Previously we left off at verse 13, at this point we’re seeing a satanic trinity here: false prophet, Antichrist, great red dragon. They’re going to cast off devils out of their mouths.
It shows something interesting about the origins of demons. The most popular teaching is that when the angels fell with Lucifer, they transformed into demons. But Dr. Peter Ruckman believes differently because throughout the entire Bible, angels are listed as men whereas devils are unclean animals.
Revelation 16:13 “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.”
So those are devils like frogs, they’re animals, coming out of the mouth of Satan, the beast and false prophets. These devils are not men, they’re likened to unclean animals.
Revelation 18:2 “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”
Unclean spirits or devils are likened to animals.
Matthew 13:4 “And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:”
Matthew 13:19 “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.”
In verse 19 ‘the wicked one’ refers to Satan.
Satan was pictured with those birds who ate up the seeds. If you look at Mark 4 and Luke 8, the verse shows over there that it’s actually Satan.
Devils are closely likened to unclean animals, which explains the monstrosity in Revelation 9. Those demonic beings that came out of hell, had these monstrosity figures but the monstrosity figures are animal parts that create the demonic feature.
What demon possession looks like
That’s why we say devils are more accurately likened to unclean animals rather than man in any way or form. When the demon possesses a person, the man doesn’t act like a man, he acts monstrous or an animalist part of him. That’s why it’s more accurate to say that devils are not fallen angels. Fallen angels are likened to men.
What are fallen angels
Some people might teach that fallen angels were originally man but they transform into demons because Satan is a beautiful being, Lucifer, but he can transform himself, like a serpent in Genesis 3. But there are problems with that teaching too.
Some bible believers teach that Genesis 3 where it’s the serpent, it’s just a title, not literally an animal.
The second thing is how do you explain Genesis 6 where they’ve already fallen, they sided with Satan but they were able to mate with the humans. It shows that they were a man part. Genesis 6 really shows that they were like men who were meeting with the daughter. It shows more and more that fallen angels are men, whereas demons are unclean animals.
If that’s the case, then the question is how were they born? In verse 13, three unclean spirits, devil-like frogs were birthed out of the mouth of the dragon, Antichrist and false prophets.
Where do devils come from?
How these devils were born could be from the Devil himself. Based on the verse, it’s as if they came from him, they’re a part of him.
Here’s another interesting thing, devils are called unclean spirits. A spirit is something that’s within you. Man has body, soul and spirit whereas God Almighty has the Holy Spirit. The Bible likens the spirit to wind at John 3, and it’s something you cannot see and is invisible. It’s something that has to do with breath or has to do with energy inside you.
That’s why a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe the Holy Spirit is a person, they believe that He is just a force and energy because that’s what a spirit is. But God is unique from everybody, when He has those three parts operating, He can have them as a person. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ is the son of God and when He’s a human on earth, the Bible shows that He has His own human spirit that’s distinguished from the Holy Spirit.
The spiritual and physical self
The Bible says when you got saved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit entered inside you. The Holy Spirit isn’t just some energy or force, He’s actually a person, God Himself. So when the saved person starts to do something that’s righteous and holy, that’s good works, and it feeds the Holy Spirit. If the person starves any good works, it starves the spiritual nature within him.
So now why can’t it be the same way with the devil when you increase more the works of the flesh? Just to clarify, this has nothing to do with your spiritual nature, it’s your fleshly nature. A Christian has undeniably two parts: spiritual nature and fleshly nature. There’s nothing holy or pure about the fleshly nature, it is wicked. When the fleshly nature increases in sin, the demonic spirit is feeding on it.
That’s why it’s very important to know this doctrine so that you can better understand spiritual warfare, be more alert of the devil and take spiritual growth more seriously.
Can a saved Christian be demon-possessed?
It is possible for a saved Christian to be demon-possessed, this is real biblical truth. The common argument people will say is how can a demonic spirit be inside with the Holy Spirit because God cannot dwell with Satan. The answer to this is that when God has the Holy Spirit inside you, He is not part of the fleshly nature. If you look at Colossians 2, He circumcised (circumcision is a dividing, cutting off, separation) the spiritual nature from fleshly nature. So nothing fleshly is a part of the spiritual nature.
Colossianas 2:11 “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:”
Your body, your flesh is separated by circumcision of Christ.
‘circumcision made without hands’ This shows that it’s an invisible, spiritual circumcision. It’s not a normal, physical, body circumcision.
If your flesh is capable of doing the worst kind of sins like a lost person, why doesn’t that give Satan the authority or the ability to use that? Paul says that ‘in my flesh is nothing good’ so if it’s nothing good, Satan can get in there because it’s filled with sin, wickedness, and evil.
How does demon possession start?
Look up verses in the Bible talking about how Satan possess people, how does demon possession start? It begins with sin. When you sin in your flesh, you’re weakening that spiritual nature more and more, and you’re growing that fleshly nature even more. You’re searing your conscience even more, you ended up so lost inside your flesh that your spiritual nature is hardly operating, then because you’re so deep into sin, it’s gotten to a point where you’re practically not even human anymore. People can hardly tell what you are anymore and you’re living like the devil.
For example, anger. When you’re angry and you lose control of it and that anger increases even more where you’re so lost in your anger that you’re not even thinking straight. When you’re done, you’re like ‘What did I do just now? That wasn’t me anymore’. Do you know what that is? That’s giving permission for Satan to possess you.
That’s why we are strongly against alcohol and even yoga, because you’re losing yourself and you’re giving permission for something else to come inside you. God says to be sober, be vigilant, He says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind in Romans 12. He wants your mind operating, otherwise it’s just giving Satan permission to possess you.
Look at Simon Peter, he says ‘Not so, Lord’ and then Jesus called him Satan. If Satan can get Simon Peter, he sure can get you. That’s why you got to be very alert of spiritual warfare and be careful.
The origin of devils – a summary
By believing in this notion, then this makes sense about the origin of devils. The more you do good works, the more the Holy Spirit grows in you. The more you do bad works, the Devil is going to grow and then some devil is going to come out of you. So devils are born from sin, from something demonic and wicked inside, that’s why it’s not just Satan himself, you’ll notice the false prophet and the Antichrist are able to create and birth out that devil.
There’s a different theory that devils are the spirits of the people who died out in the flood before Adam.
That’s why Pastor Gene thinks that you can harmonize all 3 theories:
- Fallen angels become devils
- Devils born from the spirits of the unsaved dead before
- They’re from Satan himself
There’s harmony with all 3, they can come from fallen angels because of that wicked demonic nature inside. Same thing with Satan. They can come from the spirits of unclean sinners beforehand because that’s how devils are birth where you feed that demonic nature more through your sin.
Look at the term: spirit. That’s the key. Devils are likened to spirit, think about how the spirit is born, how is the spirit grown and formed: it’s all by the actions of what you did in your life and it creates that spirit inside you. This also makes sense with a lot of other passages where it talks about you having the spirit of joy. Does that mean there’s a separate spirit called joy? It’s not in a literal sense, but there’s something you create inside you, that’s the idea.