Demons and the believer

[mizpeh]

Originally Posted by Esaias

I am directing my energy against "imaginations and thoughts" that need to be cast down, including this idea that would have the church worrying about invisible spooks behind every bush while your children are taught Babylonian perversions and how to apostasize when they hit 18.

Who was Jesus constantly "wrestling" with? Demons? Or rabbis and scribes? Who kept throwing Peter in jail? Demons? Or devils in long robes and longer tzitzits? Who kept opposing Paul and his ministry team? Demons? Or rabbins and Romans, priests of Judea and priests of Ephesus?

The conflict is outlined in Dan 2, no fallen angel daevas required.

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.

Jesus told the religious Jews that their father was the devil and the works of their father they would do. Jesus was NOT saying that their biological father was the devil but that they were influenced by the devil albeit unwittingly.

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

I have no desire to bring this discussion into the old testament.