INTRODUCTION

Demonology is the study of demons and their activities. Here we don’t do intellectual research but a careful assessment of satan’s dark kingdom in the light of how to overcome them and release all mankind from their stranglehold.

Some have wrongly believed that they are safer if they don’t disturb the devil. This opinion is wrong because satan and his forces have already declared war against God and everything that supports God’s image or purpose in all creation. In fact, what we are doing is to discover how to push back his evil forces and reclaim the territories he has taken from us.

WHY YOU SHOULD NOT IGNORE SATAN AND HIS DEMONS

As I walk through the streets of my city, one thing flashes through my mind; all these people are controlled by one spirit or the other. There is no place for man to act independently. To win a soul will entail snatching that soul from the devil and that means breaking the grip of satan and his demons from that person. If you are not able to do this, you will not succeed in your venture. Even though some people would argue against this truth in their secular world view, one would not have gone far to see the truth.

After reading some part of this material posted on social media, here is somebody’s comment –

• Who did this to us Africans? All these demons, demon, demon everywhere. My question is, don’t Oyibo people have demons too?
• 
  If there are actually demons do you know the population of Christians all over the world that has being praying against one Satan and the Satan is still alive.
  My brother, pray to adore God for his love and favours.
  When Jesus died and resurrected, he took all powers away from devil.
  Devil only exist in your imagination –

By the above statement, he meant that there are really no demons as expressed or that they are peculiar to Africa. Demons know no borders but the devil would love that you see him and his activities as inexistent or powerless. God has used me to minister to many people in Europe and USA who are struggling with the oppression of evil spirits. Satan is influencing government policies in many nations of the world, so that Christians who refused to join in his agenda are made to close down their businesses and some even go to jail. A baker had his business shutdown in USA because he refused to bake cake for gay couples; churches are forced to adopt unbiblical practices. In fact, it is better to say that satan has won 80% of the war in those so-called developed nations. That is why most of the developed countries are looking up to Africa for revival and deliverance. Most religions are intolerant to Christianity because the demons that benefit from their idolatry see the name of Jesus Christ as a threat

In the two instances below we are forced to face this truth –

They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord Acts 13:6-12NIV

Here we meet two men from two different teams; I say so because I believe Bar-Jesus had his team also. Any onlooker will only see some people arguing before the governor and may even conclude that they were quarreling because of the money the governor gave them, but the bible was very clear on the issues.

1. Paul was full or controlled by a particular Spirit – THE HOLY SPIRIT. It was the Spirit in Paul that enabled or rather identified the other spirit in the other man as contrary spirit
2. The Spirit in Paul had a definite assignment and that was to rescue the governor from the control of another spirit.
3. Bar-Jesus – Child of the devil. In fact, it was the spirit in him that made the first move by trying to turn the governor from paying attention to Paul’s team. It was obvious to the spirit in Bar-Jesus that they were about to lose the control over the governor
4. The spirit in Bar-Jesus also had spelt out agenda that was contrary to Paul’s Spirit as Paul pointed out – Enemy of righteousness, Full of tricks and Perversion
5. The governor – Neutral? – it would appear that this fellow was neutral and open to any side but the truth is that, before now, he was under the control of the spirit of Bar-Jesus. People knew him as the governor but Bar-Jesus dictated what he did and said. Even though, from the onset, he delighted in the message Paul and his team brought to him, he had no power on his own to accept or reject the message. Paul may as well call down fire from heaven and raise a thousand dead people the governor cannot act contrary to the spirit that had him in check.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God 2 Cor 4:4NIV

Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will 2 Tim 2:25-26NIV

We have another such instance in the Book of Esther when Haman bore the ring for the king’s official seal on his finger and went home with it. Haman was free to decide from the comfort of his bedroom what should be done in the land, act as he willed and then publish same as royal decree.

