The Wicked Spirits in the Skies.
By C. E. Stowe
THIS, I think, is the exact translation of the phrase in Eph. 6:12, which in the English version is rendered spiritual wickedness in high places. In the same epistle, 2:2, the apostle speaks of the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. The wicked spirits, with their chief, pervaded the atmosphere. The apostle says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the wicked spirits in the skies.” Let those who can read the Greek Testament, and happily there are many such, examine the passage in the original, and judge whether I am right. One would think, considering the circumstances of the apostle, as he himself describes them, 2 Cor. 11:23–28, “In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft; of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness; besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches,”—I say, after reading such an enumeration as this, one would think that the conflicts and struggles of the apostle against flesh and blood were something worthy of notice and consideration. But no, says the apostle; all this is nothing, nothing at all, in comparison with our struggles against the great spiritual power of evil, against the wicked spirits so strong, so numerous, so constantly fighting against us. In fact, it is from these wicked spirits that our earthly adversaries, in great measure, derive their strength, their hostility, and their power of annoyance. The same ideas are frequently put forth by the other apostles, and also by our Lord himself. They all recognize the existence of a great spiritual adversary, the chief of the devils, and a host of subordinate evil spirits, intensely hostile to the kingdom of Christ, and constantly working most mischievously and effectively against it. The first Christian teachers used the language, they expressed the ideas, they cherished the opinions, of their Hebrew contemporaries on the subject of the existence and agency of fallen spirits. If this was a superstitious error on the part of the Hebrews, it was an error which Christ and his apostles never corrected; but, on the contrary, they sanctioned, confirmed, and established it. But why is it to be regarded as an error and a superstition? What proof is there against it, as a matter of fact? None of the analogies of what we actually know are against the idea, but all in favor of it. The once celebrated Dr. Paulus, of Heidelberg, more than thirty years ago, then old, lean, cadaverous, with eyes of piercing brilliancy, like glowing coals of fire in a heap of dead ashes, and with a high, shrill voice, said to me, in a tone of the utmost self-confidence: “I reject entirely the idea of a devil, though Christ and the apostles undoubtedly received and taught it; but the idea of a being purely evil is in itself self-contradictory, impossible.” Well, who cares for the idea of a being purely evil? Tiberius, Caligula, Philip II., Alva, Torquemada, and hundreds of others who have actually existed on earth, and whose histories are well known, are devils enough for me. I want nothing more or worse to fill up my whole idea of devil, as given in the Bible. The most exact picture of a devil, that has ever been drawn by human pencil, is the Mephistopheles in Faust; and who, that is acquainted with men, can say that that character is self-contradictory—impossible? He is simply a mean, selfish, unfeeling, cruel, nasty fellow, of great adroitness, knowing the right, and deliberately choosing the wrong, like many human creatures whose lives have disgraced mankind and made the world miserable. But God, it is said, would not create an evil being. It is quite inconsistent with any idea of his power, wisdom, and goodness, to suppose so. The Bible does not say that God ever created devils as evil beings. It says they are angels who kept not their first estate, and forsook their original habitation, and made themselves the enemies of God. See the Epistle of Jude. God created them in the same sense in which he created Tiberius, and Caligula, and Philip II., and in no other sense. Tiberius, Caligula, Philip II., and hundreds of others like them, have actually existed in God’s creation, and many such still exist; and God is just as much responsible for their existence as he is for the existence of the devils, and no more so. “But it is impossible,” say some, “that a wise and good God should let loose a pack of devils among poor, weak, frail, human creatures, to tempt them and lead them astray.” Impossible or not, making due allowance for the phraseology, this is exactly what is now done among men, and always has been done ever since men have existed. An innocent, well-trained young man goes from the country into a city, and immediately he is beset by a crowd of depraved wretches, who urgently and persistently tempt him, and in a short time lead him to utter ruin. No devil ever does anything worse than this, or in a worse way. If God ought to kill the devil, he ought, by the same rule, to kill all these unprincipled fellows. If God had no right ever to allow a devil to exist, he has no right ever to allow any of these scoundrels to exist. It is worse; hundreds and thousands of simple-minded, well-meaning girls are every year, all the world over, seduced by heartless and licentious men, and forced to a fate a thousand times worse than any form of speedy death; and God does not interpose to prevent it, and many men think it rather a pleasant joke than otherwise. If the devil ever does anything so bad as this, he certainly never can do anything worse. Mephistopheles plans the seduction of Margaret, not for his own gratification, but for the gratification of Faust, and to work out his own designs against the self-conceited philosopher. If the Faust be not a true history, it is truer than history itself, as history is generally written. Finally, the only class of intelligent creatures, of whom we have any personal knowledge, is mankind; and among men we find some few who are good, many who are bad, and not a few who are wholly and most assuredly bad—worse, if worse be possible, than Mephistopheles himself. If, then, there are in God’s creation other intelligent creatures besides men, why may not some of them be bad too? Please tell us why. In truth, the whole argument from Scripture, the whole argument from fact, the whole argument from all that we really know, is in decided proof of the existence and agency of fallen spirits; and there is no argument against it. The only thing against it, is the mere subjective presumption of some men, that God cannot do, and permit to be done, in his universe, what we do most certainly know he is every day doing and permitting, and always has been doing and permitting, all around us, in the world which we inhabit.—C. E. Stowe, D. D., in Christian Union.