Transcripts:
This is the complete family tree of demons. You're going to be shocked when you see how many different types of evil spirits are mentioned in the Bible. But in order to understand where they came from, we need to start at the very beginning. Before God created the humans, he created the sons of God. These were divine beings who were made up of at least three different categories like the watchers mentioned in the book of Daniel.
I personally believe that the watchers are the key to understanding the origin of most of the demons in our family tree. But the category you're probably most familiar with are the angels, like Michael the Archangel. The term angel just means messenger, and they were tasked with delivering important information to mankind, like the angel Gabriel, who showed up at Mary's house to announce she was going to give birth to Jesus.
But these creatures here, called the cherubam, are the key to understanding the origin of one evil spirit you've probably heard of before. Anytime these creatures are mentioned in the Bible, they are always surrounding God's throne and praising him, like the living creatures mentioned in the book of Revelation and Ezekiel.
And these things look crazy. They're usually pictured as animal human hybrids with wings. Ezekiel even tells us that he saw four of these living creatures accompanied by strangelooking multi-eyed wheels. The appearance of their workings was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel and their rims were full of eyes all around the four of them.
And these wheels moved with the living creatures. Some scholars believe that these multi-eyed wheels are part of God's throne and represent God's ability to be everywhere and see everything all at once. There are also the saraphim who the prophet Isaiah saw surrounding the throne of God. And of course, they had a bunch of wings and eyes as well, but this is the only time saraphim are ever mentioned in the Bible.
At least that's what I thought. Turns out the word saraphim actually appears two other times in the Bible, but those times are clearly referring to venomous snakes. This has led some scholars to believe that the saraphim had the appearance of a snake. Archaeologists have even discovered ancient Israelite seals that have snakes with wings on them.
With this in mind, take a look at another creature called the anointed cherub. This was one of God's most beautiful creations who had the appearance of many precious stones and even had the ability to create incredible music. The Bible says that he was in Eden and when we read the book of Genesis, this creature is also called a snake until he sins and becomes the most famous villain in the world, Satan.
But believe it or not, Satan was just the first of many different kinds of evil creatures like this one here, Aazel. He was a spiritual being that's mentioned in the book of Leviticus when Moses and the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. We'll get to what Aazel was doing in this ancient desert in a moment. But because he's mentioned in the Bible as an evil spirit, you got to wonder how he became so evil.
The truth is that the Bible doesn't tell us, but ancient Jewish tradition does, which is why I'm going to place a question mark next to him. There are many ancient Jewish texts that are not in the Bible, but can give us an idea of how ancient people thought about these crazy Bible stories. Like the ancient Israelites believed that Aazel was one of the leaders of the Watchers who led some of them down to earth to do something that was an abomination to God.
Now, although the Bible doesn't specifically mention that their leader was Aazel or even that the Watchers were the ones who rebelled, the Bible does tell us that some of the sons of God did rebel. The Bible says that they broke the barrier between heaven and earth without God's permission by doing the unthinkable.
These divine beings made babies with human women. The Bible says that these angelic human baby hybrids became giants on the earth who began to violently rule the world. Tradition even says that they were cannibals. But the rest of the ancient world thought that these guys were heroes, not villains. Like the Mesopotamians and Egyptians believed that their ancient kings were also birthed by the gods.
But while the Mesopotamians and Egyptians celebrated their divine warriors and praised them, the Israelites called them Nephilim, meaning fallen ones. This was one of the reasons God put Noah and his family in a giant boat and flooded the earth. But I think you'll be pretty shocked at what happens next.
The Bible says that these evil watchers were locked away in hell. But this word hell in the English Bible is actually the word tarderus in Greek. A deep prison in the dark underworld reserved for these fallen sons of God, except for one of these rebels, who we'll get to in just a minute. But in order to understand what this fallen watcher does, we first need to talk about demons.
The Bible talks about two different types of demons. Up until this point, I've been careful to not use the word demon to refer to the evil divine beings you've seen so far. This is because I personally believe that the type of spirits that we call demons today that can oppress and even possess people are actually related to the Nephilim destroyed in the flood.
And plenty of ancient Jewish texts explain demons this way, too. According to the Old Testament, one of the ways someone becomes ritually unclean is if they have had any kind of physical contact with the dead body. This is why the ancient Israelites mostly referred to demons as unclean spirits.
They believed that when the Nephilim were killed in the flood, their spirits became unclean and were permitted to roam the earth. This is why they believe that these demons are constantly trying to possess people. They're trying to get back to what they once were, embodied physical beings. This also would explain why the demon-possessed man Jesus encountered referred to himself as Legion.
Not only does the term refer to many because the man was possessed by many demons, but legion is also a military term. And since the Nephilim were mighty warriors, it's no wonder that their disembodied spirits still see themselves that way. But this is just the first type of demon. The second type is even more strange than the first.
We're going to get to that in just a sec. But before we do, I want to tell you guys about a poll that I recently did that over 5,000 of you responded to. Over 60% of you said that staying consistent to read the Bible every day. And 25% of you said that understanding difficult verses was the hardest part about studying the Bible. I totally feel your pain.
