26 鬼魔——神有超然的敌对者Demons - God has supernaturalopponents
《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。
26 鬼魔——神有超然的敌对者
Demons - God has supernatural opponents
“神有超然的敌对者“所祭祀的鬼魔，并非真神，乃是素不认识的神，是近来新与的，是你列祖所不畏惧的。（申32:17）
[鬼魔]的希腊文是daimon和daimonium，福音书里常用这个词来指那些败坏的、与神人为敌的灵体；耶稣在地上服事时，曾从受害者身上赶出大群的邪灵。鬼魔是堕落的天使，是事奉撒旦的受造之物，是不死的（耶稣曾将其中最有名的别西卜，与撒旦等量齐观，太12:24-29）。鬼魔既加入了撒旦的背叛，就被神逐出天庭，等候末后的大审判（彼后2:4；犹6）。他们的心思已笃定，是要抵挡神、良善、真理、基督的国度和人类的福祉。虽然加尔文用栩栩如生的词汇，形容他们不管走到哪儿，都拖着索鍊，休想要胜过神，但事实上他们还是有某种受限制的能力和行动的自由。
当基督在地上服事时，鬼魔在人身上的幅度与强度，是空前的，从旧约时代以来无可比。无疑的，那是撒旦面对基督的攻击，为其国度垂死挣扎的一部分（太12:29）。圣经启示我们，鬼魔有知识和能力（可1:24；9:17-27），能给人带来身心的疾病或至少试着这么做（可5:1-15；9:17-18；路11:14）。他们能认明基督，害怕祂，但倒也服在祂的权下。不过，主也承认，惟有籍着祷告，祂才能将 鬼赶出来（可9:29）。
基督授权给祂的十二使徒和那七十位门徒，并装备他们，使他们可以奉祂的名（即靠着祂的能力，路9:1;10:17）赶鬼。赶鬼的职事迄今偶尔仍是教牧之所需。十六世纪的路德会一度废弃了赶鬼服事，因为他们相信基督已经胜过撒旦，且已经永远地压制了鬼魔的侵犯；但这种说法有过早之嫌。
撒旦的鬼魔大军也用狡猾的策略，亦即使用各种欺骗和打击的方法。对抗这种策略，基本上就是属灵的争战（弗6:10-18）虽然鬼魔能多方骚扰有圣灵内住重生的人，但是他们至终不能阻挡神拯救祂选民的目的，就像他们至终不能逃避自己将面临的永远痛苦一样。正如魔鬼是神的魔鬼（这是路德的话，意指被神管制的魔鬼），鬼魔也就是神的鬼魔（被神管制的鬼魔），是祂的手下败将（西2:15）。只是——路上当神的百姓与鬼魔争战时，为着神的荣耀的进展，鬼魔那受限制的能力才得以延长。
DEMONS
GOD HAS SUPERNATURAL OPPONENTS
They
sacrificed to demons, which are not God—gods they had not known, gods that
recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. DEUTERONOMY 32:17
“Demon,”
or “devil” as earlier translations rendered the words, is the Greek daimon and
daimonion, the regular terms in the Gospels for the spiritual beings, corrupt
and hostile to both God and man, whom Jesus exorcised from their victims in
large numbers during his earthly ministry. The demons were fallen angels,
deathless creatures serving Satan (Jesus equated Beelzebub, their reputed
prince, with Satan: Matt. 12:24-29). Having joined Satan’s rebellion, they were
cast out of heaven to await final judgment (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). Their minds
are permanently set to oppose God, goodness, truth, the kingdom of Christ, and
the welfare of human beings, and they have real if limited power and freedom of
movement, though in Calvin’s picturesque phrase they drag their chains wherever
they go and can never hope to overcome God.
The
level and intensity of demonic manifestations in people during Christ’s
ministry was unique, having no parallel in Old Testament times or since; it was
doubtless part of Satan’s desperate battle for his kingdom against Christ’s
attack on it (Matt. 12:29). Demons were revealed as having knowledge and
strength (Mark 1:24; 9:17-27). They inflicted, or at least exploited, physical
and mental maladies (Mark 5:1-15; 9:17-18; Luke 11:14). They recognized and
feared Christ, to whose authority they were subject (Mark 1:25; 3:11-12; 9:25),
though by his own confession it was only through effort in prayer that he was
able to expel them (Mark 9:29).
Christ
authorized and equipped the Twelve and the seventy to exorcise in his name
(i.e., by his power—Luke 9:1; 10:17), and the ministry of exorcism continues
still as an occasional pastoral necessity. The sixteenth-century Lutheran
church abolished exorcism, believing that Christ’s victory over Satan had
suppressed demonic invasion forever, but this was premature.
Satan’s
army of demons uses subtler strategies also, namely, deception and
discouragement in many forms. Opposing these is the essence of spiritual
warfare (Eph. 6:10-18). Though demons can give trouble of many kinds to
regenerate persons in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, they cannot finally thwart
God’s purpose of saving his elect any more than they can finally avoid their
own eternal torment. As the devil is God’s devil (that is Luther’s phrase), so
the demons are God’s demons, defeated enemies (Col. 2:15) whose limited power
is prolonged only for the advancement of God’s glory as his people contend with
them.
