"trofimus, posted
We can see many demons in the New Testament. Sometimes even many of them in one human. Wherever Jesus or his discplices went, demons upon demons.
In our life (Europe) - none. Nobody ever heard of any. Their existence went to fairy tale category. Yes, some people claim it, but you know, some people even claim to be abducted by people from another galaxy. The fact is that demons are not visible in our daily, common life like they were before.
I can think about these plausible solutions:
a) they are gone
- the work of Christ, the spread of Christianity, monotheism pushed them out of Christian and post-Christian world
b) they went into hide
- they do not want to be indentified and thrown out by Christians, so they try to "behave" or mask themeselves as mental illness
c) they need some special conditions to exist in
- pagan rituals, spiritism, something that may exist rather in other parts of the world than in Europe
- maybe they even need a faith in them to have any power?
d) they are dying in time
- well, this one is weird, because they are spirits, but still its a possibility that they somehow decompose without a body
e) they are still the same and active as before, but humanity got too high in numbers
- if there is like lets say million of demons, they are very visible when there is 100 million population of people in the world, but can be quite unnoticable when there is 8 billion of people
Any better ideas?[/QUOTE]
It seems we all are busy looking at the devil outside of us. It is not only when someone is possessed that the devil manifests itself. What about the devil inside of us?. just one instance:
It is written, the devil is a liar and the father of it. So, when we lie for advantage in whatever form, or indulge in any inordinate thought or pleasure, we are reflecting the kingdom of satan. It is the devil manifesting itself and defiling us. Jesus says, it is the things that come out of us that defiles us for out of the mouth proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adultery, greed racism, favoritism, thefts, blasphemies, etc . These are acts of the devil being reflected through our thoughts and actions.
As Eve was deceived through the subtlety of Satan, Satan and its cohorts are still roaming about today in various forms as master masqueraders. We do not need to look far to see them. They are even prevalent in our churches of today.
Jesus told the Pharisees that they are the children of their father the devil not because they were showing signs of being physically possessed by the devil but because of their wicked thoughts and deeds.