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Chapter 4: God Is the Ultimate Authority

Angels can sin. That is why demons exist. The essence of sin is rebellion against whatever the Lord has decreed, and a third of the angels chose to reject the Lord with a full understanding of His glory and majesty (Rev 12:4, 9; cf. Matt 25:41). We can only imagine the depth of evil required to turn away from God after standing in His presence. Nevertheless, that is what some angels chose to do long before any of us were born. God did not create angels to be wicked any more than He created humans to be wicked. He did, however, give us all the freedom to choose our own actions. Like humans, angels seem to possess self-determination (Job 4:18; 15:15). Sin is the evidence pointing to that conclusion.

God is not evil and does not create inherently evil beings—there is no darkness anywhere in His character (1 John 1:5). But with freedom of choice comes the freedom to reject God’s laws, no matter how ruinous the outcome may be. Angelic sin expresses itself in a variety of ways, including insurrection against God (Rev 12:4, 9; Job 4:18), murder (Job 1:16, 18–19; John 8:44), physical assault (Job 2:7; Matt 8:28; Mark 9:18 par.), deception (Gen 3:1–4; 1 Kgs 22:21–22), and hatred of humanity (Zech 3:1–2; Rev 12:10). Yet, while caution can be appropriate, Christians need not fear demons because the Lord is fully in control. He alone is infinite in strength and power. Angels and demons appear free to choose their own beliefs and behaviors, but God effortlessly limits their autonomy when it comes to their interactions with humanity.

This is good news for us because humans are less powerful than angels (Heb 2:7; cf. Ps 8:5). There is nothing we humans can do in our own power and authority to command demons.1 Neither rituals, talents, intellect, nor religious sounding words are enough to control evil supernatural forces. Humans may be deceived into thinking otherwise, and demons are quite eager to play the part if it means ensnaring more souls, but the spiritual reality is quite the opposite. We are entirely dependent on the Lord for our protection.

Thankfully, Jesus is fully capable and entirely willing to help us with all our problems, including those of an evil and supernatural nature. Where humans go astray is thinking Jesus is either disinterested, not in control, or too weak to help. This could not be further from the truth! God can control demons; humans cannot. We see this throughout the Bible, from beginning to end, from demonic activity on earth to satanic activity in God’s heavenly court. Placing our trust in God means that our job is to rely on the Lord rather than enter into supernatural battles that God never called us to fight on our own power. The Lord is the sustainer of our souls (Ps 54:4), turning the evil plans of our spiritual enemies against them (Ps 54:5; Rev 12:13–17). There is no better help than the King of All Creation!

No One Can Defeat the Lord​

Love for humanity motivates God in much of what He does. After all, God created both men and women in His own image (Gen 1:27) as a special honor unique to human beings. He gave us a privileged place in His created order (Gen 1:28–30), and when the Lord paused for a moment to reflect on everything in all of creation—humans, animals, plants, and even angels—He was well pleased. It was very good (Gen 1:31)! But at some point around the time when Adam and Eve were both innocently absorbed in tending the lush vegetation growing in their home (Gen 2:15, 18), an ugly war they knew nothing about erupted among the angels. The angels, who had once sung together in unmitigated joy at the creation of the world (Job 38:4, 7), were now embroiled in a vicious civil war between those who were loyal to God and those who were sympathetic to Satan (Job 4:18; 15:15; Rev 12:4, 9).

Satan, created as a guardian cherub angel with stunning beauty, had been assigned a place in Eden with the new humans (Ezek 28:13–14).2 Yet he wanted so much more for himself—he wanted to be worshipped. In fact, Satan wanted all of creation to consider him as even greater than the Lord Himself (Matt 4:9; Isa 14:12–14). Satan was so filled with pride, so captivated by his own beauty, wisdom, and power, that he began to glorify himself and wanted others to do the same (Ezek 28:17). This former angel of light had grown corrupt. His present actions were a twisted inversion of his original purpose. No longer was he a guardian angel and a beacon of virtue; he now thoroughly embraced his new identity as murderer and liar (John 8:44).

The heavens must have shook as the angels battled one another with all the supernatural might those who can stand in the presence of God have at their disposal. Satan incited this angelic rebellion against God, and “[a]ccording to Hebrew tradition, one-third of all the angels in heaven fell with Satan”3 when their holy brethren forced out the insurrectionists from their heavenly home. The number of defeated angels was so vast that it seemed as if a third of the stars in the nighttime sky were hurled down to the earth (Rev 12:4, 9). Jesus may have been referring to this event when He later said, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning” (Luke 10:18 NASB), but well before Jesus ever spoke those words, only Adam and Eve were around to bear witness. However, there is no indication in Scripture they recognized anything was different. The world God had created, the one God’s angels so recently rejoiced over, and the same world where God placed humanity as the bearers of His image, was to become the next battleground in the conflict between wicked angels and the God of Creation. Humanity was to be the new target of these evil forces, perhaps in a twisted attempt to hurt God, or perhaps out of sheer spite for the favor God had shown to the man and the woman.

Satan, wandering the magnificent green oasis where Adam and Eve lived, was likely sulking after his defeat. He was now painfully aware that He could not triumph in a direct assault against God even if he did have a powerful army of wicked angels who had all rejected the Lord’s sovereignty. Satan might have pondered what he could do to continue his fight. Could he influence the humans to reject their Creator just as he had turned a third of the angels into insurrectionists? Now that was an idea! The demonic cherub would have quickly put his latest scheme into motion. Taking the form of a talking serpent (Gen 3:1; 2 Cor 11:3; Rev 12:9; 20:2), something the humans had never before seen, he slunk closer to Eve.

“Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” (Gen 3:1 NASB) he asked her. “You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:4: NASB). Would it work? Would Eve betray God’s trust? Satan knew firsthand the allure of considering himself to be superior to God. If this was enough to anger the Lord when Satan pursued that goal, surely it would anger the Lord when mere humans pursued it. Anything Satan could do to emotionally wound God was a positive outcome in his view. Who were these humans, anyway? Certainly not as powerful as angels (Heb 2:7; cf. Ps 8:5)! In all likelihood, Satan thought the idea of humanity becoming greater than God was laughable. God produced all kinds of powerful miracles when He created the world. The angels witnessed it firsthand; humans could do none of that! Still, in that moment, what must have mattered to Satan was whether Eve would take the bait, thus betraying God.

