This blog post is from an email i wrote to a follower of Walter Russell's Cosmogony. I pointed out a large hole in Russell's philosophy to which the person receiving the email did not have a answer for.
The first biblical / Russell topic I thought i would bring up was the reality of demons - If one does not subscribe to the Biblical world-view explanation of why demons exist then how does one explain them ?
I don’t think the Russells believed in evil spirits, as the following quotes from them indicate: - “It takes many centuries of higher civilisations to elimi-nate the traditional beliefs of our early pagan days in which devils, demons, evil spirits and other superstitions of that day's gross ignorance are still carried into this day. As long as our beliefs are pagan, our civilisation will be pagan.” "He who has reached that source of eternal good knows there can be no evil in God's balanced universe.” “ God's universe is balanced. That is why it is unified and continuous. That is why it will endure forever and cannot fall." end of quotes.
If Walter Russell's philosophy is correct, then how does he account for the existence of evil demons, which the Bible clearly indicates are fallen angels? The fact that demons or fallen angels exist, also proves the Bible to be true. Russell's belief that God would not create anything evil is correct in one respect, God did not create anything evil, BUT, God did endow his angelic creation with the same ability to choose as his human creation, and some used that ability to choose to turn away from God and all that he stood for. The first and foremost of these was the angel that was later to be named Satan (this name means opposer), who forsook his original position given to him by God, as the “covering cherub”, (his job before his rebellion was to oversee or care for the goings on in Eden). He then enticed others to follow him in this rebellion. So, these “fallen angels” were not created evil, but made themselves such, just as a child, raised in a good, loving, law abiding family can turn his back on his upbringing and “choose” to become a criminal etc. Jude 1 verse 6 says. “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He (God) has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgement of the great day”. Revelation 7 verses, 7 to 9 says “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon (Satan). The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
The following quote from the book, 'The Amazing Aims and Claims of Jesus', written by the Biblical Scholar, Anthony F. Buzzard, gives a clear explanation why the belief in the existence of demons is justified:
“A further trap awaits the new believer. It is the theory that there are no supernatural evil personalities in scripture, that Satan or the Devil is simply a metaphor for the evil which resides in human nature. The New Testament speaks with complete clarity of demons as non-human, supernatural intelligent beings. Jesus spoke to them and they spoke to him. They are always distinct from the unfortunate human persons whom they influence. To deny the existence of Satan as a fallen supernatural being is to erase a whole dimension of reality from the sacred text. It amounts to a refusal to believe in a major element of divine revelation in the Bible. The word “ demon” has a perfectly clear basic meaning in Greek and we may not rewrite the lexicons and dictionaries to support our own theories. If the New Testament writers did not believe in the existence of demons, the one thing they could never have done was to lace their accounts with the words and activities of demons or evil spirits.
There are perfectly good words in Greek to describe “ madness” and “ disease” but the writers report for our instruction that demons are intelligent, evil, supernatural personalities, working for the Devil who is equally a personal being. Jesus recognised their existence, and so should his followers. Not to do so would be a form of unbelief. Explaining away supernatural evil challenges the authenticity of Biblical text and forces its exponents to impose a theory on the Bible which implies that Jesus was an ignorant victim of an “ unscientific age .”The existence of demons as demons has been obvious to millions of readers of the sacred text.” - Sir Anthony F. Buzzard
I don’t think the Russells believed in evil spirits, as the following quotes from them indicate: - “It takes many centuries of higher civilisations to elimi-nate the traditional beliefs of our early pagan days in which devils, demons, evil spirits and other superstitions of that day's gross ignorance are still carried into this day. As long as our beliefs are pagan, our civilisation will be pagan.” "He who has reached that source of eternal good knows there can be no evil in God's balanced universe.” “ God's universe is balanced. That is why it is unified and continuous. That is why it will endure forever and cannot fall." end of quotes.
If Walter Russell's philosophy is correct, then how does he account for the existence of evil demons, which the Bible clearly indicates are fallen angels? The fact that demons or fallen angels exist, also proves the Bible to be true. Russell's belief that God would not create anything evil is correct in one respect, God did not create anything evil, BUT, God did endow his angelic creation with the same ability to choose as his human creation, and some used that ability to choose to turn away from God and all that he stood for. The first and foremost of these was the angel that was later to be named Satan (this name means opposer), who forsook his original position given to him by God, as the “covering cherub”, (his job before his rebellion was to oversee or care for the goings on in Eden). He then enticed others to follow him in this rebellion. So, these “fallen angels” were not created evil, but made themselves such, just as a child, raised in a good, loving, law abiding family can turn his back on his upbringing and “choose” to become a criminal etc. Jude 1 verse 6 says. “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He (God) has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgement of the great day”. Revelation 7 verses, 7 to 9 says “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon (Satan). The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
The following quote from the book, 'The Amazing Aims and Claims of Jesus', written by the Biblical Scholar, Anthony F. Buzzard, gives a clear explanation why the belief in the existence of demons is justified:
“A further trap awaits the new believer. It is the theory that there are no supernatural evil personalities in scripture, that Satan or the Devil is simply a metaphor for the evil which resides in human nature. The New Testament speaks with complete clarity of demons as non-human, supernatural intelligent beings. Jesus spoke to them and they spoke to him. They are always distinct from the unfortunate human persons whom they influence. To deny the existence of Satan as a fallen supernatural being is to erase a whole dimension of reality from the sacred text. It amounts to a refusal to believe in a major element of divine revelation in the Bible. The word “ demon” has a perfectly clear basic meaning in Greek and we may not rewrite the lexicons and dictionaries to support our own theories. If the New Testament writers did not believe in the existence of demons, the one thing they could never have done was to lace their accounts with the words and activities of demons or evil spirits.
