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Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against authorities, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spirits of wickedness in high places.(Eph. 6:12)

The battle of the archangel Michael with Satan. Jacopo Tintoretto

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

Today at the Liturgy a passage from the Gospel was read, in which the Lord casts out the demon of dumbness from a sick person. Seeing this miracle, the Jews begin to accuse Christ of casting out demons by the power of the demonic prince. In this Gospel fragment, the Lord explains to us all the perniciousness of the situation of a person who is in the power of fallen spirits, and indicates the real power that is able to deliver a person from such slavery. Let us listen carefully so that we know how to protect ourselves from this misfortune.

Once the Lord cast out a demon from a dumb man. When the demon came out, the mute began to speak. Some Jews who witnessed the miracle considered Christ a sorcerer who acts by the power of a demonic prince.

Why do Jews believe that it is possible to heal someone with the power of a demonic prince? The very appearance of this question suggests that such healings have occurred. They are still encountered today, otherwise people would not turn so often to sorcerers and psychics. But what is the real spiritual nature of such phenomena?

When does not the Kingdom of God abide in a person, but the Kingdom of demons? When he gave power to demons over himself with his sins and passions

The church has long struggled with sorcerers and healers. In the Old Testament book of Leviticus it says: Whether a man or a woman, if they call the dead or perform magic, let them be put to death: they must be stoned with stones, their blood is on them.(Lev. 20:27) Today the Church does not call for them to be killed, but strongly discourages turning to such people for help. Fortune-telling and turning to dark forces is a grave sin. If the price of achieving health is to enter with forces that oppose God, then it is better to get sick.

The Lord explained to the Jews that demonic power does not cast out demons from a person: every kingdom divided against itself will be desolate, and a house divided against itself will fall(Luke 11:17) .

When does not the Kingdom of God abide in a person, but the Kingdom of demons? When he gave power to demons over himself with his sins and passions. How will the demons themselves deprive themselves of the kingdom and destroy their own house?

And if by the power of Beelzebub I cast out demons, by what power do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges(Luke 11:19).

And how, then, do the apostles cast out demons in the name of Christ, if we assume that He Himself uses demonic power?

But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, then, of course, the Kingdom of God has reached you.(Luke 11:20).

The true power by which Christ casts out demons is the “finger of God,” the Holy Spirit.

When a strong man guards his house with weapons, then his estate is safe; when the strongest of him attacks him and defeats him, then he will take all his weapons, in which he hoped, and divide what was stolen from him(Luke 11:21).

Faith, repentance, and good works are what keep us from the power of demons

Saint Theophan the Recluse explains: “This allegory explains how the Lord destroys the power of demons over souls. While the soul is in sin, it is controlled by its evil spirit, although it does not always clearly show that. He stronger than the soul, therefore, is not afraid of an uprising on her part, dominates and tyrannizes over her without resistance. But when the Lord comes into the soul, attracted by faith and repentance, then he breaks all the bonds of Satan, casts out the demon and deprives him of all power over such a soul. And while that soul works for the Lord, the demons cannot prevail over it, for it is strong in the Lord, stronger than them. When the soul blunders and recoils from the Lord, the demon again attacks and overcomes, and it happens to her, the poor, worse than before. This is the universal invisible order of phenomena in the spiritual world.

St. Theophanes also says what needs to be done so that demons do not possess a person: “If our smart eyes were opened, we would see the worldwide battle of spirits with souls: first one side, then the other wins, depending on whether the souls communicate with the Lord faith, repentance and zeal for good deeds or they lag behind Him by negligence, carelessness and cooling towards good.

Faith, repentance, and good works are what keep us from the power of demons.

The Gospel Conception ends with the words of Christ, summing up the reasoning about the struggle with demons: He who is not with Me is against Me; and whoever does not gather with me squanders(Luke 11:23). In these words, Christ calls to gather together with Him, and not to squander, as his enemies do.

What collection are you talking about? And what can we waste? Here is how St. Luka (Voyno-Yasenetsky): “What does such a person squander? Precious treasures of your soul: what is the only need, everything that is pleasing to God. He does not deepen faith, he does not increase hope, he does not acquire love, for in scientific knowledge there is no source of love. The one who is preoccupied with himself, who relies on himself, does not have true hope in its highest form, hope in God. He who is busy with the aspirations of his life without Christ squanders all that he could have. Whoever is not with Christ is against Him. Terrible words: "To be against Christ is to be His enemy." And what can be more disastrous and terrible for a person than to fall into the number of Christ's enemies?

We are called to collect great spiritual treasures with Christ, with His grace-filled help.

There are only two ways: one to the right, the other to the left. To the right is the path indicated by the Lord, the path to the left is the path leading away from Him. And He is the Way, Truth and Life, and if we do not follow Him to the right, along the path that He has shown us, then we are moving away from Him. Antichrist is the opposite of Christ. Going to the left - we go after the Antichrist. There is no middle path. We must choose one path: we must go to the right, follow the Lord Jesus Christ, be together with Him.

We are called to collect great spiritual treasures with Christ, with His grace-filled help. Those who follow a different path squander all these treasures, multiply their self-conceit, their self-confidence, their pride, and pride is the main property of the devil. Whoever does not follow Christ, inevitably, although people do not understand this, follows the devil.