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen 3:6 NASB). She ate the forbidden fruit! Even better, she gave some of it to her husband! This was sure to be an emotional dagger in the heart of God. Satan was probably very smug at that point, causing the humans—who God had so lovingly created—to disobey His direct command. What would God do now? Would He destroy these humans? The Lord was perfectly holy, after all, so why would He want any of these creatures to remain in His presence when they had just proven themselves to be filled with rebellion against Him? Whatever punishment they received would serve them right!

Satan may have thought He had backed God into a corner. By doing nothing, God would be condoning rebellion, the very same crime that Satan and his angelic defectors stood accused of committing. By doing something, God might choose to remove Himself from direct contact with humanity since the Lord has zero tolerance for sinful behavior. Either way, Satan may have believed he stood to benefit. God would either forgive the humans and therefore must forgive him too, or God would separate Himself from the humans, which would leave them vulnerable to further manipulation. If they could be manipulated into disobeying God, they could be manipulated into worshiping Satan when God was no longer present. It was really quite ingenious. But Satan missed a crucial factor in all his scheming: God genuinely loved the people He created. Moreover, as much as Satan probably marveled at his own cleverness, he should have remembered that the King of All Creation is without equal (John 3:31).

“Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ And the woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate’” (Gen 3:13 NASB). This was the moment. What would God do next? Turning to Satan, still inhabiting the body of a serpent, God said, “I will make enemies / Of you and the woman, / And of your offspring and her Descendant; / He shall bruise you on the head, / And you shall bruise Him on the heel” (Gen 3:15 NASB). Rather than destroying the rebellious humans, God chose to foreshadow what He was going to do to get them out of their painful situation. Yes, this latest rebellion would be punished. But in a powerful show of the Lord’s omniscience and grace, He had long since calculated the many thousands of years of cause and effect needed to influence the world (2 Tim 1:9; Titus 1:2), planning an intricate chain of events that would eventually converge on a single, pivotal moment in history: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1:20)—Himself!

Satan would “bruise Jesus on the heel” by inciting His painful crucifixion, while Jesus would “bruise the serpent on the head” by negating Satan’s schemes, eventually punishing Satan for his many misdeeds. Some people would still reject Jesus after He arrived on earth; they would sadly bear the full weight of their rebellious actions. However, in one masterful stroke, the way was now open to save anyone who wanted to be saved. God laid out His plan to punish wickedness, maintain His judgment against demonic angels, uphold His holy name, and forgive humanity for its sinful behavior. In other words, checkmate, Satan.

God loved us so much that even after sin first entered the world He had a plan worked out for how to rescue humanity from its fatal mistake in Eden. The Lord would become incarnate as a sinless Messiah. This would be His long-term strategy to sidestep Satan. Jesus, the Son of Man, suffered the same temptations every human suffers, but He could successfully live a perfect life completely in sync with God because He was God in human form. Fully human. Fully divine. Jesus could successfully atone for humanity’s collective sins whereas no one else was capable of doing that. So while Jesus could have chosen to sin, He never did. Adam and Eve chose sin. Jesus did not.

His choice to take on the wrath of God through His crucifixion “proved that the first Adam could have succeeded in his charge” to be obedient to the Lord.4 Jesus successfully bore the ramifications of the original fall “so that the children of Adam would not have to.”5 When Jesus died on the cross, He died in our place under the weight of every sin that humanity would ever commit against God (1 John 2:2; Heb 9:15). “Thus Jesus became that right representative of our race who made the right choice” and cleared both our guilt through Adam and our guilt from our own personal indiscretions.6 Put another way, Jesus became the second Adam, fully human yet perfect in every way so that we could receive new life through Him rather than suffer death through our original Adamic heritage (1 Cor 15:22; Rom 5:12–19).

Jesus’s crucifixion was also “in keeping with the symbolism of the Day of Atonement. Annually, the high priest would atone for or cover the sins that the people had committed in the preceding year (Lev. 16:16, 21, 30).”7 Jesus was a perfect sacrifice, so perfect that no further sacrificial atonement would ever be necessary. Satan introduced humans to eternal death back in Eden but was now powerless to stop God from expressing His love and grace toward all who would choose God over Satan. Death was a weapon that Satan could still wield, but it no longer carried the eternal repercussions it might otherwise have included. The Lord completely redefined death itself as an expression of His love and grace toward humanity (Rom 6:5–9; 1 Cor 15:56–57). By dying under the weight of humanity’s collective sins, the death of Jesus utterly crushed the evil schemes of every fallen angel who opposed Him (Col 2:15).

Absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rom 8:38–39)—not death, not the people who reject God, not demons, and certainly not Satan. That means nothing can snatch us out of Jesus’s hands (John 10:28-29). While Satan is a powerful adversary, God is infinitely more powerful. Who but God can so intricately plan many thousands of years in advance to achieve a specific goal? Who but God can redefine death itself into something more gentle for those who die? It is imperative that we keep all this in mind when studying demons. Make no mistake: the earth is Satan’s domain (2 Cor 4:4), and he has caused no shortage of pain and suffering throughout history (1 Pet 5:8). But remembering how powerful God is, and that salvation for Christians is assured, helps us stand firm against the schemes of God’s defeated enemies. No matter the difficult situations we find ourselves facing, and no matter how bleak our circumstances may appear, the Lord never abandons His adopted children.

Power Dynamics in the Heavenly Realms​

The Lord demonstrated in Eden that He is fully capable of outmaneuvering Satan. Shrewdness, however, is an indication of intelligence rather than authority, so what are the actual power dynamics between God, Satan, and the fallen, angelic army? Is Satan just as powerful as God in his own way? Not even close. We catch a glimpse of this in the story of Job. His story is part of the wisdom literature genre,8 which exists to teach readers about specific virtues and theological viewpoints. Scholars do not always consider the genre to be strictly historical, but in the case of Job, we know that he was a real person because God specifically referred to him by name much later in Israel’s history (Ezek 14:20). Job probably lived during the events seen in the Book of Genesis. He “seemed to know about Adam [Job 31:33] and the Noahic flood [Job 12:15]. These cultural/historical features found in the book appear to place the events chronologically at a time probably after Babel (Gen. 11:1–9), but before or contemporaneous with Abraham (Gen. 11:27ff.).”9

Job has long been known as a believer who helplessly underwent extreme hardship meant to test his faith in God. His story addresses the question of why God permits the righteous to suffer. Ultimately, the answer is not as important as the need to place our faith in God as our wholly sufficient source of help. The story of Job begins with a scene in heaven where all the angels, including Satan, “came to present themselves before the Lord” (Job 1:6 NASB). God presided over His heavenly court just as a king would over his subjects. This is an important observation. A king who presides over a court has a dominant social position whereas those who present themselves before a king have a submissive social position. This is no different than what we see in the social structures of earthly monarchies throughout human history. In modern terms, we could even describe this as the difference between a CEO and an employee—the power gap between these two positions can be substantial. This heavenly scene demonstrates that the Lord has power over all the angels, and without a doubt, this includes Satan.

