of those who teach the final security

of the true believer, though his reward is lessened by lukewarmness.



4 May not the unprecedented avarice shown in greedy profiteering on the necessaries of life, be

accounted for on the ground of demon influence and possession? Who but demons could so

influence men?



5 Satan's estimate of the power of the truth is illustrated by a letter from a sister about this volume.

For many days he fairly hissed, "Don't read that book."



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THE END