There are perfectly good words in Greek to describe “ madness” and “ disease” but the writers report for our instruction that demons are intelligent, evil, supernatural personalities, working for the Devil who is equally a personal being. Jesus recognised their existence, and so should his followers. Not to do so would be a form of unbelief. Explaining away supernatural evil challenges the authenticity of Biblical text and forces its exponents to impose a theory on the Bible which implies that Jesus was an ignorant victim of an “ unscientific age .”The existence of demons as demons has been obvious to millions of readers of the sacred text.” - Sir Anthony F. Buzzard
Our family have had experiences with demon activity a number of times in a few places we have lived. My great grandmother was a medium, and where ever she went, demon activity followed, but of course, back then, my family mistakenly believed that these supernatural entities were the ghosts of the dead! Whenever she visited and stayed with my grandmother and grandfather and their children, there would be quite a lot of activity in the house, such as the bedclothes being pulled off my grandparents through the night, and my mother, who was a child at the time, waking up in bed to find an old man leaning over her, only to have him/it disappear instantly, without a sound!
Years later, when my grandparents bought an old farmhouse, they soon discovered that it too was occupied by spirits, with both themselves and visitors seeing apparitions walking through the house, or hearing knocking on walls and the sound of locked doors being opened and shut, but on investigation, the doors were still locked. My father saw what appeared to be a woman dressed n a long dressing gown walking in the moonlight in the backyard of this same old farm, and heard what sounded like wooden clogs, but she/it disappeared too.
Around 10yrs ago, my parents, my sister and myself moved to a 160 acre property, with all ourr animals, (horses, dogs, cat and chooks) and livedin a caravan and annexe until we had a house moved on. Almost immediately, we realised that we weren't alone,with heavy banging on the caravan, and when the house arrived, the activity transferred to the house! Our dogs both got very ill and died, my sister's cat, who was normally a ery laid back cat, refused to leave one particular room in the house, no matter what! My mother, my sister and myself, all practising Christians, all suffered terrible nightmares, until we started sleeping with our Bibles under our pillows and prayed before going to sleep. Once we started these practices, the attacks on us ceased, though the banging etc and the affects on the animals continued. Interestingly, my father was never attacked or affected, and he is not religious in any way. Needless to say, we were only there for 7 months, in which time we sold the property and got well away!
Just our family’s own experiences as mentioned above have been proof enough for us of the demon's existance. If one does not subscribe to the Biblical world-view and explanation of why demons exist, then how does one explain our and other people’s experiences?
Years later, when my grandparents bought an old farmhouse, they soon discovered that it too was occupied by spirits, with both themselves and visitors seeing apparitions walking through the house, or hearing knocking on walls and the sound of locked doors being opened and shut, but on investigation, the doors were still locked. My father saw what appeared to be a woman dressed n a long dressing gown walking in the moonlight in the backyard of this same old farm, and heard what sounded like wooden clogs, but she/it disappeared too.
Around 10yrs ago, my parents, my sister and myself moved to a 160 acre property, with all ourr animals, (horses, dogs, cat and chooks) and livedin a caravan and annexe until we had a house moved on. Almost immediately, we realised that we weren't alone,with heavy banging on the caravan, and when the house arrived, the activity transferred to the house! Our dogs both got very ill and died, my sister's cat, who was normally a ery laid back cat, refused to leave one particular room in the house, no matter what! My mother, my sister and myself, all practising Christians, all suffered terrible nightmares, until we started sleeping with our Bibles under our pillows and prayed before going to sleep. Once we started these practices, the attacks on us ceased, though the banging etc and the affects on the animals continued. Interestingly, my father was never attacked or affected, and he is not religious in any way. Needless to say, we were only there for 7 months, in which time we sold the property and got well away!
Just our family’s own experiences as mentioned above have been proof enough for us of the demon's existance. If one does not subscribe to the Biblical world-view and explanation of why demons exist, then how does one explain our and other people’s experiences?
Demonic Attacks are Proof of the Supernatural, and the validity of a Biblical worldview
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