Satan and the other demons were no longer counted among the Lord’s holy angels by the time Job was born. Still, their fundamental angelic essence had not changed. Because they remained angels, they possessed far less power than God who created them. The demons may have considered themselves their own “nation” by that point, but the very act of God successfully compelling Satan to appear before Him at His heavenly court made it crystal clear that God was still the undisputed King of Kings. It made no difference whether Satan represented his own demonic constituency. It also made no difference that the demons wanted nothing to do with God. The power dynamic between God and Satan—in other words, the question of who possessed ultimate authority—did not change after the angelic insurrection. Satan himself acknowledged this fact. He spoke no words about it yet chose to present himself before the Lord on two separate occasions in the story of Job (Job 1:6; 2:1). This is the act of one who is in a socially submissive position to another who has supreme authority.

Moreover, Satan did not speak until spoken to. “The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ Satan answered the Lord’s question, saying, ‘From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it’” (Job 1:7 NASB). This is further evidence of the Lord’s kingly position. Satan was not the one asking questions at court, nor did he lead the discussion. Rather, the Lord spoke first and required Satan to answer. Satan is a consummate liar for whom telling the truth is like speaking a foreign language (John 8:44). It must have been almost painful for him to answer God truthfully, but God would have immediately spotted a lie. Satan had no choice but to give the Lord a truthful answer. This was certainly not in his nature; he would have probably lied had anyone other than God asked him that question. Here, too, God remained the undisputed king. Satan was merely a royal subject required to participate truthfully in a conversation that he likely did not want to have.

And lest we think this power dynamic was specific to the story of Job, we catch another glimpse of the Lord’s heavenly court through the prophet Micaiah. He “saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the angels of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left” (1 Kgs 22:19 NASB). Again, we see the Lord presiding over His court—this time sitting down in a greater display of His power—while His royal subjects stand around Him. That is the picture of a king in charge. The Lord asked a question, effectively setting an agenda, and the angels responded with different contributions to the conversation (1 Kgs 22:20). Eventually, “a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said” that it would inspire a group of false prophets to speak lies (1 Kgs 22:21–22 NASB). The lying spirit participating in this heavenly discussion was a demon, perhaps even Satan himself, because God finds lies to be detestable (Pr 6:16–19). His angels are holy, just as God is holy, so neither they nor God would endorse lying. This scene demonstrates once again that all angels are entirely subject to God’s sovereignty. Satan is the ruler of demons and a dominant power over his own demonic army (Matt 12:24; 25:41; Rev 12:9), but the Lord rules over them all. He rules Satan who rules demons. The chain of command is clear. God is the ultimate authority throughout all creation just as He has been from the very beginning. It makes no difference which angel or which demon we compare with the Lord.

This picture of total, divine sovereignty repeats when we consider Christ. The Lord, infinite in nature and well beyond our ability to fully comprehend, is one deity in three parts—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—co-equal and eternal. Jesus is a perfect representation of the Lord; He is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15 NASB). All the sovereign authority the Lord displayed in His heavenly court applies equally to Jesus just as all the power and majesty associated with Jesus applies equally to the Lord. All persons of the Godhead are one and the same in essence, yet each person works in a different role.

Regarding Jesus, Paul writes that He is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” because the Lord put all things under Jesus’s authority (Eph 1:21–22 NASB). God created everything that exists through Jesus, “both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities” (Col 1:16 NASB). This authority extends to all angels, both holy and demonic, who are subject to His sovereignty (Heb 1:4; 1 Pet 3:22). In case these statements of Jesus’s power and authority were not clear enough, John writes that Jesus has absolute authority over Satan (1 John 4:4). In short, Jesus—the Lord—is in charge. Everything is subject to Him. There is no higher authority anywhere, either seen or unseen, holy or demonic.

The absolute authority of the Lord is a critical point to remember when studying demons. To really drive it home, know there is a hierarchy in creation featuring Jesus way up at the very top because His power, intelligence, and wisdom (not to mention love, grace, and mercy) are unmatched. Comparing Jesus’s power with Satan’s power is like comparing all the sand in the entire universe, on this planet and on every other, in this universe and in any other, to a single, microscopic silicon dioxide molecule on a lonely, deserted beach. Jesus so entirely outclasses Satan that there is simply no comparison between the two of them. Satan is vicious—sometimes compared to a roaring lion (1 Pet 5:8) and other times a red dragon (Rev 12:3)—but try as Satan might, the Lord is fully capable of handling him and working around whatever scheme he concocts. Some of this God does through His holy angels.

A war between the archangel Michael and the holy angels he commands will force Satan and his demons permanently out of heaven at some point (Rev 12:7–9). There are different interpretations for much of Revelation, and regarding this particular section, some “interpreters hold that the cosmic war pictured here occurred after Satan’s original fall… or during the events surrounding Christ’s crucifixion” while others believe, based on the surrounding context, that this war probably “takes place just after the midpoint of the tribulation period.”10 Revelation covers a tremendous amount of history within these few verses. It seems likely that, for now, Satan still has some access to God, though he will not retain this access forever. The Lord will eventually “change the locks” on His door to keep Satan out because clearly God is not pleased to have Satan in His presence. And why would He be? The Lord hates evil and detests wickedness. Satan and his demons are the very definition of evil and wickedness, so the Lord would not enjoy spending time with either Satan or his demons. It makes no difference that God originally created angels, nor does it matter that Satan has had some form of permission to visit heaven. God is merciful and forgiving, but Satan and his demons long ago earned themselves a one-way trip to the lake of fire for their bad behavior (Matt 25:41).

