Agents of Evil
THE Bible’s explanation of the role of demons in man’s affairs answers basic questions about evil that would otherwise be unanswerable. Consider, for example, this statement from the International Herald Tribune concerning the ongoing war in the Balkans: “A European Community team of investigators has concluded that [soldiers] have raped up to 20,000 Muslim women and girls . . . as part of a systematic policy of terror designed to intimidate, demoralize and drive them from their homes.”
An essay in Time magazine grappled with an explanation: “Sometimes, young men in war may commit rape in order to please their elders, their officers, and win a sort of father-to-son approval. The rape is proof of commitment to the unit’s fierceness. A young man willing to do hideous things has subordinated his individual conscience in order to fuse with the uncompromising purposes of the group. A man seals his allegiance in atrocity.”
But why are the “uncompromising purposes of the group” more debased than the individual consciences of its members? As an individual, almost everyone desires to live at peace with his neighbor. So why, in times of war, do people rape, torture, and kill one another? A key reason is that demonic forces are at work.
Understanding the role of demons also provides a solution to what some term a “theologian’s problem.” The problem is how to reconcile three propositions: (1) God is all powerful; (2) God is loving and good; and (3) terrible things happen. Some hold that it is possible to reconcile any two of these propositions, but all three can never be reconciled. God’s Word itself gives the answer, and that answer involves unseen spirits, agents of evil.
The First Rebel
The Bible tells us that God is himself a spirit. (John 4:24) In time he became the Creator of millions of other spirit beings, angelic sons. In vision, God’s servant Daniel saw a hundred million angels. All the spirit persons that Jehovah created were righteous and in harmony with his will.—Daniel 7:10; Hebrews 1:7.
Later, when God “founded the earth,” these angelic sons of God “joyfully cried out together” and “began shouting in applause.” (Job 38:4-7) But one of them developed a desire to grasp for himself the worship rightfully due the Creator. By rebelling against God, this angel made himself a satan (meaning “opposer”) and a devil (meaning “slanderer”).—Compare Ezekiel 28:13-15.
Using a serpent in Eden to speak to the first woman, Eve, Satan persuaded her to disobey God’s direct command not to eat the fruit from a certain tree in the garden. Afterward, her husband joined her. Thus, the first human couple joined the angel in rebellion against Jehovah.—Genesis 2:17; 3:1-6.
While events in Eden may seem to be a straightforward lesson in obedience, two important moral issues were raised there by Satan. First, Satan disputed whether Jehovah’s rulership over his creatures was exercised righteously and in their best interests. Perhaps humans could do a better job of governing themselves. Second, Satan questioned whether any intelligent creatures would remain faithful and loyal to God when obedience seemed to bring no material benefits.a
A clear understanding of the issues raised in Eden, along with a knowledge of Jehovah’s attributes, helps us to understand the solution to the “theologian’s problem,” namely to reconcile the existence of evil with God’s attributes of power and love. While it is true that Jehovah possesses unlimited power and is the very personification of love, he also is wise and just. He exercises these four attributes in perfect balance. Thus, he did not use his irresistible power to destroy the three rebels immediately. That would have been just but not necessarily wise or loving. Furthermore, he did not merely forgive and forget, a course that some might feel would have been the loving option. To have done that would have been neither wise nor just.
Time was needed to settle the issues that Satan raised. It would take time to prove whether humans could properly rule themselves independently of God. By permitting the three rebels to continue living, Jehovah also made it possible for creatures to share in proving false Satan’s claim by serving God faithfully under difficult circumstances.b
Jehovah had clearly said to Adam and Eve that if they ate of the forbidden fruit, they would die. And they did die, though Satan had assured Eve that she would not. Satan too is under sentence of death; in the meantime he continues to mislead humankind. In fact, the Bible says: “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.”—1 John 5:19; Genesis 2:16, 17; 3:4; 5:5.
Other Angels Rebel
Not long after the events in Eden, other angels joined the rebellion against Jehovah’s sovereignty. The Bible states: “Now it came about that when men started to grow in numbers on the surface of the ground and daughters were born to them, then the sons of the true God began to notice the daughters of men, that they were good-looking; and they went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose.” In other words, these angels “forsook their own proper dwelling place [in heaven]” and came to earth, materialized in human form, and enjoyed sensual pleasures with women.—Genesis 6:1, 2; Jude 6.
