Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Welcome to village church, sermon Q and a pastor Michael, here with you. I'm in the studio with pastor Craig, pastor Alex on September 12th, 2021. We preach the second sermon and our spiritual war series. Pastor Alex. I have a question that we've debated a little bit before this podcast. And so we'll see where this goes. What are the various kinds of demons?
Speaker 2 00:00:26 Yeah, so scripture describes, uh, I, from what I can see, there are three to four different titles or words used for spiritual beings. Uh, so you have Sarah femme, you have cherubim, uh, you have angels, just the word angels, and then you have the four living creatures and revelation. And those are kind of all of the names we get for spiritual beings. Now, there could be an argument made that all of those beings are all basically the same thing, but they have different levels of authority. There could also be an argument made because of some of the visible descriptions, like in a Z keel, you have gr cherubim described as having like four different faces, uh, and a couple of weighings, right? And then in Isaiah six, you have Sarah fem with six wings. Uh, you know, so there are kind of different forms that are described for us.
Speaker 2 00:01:17 And argument can be made that those are each different kinds of spiritual beings. And so then take that, apply that to the demonic realm. Satan takes one third of the angels with him. Uh, so we could think that there are as many various kinds of demons as there are various kinds of heavenly spiritual beings. So, uh, so yeah. Now can we say anything for certain? I don't feel like I can say with certainty that there are, you know, four or five different kinds of demons, right. And in terms of form. So with that being said, I think there are definitely demons who have, uh, different kinds of function. So, uh, like if you read, uh, first Corinthians 10, 19 and 20, it talks about demons who set themselves up as false idols, uh, that when you, uh, talks about sacrificing, you know, eating meat sacrificed to idols, and why would you sacrifice to an idol you're actually sacrificing or giving, offering to a demon?
Speaker 2 00:02:18 Right. So Paul makes that very clear. Uh, some of them seem to work in groups. So like you have, uh, uh, Legion taking over, uh, the person in the gospels, Jesus has to cast Legion out, right? That's multiple demons into one and to multiple bags, right. Uh, some of them have run nations, right? We've seen this last two weeks in our sermon series, uh, we've looked at different instances of the, you know, the prince of Persia, uh, right. So like we see nations being controlled by demonic forces. And then, uh, Jesus actually, like in another instance, talks about a certain kind of demon, right? So he's setting up different categories of certain that can only be, uh, that can only come out through prayer. He does that in mark chapter nine, right? So there are seemingly different kinds of demons, but can we say how many they are and what they all are? Uh,
Speaker 1 00:03:13 I don't know in terms of function, it strikes me that, that in the demon hierarchy you have like Lucifer, Satan, whatever you want to call them, you have Michael. They almost seem to be corresponding archangels to each other. Uh, but it's interesting. They seem to want to run nations at the end of Daniel 10, the angel refers to Michael as Daniel, your prince, and a lot of, I mean, theologians and I think not inappropriately have come to the conclusion that just as there are demons overseeing specific nations in terms of function, that, that Michael's job is actually oversight of the nation of Israel. Right. And which is why, even though they're in Babylon, he calls basically Michael Daniel's prince. But it's interesting when you get to remember, Jesus tells the stories as if you cast a demon out of somebody, be really careful because if you're not careful, it's going to go get seven of his buddies. They're going to have back in his, his state is going to be worse than the former. So it's also striking that there are demons who are running entire empires globally. And then there are demons who are filling a person
Speaker 2 00:04:15 Concerned with people. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:04:16 Yeah. It seems like the authority structure sometimes is just, whackadoodle when it comes to the demons, because if that's the case, if one demon gets thrown out and there's a chance of all kinds of other demons taken that spot in a person, which is what Jesus was talking about in that particular circumstance, I wonder how the authority structure works. Like who tells who to do what? Or is it just like