Prisoners in Eternal Fire​

Understanding heavenly power dynamics is important. Demons are still active in the world, but they only appear powerful to us because human beings are not as strong as angels (Heb 2:7). It is all a matter of perspective, however, because from God’s perspective, demons are not that powerful. When their day of judgment finally arrives, all the rebellious fallen angels “will be gathered together / Like prisoners in the dungeon, / And will be confined in prison; / And after many days they will be punished” (Isa 24:21–22 NASB) when Jesus throws them “into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41 NASB). The lake of fire was originally intended for fallen angels, yet now that humanity is in a fallen state, condemned humans will also share this punishment. God did not create either humans or angels to be wicked; that was never what He desired. But now that some angels and some humans have become wicked, the Lord will not tolerate their sinful behavior indefinitely.

Both Satan and his demonic angels know what is coming for them. They received their sentences long ago, and all that remains is final judgment. Their days are numbered. Jesus once visited the region of the Gerasenes near Israel, and during a confrontation with a demonized man, the demons who inhabited the demoniac desperately wanted to know why Jesus was there among them. They asked questions that showed their understanding of what was going to happen to them in the future:

  • “Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matt 8:29 NASB)
  • “I implore You by God, do not torment me!” (Mark 5:7 NASB)
  • “I beg You, do not torment me!” (Luke 8:28 NASB)

They knew well before John ever wrote Revelation on the island of Patmos that Jesus would eventually punish them (Rev 20:10). The only question these particular demons were asking was whether Jesus was going to judge them in advance of the formal day of judgment, known only to the Father (Matt 24:36). Demons are fully aware of their sentence. They know severe punishment is in store for them, and they are anxious to avoid it for as long as they can. That, however, does not stop them from continuing to behave atrociously. Their incentives are to cause as much damage as possible while they are still able to do so because their total rebellion against the Lord will come to an end. Nevertheless, God places definite restrictions around what He will and will not permit them to do.

Hard Limits for Demons​

Satan is a forceful adversary. His power, however, has limits. As a created being (Ezek 28:13–14), Satan is not omnipotent, so he cannot overpower God. Satan is not omniscient, so he cannot outmaneuver God. And Satan is not omnipresent, so he cannot overwhelm God. In short, Satan must play by God’s rules, and God gives him strict limits in order to protect us. In the story of Job, Satan was certain that Job would abandon his faith in God with enough pressure. Surely all that was needed was for Job to lose his wealth and his family (Job 1:9–11)! God permitted Satan to test his theory against Job but strictly forbade Satan from physically harming Job (Job 1:12). Wasting no time, Satan did some truly awful things to Job who retained his faith in God, despite the anguish he felt. God pointed out to Satan that his theory was wrong (Job 2:3)—and eventually restored Job’s material comforts (Job 42:12–13).

Satan, too prideful to give up, was now certain that Job would abandon his faith in God if only God would permit Satan to physically harm him (Job 2:4–5). Surely this was the missing element! God permitted Satan to test his newest theory against Job but strictly forbade Satan from killing Job (Job 2:6)—and eventually restored Job’s physical health (Job 42:10). There is an important pattern here: God never permits Satan to do everything he wants to do. Both times, God gave Satan limits, and both times Satan worked within the restrictions God set in place. God limits Satan in order to protect us, and Satan must obey. He is not permitted to do indiscriminate damage when God commands him otherwise. Satan is able to temper his evil to the exact precision God will permit, and it is always God’s sovereign right to determine what those limits should be. There is no evil scheme Satan can concoct that God cannot cancel, outdo, or work around.

The story of Job shows that Satan does not always get his way. If he had his choice, he would probably murder every last Christian on the planet or force the entire world’s population to worship him as a god. Why would he not? He is a powerful demonic angel with a supernatural army. But when was the last time that happened? Never. And it never will. Satan has been behind the worst tragedies in history—and there are some genuinely horrific events in the history of the world—but every single time, God has limited the extent of the damage Satan could have caused. Job is the proof. Both times that Satan wanted to hurt Job he first had to ask the Lord for permission. He was only able to act once God allowed it. And because we know that God loves us, is our stronghold when trouble comes, and works all things together for the good of those who love Him, the Lord does not give His permission lightly.

It is a very serious matter for a demon to either harm a child of God directly or entice someone else to do it. God will only allow this to happen when He sees it as absolutely necessary for whatever righteous cause He has underway. We may never know what the Lord is weaving together when this happens—Job was completely unaware—but we know Him and He is always up to something good, even in the midst of tragedy. Because Satan and his demons are powerful, the Lord limits them. Demons cannot act independently without first seeking permission to do so. This is one reason why God is a strong refuge for those who believe in Him (Ps 46; 62).

In addition to God-given limitations around death and destruction, Satan cannot force his will on those who belong to God. When Satan tested Jesus in the wilderness, Satan threw temptation after temptation at Him (Matt 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). Jesus never gave in or abandoned His mission. Satan could not force Jesus to do anything evil, so he returned each time with a new temptation. There is no question that Satan would have destroyed Jesus immediately if he had his way (Rev 12:4–5, 17; Luke 22:3-4; John 13:27). While the eternal stakes were obvious, God forbade Satan to do anything to Jesus in the wilderness but tempt Him. Yes, Jesus is God, but He was also fully human and gave up His divine rights during His time on earth (Phil 2:7–8). If Satan, who was desperate to wreck God’s plan for humanity, could not force his will on the human Jesus, he also cannot force his will on anyone else who belongs to God. Jesus came to be mistreated on our behalf and die on a cross; God did not spare Himself from any pain. But He drew the line at supernatural torment and forced submission. There are hard limits the Lord sets in place for Satan and his demons. They cannot force a child of God to do whatever evil the kingdom of darkness desires.

Additionally, Satan does not have the authority to condemn anyone who belongs to God (Rom 8:33–34), though he tries to convince us he can and is often very persuasive. So instead, Satan loves to accuse us before God (Zech 3:1; Rev 12:10), recounting all of our worst moments and sinful behavior. Only God, however, has the power to choose who will live with Him throughout eternity, and for every accusation Satan levels at us before God, Jesus is right there interceding on our behalf (Heb 7:25; Rom 8:34). The Lord will never condemn a believer on the basis of Satan’s accusations alone. Because God is for us, it makes no difference that Satan is against us (Rom 8:31). This does not mean we are exempt from pain and suffering—far from it! But Satan does not get a say in the eternal future of anyone. That is up to us to decide for ourselves (with God’s help). God loves us as a father loves his children (1 John 3:1). While God hears these constant accusations, He does not agree with them (Zech 3:2).