THE DOCTRINE ABOUT FALLEN SPIRIT ACCORDING TO SACRED WRITING AND FATRISTIC TRADITION

1. Angels, the reasons for their creation and purpose.
Fallen angels, or, as fallen spirits are also called, demons, demons, belong to the genus of Angels and carry all the properties inherent in angelic nature. Therefore, before talking about the fallen spirits, their nature and properties, it is necessary to find out the original essence of the angelic nature, the reasons for their creation and purpose.
By definition, St. Athanasius the Great, Angels are living, intelligent, incorporeal beings, capable of singing, immortal.
Saint Dmitry of Rostov points out that the Angels were created in the image and likeness of God, as man was later created. According to St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov, the image of God in angels, as well as in man, is in the mind, from which it is born, and in which thought is contained, and from which the spirit proceeds, contributing to thought and enlivening it. This image, like the Archetype, is invisible, just as it is invisible in people. He governs the whole being in the Angel, just as in man. Angels are beings limited by time and space, and therefore have their own appearance.
On the reasons for the creation of the Angels of St. Gregory the Theologian, in his sermon for Holy Pascha, says: “The goodness of God was not satisfied with contemplation. Of Herself: She had to pour out and spread goodness, so that many would become partakers of goodness, and this is characteristic of the greatest goodness. She, firstly, invented Angels and heavenly spirits. Thought was a deed that was produced by the Word, was accomplished by the Spirit.Thus, the second Lights were created, serving the first Light ... With the unceasing face of hymnsers, they surround the original Cause or bring something more, according to their ability to do more than song doxology, shining with the purest light, variously illumined by it, according to either one's nature or the rank and file."
According to Church Tradition, most clearly expressed in the work of St. Dionysius the Areopagite "On the Heavenly Hierarchy", the ranks of the angels are divided into three hierarchies: higher, middle and lower. Each hierarchy is made up of three ranks. The highest includes: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. The average angelic hierarchy is made up of three ranks: Dominions, Forces, Powers. The lowest includes three ranks: Beginnings, Archangels and Angels. All ranks of the heavenly forces bear the common name of Angels in the essence of their service. The Lord reveals His will to the highest Angels, and they, in turn, enlighten the rest. Thus, the mysteries of God go down the descending hierarchy from the Seraphim to the Angels, and each subsequent hierarchy is initiated only into those knowledge that it is able to contain at a given level of its spiritual development.
The very same word "angel" in Greek means - a messenger. The Angels received this name from the nature of their ministry, directed by the All-good God to save the human race. This is what the apostle Paul testifies to when he says: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to minister to those who are to inherit salvation?" [Heb. 1:14]. According to St. Gregory the Theologian: "... being servants of the will of God, not only by natural ability, but also by the abundance of grace, they are transferred to all places, and co-presence with everyone everywhere, both by the quick fulfillment of the service, and by the ease of nature."
However, according to St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov (1), the ministry of Angels is not only in helping to save the human race, but from this ministry they received a name among people and this name was given to them by the Holy Spirit in Holy Scripture. The time of the creation of the Angels is not exactly indicated in the Holy Scriptures, but according to the teaching accepted by the Holy Church, the creation of the Angels preceded the creation of the material world and man.

