Demons and the believer

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by mizpeh

Those "imaginations and thoughts" that need to be cast down come to our minds by the influence of demons. If we let them fester, we end up sinning as Ananias and his wife did. The devil doesn't make us sin but influences us just as he did so deftly with Eve in the garden.

Mark 7:15 and James 1:14-15 refute this notion without remedy.

Jesus told the religious Jews that their father was the devil and the works of their father they would do. Jesus was saying that their biological father was the devil but that they were influenced by the devil albeit unwittingly.

I am sure you did not mean to suggest Jesus affirmed they were biologically descended from Satan? Yes, their father was the devil, because they acted like him. What devil is He speaking of? Since the Bible term "devil" is a generic word applied to many things, the question must be asked and answered. The verse you supplied suggests the devil spoken of here is Cain, the first murderer, the murder from "the beginning" (Genesis).

It is not the devil of catholic mythology, though, for that devil was supposedly in the beginning the heavenly choir master and a wonderful angel, not a murderer. So, as usual, pagan myths refute themselves because they are contradictory, just like what was shown: n the Enoch thread re: fallen angels.

John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Satan entered into Judas and influenced his decision to betray Jesus.

Judas was already a devil - John 6:70. Satan entering Judas is not about a demon possessing him or influencing him. Again, you need to think of Satan as the BIBLE describes the term, not as the RCC Catechism defines it.

The Jewish leaders were doing the works of their "father the devil" when they brought Jesus to Pilate to be crucified. etc, etc.

Yes, and thus 1 Cor 2:8 identifies THEM as the "princes of this world", not an invisible hierarchy of demons.