Since God restricts the ruler of demons (Matt 12:24; 25:41; Rev 12:9), there is no reason why God would not also restrict the demons under Satan’s control. Earthly rulers have more privilege and power than those they rule, and we have already observed direct parallels to this social structure in the heavenly realm. A demon at the bottom of the satanic hierarchy would not have more privileges or power than Satan who rules from the very top of that hierarchy! They, too, must follow the Lord’s rules for any interactions with His children (1 John 5:18), though the same is not true for those who have rejected God. Such people have chosen to place themselves under the authority of Satan; he may choose to exert his influence at any given time (1 John 5:19). We see this dynamic play out during the fifth trumpet judgment during the tribulation period. Those who have rejected God suffer mightily from demonic torment while those who have accepted God are exempt from this particular hardship (Rev 9:4). The hard limits Satan must operate within logically apply to every demon under his command; none of them can freely harm those who have placed their trust in Christ.

Demonization may still occur in situations where the Lord deems it appropriate, but that is always at the Lord’s discretion. Demons can torment us when, for whatever reason, God lifts the protection He extends to us. For example, the Lord placed His protection around Job, which stopped Satan from attacking Job until the Lord specifically allowed it (Job 1:10–11). Satan was only able to hurt Job once God lifted His protection (Job 1:12). When scripture says that God permits an evil spirit to cause torment, it is likely that all God must do is temporarily lift the restrictions that He sovereignly places around demonic autonomy. Satan and his demons are quite eager to do evil without any prompting, and they hate God’s people (Zech 3:1–2; Rev 12:10). It follows that they would proactively take advantage of any deliberate gap God allows in the protection He offers, no matter how small it may be.

Nevertheless, demonization is an extreme rebuke11 and certainly not God’s first choice for correcting sinful behavior or teaching life lessons. It is never as simple as commit a sin and receive a demon! That would be an overly harsh punishment entirely out of line with who we know God to be. Living in fear of demonization because of our occasional sins is an unbiblical, unhealthy, and unnecessary approach to life. God knows we all make mistakes (1 John 1:8–9). Paul tells us that, far from using demonic torment as a first resort, the Lord is faithful to us and will strengthen and guard us against Satan (2 Thess 3:2–3). All we must do is trust and obey Him (Matt 11:29–30). Those are the promises of a loving Father, not a vengeful deity.

The Price of Demonic Insubordination​

A demonized man interrupted Jesus while He was teaching in the Capernaum synagogue. The demon—speaking through the man—shouted, “Leave us alone! What business do You have with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” (Luke 4:34 NASB). Jesus responded, “Be quiet and come out of him!” (Luke 4:35 NASB). This demonstrates the enmity between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. The Lord does not accept sin while demons openly embrace it. There are no neutral parties. This encounter shows that each kingdom has radically different objectives, putting each at odds with the other. Given this obvious enmity, coupled with demonic self-determination, why would demons choose to obey the limits God sets in place for them? The answer is quite simple: abject terror of God’s divine retribution.

What would a fitting punishment be for a supernatural entity who lives forever, is incredibly intelligent, has tremendous strength, and could destroy the humans God so dearly loves if not kept strictly in check? It would have to be something so staggering that even the thought of it would cause an angel to tremble in fear. This is not a slap on the wrist! It is a punishment that easily dissuades even Satan himself from crossing the lines that would earn him a more permanent sentence to this place (cf. Rev 20:3).

Peter writes of angels who, when they sinned, were cast “into hell and committed… to pits of darkness, held for judgment” (2 Pet 2:4 NASB) while Jude writes of “angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place,” who God “has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6 NASB). Peter borrows the word he uses for hell from Greek mythology. In the original Greek, this word is tartaroó, or more commonly, Tartarus. Peter’s letter is the only place in all of Scripture where it appears.

The ancient Greeks believed Tartarus was a horrible prison “far, far away, where is the deepest gulf beneath the earth, the gates whereof are of iron and the threshold of bronze, as far beneath Hades as heaven is above earth.”12 According to Greek mythology, this prison is located far beneath Hades—the realm of the dead—and incarcerates the worst of the worst: wicked human beings, warring gods, and powerful monsters. “The Jews eventually came to use this term to describe the place where fallen angels were sent. It defined for them the lowest hell, the deepest pit, and the most terrible place of torture and eternal suffering.”13 John refers to this place as a bottomless pit, or “the abyss” (Rev 9:1).

It is effectively a supernatural maximum security prison, built within complete darkness, offering no hope of parole for its inmates short of a brief reprieve for select demons during the tribulation period (Rev 9:1–12; 11:7). Demons that God sends to this prison are kept restrained in surroundings totally devoid of all light, waiting for the day of judgment when Jesus will take them out of this prison and throw them into the lake of fire (Matt 25:41; Rev 20:10, 14–15). The abyss represents severe punishment, the absolute lack of all comfort, all freedom, and all hope. It is the most horrifying place imaginable short of the lake of fire. Some demons are free to roam the earth for now because God has not yet enacted His final judgment against them, but demons who disobey God are sent straight to the abyss as their punishment. They are rightfully terrified. This is one good reason why demons willingly comply with the rules God sets.

When Jesus removed the demons from the Gerasene demoniac, those demons were deathly afraid they had somehow overstepped their boundaries with all the torment they had inflicted against this poor man. The demons begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss (Luke 8:31). This was not a dispassionate request. This was not some ploy to deceive Jesus. They were absolutely panicked that Jesus, who they knew full well had the divine authority to send them wherever He pleased, would decide to send them to this pitch black death row. The possibility of that particular outcome drained any last shred of defiance they felt toward Jesus in that moment.

