If we accept the (fundamentalist assertions) that there are jillions of evil spirits (demons), I have a few questions:
-these beings appear to assist Satan in capturing souls-what’s in it for them?
-what is the origin of these beings?
-why does God allow them to exist?
-what happens to them, after the “Last Judgement”?
-do any of them wish to renounce Satan?
-would God welcome them back (if they were to repent)?
How many of them are there? The Bible is unclear (“call us Legion, for we are many”)
Anybody care to weigh in?
They are fallen angels, or at least that is what they started out as. They sided with Satan during his rebellion when he refused to accept that man was god’s favored creation, and when it failed were cast out of heaven.
God allows them to exist because it in general is not big on killing or uncreating it’s creations.
Your question has the unspoken premise that God will win in the end. Maybe that is heavenly propaganda.
We, humans, are the powerful ones, we contain the power of God, and God works through us, we are God’s children and made to do this. Demons are angels, same ‘class’ of beings but instead of serving our needs, they oppress and imprison us and in doing so they get to use our power which they crave.
In a spiritual sense angels are the ‘parents’ of humans, and arch angels are the parents of angels. Likewise the devil is the parent of demons. The devil is at the level of arch-angel. So the origins are identical to that of angels and archangels. Demons are angles raised by Satan.
Because it preserved Satan’s free will and authority as a arch angel, as a parent while not effecting God’s eternal plan and ability to correct every mistake and make it more beautiful then the pain it caused.
Right now demons have it pretty good, that is because we are intermixed with them in our earthly existence. God will not turn up the heat on the demons yet because that would be very cruel to us, the children, as we would not be able to stand the environment that is needed to refine the demons. The ‘heat’ of refinement on earth is only enough to refine the humans, demons can stand much more. But in the human last judgment the humans are removed and God starts refining the demons.
Souls also evolve, so a human will become a angel and later will become a arch angel one day. There are some people ready to evolve to the next level - become a angel. Those people who wish to rule and oppress in the demonic sense will be transitioned to the demonic refinement at the last judgement.
A demons life after the last judgement will be harsher then it is on earth, but it will be comparable to our life on earth with our level of human suffering that they are presently exempt from. Because they are stronger they need a higher level of suffering to refine them.
Many do and are restored.
All will be coming back - God will not lose a single one, His plan is perfect.
One stab at this one would be 1/3 or the stars. (angels are stars)
Ultimately, Pokémon is more rewarding belief structure.
I feel that I should point out that kanicbird has an idiosyncratic set of beliefs that are not shared by most major denominations. Decisions made based on his theology at your own risk. *
At the risk of ETERNAL DAMNATION- whooOOOOoooOOOooo*
**Please imagine I have a flashlight shining from under my chin, illuminating my face in a spooky fashion.
By one interpretation, Satan is the demiurge of the physical universe- God can’t eliminate him without destroying the present creation.
The Bible contains accounts of satan trying to tempt people, but none of demons spring to mind. Demons seem more interested in mischief.
In Islam they’re djinn, a race between men and angels, some people say fallen angels, some people say evil humans or something else. The Bible clearly says all the fallen angels are locked up, and references something called the Book of Enoch, which claims demons are the ghosts of half-angel/half-human giant cannibals who lived before the flood of Noah. Possibly also after. So that question is unanswerable without establishing which set of theological beliefs we’re working from.
Traditionally questions about the inactivity of God boil down to him not interfering in our free will.
That will also depend on your theology, although I’m not aware of any Biblical information on it.
No such accounts come to mind, either from the Bible or related texts, or from popular myth.
If we take the orthodox Christian position mankind was saved by the sacrifice of Christ. So probably not, as they’re not humans.
I’m no demonolater, so if the Bible doesn’t say I don’t think there’s any way to know. IF you accept the “fallen angels” position it would be a variable proportion of whatever number of angels there are. In Islam it would be a third of the djinn, I don’t know if the number of djinn is ever stated or if they breed. If they originate with pre-historic cannibalistic giants then few enought that they couldn’t wipe out humanity in a few years after turning to cannibalism.
The Mormon belief is that these were one third of the spirits in the pre-existance, who joined Satan and fought against God, Jesus and their faction. Both Jesus and Satan were also spirits created by God and both are our spirit brothers. Satan lead a rebellion, then got kicked out and were sent to the earth and allowed to tempt us.
They will be sent to Outer Darkness[sup]TM[/sup] after the final judgment. Since they were on the losing side, they don’t get any chance of redemption.