Speaker 1 00:04:37 Free for all equal plane? So think about, um, Michael and think about, uh, Lucifer, Satan, right? So equal plane. And the only way that Michael could win in June, uh, is if he calls on Jesus to higher authority, they're
Speaker 3 00:04:51 Stuck with each other in Jude, he's struggling over the body more
Speaker 2 00:04:54 For sure. And they're kind of like at the
Speaker 1 00:04:55 Same level, right? So imagine though, again, it's like a basketball team, you know, like they have all, they're on the same team. They're playing the same game. They have current different whatever, but they all have the same authority. Maybe you have a captain, maybe I'm just going to surmise that they don't have a captain. And they're all just sort of competing. It's like kindergarten it's king of the hill, you know, and whoever's pushes the other one off, gets it. And, and the idea, this is what's interesting. And Jesus is like, story is you get a demon who is cast out, but then there's seven others that are like twiddling their thumbs. And they're like, oh, you have somebody let's go, let's go. And they've got nothing better to do like squatters. And, and I think it's very interesting because apparently like, these guys have no aspirations around empires, but they are like low enough on the totem pole that they're going to go over. And then,
Speaker 3 00:05:41 And the deal is that the common thread in all of this is they're looking to make chaos, whatever they do, whatever, whatever realm or whatever stack of authority they're there in, right. They're looking to create chaos in a world that, that God created to be ordered.
Speaker 1 00:05:54 Yeah. So can I like go back to the forum part of it? Right. So the Serafin meaning the burning ones cherubim are described, Daniel describes this messenger angel who comes to him is very glorious. Normally speaks, Daniel passes out, but he looks like a man. Um, and so he's glorious, but he doesn't have any wings Right. Yet. Right. And so it's very striking that, trying to figure out form particularly then go back to like the book of Genesis and right. You have these angels taking human form form is a very striking thing. I don't know what to do with it. I don't know. We can get the number. There could be 50 cans,
Speaker 2 00:06:32 Cherubim who take the form like more like humans to become
Speaker 3 00:06:36 Right. Again, in scripture it says you entertain angels unaware. So sometimes I think there is, and we see in scripture multiple times where angels look like human beings. So I'm not sure if they're stuck in a form or God gives them the ability to take different forms, but it's, it seems like, um, they have this unique ability to appear as God wants them to appear that that's on the agentic realm. Demons do appear as people. We know that to be true as well. I mean, they, this which at end or when, uh, she's bringing up these demons, which she does on a regular basis, all of a sudden she brings up Samuel and Saul Saul, and she freaks out and Saul said, what's the problem. My guess is that was really Samuel that God sent Samuel. And that, which was so used to dealing with demons, she was used to it when she saw the real thing, like demons being other people in other words. Right. But when she saw Samuel saw the real thing, then she's like, oh, it's on.
Speaker 1 00:07:33 Or maybe, maybe not. I mean, maybe certain authority levels of angels or kinds of angels have the ability to take on human form with God's permission. Of course, I think when you get to, at the end of the day, tell me if I'm wrong here is we have no idea. Right. And we know that they have form and they have function. We see different functions based on authority levels, plausibly. But then we also see, like, there are different descriptions, but I don't know that we could, like conclusively say a cherub is different than a Sarah, which is different than a whatever. And all cherubs look,
Speaker 3 00:08:02 You know, and again, in scripture, there's a lot of metaphorical language. Jeez, Jesus appears to John with a sword coming out of his mouth and you know, there's a lot of, Hey, I don't know how to explain this. So here's what I got. So even then I'm wondering like, what are we actually seeing when we see these angels in scripture?
Speaker 2 00:08:20 I think as we like talk about the difference between these kinds of demons or whatever there is, and Craig, you started to allude to this. There's one thing that they all have in common. All demons are angels in the most literal sense of the word. Angel is simply a word for messenger. They are all those carrying out the message of lies. They spread lies to lead people away from Jesus. And I think we can say for certain, that scripture teaches that with clarity.
Speaker 1 00:08:47 Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I want to thank you for joining us. We have a lot more to come on. Sermon Q and a.