Jesus did not die on the cross for sinning angels. He died specifically for us; for “clearly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendants of Abraham” (Heb 2:16 NASB).14 Put another way, Jesus did not come to save demons from their sins even if they, like humans, are sinners. Rather, Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan (1 John 3:8), and that “summarizes a variety of the devil’s activities: sin, rebellion, temptation, ruling the world, persecution and accusation of saints, instigation of false teachers, and exercising the power of death.”15

Demonic Agents of Divine Judgment​

As the King of Kings, the Lord is fully in control. We see one example of His absolute power over demons amid a bitter family feud that took place in ancient Israel. The Midianites oppressed the Israelites for seven years (Judg 6:1) until, one day, the Israelites turned to the Lord for help (Judg 6:6). God responded to their prayers by commissioning Gideon (also known as “Jerubbaal”) to lead Israel’s army against the Midianites and free Israel from its misery (Judg 6:11). Gideon was successful with the Lord’s help; once the fighting was finished, he retired with his many wives and seventy sons to his hometown where he later died (Judg 8:29–30, 32). However, Gideon’s death created space for a jealous rivalry between his sons.

Not content with the many wives Gideon married, he also had a concubine in the city of Shechem (Judg 8:31) with whom he had another son named Abimelech. This son bitterly resented his stepbrothers. One day, while visiting his uncles in Shechem (Judg 9:1), Abimelech asked them to go before the city leaders and ask, “Which is better for you: for seventy men, all the sons of [Gideon], to rule over you, or for one man to rule over you?” (Judg 9:2 NASB). Abimelech was determined to take the political power in this region away from his brothers, but he could not do that by himself—he needed an army. The citizens of Shechem were all too happy to supply one. After all, they had a blood tie with Abimelech, and that was enough to convince them to reject the rightful leadership of Gideon’s seventy other sons (Judg 9:3).

Shechem’s support must have thrilled Abimelech to no end. Finally, he was getting the respect he thought he deserved! Using his newfound confidence and funds taken from a nearby pagan temple (Judg 9:4), Abimelech hired a gang of thugs to follow him to the home of his seventy stepbrothers (Judg 9:4). Once there, Abimelech and his gang murdered all but one of them in cold blood (Judg 9:5). Sixty nine bodies lay strewn around Gideon’s family home as Abimelech reveled in the carnage. With his brothers now dead, the people of Israel made Abimelech their new king (Judg 9:6).

This was depraved wickedness at work. Moses had long ago instructed the Israelites not to murder one another (Exod 20:13)—a commandment that came from God Himself—and the penalty for violating this law was capital punishment (Num 35:16–18). That, however, was not going to happen by itself since the people of this region were entirely content with the evil behavior exhibited that day. So in a righteous display of His sovereignty over demons, God stepped in to make things right. This is what He did:

God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem; and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, so that the violence done to the seventy sons of [Gideon] would come, and the responsibility for their blood would be placed on their brother Abimelech, who killed them, and on the leaders of Shechem, who encouraged him to kill his brothers. (Judg 9:23–24 NASB)

There is some debate whether this “evil spirit” was a demon or an ill temperament. The Hebrew word used here for spirit (ruach) can have multiple meanings depending on the context. Sometimes it refers to an evil being—as in the case of King Saul’s tormentor (1 Sam 16:14)—and sometimes it refers to an evil disposition—as in the case of the Israelites in the wilderness (Num 14:24)—but the “later Jews would have made little or no difference between the two, since they attributed almost every evil to the direct agency of demons.”16 It seems best to take the view that God sent an actual demon given the ancient Jewish viewpoint on this matter. More specifically, God permitted a demonic fallen angel to cause chaos between these mass murderers as just recompense for their bloody massacre.

This story highlights an important point: God can choose to use His authority over demons to make use of them as agents of His divine judgment. Abimelech and the men of Shechem were unaware what was happening to them, but from God’s perspective, it was the beginning of justice for the family of Gideon. The other important point here is that the demon did not harm or influence anyone who was not already involved in the murders. This was a tightly controlled judgment. God did not release an evil entity into their midst who proceeded to ignore the murderers while going on a violent rampage across Israel. From the text, God only permitted this evil spirit to affect Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem. There was no collateral damage. We see from Satan’s actions that demons enjoy evil behavior, and working against God is as evil as it gets. If this demon had more leeway, it would surely have caused additional harm. But, again, God did not permit that. This demon operated under a narrowly defined scope; it stayed completely within its God-given boundaries.

The Demon in King Ahab’s Court​

We can observe the same concept of tightly controlled divine judgment through a demonic agent in an event that occurred later in Israel’s history. The aforementioned lying spirit who appeared in the prophet Micaiah’s vision of the heavenly court eagerly volunteered to inspire a group of false prophets to tell lies (1 Kgs 22:22). These particular prophets worked for the wicked king Ahab, a man who “did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than any of the other kings of Israel before him” (1 Kgs 16:33 NASB). His wife Jezebel was so evil that she had already murdered most of the Lord’s true prophets (1 Kgs 18:4, 13). This was not a righteous couple! King Ahab, like his wife, was a murderer and an idolater who was about as far from God as he could get (though he showed a brief moment of repentance before returning to his evil ways).

The Lord noted their extreme wickedness and stepped in to provide Ahab one final chance to repent. If the king failed to change his ways, Ahab would suffer divine judgment. Events came to a head when Ahab grew interested in recapturing a town that had fallen to a neighboring kingdom (1 Kgs 22:3). His false prophets, demonically influenced to believe everything they predicted would come true, advised the king to go to war (1 Kgs 22:6) against the better advice of Micaiah, one of the few remaining actual prophets of God (1 Kgs 22:17). God spoke through Micaiah, telling Ahab that all his prophets were lying (1 Kgs 22:23). This was a message straight from God. If Ahab went to war, he was going to die (1 Kgs 22:28). There was no way around it. Yet Ahab ignored this warning and went to war anyway, despite what Micaiah told him, and died in battle—just as God said he would (1 Kgs 22:37).

The Lord used a demon here as an agent of His judgment. It worked its wickedness through a group of evil prophets to snare an evil king because everyone in this situation had committed grave crimes against the Lord. Specifically, the false prophets were not speaking for the Lord but claimed to be (1 Kgs 22:6). This was a crime punishable by death under Mosaic Law (Deut 13:1–5). Likewise, Ahab was guilty of murder (1 Kgs 18:14; 21:19) and idolatry (1 Kgs 16:32–33), crimes also punishable by death under Mosaic Law (Exod 20:3–4, 13; 22:20). The Lord elected to permit serious demonic influence in their lives because they were guilty of egregious transgressions.