Sometimes I wish I could go back to being a Mormon so that I can ask a few questions which never occurred to me as a child.
If 1/3 of the spirits are floating around temping us, how many are there for each person, or do they have day jobs and tempting is just a hobby? The classic Mormon belief is that the earth is only 7,000 years old, and in the first days, e.g. right after Adam and Eve, there must have been billions and billions of evil spirits for each person. Do they take a number? Get a bonus if they succeed?
Why did they lose the seemingly simple ability to possess people? Jesus did a lot of casting out demons, and the everyone was surprised not that demons were possessing people (which would be very odd now, and if proved correct, could win the lucky possessee (sp?) a cool million from Randi) but that Jesus could kick them out.
While I’ve gotten fairly lucky in some areas of my life, (including a great tee shot on the 14th hole in Miyazaki, which I accidentally hooked over the trees onto the green) I’ve never run into anyone who was truly possessed (not including an ex-girlfriend, but that is still being debated) and would have no idea how to cast them out (the demons, that is; I was finally able to get rid of the ex-girlfriend). I take it that this isn’t easy, which accounts for the people to be amazed with Jesus.
Unfortunately, that seems to be not necessary now, which is good that Jesus came when he did, otherwise his killler app wouldn’t have been nearly that impressive. He wouldn’t even be eligible for Randi’s reward money, since proving that demons exist would have first dibs.
This little light of mine – I’M GONNA LET IT SHINE.
The answers depend on whether you’re an actual Biblical fundamentalist, or just the sort of “fundamentalist Christian” who believes a handful of poorly understood dogmas and stories are the sum of human morality.
A true Biblical fundamentalist will say that your premise is false, and some of your questions unanswerable.
“there are jillions of evil spirits (demons)”
We do not know that there are “jillions” of them, only that they were encountered from time to time, and Jesus cast out several.
“these beings appear to assist Satan in capturing souls-what’s in it for them?”
We do not know that they capture souls, nor that Satan leads them. They torment the living, and Satan tempts the living.
“what is the origin of these beings?”
We do not know their origin; they might be created beings that chose to oppose God (or at any rate, not to serve him), or they might not.
“why does God allow them to exist?”
We don’t know what they are or where they came from, so how can we know that? Why does he allow us to exist? We are sinful, and we exist; we do not know that he has not wiped out vast numbers of them, as he did humanity in the flood.
“what happens to them, after the “Last Judgement”?”
I don’t know, and I don’t need to know. I imagine they will either be destroyed, or cast into the Pit.
“do any of them wish to renounce Satan?”
I don’t know, and I don’t need to know. As I said, we don’t know that they serve Satan in the first place. We don’t know if they have it in their nature to renounce evil. If they do have it in their nature, maybe some of them do so.
“would God welcome them back (if they were to repent)?”
Why not?
“How many of them are there? The Bible is unclear”
The Bible isn’t about demons, it’s about God and humanity. Demons aren’t important. There are enough to torment us, and not so many that we are all possessed.
(“call us Legion, for we are many”)"
One man was possessed by many demons, who called themselves “legion”; that doesn’t mean there are “many” in any absolute sense. Was that supposed to be a joke?
The other sort of fundamentalist would answer that Satan and his legion of fallen angels want to enlarge their kingdom, and that they delight in the torments of the damned; it is not in their nature to repent or renounce evil (though they would love to take Satan’s throne, if you call that “renouncing Satan”), so God can’t “welcome them back.” How many? What are you, Catholic?
Me, I was a presbyterian, and figured that humanity was sufficiently wicked to explain evil, and that only our pride required blaming demons for it. Demons were real, but rare and far away; might be fallen angels, pre-Creation beings, the remnants of damned souls, or maybe they were all Satan – there’s no way to know, and and I wasn’t going to pretend to know.
And now I’m an atheist, and I know it’s all bullshit.
Hahahaha, this fucking killed me.
They’re the ones who kill your houseplants despite your best efforts, put mold in your sandwich and spoil your milk even though you just bought it, etc. The purpose of which is to put you in a bad mood, and commit the sin of wrath against your fellow man, or the sin of despair against the Holy Ghost.
In rural Wisconsin where I grew up, people would put mandailias above their doors: discs with intricate designs like Celtic knotwork. The demons would get trapped in them like mazes and not enter the house.
You can also use mirrors, which the Chinese do in Feng Shui. Put a mirror in the doorways, and a little one on the underside of the toilet lid so when they try to enter they get frightened away by their own ugly faces.
And I guess I don’t have to say anything. You even covered the “excuse for evil people” angle.