Biblical Truth Vs. Hollywood Hype: Discerning Fact from Fiction in Depictions of Demonic Activity

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Are demons real? From late-night paranormal shows to blockbuster horror films, demonic activity holds a captivating, often terrifying, grip on our culture. But is there scientific evidence for their existence? Or are they simply a figment of overly-zealous religious imaginations?

And if they are real, how do believers navigate the landscape around evil spirits? How can we discern the whispers of spiritual truth from the amplified screams of fictional narratives that depict spinning heads, gore, and violent physical attacks?

The beginning, for believers, is to look into Scripture to see what it says about the spiritual world. Of course, the Bible doesn’t give every possible manifestation of the work of the devil, just like it doesn’t give you every single scenario you might face where you will have to struggle to choose to act in love. But it gives us enough of a picture to act as a springboard.

In this article, I am going to explore the biblical understanding of demonic activity and contrast it with common Hollywood portrayals in order to help you discern fact from fiction on this issue, as well as develop a more biblically sound perspective on it.

The reality of demons: a biblical foundation.

There is a lot of skepticism about demons. Understandable, because they usually remain hidden behind the wall that separates the spiritual realm from the natural. Skeptics provide various explanations for demonic experiences, explanations that aren’t always totally off base (more on that in a future post). And while it’s easy for me to say, “But the Bible has lots of examples about demonic possession and demonic attacks,” those same skeptics don’t believe most of the Bible is based in reality, either.

The fact is, you can't find scientific evidence for the existence of demons.

Not any more than you can find scientific evidence for God becoming man and living among us.

Because, guess what? Science can only study the natural world. Not the spiritual world.

So I’m not talking to those demanding scientific evidence. I’m talking to fellow Christians, those who aren’t sure about demonic influence, as well as those who are, but need to be talked down the extremist ledge of believing that a demon awaits around every corner.

That said, let’s look at some of the biblical accounts of demonic encounters.

• 1 Samuel 16:14-23: An evil spirit tormented King Saul, the demon apparently only brought into submission by David playing on the harp.
• Judges 9:23: After Abimelech killed his seventy brothers so he could become king, God sent an evil spirit to cause division and conflict among the people.
• 1 Kings 22:20-23: The prophet Micaiah tells King Ahab that God had sent a lying spirit to deceive Ahab’s prophets to get the king and his army into trouble.
• Mark 1:23-27: Yeshua delivers a man from a demon when the man cries out to Him.
• Matthew 8:28-34: Yeshua confronts two men possessed by a horde of demons. He casts them out, and at their bidding, commands them to enter into a herd of pigs.
• Matthew 12:22-32: Yeshua casts out a demon that caused a man to be mute and blind.
• Acts 16:16-18: Paul casts a spirit of divination out of a slave girl as the spirit repeatedly harasses him.

Skeptics argue that none of those events involved evil spiritual beings, but that the accounts were either using hyperbole or explained events using the superstition of the time. However, unlike the Creation story in Genesis, all of the above accounts were written as historical narratives. And in relation to the authors of the early Old Testament, the authors of the history of the Israelite kings and of the New Testament had authoritative accounts to draw from.

The New Testament accounts of demonic deliverance in particular were based on witnesses who were there, witnesses who had reason to believe that Yeshua wasn’t simply healing people mentally or physically. His disciples saw, and subsequent to Yeshua’s death and resurrection, recounted the conversation between their Lord and the legion of demons, saw how the pigs went wild after Yeshua told the demons to possess them.

If you don’t believe any of these biblical accounts of demons are true, number one, don’t call yourself a Christian, and number two, the satan has you exactly where it wants you.

Why are there demons in the first place?

Akin to the question of Christian suffering, this is one of the questions of faith whose answer is hard to swallow. The traditional answer is that a worshiping angel turned against God, wanting to become God himself, and so God cast him out of heaven, along with a bunch of other angels who had joined him in the rebellion (Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 26:12-17). As two prophets known to have predicted almost impossibly accurate future events, it’s more than likely that God had actually given them a true vision of how evil came into being on the Earth.

Though that interpretation is debatable, and those visions may have been figurative, it gives us a starting point.

If the prophets’ respective revelations were literal, the next question is, why did God allow it to happen? The answer would be that He gives angels free will, just as He does to humans. But whatever the origin of these evil beings, there is some proof of their existence, though not exactly scientific. I’ll be delving more into that in the rest of this series on Christians and demons.

The purpose of demonic activity

Yeshua Himself stated that the “thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy,” most scholars interpreting “thief” in that verse as another name for the enemy of our souls.

If that’s not clear enough for you, there’s 1 Peter 5:8. “…the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

For Christians, the devil’s ultimate purpose is to make them feel worthless or to deceive them so that they won’t live out their own divine purpose.

For non-Christians, its purpose is to hinder them from accepting truth.

Where Hollywood gets it wrong (hint: pretty much everywhere).

First of all, we must assume that Hollywood writers and producers are by and large skeptical of anything supernatural, especially when it comes to Christian tradition. Whatever their beliefs, they are paid to create movies that will make as much money as possible, which means that when it comes to supernatural encounters and events, sensationalism and exaggeration rule the day. They likely also take much of what they portray in movies from ancient superstitions or extremist beliefs on the subject.