Furthermore, as with God’s judgment against Abimelech and the city of Shechem, the demon only had permission to affect people who were both guilty of serious crimes and entirely unrepentant of them. The demon did not move beyond the boundaries God set, nor did it harm anyone who was largely innocent. The prophet Micaiah and the king of Judah were both present at court that day; neither suffered at the hands of this demon. This was a narrowly scoped operation. While a demon was the agent of the Lord’s divine judgment, it had limited freedom that did not extend beyond what God permitted. Although the demon was a destructive evil spirit who naturally desired to work against the Lord’s wishes, God remained fully in control of the situation at all times.

Demons of the Tribulation Period​

The divine judgments at Shechem and Ahab’s court are not unique occurrences. At the fifth trumpet judgment during the tribulation period, for example, the Lord will permit a swarm of demons to move throughout the entire world for five months. They will torment anyone who has rejected God, but God will strictly forbid these demons from killing anyone (Rev 9:5). This scenario demonstrates the absolute sovereignty of the Lord throughout the entire world as opposed to a single location. Innumerable demons will move throughout dense cities and remote settlements across the globe, causing intense physical pain for certain people but not for others, tailoring that pain to individual thresholds so as not to cause inadvertent casualties. This represents carefully targeted divine judgment on a global scale.

Today, the population of the world is approximately 7.8 billion people and growing.17 The number of demons needed for this judgment would be staggering, even accounting for everyone who will die in divine judgments leading up to that day. This has important implications for the purview of God’s sovereignty. Although an overlooked demon could easily murder an innocent person “by accident” and could torment one of the remaining Christians “by accident,” the Lord maintains full authority over the entire demonic swarm, even to the degree where He can specify which individual people are not to be touched. The thought alone is impressive. God expects strict compliance from these demonic marauders and will have it.

Observations about Demons and God’s Judgment​

We can draw some conclusions based on the biblical stories examined so far:

  1. Demons are a destructive and evil force.
  2. Demons desire to destroy anyone they can.
  3. God maintains absolute sovereignty over demons.
  4. God does not permit demons unlimited freedom to act.

While the idea of God permitting a demon to serve as an agent of His judgment may come as a surprise, it is not that different from God using evil nations to chastise Israel when it went horribly astray. Assyria was one such nation (Isa 10:5–6). It did not know the Lord was using it as part of His divine judgment—the thought never even crossed the Assyrian king’s mind (Isa 10:7)! Despite its role in God’s divine justice, the Lord neither condoned Assyria’s wicked actions nor forced the Assyrians to do anything they had not already planned to do (Isa 10:8–11). God merely permitted Assyria to act on its schemes. They required no special motivation to attack Israel because their own sinful desires enticed them (Jas 1:13–15). And once the Lord’s judgment against Israel was fulfilled, He then sentenced Assyria for its crimes (Isa 10:12, 16–19). This is divine sovereignty at work in the service of a greater good. “God accomplishes his plans in history despite people or nations who reject him. He did not merely set the world in motion and let it go!”18 God later fulfilled His promise to punish Assyria for its actions when, “[i]n 701 B.C., 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were slain by the angel of the Lord [Isa 37:36, 37]. Later, the Assyrian empire fell to Babylon, never to rise again as a world power.”19

As it was with the Assyrians, so it is with demons. Demons have a naturally strong desire to hurt people and do not require outside motivation to act on those desires. God does not condone their wickedness; He merely permits them to act in highly specific situations. They, too, will be severely punished for their evil actions (Matt 25:41). The Lord has already passed sentence, and every day brings us closer to the moment when He will punish them for their many misdeeds throughout history.

Additionally, God’s judgments against humanity are meant to be restorative (2 Chr 7:13–14) because He earnestly desires that we repent of our sins (Ezek 33:11). It is reasonable to believe that God would eventually pull back any demon He uses for divine judgment when the people involved turn away from their wickedness (cf. 2 Sam 24:16–17). Moreover, the Lord does not rebuke us with demonic torment as His first choice. Whenever God permits a demon to oppress a human being, one reason (among others) that He may do so is to address a very long history of unrepentant, sinful behavior. This may represent the final step in a disciplinary process that only occurs when nothing else has produced the desired outcome. God shows a tremendous amount of patience toward us as we see here:

  • Abimelech ruled Israel for three years before God enacted His judgment against him (Judg 9:22).
  • Ahab ruled for twenty two years before God enacted His judgment against him (1 Kgs 16:29).
  • People living during the tribulation period will have had more than two thousand years of Christian theology at their disposal.

So although God permitted demonic oppression to impact the lives of these particular people, He gave them a very lengthy amount of time to repent and get right with Him. He even provided extra warnings so that His judgment would not come as a complete surprise (Judg 9:18–20; 1 Kgs 22:28; John 3:16–21). They all knew the Lord viewed their actions as open rebellion against His commandments. Demons only came into play at the very end, perhaps as a final “wake up call” from God to warn the people involved that they needed to straighten up their behavior before things got even worse. Unfortunately, they chose to ignore such warnings and left God no choice but to carry out the judgments He promised would come.

Enacting punishment against the people God loves is very painful to Him, just as it is for any loving parent (Hos 11:7–8). He is a holy God who must act against evil, but He is also a compassionate God who knows that punishment is never enjoyable for those who must endure it. Although He causes grief when necessary, He also shows tremendous love toward us. “For He inflicts pain, and gives relief; / He wounds, but His hands also heal” (Job 5:18 NASB; cf. Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6; Isa 30:26; Hos 6:1). God does not enjoy hurting anyone (Lam 3:31–33). We are only dust, and He is fully aware of that (Gen 2:7; Ps 103:14). Demonic oppression is not what the Lord desires for us. The Gospels contain clear proof in that Jesus heals every demoniac brought before Him.

Other Sanctioned Demonic Activity​

Apart from divine judgment, God may also sovereignly permit a demon to act in order to flush out a sinful tendency or harmful belief buried within a person’s heart. King David is an example of this. Near the end of his life, David decided to take a census of all the fighting men in Israel (2 Sam 24:2). This was not intrinsically wrong, and in fact, the Lord commanded such a census earlier in Israel’s history (Num 1:2; 26:2). The problem with taking this particular census, though unspecified in Scripture, may have been because David justified it based on a serious case of pride buried within his heart. Perhaps David nurtured a belief that he, and not God, had caused Israel to prosper and grow. Or perhaps David, having been chased and attacked by hostile forces throughout much of his life, had placed his trust in the size of his army rather than the protection of the Lord. Whatever the case, he harbored a seriously sinful attitude. It was unacceptable for him to set an example for the Israelites minimizing the role God played in their nation.