I remember really struggling to stay consistent in my Bible reading. I would just stare at the text and eventually just give up trying to understand. But I believe that it's my God-given mission to help people connect with God through the Bible. Which is why I'm about to create something that I believe is going to totally change the way that you study the Bible.
Jesus met people where they were. And today, the majority of people in the world are spending a ton of time on their phone, which is why I'm creating an app that actually makes Bible study easy. I'm going to be working with some of the top developers in the world to create an app that's going to make it 10 times easier to study the Bible.
Like one of the features that we're building is the ability to tap a verse and get instant explanation that you can actually understand. But I don't want to share too much because next week I'm going to be making a special announcement only to those who are subscribed to my newsletter, the Visual Bible Club. Instead of having to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on commentaries like I did, or blindly trust that Google or ChatGpt is going to give you the right answers, this app is going to do it for you. So, subscribe by using the QR code
or the link below to learn more. The book of Revelation describes them like this. These demons are described as powerful locusts that had a body like a horse, crowns that look like gold, a face that look like a man's, hair like women's hair, teeth like lion's teeth, breastplates like iron, loud wings, and worst of all, tails like scorpions that were used to inflict pain on mankind.
Creepy, right? You're probably wondering why in the world do these demons look like this. The truth is that because these are spiritual beings, each one of these physical descriptions represents a way for us to understand what these demons are like. Their crown represents their power.
Their human face represents their intelligence. And their hair could represent their seductive nature and so on. And the Bible tells us that there is a special divine being who is going to release these creepy things on the earth one day. And you're going to be shocked when you see what they do to mankind. But before we get to that, you might be asking at this point, Jonathan, if these features are just symbols or something spiritual, are these creatures even real? Or what about the living creatures and the divine wheels we saw earlier?
Are they real or just representations of something deeper? This is a great question and here's how I like to think about it. If you watch American football, you've probably noticed that many of these teams have mascots and these mascots usually represent something about the team's strength or origin story.
Now, this isn't a perfect analogy, but here's the point. Just because these mascots features represent something deeper about the team they're on doesn't mean they're not real. If you tackle them, they'll fall down. I think it's the same with these spiritual beings. Even though their features represent something deeper about the spiritual world, it doesn't make them any less real. Okay.
So, what are these things going to do on the earth? And who is this mysterious being that's going to release them? Take a look at what the book of Revelation says. And they, the locust demons, had as a king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abadon. It's possible that this fallen angel was one of the fallen sons of God who is locked away in a different part of the underworld and somehow made king over these creepy demons.
But the truth is, we don't know for sure. The Bible then says that after these demons are released, they're going to have the power to inflict pain on mankind for 5 months. And it's going to be so bad that the Bible says in those days men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die and death will flee from them.
All of this happens during a time when God judges the earth for all of its evil deeds. But if you've put your faith in Jesus, you don't need to be afraid of these things. And I'll tell you why in just a minute. Now, this next part is super interesting because once you see what happened, you'll realize that it actually affects you and I every day.
And it has to do with a second rebellion that took place by the sons of God. But before we take a look at what happened, we have some unfinished business to discuss. We need to talk about what happened to Aazel and why the Bible says he's in the wilderness surrounding Moses and the children of Israel. And it all has to do with a group of demons we haven't discussed yet. Goat demons.
Yeah, those are in the Bible. But these aren't those cute little miniature goats you can keep in your house as pets. I love those cute little guys. The Bible says that the children of Israel had started making sacrifices to demons in the wilderness. This word is actually the Hebrew word seim, which was a particular type of demon that lived in the desert and had the appearance of a goat.
I could honestly make an entire video on this topic alone. But the important thing to know is that the Israelites saw the desert as the place where demons lived because their god was the god of life. And well, the desert can be a pretty hostile place to live. This is why God commanded the people once a year to sacrifice two goats.
The first goat was sacrificed to God, but the second goat was sent into the desert to Azazelle. But you've probably never heard of this before because most English Bibles translate the Hebrew name Aazel to the word scapegoat. But based on the context of this passage, this scapegoat translation doesn't make sense. The children of Israel would symbolically place their sin on this goat and then send it into the wilderness, not as a sacrifice to Aazel, but as a way of showing that sin doesn't belong in God's camp. It belongs far away from God's
presence in the desert where evil spirits like Oazel and the goat demons lived. Okay. Now, let's take a look at the second rebellion of the sons of God. This second rebellion can be divided into two groups. And one of these groups is sadly affecting you and me today. But let's talk about this group first.
We're going to call them the fathers of the Raphaim because they were the ones who I believe created the Raphaim who are mentioned in the Bible multiple times before the children of Israel entered the promised land. The Bible says that enemies were living there and that these enemies were also regarded as giants.
Okay, this is super interesting. Remember how before the flood, fallen watchers created giants called the Nephilim? The problem is that most English Bibles just have the word giant when the actual Hebrew word is nephilim. Well, now the same thing is happening here in this passage. The original Hebrew word that was translated as giant here is actually rephim.