2. The devil, fallen spirits and the reasons for their fall.
Until that time, while the devil was a bright and holy angel, he dwelt in heaven. An unfortunate transformation took place in heaven, and a large assembly of angels separated from the holy dream of heavenly forces, became an assembly of gloomy demons, having a fallen cherub at their head. Many of the highest angels, from dominions, principalities and powers are carried away into the fall and destruction [Eph. 6, 12]. Here is what St. Cyril of Jerusalem: "So, the first originator of sin and the ancestor of evils is the devil. It is not I who say this, but the Lord said: "Because at first the devil sinned" [John 3.8]. Before him, no one sinned. He did not sin by nature, by necessity, having received inclinations to sin, otherwise the guilt of sin would have fallen again on Him who made it so. - slanderer). Being an Archangel, later called the devil for slander; being a good servant of God, became Satan full meaning this name, because Satan means adversary. And this is not my teaching, but the spirit-bearing prophet Ezekiel. He, crying for Satan, says: "You are the seal of perfection, the fullness of wisdom and the crown of beauty. You were in Eden, in the garden of God" [Ezek. 28, 12, 13]. And after a few words: "You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you" [Ezek. 28, 15]. It is very well said that “it was not found in you” that evil was not brought from outside, but you yourself gave birth to it. In the following words, the prophet also said the reason: “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, because of your vanity you destroyed your wisdom; therefore I will cast you to the ground” [Ezek. 28, 17]. In accordance with this, the Lord also says in the Gospel: "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning" [Lk. 10, 18]. See consent Old Testament with new. The devil fell and dragged many with him into retreat. He puts lusts into those who obey him. From him adultery, fornication, and everything that is evil. Through him, our forefather Adam was cast out and exchanged that paradise, which by itself brings wonderful fruits, for a land that bears thorns.
After the fall of evil spirits from heaven into the heavenly or airy region [Eph. 2, 2], the world of celestials has become completely inaccessible to them, and therefore all their malicious attention is exclusively directed to the land close to them, in order to sow evil among people here. Evil, therefore, constitutes the urgent need of demons, who do not think of anything but evil, do not find comfort or pleasure in anything other than evil activity. The feeling of good, like the kingdom of God, is hateful to them.
According to the teachings of St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov, “fallen spirits descended from the height of spiritual dignity; they fell into flat wisdom more than humans. People have the opportunity to move from carnal wisdom to spiritual; fallen spirits are deprived of this opportunity. People are not subject to such a strong influence of carnal wisdom, because in their natural good is not destroyed, as in spirits, by a fall.
In people, good is mixed with evil and therefore indecent; in fallen spirits only evil dominates and acts. Carnal wisdom in the realm of spirits has received the most extensive, complete development that it can only achieve. Major sin their frenzied hatred of God, expressed in terrible incessant blasphemy. They were proud of God himself; obedience to God, natural to creatures, they turned into uninterrupted opposition, into irreconcilable enmity. From this their fall is deep, and the ulcer of eternal death, which they are struck with, is incurable. Their essential passion is pride; they are dominated by a monstrous and stupid vanity; find pleasure in all kinds of sin, revolve constantly in them, passing from one sin to another. They grovel in love of money, in gluttony, and in adultery. Not being able to commit carnal sins bodily, they commit them in dreaming and feeling; they adopted the vices inherent in the flesh to the incorporeal nature; they have developed in themselves vices unnatural to them incomparably more than they can be developed among people.
Fallen spirits, containing in themselves the beginning of all sins, try to involve people in all sins with the goal and thirst of their destruction. They draw us into various pleasing of the flesh and greed, love of glory, painting before us the objects of these passions with the most seductive painting.
Demons cannot do anything to the Creator, who, being an almighty God, is inaccessible to any influence from the creature. Therefore, they turned all their anger on a person who is the image of God and, knowing that the Lord loves His creation, they strive to harm the object of His love as much as possible.

3. Appearance, bodily composition and properties of fallen spirits.
Saint Macarius the Great says that angels have an image and appearance, just as the soul has its own image and appearance, and that this image, the outward appearance, both of the angel and of the soul, is the image and appearance of the external person in his body. The same saint of God notices that angels and souls, although very subtle in their essence, however, with all their subtlety, are still bodies. According to St. Ignatia Bryanchaninova: "...they are thin, ethereal bodies, because, on the contrary, our earthly bodies are very material and gross... Angels, like the soul, have: limbs, head, eyes, mouth, chest, arms, legs, hair - in a word, complete resemblance visible person in body. The beauty of virtue and God's grace shine on the faces of the holy angels; desperate malice is character fallen angels; their faces look like the ugly faces of villains and criminals between people. "The demons distorted themselves by the destruction of good in themselves, the birth and development of evil in themselves. This was also reflected in their appearance. For this reason, Scripture calls them beasts, and the main one of them is a serpent [Apoc, 12, 9]. "Do not betray by the beast the soul that confesses to You" [Ps. 73, 19]. "Their natural appearance is terribly terrible and ugly, so Job saw the devil as an ugly monster, and depicted him with a terrible painting of the word" [Job. 39-42].
Holy Scripture indicates that demons have the same senses that a person has: sight, hearing, smell; it attributes to them the ability to speak; to fallen spirits he ascribes the shortcomings of fallen humanity, dumbness and deafness. The Lord Himself called one of the demons deaf and dumb. “Deaf and dumb spirit,” the Lord said to him, “I command you” [Mark. 9, 25], and a deaf spirit who did not hear the voice of St. Apostles and not obeying their command, heard the voice of God, and immediately, terribly tormented and lowing, he fulfilled the command of God. In another healing of a man possessed by a demon, the Gospel says that this demon was mute [Lk. 11, 14].
The substance of which spirits are composed is much finer than the substance of the human body, for this very reason, according to St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov, "the spirits in their actions are much freer, in their abilities are much more developed than people." In the act of the Holy Apostles it is indicated that the Angel of the Lord "caught up Philip" and carried him to Azot [Acts. 8, 39-40]. In the book of the prophet Daniel, we read that an angel brought the prophet Avakum from a far place to feed the prophet Daniel, who was languishing in the lions' den [Daniel. 14, 31-39].
The ability to quickly overcome space is possessed not only by Angels, but also by demons. They have demons and the ability to transfer from place to place, both coarse earthly matter and people. In the Gospel of Matthew we read that the devil, tempting the Lord Jesus Christ, took Him to the holy city and placed Him on the roof of the temple, then took Him to a very high mountain [Matt. 4, 1-11]. In the life of St. John, Archbishop of Novgorod, it is written about the journey he made on horseback from Novgorod to Jerusalem and back. Moreover, the whole journey took place in the second half of the night, that is, it took 7
about 2-3 hours. This indicates that the speed of movement of fallen spirits, although very high, is far from unlimited.
Demons, like Angels, also have the ability to produce amazing changes in visible nature. In the book of Job, we read about how, under the influence of the devil, the fire, which seemed to human eyes to fall from heaven, burned the flocks of sheep belonging to Job along with the shepherds. Here we learn about how, as a result of the manipulations of an unclean spirit, a hurricane began, which destroyed the house where the children of Job gathered, and they died [Job. 19]. In the book of Tobit, it is written about the demon Asmodeus, who killed seven husbands, for whom Sarah, the daughter of Raguel [Tov. 3, 8]. The action of spirits on matter through matter unknown to us, as well as many other properties of angels, are depicted in the following story of Holy Scripture. The angel appeared to the future Israelite judge Gideon, and when he prepared the sacrifice, "The angel of the Lord stretched out the end of the rod that was in his hand, touched the meat and unleavened bread; and fire went out from the stone and ate the meat and unleavened bread; and the Angel of the Lord hid from his eyes" [Court. 6, 21].
As we can see from this above, incorporeal spirits, created from a finer substance than man, are initially endowed with powers that allow them to exert a powerful influence on material world; in addition, they have an incomparably greater knowledge of the structure and laws of the universe; possess the means to overcome the laws of the visible world.