God permitted Satan to act against David in order to reveal the problem lurking in David’s heart (1 Chr 21:1). God already knew David had sin in his life that needed to be addressed; this satanic temptation made David aware of that too (2 Sam 24:10; 1 Chr 21:8). David’s infraction ended in tragedy for Israel, but God used the situation to refine David and correct the rebellious attitude buried in his heart. It also served as a disciplinary measure for Israel, which might have been harboring its own latent sins.

God additionally permits demonic activity to identify true believers. We are living in “the last days” between the resurrection of Christ and His second coming. Satan knows he only has a relatively short amount of time left to act (Rev 12:12). His destructive work will only grow stronger as we move closer to the appointed time when Jesus returns (2 Thess 2:7). The destructive work of Satan and his army separates wheat from chaff (cf. Luke 3:17), sheep from goats (cf. Matt 25:32), and believers from unbelievers. “One of the reasons God allows Satan to work evil and bring temptation is so that those who pretend to be Christ’s followers will be weeded out from Christ’s true believers.”20

It is far better to evaluate our deep-down beliefs about the Lord now while we still have time to address any lingering doubts clouding our faith than when we are standing before Christ during His final judgment of humanity. Much as He did for King David, the Lord may allow a demonic trial into our lives to help us clarify what we truly believe. But the Lord does not take such actions lightly. When it happened in Scripture, it was often a last resort for someone who needed a strong lesson in righteous living.

God Still Loves Us Even When Demons Are Involved​

Why does the Lord allow demons to operate when He is not only superior to them but also desires that we not suffer unduly from demonic oppression? Divine judgment is one reason, but there are others.21 Every situation is unique. Whatever the reasons, however, we must remember who God is in order to put everything into the proper perspective. These are just a few characteristics that define God:

  • There is absolutely no deceit, foul play, maliciousness, or any other darkness anywhere in God’s character (1 John 1:5).
  • God loves us so much that He freely offers us a way to live with Him forever (John 3:16).
  • God is a stronghold for those who trust Him when trouble comes (Nah 1:7).
  • God causes all things—both good and bad, joy and suffering—to work together for the good of those who love Him (Rom 8:28).
  • God always keeps His promises (Ps 18:30; Josh 21:45; 23:14; Jer 1:12; Ezek 12:28).
  • God never changes (Jas 1:17; Mal 3:6).
  • And finally, the thoughts and plans of the Lord are entirely beyond our understanding (Isa 55:8–9; Job 42:4).

Given the nature of God as seen throughout Scripture, we can conclude that while there may be times when God permits demons to torment His people, it is always for good and righteous reasons even if we do not always know those reasons. Our response should be to trust the Lord’s character and believe He will keep His promises. God neither tempts us nor leads us to do anything contrary to His will (Jas 1:13–15). We land ourselves in trouble whenever our own sinful desires override our better sense. Satan and his demons delight in dangling forbidden fruit in front of us, but they are not the ones forcing us to take a bite.

We might ask why a good and loving God allows evil to exist in the first place. Different theologians have said different things on that topic, but the Bible tells us that evil will not persist forever. The Book of Revelation, for example, is very clear on that point. Nevertheless, human beings are allowed the freedom to choose their own actions, and those actions can be evil. Sometimes a demon is in the background encouraging evil behavior, but it seems highly unlikely that God would permit a demon to force anyone to commit atrocities like child abuse, murder, or genocide. We do those things based on our own choices. God may intervene at times, and He can certainly bring good from a tragic situation, but to restrict our capacity for evil actions is to eliminate our free will. “The devil made me do it” is generally not an adequate explanation of human behavior because the Lord restricts Satan just as He restricts all demons.22

Humans have a special place in God’s heart, and much of what He does is motivated by His love for us. The Lord opened the way for us to live with Him throughout eternity, and as if that were not enough, the Lord has also promised never to abandon His children to the hardships we will face in this life—including supernatural hardships. He is a loving God, fully in control of all that is seen and unseen. There is nothing supernatural that has ever or will ever escape His notice. And, wondrously, our Heavenly Father—the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the King of All Creation, the Name above Every Name—is only a prayer away.

  1. Commanding demons in the authority of Jesus is another matter. After all, that is what the apostles did, but there is much confusion on this point among modern believers. See Chapter 11 for a more comprehensive discussion.↩
  2. These prophetic verses directly address the human king of Tyre. Ezekiel’s God-given criticisms likely mix indictments against this human king with indictments against Satan, who was a motivating force behind the king’s sinful actions.↩
  3. Ronald A. Beers et al., eds., Life Application Study Bible: New International Version (Wheaton, IL; Grand Rapids: Tyndale House; Zondervan, 1997), 2317.↩
  4. Sandra L. Richter, The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 134.↩
  5. Richter, The Epic of Eden, 134.↩
  6. Richter, The Epic of Eden, 134–35.↩
  7. John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 1859.↩
  8. This genre also includes Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.↩
  9. MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary, 563.↩
  10. E. Ray Clendenen and Jeremy Royal Howard, eds., Holman Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2015), 1397.↩
  11. See Chapter 7 for a broader discussion of what demonization implies or the Glossary of Common Terms to better understand what demonization means in the context of this book.↩
  12. Homer, Iliad, trans. A. T. Murray (Cambridge: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., (1924) n.d.), § 8.15, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1.↩
  13. MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary, 1935.↩
  14. Gentile Christians are also grafted into this promise (Rom 11:16–17).↩
  15. MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary, 1960.↩
  16. Ellicott’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (BibleSupport.com, (1905) 2014), https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/ §Judg 9:23.↩
  17. U.S. Census Bureau, “U.S. And World Population Clock” (Population Clock: World, 2 June 2021), https://www.census.gov/popclock/world.↩
  18. Beers et al., Life Application Study Bible, 1186.↩
  19. Beers et al., Life Application Study Bible, 1186.↩
  20. Beers et al., Life Application Study Bible, 2318.↩
  21. The heart of this question is “Why does God allow us to experience adversity?” See Chapter 12 for a more extensive discussion.↩
  22. See Chapter 5 for a more detailed discussion of Satan entering into Judas Iscariot. See Chapter 7 to read more about the limits of demonic control over a human being.↩