1. The conflict – unless and until Paul and his team could dislodge Bar-Jesus and the spirits that worked with him, he will never be able to achieve anything worthwhile with the governor and the city they had just entered. I will like to believe that it was the Spirit in Paul that led them first to the place of the premier conflict, so that they can do the most important battle that will eventually open up the city to them. I mean to say that the Holy Spirit intending to take that region led Paul’s team to first put down a principality called Bar-Jesus. God did not take Bar-Jesus for granted but recognized the influence he had on the region.

Another kind of conflict – It is not always that the enemy comes all out in an offensive way; the devil may still come as a friend and financier to your ministry or career and this makes it very hard to detect. Someone reading this now may be working under a ministry that houses and provides for him and family but any day he recognizes the conflict, another battle must be fought. Someone may have the enemy of his soul as his boss or guardian.

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” Acts 16:16-21NIV

There is something strange about the charges against Paul and his team – they were accused of throwing the city into confusion and advocating customs unlawful—

Yet the same account said that they were comfortable with Paul for many days before Paul dared to cast out the demon of divination that was using the slave girl, and the demon in the woman was actually advertising Paul’s teachings as being from God before now. What new thing has Paul taught the people that provoked this fresh conflict?

Before that time, his preaching was impotent, and the devil’s kingdom knew that they could not harm the devil’s purpose in the life of the people.

My reader should now understand why some churches and ministries would grow into thousands of members within one year but another faithful brother in the same city is still struggling to house hundred members. The principal condition is that these pastors and their congregation should keep off some kind of teachings that harm the devil’s interest.

WHERE DO DEMONS COME FROM?

There has been many propositions regarding the origin of demons but I want my reader to understand that the bible writers took the idea of demons for granted principally because the people at the time did not need any explanations for origin or signs of demonic operation. Those who had problems knew that those problems were caused by demons. Hence the Lord Jesus Christ never spent time telling people the signs that people have demons. In fact, they were the ones that introduced most cases of demon oppression to Him.

SOME TOTALLY WRONG OPINIONS ON THE ORIGINS OF DEMONS

1. Demons are among the one third of the angels of God that followed satan in his rebellion.

Even though a great number of bible scholars accept this theory, it is hard to back it with sound connections. I regret to state here that most of us are not like the Berea Christians who would go home and do their own research. Let us look it this view together.

These bible teachers quote the following scripture to support their position;

Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth Rev 12:3-4 NIV

Here are reasons the above scripture does not speak of angels following satan.

1. This is simple English grammar. If you read the whole scripture in Rev12, you will agree with me that satan was waging war, he was not winning some angels over. The scripture said that he waged war against the said stars with his tail. He swept them and flung them to the ground. It never said they followed him.
2. Again the bible never in any instance referred to angels as stars. It is the sons of Abraham that are to shine as stars and those who turn many to righteousness also shine too Dan12:3. That means the believers in Christ Jesus. So that scripture says that when devil tried to thwart God’s agenda and failed, he then attacked the saints. Rev. 9 mentioned an account of a fallen star with the key to the abyss. This does not imply an angel but a backslider.
3. It is important also that we follow the sequence of scripture and that means, at what time was the account of Rev12 referred to? This account referred to a time after Jesus Christ had gone back to heaven. Yes, that was when Apostle John was instructed to write to the seven churches. You can start from chapter one of Revelation if you like, but let us take a look at chapter four.

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this Rev 4:1NIV

Yes, the above scripture proves my point and of course, you must agree with me that satan and his demons were very active on this earth before this time. What we are trying to establish is that the Rev12 does not answer the question of the origin of demons. These things happened years after satan had tempted the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness and years after the bible said that satan entered Judas and all those many accounts of casting out of demons under the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. That means that satan and his demons were very active and were working against God’s kingdom before the book of Revelation was written. So, there is no way satan would have gotten his demons from an account in Chapter twelve.

The same scripture said that satan went into that war with his demons

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him Rev 12:7-9NIV

It is clear from this scripture that satan also has his own angels that report to him and that those demons, as we call them were with him before he went into that war that he lost. It is then wrong to assume that those fallen stars were immediately conscripted into his army at the same time they were involved in the war.