4. The seat of the fallen spirits.
According to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, spirits have their own place of residence, their own abode, corresponding to their nature and arbitrarily acquired qualities.
The place of residence of the fallen angels became the space under heaven, which is otherwise called air, the earth's surface, and the abyss or hell.
According to St. Ignatius Bryanchaninova, "... the space between heaven and earth, the entire azure abyss that we see, the air, the heavenly, serves as a dwelling for the fallen angels cast down from heaven. In the book of Job, the fallen angel already appears to be wandering in the immeasurable space, the heavenly; he wandered around [Job 1:7] The Holy Apostle Paul calls the fallen angels "spirits of evil in high places" [Eph. 6:12], and their head is the prince of the power of the air [Eph. 2, 2]. So, the fallen angels are scattered in multitudes in the air space.
The presence of demons on earth is clearly evidenced by the gospel narratives, which tell of their various actions and atrocities. They are the sources of various diseases and ailments, they can enter into people and animals and torment them [Lk. 8, 33; Onion. 13, 16, etc.]. Demons also live in water, this is evident from the teachings of the Orthodox Church, which on the day of the Epiphany of the Lord, in its "prayers for the blessing of water" asks God to purify the water and the possible presence of fallen spirits there.
Speaking about the immediate location of heaven and hell, we consider it appropriate to quote the point of view of the American ascetic Seraphim Rose. In his opinion, "these places are outside the 'coordinates' of our space-time system; an airliner does not fly 'invisibly' through Paradise, but an Earth satellite through the Third Heaven, and with the help of drilling it is impossible to reach the souls waiting in Hell doomsday. They are not there, but in a space of a different kind, starting immediately here, but extending, as it were, in another direction. "This thesis is in full agreement with 8
the answer of St. John Chrysostom, about the location of heaven and hell. "In my opinion, he is somewhere out of this world," says the saint in his discourses on the Epistle to the Romans.
At present, the seat for the devil, the head of the fallen angels, is hell or otherwise the abyss, tartar, the underworld, the interior of the earth. He foretold this dwelling to the fallen spirit of St. Prophet Isaiah: "You will descend into Hell, he said to him, into the foundations of the earth" [Is. 14.15]. What was predicted to the prince of the aerial power was fulfilled by the power and authority of Jesus Christ. The Lord bound Satan for the entire space of time between His two comings, and, as it is said in the Apocalypse, "threw him into the abyss, and concluded him, and placed a seal over him" [Rev. 20, 3]. Before the second coming of the Lord, "Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth" [Rev. 20, 7]. It is also clear from the biographies of the saints that the head of the fallen angels, Satan, resides in hell, and demons operate on the earth's surface and in the air under the control of their princes, that is, fallen angels from higher ranks. Demons descend into hell to receive orders and instructions from Satan, report to him about their actions and about everything that happens on the surface of the earth. Also in hell, according to the teachings of the Church, are the souls of sinners who suffer from demons fierce torment. Which fully agrees with the words of Christ: "Depart from me, damned, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" [Matt. 25, 41].

