The holiday season is over, and I am pleased because the shops are no longer full of manic individuals. Things around the graveyard have been quiet and so the Undertaker and I will be going to the cinema this evening to watch a film titled The Devil Inside. Demonic horror films are their own sub-genre of the horror movie. You have the gold standard The Exorcist that was released in 1973, whose memory continues to haunt individuals today. There is also 1979’s The Amityville Horror, 2005’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose, 2010’s The Last Exorcism and 2011’s The Rite. Interestingly, since The Exorcism traumatized audiences with spewing split pea soup and a spinning head audience reactions to films where demonic possession was central to the plot has been meh at most. Why is that? Well, the zeitgeist in the 70’s was clearly different than what we have today. Religious attendance was likely higher than what we have today for most Christians. Today, distractions abound, especially for youth who are bombarded with technological entertainment (distraction) options. Additionally, in the West agnosticism and atheism have become one of the fastest growing religious beliefs – the belief of no belief. So, how can one be frightened of devils, demons or ghosts if they just do not believe in the above?
The three major monotheistic religions of the world are Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and all three have their own set of beliefs regarding demonology. Since demonology is such a vast subject, and since I still have to get ready for the cinema tonight, I am only covering a few beliefs regarding Christian Demonology.
Christian Demonology:
Based on information derived from the Old and New Testament, the depth of Christian Demonology is studied within the Catholic Church. The Book of Enoch states that the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim are demons – I Enoch 15:8-12, 16:1. Catholic Franciscan Bishop Alphonso de Spina believed that there are exactly 133,316,666 demons in existence. In 1583, occultist and demonologist Johann Weyer put the number of demons at 44,435,622, which were divided into 666 legions.
Side Note about the number 666: Where does that number come from?
The numeric “666” is indeed in the bible and can be found in Revelation 13:15–18
“The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.”
Christianity believes that demons are like angels in that they are immortal spirits. They are not omniscient, all knowing, but they can have a lot of knowledge about various subjects and/or individuals. The also do not know more than God knows, so demons are not omnipotent.
Christian Demonology tells us that demons seek to induce humans to commit sin, and they do this by leading people to question their faith in God. There are three temptations used; the world, the flesh, and the devil. They attempt to get people to abandon their faith, commit heresy, and/or renounce their belief in God.
According to Matthew 17:15-16 demons torment people during their life or through the form of possession.
Belief in demonic possession can be traced back to the ancient Sumerians who believed that all diseases were caused by “sickness demons” called gidim.
Many psychological ailments classified today were likely once diagnosed as demonic possession, especially dissociative identity disorder where an alternative personality becomes present.
Friends, it is now time for my film. Please, if you experience any of the following symptoms – erased memory, new/different personality, convulsion, fits of fainting, gnosis – suddenly knowing something that you had no prior knowledge of, command usage of a foreign language previously not known, drastic vocal and intonation change, appearance of bite marks, lesions, scratches or superhuman strength – consult a physician.
-Gravedigger