These were evil giants who existed after the flood. And the Bible says that they were divided into three main groups like the Anakim who lived in Philistine territory and the Emim who lived in Moabitete territory. And finally, there were the Zam Zumim who were also giants but lived in Ammonite territory. The Bible says that Joshua defeated most of these giants except for some of the Anakim.
This is why years later, King David along with his mighty men of war challenged and defeated giants like Ishb Benab whose bronze spear was 300 shekels. I'll be honest, I don't know exactly how heavy that is, but I'm guessing it's pretty heavy. or the unnamed giant who the Bible says had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.
And of course, the most famous giant of all, Goliath, who God defeated with the small shepherd boy. There were others, too, like Goliath's brother and another giant named Saf. But I think you get the point. Even after the flood, there were evil giants, this time known as Raphaim. This naturally presents the question, how did they get there in the first place? Although it's not specifically mentioned in the Bible, it can be inferred that if the sons of God rebelled before the flood, it's possible that they could have rebelled in a similar way after as well. But
since the Bible doesn't explicitly say this, I'm going to put a question mark next to these guys. But this other group of rebel sons of God are recorded in the Bible, and we're still feeling the results of their rebellion today. The Bible says that the children of Israel sacrificed to demons, not to God.
But these demons are totally different from the sahim, goat demons, the children of Israel were sacrificing to before. The Hebrew word for demons here is the word shadim. And from these shadim came all kinds of different demons, even some that the children of Israel sacrificed their own kids to.
But in order for you to understand how these shadim came to be and what they have to do with you and I today, we need to look at a passage in the Bible that actually mentions two of these shadim. The prophet Daniel was in the middle of praying when suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. When he turned around, he saw someone who had the appearance of a man but was very clearly not human.
He told Daniel that God had heard his prayers and sent him with an important message to give to Daniel. So based on what we know about divine beings, it seems that this is an angel speaking to Daniel. But what this angel says to Daniel explains a lot about the world of spiritual beings. And it's pretty shocking.
The angel told Daniel that while he was on his way to deliver this message from God, that one called the prince of Persia fought with him for 21 days before he could make it to Daniel. He even said that Michael the Archangel had to come to his rescue because a bunch of kings of Persia had ganged up on him.
Now, I don't know about you, but whoever this prince of Persia is, they can't be human because there's no way that a human being in the physical realm could hold back an angel in the spiritual realm for 1 second, much less 21 days. But the story gets even more interesting. Before this angel leaves Daniel, he tells him what he's going to do next.
Now, I must return to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come. Prince of Persia, prince of Greece. If these aren't humans, then what kind of spiritual beings are they? To understand the answer, we need to go back to the Tower of Babel. You know the story where the world tried to come against God by building a tower to reach the heavens.
Well, there was actually something much deeper going on that I think will help shed some light on what was happening with these strange spirit princes in Daniel. The Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 32. In chapter 32, it says that God gave to the nations their inheritance when he divided mankind.
This is a clear reference to God scattering the nations at the Tower of Babel. But what was their inheritance? God fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. There's that phrase again. If you remember, the sons of God are the spiritual beings God created to serve him. This passage is saying that since the people didn't want to worship God, he divided them up into nations and gave them up to worship these rebel sons of God.
This explains why there's a specific evil spirit called the prince of Persia and another called the prince of Greece. It's likely that these are some of the sons of God originally placed over these specific regions. And of course, there were more than just these two evil spirit kings. The Bible is full of false gods like the Canaanite storm god Bal who God had a showdown with on Mount Carmel through his prophet Elijah or the Canaanite god Asha who the Greeks later adopted and became Aphrodite the false god of love, beauty, and pleasure. There's also the god Deeon
who the Philistines served. And there's Molech, who is probably the most terrifying false god in the entire Bible. What's interesting about Molech is that the Bible says that when the children of Israel were sacrificing their own kids to this statue, they were actually sacrificing their children to demons.
These gods aren't just a bunch of statues made of stone and wood. There are very real spiritual beings behind many of these false gods that are trying to lead people away from worshiping the one true God. The Bible even says that when someone offers sacrifices to idols, they're actually sacrificing to the demonic spirits behind those idols.
They are sacrificing to the Shadim. But now, here's the most crazy part about this entire family tree, and it has to do with this passage here. As we read this, I want you to think about all of what we've covered so far because it's going to blow your mind. The Bible says that you and I today do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
The Bible is saying that not only are there evil spirits behind idols like Bal and Deeon, but all around you are demonic spirits waring for your soul. Many of the temptations that you think are just an innocent peak at a video you know you shouldn't be looking at or a little white lie to save some extra money on your taxes are often being influenced by some of the dark spiritual forces we've been discussing in this video.
So then what can you do to defend against these things? First understand that the God we serve is infinitely more powerful than any of the demons on this family tree. then you need to put on the full armor of God. And if you don't know how to do that, I've actually made an entire video on how you can put on every single piece of the armor of God in your own life, which you can view here.
