The Origin and Nature of Demons     Chapter 2 

ORIGIN OF DEMONS: Almost nothing certain is known about the origin of demons. We know that they are created beings, for God created all things. We know that they were not created evil, for everything God created was ‘good’ (Gen. 1:12, 18, 25, 31). Therefore, they are created beings, which were once good, but which at some point became evil spirits. Beyond that we have to speculate from the slight evidence that Scripture provides.   

First of all we know fairly certainly that demons are not fallen angels for several reasons. Angels, whether fallen or holy, show no disposition to inhabit the bodies of men, animals, and objects, whereas demons do. Fallen angels appear as ‘princes’ high up in Satan’s Kingdom (see Daniel 10; Matthew 12:24). On the other hand, demons seem to be in a kind of  torment unless they can inhabit a body of some kind. To me, at least, that suggests that they may have been created with a body, and are incomplete without one, as we are. 

Mark 5:9-13:  “Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ‘My name is Legion,’ he replied, ‘for we are many.’ 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. 11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, ‘Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.’ 13 He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.” 

The urgency that the spirits expressed not to be sent away, but rather to be sent into the pigs, suggests that any body (even a pig’s) was better than being disembodied. Ironically, their sudden entrance into the pigs caused the pigs to panic, rush into the sea, and drown. So the spirits ended up without a body to inhabit anyway. That demons’ need a body is supported by the following scripture. 

Matt 12:43-45:  “When an evil [Greek: unclean] spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, `I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.  45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” 

Here Jesus represents demons, or evil spirits, as beings who cannot find rest in “dry places,” but urgently seeks to return to the body it has left. If the person from whom the spirit was expelled does not take certain measures, the demon will return and bring seven others “more evil than himself” into his “house.”  These scriptures just cited strongly suggest that demons are disembodied spirits, not angels. In Ephesians 6:12 we see described a Satanic hierarchy, a chain of command. In descending order of rank we find  Rulers (Principalities), Authorities, Powers of this Dark World, and (last of all), “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly (or invisible spiritual) realms.” The host of demons seems distinct from the fallen angels.

Several theories have been advanced about the nature and origin of demons.

We have neither the time nor the need to go into most of them, since most are very speculative and far-fetched. What we read in Scripture hints that they may have once been human beings, the souls of evil men. I say this mainly because of their apparent need to have bodies. As the “body without the spirit is dead,” so the soul without the body is incomplete. Unlike the Greeks, who thought of the body as a kind of burden, or hindrance, to the soul. the Hebrews thought of a human being as a soul and a body. I don’t have time to prove this statement, but the fact that Hebrews looked for a resurrection of the body is evidence enough that Bible writers thought of the soul of man as incomplete without a body. Obviously not all the souls of dead people are demons. There’s no evidence that people dying in Jesus’ day or afterward were becoming demons. But possibly in the distant past, perhaps before or after the Flood, some group of people of outstanding wickedness became the horde of “wicked spirits in the spiritual realm” (Eph. 6:12).  

The Jewish historian Josephus said, "Demons are the spirits of wicked men, who enter into living men and destroy them, unless they are so happy as to meet with speedy relief.” 

Many of the “fathers” of the early church held this view. Justin Martyr (A.D. 165) wrote: “...there are those who are seized and tormented by souls of the dead, whom all call demons and madmen.” He added, “Evil demons in times of old, just before the flood, assumed various forms and so astonished mortal minds with wonders they displayed, so that men not knowing them to be evil demons styled them gods and addressed them by the name each demon imposed upon himself.”  One historian, after examining the writings of the early church fathers, concluded: “Many of the fathers of the first two centuries had the notion of demons, or the souls of dead men, having power over living men.” 

I don’t quote these men to prove anything; for us only Scripture is our ruling authority. But these quotations show that learned and pious men, who were in close touch with the tradition of Jesus and the apostles, believed that demons were the souls of departed evil people. 

When all is said, God has seen fit to leave us in relative darkness regarding the origin of Demons. 

NATURE OF DEMONS: Much more can be discovered about the nature of demons than about their origin. We have seen that they are spirits, and that they are called "evil" and "unclean." We see that, being spirits, they apparently have little power unless they inhabit humans, and that they suffer unless they inhabit something. Let us examine a classic incident in the life of Jesus, from which we can discover quite a bit about what demons are like.      

Luke 8:26-33: “They sailed to the region of the Gadarenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, 'What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!' 29 For Jesus had commanded the evil [Greek: unclean] spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. 30 Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ‘Legion,’ he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. 32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.” 

Observe from this passage that: 1) the demons were able to speak through the mouth and voice of the demonized man, so that it was not always clear whether the demon or the man was speaking; 2) they recognized Jesus, Who He was, and the power He had over them and possibly some part of their destiny—in other places they asked Jesus, “have you come to torture us before the appointed time”? (Mt. 8:29); 3) their effect on the demonized man was to incite him to abnormal and self-destructive behavior, such as living naked in the wild, inhabiting the tombs and, in Mark’s account, to cry out and cut himself with stones. (Mk. 5:5); 4) the demons gave the man supernormal strength; 5) the ruling demon, Legion, had a name, which Jesus desired to know; 6) the demons feared going into “the Abyss”; 7) they desired to go into the pigs rather than the Abyss; 8) being spirits, and therefore not occupying physical space, a very large number of demons was able to inhabit the man; 9) perhaps something of their unclean and ghoulish nature may be deduced from the man’s choice to live in the tombs. 

As we proceed with this study, we will come to understand the demonic nature better. This will keep us from being ignorant of the enemy’s ‘wiles.’ 

In later studies we shall see how demons prove themselves useful servants of “our Adversary, the Devil.” It is their duty, a duty which they willingly fulfill, to bind, frustrate, torment, accuse, cripple, destroy, kill and afflict with all kinds of illnesses both physical and mental the sons and daughters of Adam, whom they hate with an unrelenting, perfect hatred.

 Chapter 3:  Demons in the New Testament