5. Images of the impact of evil spirits on people.
As already mentioned above, the demons brought down all their anger and hatred on a person who is the image of God. All their efforts are aimed at destroying as much as possible. more human souls. For what they use all their abilities and forces. “The devil tortures from everywhere,” says St. Gregory the Theologian, “he looks out for where to overthrow, where to wound and find what is not protected and open to a blow; the more he sees purity, the more it intensifies to defile ... The evil spirit takes on a double image , spreading this or that net: he is either the deepest darkness (obvious evil) or turns into a bright angel (covers himself with the appearance of goodness and seduces the minds with a meek smile), which is why special care is needed so that instead of light one does not meet with death. The need for special care and vigilance is also warned by St. The Apostle Paul, saying, "that Satan himself takes the form of an angel of light, and therefore it is not a great thing if his servants also take the form of servants of righteousness, but their end will be according to their deeds."
In the struggle with a person, fallen spirits affect his body, mental, sensual and volitional spheres. We have already talked about the nature of the impact on the human body in Part 3 of this chapter, where we clearly showed that demons can kill people, inflict illness on them and enter them (that is, take possession of their body). We will consider the last point in more detail here.
Demons enter the interior of the human body with their entire gaseous being, just as air enters it. We find a detailed description of this fact in Motovilov's story about how an unclean spirit took possession of his body and tormented him for many years.
The demon, having entered a person, does not mix with the soul, but abides in the body, forcibly possessing the soul and the body. By order of St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov, "gases have in a special development the property of elasticity, that is, the property of taking on various measures of volume; it is obvious that demons also have this property, according to which many of them can fit in one person, as the Gospel says about this" [Luke. 8, 30]. Entering a person, according to St. John Cassian, "demons induce a terrible stupefaction of the rational feelings of the soul; (this happens) like the phenomena that occur from 9
wine, fever, or excessive cold." But the demon cannot make our soul its receptacle. "Unclean spirits," the same saint affirms, "cannot penetrate the bodies of those possessed by them except by taking possession of their minds and thoughts in advance. Having bared their minds from the clothes of the fear of God, the memory of God, evil spirits attack them as if they were disarmed and deprived of God's help and God’s fence, and therefore conveniently conquered, and finally, setting up dwellings in them, as if in a possession presented to them. then only by their own free will they are seized without resistance "[James 4, 7]. Thus, from all of the above, we can conclude that the direct installation of an evil spirit in a person occurs only through the special connivance of the Lord and is often the result of a passionate and frivolous life sinner.
Not possession, but the mastery of a person through the external subordination of the forces of the soul to his demonic will is observed much more often than demonic possession. Jude is a good example of this. The words of the Gospel "Satan entered into Judas" should not be understood in such a way that Judas became demon-possessed in the full sense of the word. St. John the Theologian says that through the passion of love of silver, Satan first penetrated into the soul of the disciple [Jn. 12:6], then took fuller control of his heart [Jn. 13, 2] and finally resolutely settled into it [Jn. 13, 27]. Here we see a vivid example of the demon's gradual mastery of the sinner's soul through the ever-increasing passion of silver love.
One of the main images of the impact of unclean spirits on people is the impact on their mental sphere by introducing various sinful thoughts into it. Being out of reach for the bodily senses of a person, demons, influencing his mind, bring there various thoughts that an individual who does not lead a spiritual life takes for his own. And if he accepts them and agrees with them, then through this he becomes a conductor of someone else's evil will, gradually taking possession of him completely. “Often,” says Anthony the Great, “being invisible themselves, (evil spirits) appear as reverent interlocutors in order to deceive with the likeness of an image and draw those seduced by them into whatever they want.” The demons, knowing that people love the truth, take on the guise of truth and by this means pour poison into their followers. So the devil once deceived Eve, telling her not his own words, but allegedly repeating the words of God, while distorting their meaning [Gen. 3, 1]. So he seduced the wife of Job, teaching her the excess of love for her husband, and hence the blasphemy against God, "blaspheme God and die" [Job. 2, 9], - she said, believing that for the blasphemy of God, a person is immediately subjected to death and thus ends his grave earthly torment. Thus, he deceived and deceived all people, perverting the essence of things, and dragged everyone into the abyss of evil.
However, it should be noted that during the struggle with us, the demons do not know the disposition of our hearts, they cannot read our thoughts, but from the words that we utter in a conversation, from the actions of an external person when talking, “getting up, sitting, walking, looking, they see, according to In the opinion of the monk Evargius, “I will study the flattering all day long” [Ps. 37, 13] is our internal dispensation, in order to darken our mind during prayer with evil thoughts corresponding to the disposition of passion. Here is what St. Isidore Pelusiot: “The devil does not know what is in our thoughts, because it exclusively belongs to the power of God alone: ​​but he catches thoughts by bodily movements. ", immediately excites such a person to adultery. Will he see someone who is overcome by gluttony? Immediately vividly present to him the passions generated by gluttony and deliver what serves to bring his intention into action. Encourages robbery and unrighteous acquisition."
The ascetic - Christ God - equalizes the forces of those who are fighting and tames the ferocious fury of evil spirits, which, without God's permission, cannot tempt people, as is evident from the life of Job. Demons themselves are not even in power to enter a pig herd, and the Lord does not allow them to tempt a person beyond his strength. But in the struggle he gives the Christian strength, giving him the opportunity to emerge victorious.
In addition to the mental sphere, fallen spirits can also affect the sensual and volitional side of the human soul. Here is what Rev. Nil of Sinai: "When the envious demon does not have time to set memory in motion, then it affects the blood and juices in order to produce imagination through them and fill it with images." Influencing the body, the demon arouses in a person a feeling of lust, rage, anger, etc. This is clearly seen in the example of St. Justina, in whom the demon sent by the sorcerer kindled the feeling of lust and voluptuousness, but was driven away by the prayer of the saint.
Influencing the volitional sphere of the human soul, the demon, as it were, deprives a person of strength, energy, the ability to take decisive action and any action in general, but again, when praying, he departs, having been defeated by the power of Christ.
Evargius the monk writes that demons differ in the degree of evil and power, performing various services. This is also confirmed by St. John Cassian, saying that "some of them delight in impure and shameful lusts, others love blasphemy, others anger and rage, others are comforted by sadness, others by vanity and pride - and each one instills that passion in human hearts, which he himself actually enjoys, - but not all together excite passions, but alternately, depending on how the time, place and acceptability of the tempted one requires. The same ascetic testifies to the invisible spiritual warfare: “The weakest spirits are attacked by the new beginnings and the weak, and when these are defeated, then the strongest are sent,” but this happens as the spiritual strength of the warrior of Christ multiplies.
So, as we see, demons have a kind of "specialization", being in evil, they have some freedom, because they can choose one of the many evils that is most pleasant for them. They live with this passion, they try to kindle it in a person, through which they gain access to his soul and body. In addition, it is quite acceptable to assume that demons can be fed and intensified due to the energy of a person being transformed into passionate pleasure. If, according to St. John of Damascus, Angels "contemplate God, as far as possible for them, and have it as food", then demons, for whom contemplation is impossible, apparently, can receive energy indirectly, through a person, adapting his energy for their nutrition. To do this, they must first liken a person to themselves, through which they gain access to his soul. A passionate and sin-loving person is an excellent breeding ground for fallen spirits. Inflating the energy of passions in him, devouring his vitality, the demon feeds and strengthens in such an environment. In addition, having taken possession of the sinner, the fallen spirit uses his body as an instrument for obtaining greater pleasure with passion. Here is another reason why a passionate and sin-loving person is literally covered with demons.
At the same time, it should be noted that fallen spirits can endow their servants with a special demonic type of energy, which allows obedient executors of the will of the forces of evil to work tirelessly in the field of multiplying sin. But due to their destructive nature, demons deprived of the ability to create eventually destroy their followers...

