Are Demons Real? YES!

In the healing of the demon possessed man from Gadarene (Luke 8.26-39) we hear a vivid depiction of the cruelty that demons can place upon the soul and body of one they possess. For some people in 2010 this story sounds so fantastic as if it were some science-fiction movie produced by Hollywood. The image of so many demons living inside a human being and tormenting him to the point of living naked among graves brings to mind the visions of many horror movies so popular during the month of October. It all seems a bit too unbelievable…..or does it?



In the Gospel lesson the city folk were so afraid of the destruction done by the demons on their herd of pigs, they chose to chase Jesus Christ out of their town rather than acknowledge His authority as God. They didn’t even recognize the healing and blessings upon the man who they knew lived among the graves. How could this be? They must have thought that if such forces of demons were truly possible and Jesus Christ was God and had the power to either allow or not allow the demons to ruin the city income (the herd of pigs) maybe they were being punished by God. If on the other hand the demons weren’t real, any number of reasons could have led the pigs to rush off a cliff. Without God in the formula, the people were not being punished. Instead the pigs’ death was an unfortunate coincidence.



Many contemporary scholars believe the idea of demon possession in Holy Scripture to be speaking of mental illness and not some evil force. I believe the same logic applies as with the city folk from Gadarene. If there are no demons, then people don’t have to fear them. Unfortunately if they are real and people don’t acknowledge them, greater harm can come because we refuse to protect ourselves from the danger. While it is true that we understand more about mental illness today than 2000 years ago, if we take the consider all demons just a case of mental illness we will not take the proper precautions against them in our lives.