The account continues at Genesis 6:4: “The Nephilim proved to be in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of the true God continued to have relations with the daughters of men and they bore sons to them, they were the mighty ones who were of old, the men of fame.” These hybrid sons born to women and fathered by angels were abnormally strong, “mighty ones.” They were men of violence, or Nephi·limʹ, a Hebrew word that means “those who cause others to fall down.”
It is noteworthy that these events later found expression in the legends of ancient civilizations. For example, a 4,000-year-old Babylonian epic describes the superhuman exploits of Gilgamesh, a mighty, violent demigod whose “lust [left] no virgin to her lover.” Another example, from Greek legend, is the superhuman Hercules (or Heracles). Born to Alcmene, a human, and fathered by the god Zeus, Hercules set out on a series of violent adventures after killing his wife and children in a fit of madness. Although such tales were greatly distorted as they passed from generation to generation, they tie in with what the Bible says about the Nephilim and their rebellious angelic fathers.
Because of the influence of the wicked angels and their superhuman sons, the earth became so filled with violence that Jehovah decided to destroy the world by a great flood. The Nephilim perished along with all the ungodly humans; the only human survivors were righteous Noah and his family.—Genesis 6:11; 7:23.
However, the wicked angels did not die. Instead, they dematerialized their human bodies and returned to the spirit realm. Because of their disobedience, they were not allowed back into God’s family of righteous angels; nor were they permitted again to put on human bodies as they did in Noah’s day. Still, they continued to exercise a ruinous influence in the affairs of humankind, under the authority of “the ruler of the demons,” Satan the Devil.—Matthew 9:34; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6.
Enemies of Mankind
Satan and the demons have always been murderous and cruel. Satan, by various means, took away Job’s livestock and killed most of his servants. Next, he killed Job’s ten children by causing “a great wind” to demolish the house they were in. After that, Satan plagued Job with “a malignant boil from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.”—Job 1:7-19; 2:3, 7.
The demons show a similarly evil disposition. In Jesus’ day, they robbed people of their speech and sight. They caused a man to slash himself with stones. They dashed a boy to the ground and “violently convulsed him.”—Luke 9:42; Matthew 9:32, 33; 12:22; Mark 5:5.
Reports from around the world show that Satan and the demons are as malicious as ever. Some people they strike with illness. Others they harass by robbing them of sleep or by giving them terrible dreams or by abusing them sexually. Still others they have driven to insanity, murder, or suicide.
How Much Longer Will They Be Tolerated?
Satan and his demons will not be tolerated forever. With good reason Jehovah has allowed them to exist until our day, but now their time is short. Early in this century, a major step was taken to limit their sphere of activity. The book of Revelation explains: “War broke out in heaven: Michael [the resurrected Jesus Christ] and his angels battled with the dragon [Satan], and the dragon and its angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.”—Revelation 12:7-9.
What was the result? The account continues: “On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them!” The righteous angels could rejoice because Satan and his demons were no longer in heaven. But what about people on earth? The Bible says: “Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.”—Revelation 12:12.
In their anger Satan and his minions are intent on causing as much woe as possible before their imminent end. In this century there have been two world wars and over 150 lesser wars since the end of the second world war. Into our vocabulary have come phrases reflecting the violence of this generation: “germ warfare,” “the Holocaust,” “killing fields,” “rape camps,” “serial killers,” and “the bomb.” The news is bloated with stories of drugs, murder, bombing, psychopathic cannibalism, massacres, famine, and torture.
The good news is that these things are temporary. In the near future, God will again act against Satan and his demons. Describing a vision from God, the apostle John said: “And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he hurled him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, that he might not mislead the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended.”—Revelation 20:1-3.
After that, the Devil and his demons will be “let loose for a little while,” and then they will be destroyed forever. (Revelation 20:3, 10) What a wonderful time that will be! With Satan and his demons out of the way for good, Jehovah will be “all things to everyone.” And everyone will truly “find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.”—1 Corinthians 15:28; Psalm 37:11.
[Footnotes]
a This was clarified later when Satan said of God’s servant Job: “Skin in behalf of skin, and everything that a man has he will give in behalf of his soul. For a change, thrust out your hand, please, and touch as far as his bone and his flesh and see whether he will not curse you to your very face.”—Job 2:4, 5.
b For a detailed discussion of why God permits wickedness, see the book You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
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Is man alone responsible for such things, or does a sinister, unseen force share the blame?
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Oil wells burning in Kuwait, 1991: Chamussy/Sipa Press
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What a wonderful time it will be when the demons no longer harass mankind!