To be continued...

edited news Lycanthrope - 28-12-2011, 11:24

On the Nature of Fallen Spirits

"Fallen angels" (demons, or demons) carry all the properties inherent in angelic nature.

St. Demetrius of Rostov points out that at first "Angels were created in the image and likeness of God, just as man was subsequently created." Angels are created immortal, intelligent, incorporeal, capable of singing - as St. Athanasius the Great.

While the devil was an Angel of God, he lived in Heaven, that is, in the spiritual world, with other Angels. But here, as the prophet Ezekiel says (28, 17), because of his beauty his heart was lifted up, and because of his vanity he destroyed his wisdom. Being created good, former Angel by his own will became "Satan" ( adversary of God) and the "devil" ( slanderer for the goodness of God). By slandering God and, at first, by the impunity of his proud resistance to God, he seduced many other Angels and dragged them along with him. The Lord decided to stop the spread of evil through the Angels who remained faithful to Him. Archangel Michael defeated the slanderer by calling on all the Angelic Powers of Heaven to remember the fact of their creation: “ Who from Angels can create them, Angels, like God created them?"

Infected with pride, the angel-demons could not bear the truth of these words. Like swords and spears, the words of the Truth of God pierced their beings and forced them to leave the world of the celestials forever and, by the command of God, find themselves in world under heaven. From now on, their place of residence is under heaven, i.e. the entire visible cosmos, our earthly air, the earth and its underworld - the interior of the earth.

The Lord and His faithful Angels are in a world inaccessible to the influence of demons. Therefore, the demons turned all their malice on a person who is the image of God, and, knowing that the Lord loves His creation, they strive to harm him as much as possible.

From the biographies of the saints, it is clear that the head of the fallen angels, Satan, before the coming of the Antichrist, resides in hell - in the core of the earth, and on the earth's surface, and in the air, and in the water environment, demons operate under the control of their "princes", that is, the fallen angels higher hierarchies who descend into hell to receive orders from Satan and inform him of their actions.

Why and how demons do evil

Everyone knows well what is pressing need. We have many needs, but urgent much less among them. This is something without which it is impossible to live.

Demons also have such an urgent need. They do not need food, sleep or rest. They need do evil. Demons think of nothing but evil, find no comfort or pleasure in anything other than evil activity. The feeling of goodness, like the Kingdom of God, is hateful to them. Frantic hatred of God is expressed by terrible and incessant blasphemy, opposition and irreconcilable enmity. Not being able to commit carnal sins bodily, they commit them in a dream and carry them out through people. They adopted the vices of the flesh into their incorporeal nature and developed in themselves sins that were not characteristic of them incomparably more than people. Persecuted by insatiable malice towards the human race (Job 1:7), demons are the sources of various diseases and torments of people and animals, and in general of all nature on earth.

In Holy Scripture there are many examples of the influence of Satan and his servants, demons, on the human body and soul. In the 4th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we read how the devil, tempting the Lord Jesus Christ, by his power transfers Him either to the roof of the temple, or to a high mountain. The Book of Job tells how the devil sends down fire on a flock of sheep and shepherds, causes a hurricane that destroys the house where the children of Job gathered, and they die (1, 9). In the Book of Tobit, a demon named Asmodeus kills seven men...

But perhaps the most terrible effect of demons on a person, which is described in the Holy Scriptures, is their entry into his insides. The demon, having entered a person, does not mix with the human soul, but, being in the body and in the soul, forcibly owns them. This is madness or possession. In the Gospel of Luke (8, 30) we read that demons can be placed in a multitude in one person. Our Lord Jesus Christ throughout gospel history constantly casts out demons from people (Matt. 8:28-34; 9:32-33; Mark 1:23-26; 9:17-29; Luke 11:14, etc.).

