A passage in the book I’m reading by Walter Wink forced me to reconsider an assumption I had always made about demons and devils, as well as the nature of chaos and the relationship between fallen angels and God. Tune in to hear my thoughts, and please share yours in the comments below.
Spiritual Warfare Recap
From the iTunes description: Weekly recap of recent events, what I’ve found in my studies, and some thoughts on spiritual warfare. My aim is to approach this topic practically and realistically–a lot of what’s out there on spiritual warfare is ambiguous at best, and completely ignorant at worst, so I’m hoping to establish something better for the benefit of the Church.
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«Spiritual Warfare Recap: Newspaper DefinitionSpiritual Warfare Recap: Verifying Facts, Finding Truth»- Lighting a Signal Fire
- Fear is the Beginning of Wisdom
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: Armor Bearers
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: Battling Ourselves
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: Newspaper Definition
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: Devils and Demons
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: Verifying Facts, Finding Truth
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: Psychic Vampires
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: Holy Water
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: Foundations
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: The Truth About Discernment
- Spiritual Warfare Recap: Spiritual Warfare Is Similar to Miracles
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This broadcast was a highly interesting post to me. I have a paticular interest in religious and mythological concepts as you know.
I would stand to counter that the Bible stands to differentiate between demons and the devil. There is a definate central evil figure that stands out amongst all that defy God, and I think the pluralization of devil came when Christianity clashed with religions that lack any one central figure opposing the many Gods.
The thing that always stood out to me between the Devil and demons is that the Devil has authority vested in him by God. In Job he is given authority by God to carry out certain actions. In the new testament he is offering Jesus things he has been given the power to offer. It is as if he is charged with a duty to apply certain pressures to men.
The demons handled by Jesus in various parts of the New Testament seem to have a different status. They are not inhabiting and torturing men based on a charge. It seems to almost describe them as beings cast upon nothingness that now have found some parasitic means of fufilment in the beings they inhabit. It is much harder to decipher their motivations, because they are covered in less detail.
Books that have been thrown out since Jesus’ time make the issue more complicated. The Jewish culture of his time held the Book of Enoch to be important. If this book was taken as scripture, it would make a case for why some beings have come to a point of defying God.
All of it taken together seems to point toward all of these beings having some form of autonomy in will.
What Walter Wink suggests is that demons/devils are the same, and are all angels created by God but who rebelled, but that their goals are somewhat irrelevant. Despite their best efforts to do otherwise, in the end they will end up serving God’s purposes. They can struggle against him and fight, but it doesn’t matter. He goes far more in-depth than this (I’ve had a very long two days and am not up for writing much tonight), but that’s the gist of the last 10-20 pages I have read.
For instance, Jesus cast out demons. In a sense, they served his purpose because they demonstrated his sovereignty and power.
He references Enoch quite a bit, by the way, which I have yet to read (but will need to do so very soon!).
Well, keep in mind that one of the original arguments over the discarding of the Book of Enoch was the character of God it portrayed.
One side of the character of God argument states that the book of Enoch incorrectly shows God punishing beings for giving God’s gift to humanity, such as art, architecture, metal smithing, etc.. The counter of the argument is that the book simply shows man’s observation of these skills being taught and then the punishment of the beings afterward. We may simply be missing a Garden of Eden scene depicting some commandment to the beings to keep this knowledge from man.
I would assume the latter argument would fit Wink’s arguments. The seven rebels in the book may be defying God in a way that isn’t really against God’s plan. It may be that God wanted man to have this knowledge all along. There may just be some reason why he told these angels not to teach man these things. It would seem he had a similar situation with man in the garden of Eden, so I don’t think it really is that out of place for his character. The harder question is why would he tell them not to do something that is in fact part of his plan.
I am definitely going to have to read this Book. My study of the apocrypha and other non-canonical works has so far been woefully lacking!
Did a little research into the subject that I haven’t done for years.
The arguments I was remembering are actually fairly recent from the 1800’s after the rediscovery of the book. They have nothing to do with the original loss of the book, and they are more of a list of reasons to ignore the book in modern times. I think people like Friedrich Delitzsch might of been too quick to judge the book from their knee jerk fear of anything approaching mysticism. It seems clear the book leaves room for some of the knowledge to be sin, some of the knowledge to be heavenly secrets, and some of the knowledge to be neutral knowledge.
“Thou seest what Azâzêl hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were (preserved) in heaven,”
I’m not able to find many references immediately on the internet about the original criticisms. There are some quickly found discussions that imply the main stream Jewish community looked down on the apocalyptic movements focusing on this book including Christianity. I find no discussions on why Christians shunned it. I’m sure you can find better sources. I’m wrong though, the above argument is a rather late argument. It is not one of the originals.