2. Demons are the spirits of people who had died before God created Adam and Eve.

This opinion is carried about by the same school of thought that claims that the bible supports the idea of reincarnation. The problem I have with the occult community is that, just like their master the devil, their focus is to deceive Christians by perverting the bible. Anybody can believe in whatever he chooses but only believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are free to interpret the bible.

The bible cannot support reincarnation and at the same time teach that there will be resurrection of the dead. More than one chapter of the New Testament was devoted to establish the doctrine of resurrection of the dead; and it is important to point out that Resurrection of the Dead is one of the six foundational teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ (Heb.6:1-2), so it cannot at the same support the false occult view point of Reincarnation.

If there is Reincarnation then;

1. There is no resurrection of the dead because all the dead will not be in the grave to resurrect
2. If there is no resurrection then there is nothing like eternal judgment as we teach that sinners and the saints will face judgment
3. If there is no resurrection then Christ is not returning as we preach. Of course, why should we expect him to return when all the dead would have reincarnated and for which of the life on earth will they be judged?
4. If there is no resurrection then there will be no eternal judgment in which Christians claim that Jesus Christ will judge the world. That is saying that another foundational doctrine of the Church is a lie
5. If there is no eternal judgment because Christ is not coming back again, then the bible is full of lies. Yes, these points are what the bible kept affirming and when we say that there is reincarnation, we are saying that they are lies
6. If the bible is full of lies, then there is no God. The existence of God is another powerful point the bible asserted so strongly
7. If there is no God, then man is god to himself. This is the point satan and the occult members have been pushing for years. They say that there is no God

So here again the same people try to tell us that the bible said that there were humans on the earth before God created Adam and Eve. They teach that one of those families gave Cain his wife. Another lie!

So how did Cain get his wife?

Let us do some mathematics –

When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died. When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died. Gen 5:3-11NIV

If Adam had a son when he was 130 years and died while 930 years it means that Adam was 235 years when Seth became the father of Enosh. He was 325 years when Enosh had Kenan. You can carry on with the addition. If Adam had sons and daughters as well as Seth, it will imply that Cain will not have problem with getting women to marry because the family of Adam have produced enough women while he was 300 years. It is then very safe that say that Cain married from the family of Adam. This practice was still on when Abram was born many years after because Abram married his sister.

The bible did not discuss the origin of demons but took it for granted that the people knew what they were. The bible did not tell us the ingredients used to prepare the food that the Lord Jesus Christ ate and there are many other things it did not tell us because that was not the subject. These spirits that work with satan are represented with different names in the bible; unclean spirits, demons, evil spirits etc. In most cases they are described by the dirty things they do in people’s lives, like, spirit of deaf and dumb, lying spirit, spirit of prostitution, spirit of folly and spirit of infirmity.

Those who control territories are referred to as the gods of whatever nation or people that serve them and by whatever name they manifest themselves to the people. These territorial powers are higher in rank, power and authority than the demons that inhabit persons. Dealing with those mighty demons is much more difficult and takes more time but we will discuss that in subsequent lectures.

Some live and operate from the sea like Mammy Water, some operate from mountains like Ikenga and there are those that operate from shrines or idols like Amadioha or Dagon of the bible. There are those that operate from somewhere behind the clouds like Queen of heaven and Rah (god of the sun) or Prince of Persia. These higher demons often demand worship like we saw in the earlier chapters where people sacrifice their children in the fire to them. There may be more than one of them in a particular place but then they understand how to submit to each other.

These higher ones determine the religious, social, cultural, and political atmosphere of nations that have not received the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Missionaries have them to contend with if they will ever win unreached nations. Remember Antipas in Rev 2:13.

The lower demons are the ones we cast out in every meeting from people; it is not likely that those greater demons in the heavens can enter any human being. The lower ones submit to the higher ones. The lower ones manifest in many kind of ways mimicking animals like dogs or snakes and in all forms of diseases and emotional conditions.

The study of the activities of these spirit is what is known as demonology.