But how does a demon enter a person?

How a demon enters a person

As the holy fathers teach, the demon, before moving into a person, prepares the "soil". Their main mode of action is suggestion to a person of his thoughts under the guise of his own. They do this very carefully, applying their thoughts to the thoughts of a person, so that it is not noticeable how the thoughts they inspire are woven into the human consciousness. They gradually accustom people to think and desire only sinful things, making them similar to themselves. Subordinating the mind and will of a person, demons strive to master his body. This becomes possible when the grace of God departs from an incorrigible sinner not for destruction, but for punishment. Now demons can enter his body and control him. And there is no such crime and atrocity that a demoniac (in modern terms, “zombified”) person could not have committed if it were not for God’s Providence, which sets external limits to demonic power.

In special cases, for admonition and correction, God allows demons to inhabit a believer, a church person ...

... There are people in whom the presence of demons happens open. These are the most terrible and difficult cases: when an alien ill will using human body and forcing him to scream with a voice that is not his own, to beat on the floor and throw himself at people, to do all sorts of ugly acts - all that we call madness. Such people usually do not help either the prayer of loved ones, or water blessing prayers- they need special church help.

And of course, no psychiatry, no " white magic”, no psychics or “non-traditional”, “folk” healers, all the more, will be able to help these unfortunate ones.

Psychiatrists treat the possessed as if they were ordinary mentally damaged people – they “treat” them with pills and injections…

One spiritual writer reports interesting fact from national history. “Modern godless psychiatry,” he writes, “does not know how to distinguish the nervous patient from the possessed. In pre-revolutionary Russia, methods were known that made it possible to do this accurately. One of them: ten glasses are placed in front of a suspect in possession. Nine of them with holy water, one with plain water. The possessed, no matter how many attempts he makes, will always choose a glass of plain water.

Only priests can help such people. Orthodox Church experienced in the spiritual life and having a special blessing from the hierarchy. They apply to demon-possessed people the church practice of the so-called "reprimand", which includes special prayers and sacred rites.

However, the following must be said about obviously demon-possessed people: they are under a special providence of God, for a demon-possessed person is always aware of his disastrous state and always wants to get rid of the evil that lives in him. Only by himself, by his own will, he is no longer able to do this. As paradoxical as it sounds, the demoniac has an advantage over the inveterate sinner: the drunkard, the fornicator, the covetous. The demoniac wants to get rid of evil, but the sinner does not always want to stop sinning. True, on the other hand, a sinful person retains freedom of choice, freedom of will, while the demon possesses the will of the possessed.

"Light" Obsession and Constant Unhappiness

How physical illnesses can have different forms and stages, so the spiritual disease we are talking about - possession, or possession - has its own different degrees. Everyone will agree: it is one thing when a person cannot stay in the temple for a long time (he is drawn to leave), and quite another when he barks and writhes in horror under sign of the cross. Of course, the first case is "only" the initial degree of possession. We will talk about her now.

Experience shows that such initial obsession in last years is becoming more and more common.

Non-church people constantly assert that they “wish no harm to anyone,” and therefore they are surprised: for what God punishes them, why does not stick life. They do not consider their sins, which they managed to hide from people, to be evil and therefore do not even remember them. For example, the sin of killing a conceived baby in the womb - abortion - in the era of godless power was declared not a sin, not a crime, but "physiological interference." And now, elderly women, child killers who have made both their husbands and other relatives accomplices in crime, still come to the temple, and they sincerely wonder: where does their depression come from, why does such melancholy begin in the church, some incomprehensible tears appear, it becomes stuffy, like before a faint? ..

Passions and vices that have become so commonplace that it is no longer possible to separate them from a person’s personality (smoking, foul language, “everyday” lies, self-pity, fornication, TV fascination, continuous condemnation of one’s acquaintances ...), create fertile ground for episodic or gradually passing into the constant influence of demons on him.

It is worth such a person to come to the temple, where they rule the service with reverence, as he immediately begins to feel yourself bad. He is stuffy (from incense incense), and hot, and dark, there is not enough light, air. And if the parishioners also pray fervently, then during the Cherubic or Eucharistic canon, or even during a sermon calling for repentance, such people for no reason begin to cough, hiccup, yawn, they make unnatural cries and even they fall into a swoon: with some kind of terrible (so that everyone shudders) roar they fall on the floor ...

One, two, three - and the unfortunate (or unfortunate) begins to guess that something unusual is happening to him. It happens not because the church is actually stuffy and dark, but because of the proximity of the Shrine: icons, relics God's saints and, most importantly, the Body and Blood of Christ. He makes a terrible discovery: “It means that I feel bad where the Shrine is, where God is ... What then am I myself? What happened to me and is happening?

Cases of constant failures, misfortunes and illnesses that occurred as a result of the "libel of the enemy", that is, due to the evil action of a sorcerer (psychic, hypnotist, sorcerer), have the same human condition as the cause of cases with "easily" possessed. This is a graceless, non-church life, unrepentant sins (sometimes terrible, but not realized), anger at enemies, with bitterness, when in the soul there is an absolute impossibility to forgive, and again - sinful passions and vices.