They portray seemingly benign beings – even characters believed to be human – that transform into grotesque figures in a heartbeat. These beings tend to have superhuman strength, and can levitate and have powers such as telekinesis.

In the cases of possession, evil spirits do freaky things with their hosts’ bodies such as spinning their head around, causing projectile vomiting, and channeling an evil voice through them.

In the book of Acts (chapter 19), there’s a story of how a demon-possessed man was able to beat up seven non-believing men who were trying to cast out the demon. So it’s not far-fetched to believe that demons can do scary things.

However, most demonic activity is much more subtle, and in its subtlety, dangerous.

It consists of whispering negative and/or untrue thoughts into our heads, in such a way that we believe the thoughts come from our own minds. It often consists of whispering temptations. On occasion, giving into sinful temptation on a regular basis or opening yourself up to untruths can invite further demonic attack on your life.

What about playing with Ouija boards? Or playing video games that involve gaining supernatural powers? Reading the Harry Potter books? I’ve known of Christians who were convinced that such activities were guaranteed to cause demonic possession. Though the devil can certainly use ungodly modes of entertainment of all kinds to pull people’s focus away from God, the Bible shows us that generally, repeated sin and lack of spiritual vigilance are what invite demonic influence into one’s life.

Discerning fact from fiction: a biblical lens.

Let's lay most everyone's fear around the topic to rest, shall we?

The primary spiritual battleground.

Scripture as a whole indicates that spiritual warfare is primarily mental. In fact, I’m writing this post because the enemy attacked my mind the day prior, and kept working on me all through the night. 

I’ve had suicidal thoughts before. But none as strong and vivid as the ones I had last night, after I experienced a setback in what is turning out to be a difficult physical recovery. I won’t give details. Suffice to say that by the middle of the night, I had fallen into deep despair and couldn't see any way out of my pain other than to leave this life.

But through the despair came a faint glimmer of light. A memory. I remembered other times when I felt oppressed, or was experiencing a downward spiral of negative thoughts, and I made a command.

“I call those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ,” I would say, according to 2 Corinthians 10:5; or, “Shut up, devil, in Yeshua’s name.”

Last night, not feeling at all bold or authoritative, weariness bleeding through my voice, I whispered into the dark, “Shut up…in Yeshua’s name…Go away…and don’t come back…in Yeshua’s name.”

The thoughts instantly vanished.

Though my physical situation hadn’t changed, I no longer felt that life wasn’t worth living. I no longer felt like my physical situation would never end.

I was in a good mood within a couple of hours of getting out of bed.

Some would say that the enemy attacked because I’d begun teaching and encouraging my fellow believers in earnest. I am inclined to agree.

Twice in my life, I have heard first-hand accounts from non-flaky, mature Christians about how the devil physically attacked them with the intent of harming or even killing (one of the demons was a former spirit guide of a former New Age follower). But that’s not the typical M.O. of demons.

It is, however, an excellent reason to be in a state of constant prayer, as well as alert to your surroundings.

My experience last night leads me to another critical point regarding the Bible and the belief in demons.

Believers have authority over the devil.

James 4:7 admonishes us that if we resist the devil, he must flee. Why?

Because you have authority over evil by the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of you, as well as through the shed blood of our Savior.

While there are a number of ways a person can “resist” the devil, telling it to get away from you, to stop lying or tempting you, is the simplest, and it works. Keeping the lines of communication open with God, studying the Bible, and learning to be sensitive to the leading of God’s spirit ensure that you maintain the “whole armor of God” [Ephesians 6:8-10] so that the enemy's arrows aimed your way will continue to fall short

The importance of discernment.

In order to separate fiction from fact when it comes to demonic encounters and the Christian view on demons, we need to withdraw from Hollywood sensationalism and fear-mongering – by Hollywood and ignorant Christians alike! Most of the problems we have in our lives have nothing to do with evil forces, and everything to do with our own poor choices. The vast majority of accidents are just that – accidents. And most of the time when someone gets sick, it’s because they’ve made themselves vulnerable to the illness or disease.

A Christian who is grounded in both Scripture and a relationship with the living Word, and who is dedicated to living out a life of faith, will know internally, without words, whether or not a story about someone’s experience with the dark realm is true. Those same qualifications, as I hinted earlier, will also grant you a measure of protection from demonic attacks or temptation. They will definitely ensure that you recognize the working of the enemy, if not immediately, then soon after it begins happening.

As recently occurred to me.

Be not afraid. Be very not afraid.

If you are a Christian, you have authority over demons. No need to get obsessed with things like exorcisms, demonic infestations, or demon rulers over various regions of the world.

Read the Bible. Ask for wisdom and revelation regarding the spirit world. Above all, keep talking to Yeshua, keep remembering that everything will eventually all work out according to our Father’s plan, and keep living life in His power and love.

Because we’re not supposed to worry about evil spirits and the satan any more than we’re supposed to worry about anything else.

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