Well, if among the acquaintances of such an unfortunate person there is at least one who will advise him to turn to an Orthodox priest! …

Archpriest Georgy Vakhromeev,

rector of the temple in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity on Shabolovka, Moscow

________________

Does it say anything about the origin of demons and demons? Are they the spirits of dead people or are they the spirits of fallen angels? Who are demons? Alexander Campbell gave a lecture on March 10, 1841, in which he leaned towards the version that these were the spirits of dead people. In addition, 1 Timothy 4:1 says that some will later fall away from the faith and believe in teachings that come from demons or demons. Can we really witness the manifestation of demonic forces in our day?

Due to the fact that the Bible does not give any specific information about demons, talk about them does not subside even among conservative scientists. The Bible does not speak not only about their origin, but also about how they work. The only thing that can be said from the passage you quoted is that they exist and attack all people these days, both believers and non-believers.

The Spirit clearly says that later some will depart from the faith. They will give heed to lying spirits and believe in doctrines that come from demons (1 Timothy 4:1)

I'll tell you my opinion. I believe that demons are beings like angels, with the only difference being that they rebelled against God and lost their place next to Him. I think so because Satan himself is one. It is clear that Satan existed before Adam and Eve, as Genesis 3 makes clear. Everything God created was good, Genesis 1:31 says so. Therefore, we can conclude that Satan himself is a good creation, but with some form of free will. Further, I conclude that he rebelled against God, for which he carved his place in heaven, after which he was thrown to earth to attack the most important God's creation- a person. See Revelation 12:1-9.

It is difficult for me to explain the nature of demons in this way, since there are no passages in the Bible from which we could draw conclusions about their origin and then the subsequent rebellion against God and a turn to evil. In any case, I don't believe they were originally evil creatures, so it's more likely that they later turned away from God and turned to evil. Could they be the spirits of the dead, as Alexander Campbell believed? I cannot disprove his belief, but I think otherwise. I think that dead people are less "spirits", they are not really spirits. I believe that when we die, we gain some body other than physical body, so we can't be "spirits". In any case, I believe this is not some major doctrinal issue that we definitely need to sort out. What is important to understand is that these spiritual forces of evil exist and they are fighting against God's people, against you and me (Ephesians 6:10-12). It is also important for us to understand that God controls these forces and does not allow them to take over us if we trust Him.

There are completely different approaches to the problem of evil, the problem of Satan. How should a believer feel about the manifestation of Satan and the wild atrocities that we know have been and are being done? To some extent, evil sits inside of us. Besides prayer, what kind of intellectual approach can there be, what representation?
I have no doubt that the devil exists, that he is a real person, and not just an infection, as it were, spreading over the world. I do not believe that evil can be otherwise than personal, because if it is not personal, then it is created by God, there is no other way out. This is a fallen creature. For me, there is absolutely no problem with this, simply because I personally experienced it once or twice with such force that there is no doubt.
When, at the age of fifteen, I first discovered that God exists and began to pray (I was given a prayer book, which I read with great difficulty, because I could not read Slavonic), I was on my knees, and there was such horror: I felt that the presence of Satan hangs over me like this and says something to me (you know, like in Gogol’s story about Viy): don’t look back, just pray ... I experienced this, already becoming a priest, when every year for several years I performed a memorial service one specific person who was really immersed in evil. Every time I performed this memorial service, there was a feeling that it was about to pounce, and something told me: pray, don’t turn around, don’t think about anything, just perform the memorial service ... Therefore, I personally, as if by blood there is a belief that there is a devil, and not that an undefined evil.
On the other hand, you probably remember Dostoevsky's words of the elder Zosima: "Do not say that people are evil - people are good, but they acted badly." And I am deeply convinced that an evil person or a person who does evil is a victim (just as a person can contract some kind of disease) of some kind of power. We can hate evil, we can think with horror that such a measure of evil has taken possession of a person, but we have no right to say that this person and evil coincide, that he is evil. There is a saying by the French writer Sartre: “We should not say that Judas is a traitor because he betrayed Christ, he betrayed Christ because he was a traitor” ... This is horror, we have no right to say this, because it means that man is evil, that is, Satan, in the end. I have not seen this in my rather long life now. I have seen people of the most diverse kinds both in peacetime and in war, and I have not met a single person about whom one could say: he coincides with the evil that he does. As a result, when we encounter evil, we may look at the evildoer as a sacrifice that requires compassion and prayer.
How to explain this to a person? I think that if a person does not know something at all, you cannot explain it to him. How does evil work in us? It uses everything that is corruptible in us to corrupt it. Any passion, any evil feeling can be blown up.
On the other hand, I don't think it's always right to blame Satan for the wrong things we do. There is a story in the life of one of the Optina elders: he walks along the path, sees that a demon is sitting on the fence and dangling his legs. The elder asks: “What are you doing? Is there not enough work for you on earth?” And the demon answers him: "Now I can rest, people do all the work for me." There is also a story about how a monk boiled an egg on a candle. The abbot entered, the monk dropped the egg in horror (because there was a fast, which means there was no time for the egg), he fell on his knees in front of the abbot: the demon embarrassed me! And from behind the stove, the imp leaned out, responding: “He is lying, father, I have never seen how an egg is boiled on candles, and I kept watching what would happen next.”

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