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Can Demons Prophesy? A Biblical Answer from Scripture & Church History · The Remnant Radio's Podcast

• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, welcome to the wonderful world of Remnant Radio.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Michael Roundtree, and today we are going to tackle the question can demons prophesy?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Can demons prophesy?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a really important question that we answer because if the answer is yes, this is going to affect a lot about how prophecy is practiced and interpreted and discerned inside of the church.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to answer this question, can demons prophesy?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to begin with the Old Testament with a fascinating text that involves King Saul.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: So King Saul has been appointed and he's gone into battle, but David got has gone into battle too.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And David has killed more people than Saul.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: People are singing about it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Saul gets jealous, and his jealousy becomes an open door for a demonic spirit.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's read what happens.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: It says this The next day, a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the fact that it's a harmful spirit from God, first of all, most interpreters understand this to be an evil spirit, especially contextually, it comes as a result of his jealousy.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's labeled harmful here.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that it's from God simply means that God is sovereign over all.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and this actually plays into a form of judgment that's coming over Saul, uh, as he's already by this point in the story been rejected.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna start to see this character development, and we're gonna explain that a little bit more in a moment.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the the word I really want to zero in on is uh what the English Standard Version translates as raved.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So evil spirit comes upon him, and he raved within his house.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some translations will render this prophesied, and that is what the Hebrew word naba often means, even here in other places in 1 Samuel.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: So uh and so we're gonna look at some of those.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we're going to see this character development play out.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And what we'll see is we see the same sort of phenomenon, uh, a spirit coming over Saul and prophecy happening, but each story is gonna be a little bit different because it's painting a character arc for Saul, but there are gonna be some observations about demonic prophecy that we can make as a result.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go back in Saul's story from chapter 18, what we just read, to chapter 10, where we read this not the harmful spirit, but here we see the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you and you will prophesy.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then people begin asking, is Saul among the prophets?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Saul by this point has just been elected as king, and so the prophecy confirms Saul's election and his empowerment for this office.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, and so if in chapter 10 it's like, hey, this so you have the spirit coming upon him and he prophesies.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter 18, you have a spirit coming upon him and he prophesies, but one points to Saul's election as king, one points to Saul's rejection as king.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you begin to see that character arc, but we can keep going here because in 1 Samuel 19, now we're going back future, which we've gone to 10, that's the spirit of the Lord.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: 18, that's a demonic spirit.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: 19, it's gonna be the spirit of the Lord again, which is just kind of wild.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: But the spirit of the Lord comes upon him, and the context is this he set groups of men chasing David, trying to kill him because he's super jealous, and uh, and so as they're coming wave after wave, and not and it and it's not working, and David is finding shelter in a prayer meeting.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're praying, they're worshiping, they're prophesying, the spirit of the Lord is present, and which tells you something about David and why he is a superior king.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's finding a shelter in the Lord, and uh and Saul's trying to protect himself by murdering David.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so when everybody else fails, it says that Saul goes, and even while he's on his way there, the spirit of the Lord comes on him and he prophesies, and then when he gets there, he disrobes, which I I don't know if he got completely naked, but he got kind of naked and goes down to the ground and he's prophesying.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: But once again, it's the same pattern.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Spirit comes, Saul prophesies.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: The first time was the spirit of the Lord, it was entirely good.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Second time it was a demonic spirit, it was entirely bad.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Third time, weird, because it's the Holy Spirit, but it is bad for Saul because this time it marks his humiliation, that he's come in search of blood, and next thing you know, the spirit of the Lord comes upon him, and he's face planted and he's prophesying.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so we go from this sequence where Paul's uh Saul is elected as king to rejected as king, to now incapacitated and humiliated for coming after God's true king.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things we learn from this is that we have to be careful, just because somebody's prophesying, that it doesn't always mean the same thing in every circumstance.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's not even always the same source, even if the prophecy is accurate.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to pay real attention to the source here.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so let's move from Saul on to some different categories where we see some of the same kind of thing.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Famous story.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Kings chapter 18.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna use that same word prophesied, but it's not talking about the prophets of Yahweh, it's talking about the prophets of Baal.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is where there's the showdown between Elijah and all those prophets of Baal, and they're cutting themselves and they're crying out, and they're thinking, okay, Baal's gonna answer, and the sacrifice is gonna be lit, but of course it never happens, and Yahweh hears the lone prophet uh Elijah.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it's interesting that what we see is that when they're crying out, it literally says that they prophesied, but they're prophesying as prophets of Baal.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it uses a word that we would normally associate with Yahweh, but applies it to their demonic false god.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we have yet again another category of something that looks like demonic prophecy.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh 1 Kings 22, we have, I think, maybe one of the more clear-cut examples.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is where Micaiah and Ahab wants a favorable prophecy, and Micaiah won't give it, and he gets struck in the cheek, and you know, and so on.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: That whole story plays out, and he finally relays what Yahweh has revealed to him, and uh and what he hears is uh is a this counts divine counsel type scene, and he hears this voice that says, I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouths of all the prophets.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that is a particular spirit reporting before Yahweh that it's going to serve as a lying spirit.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so all these prophets that are prophesying favorably to King Ahab, and they're actually prophesying, they're prophesying by a lying spirit, a what I would say, demonic spirit.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we're beginning to see the answer to this question.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, demons can prophesy, but we're not quite finished yet, because there are a couple of nuances that we need to add.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 13.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 13 is the parallel and companion to chapter 18, where chapter 18, you hey, you know it's not a real prophet if they're prophesying falsely.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um so don't, you know, don't don't go after that person as some sort of national leader of Israel, some kind of new Moses.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so you're paying attention.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is the prophecy, does it come true or does it uh or does it not?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh with a big focus here being on uh predicting of the future.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh Deuteronomy 13 is the companion to that, but what's unique about that is whereas in chapter 18 the prophet misses it, that's how you know uh he's not the real deal, but in chapter 13, he gets it, he actually fulfills his prediction, and yet he's leading people away from Yahweh.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so once again, you have a prophetic sign and uh a prophetic phenomenon that is actually happening, but in the name of false gods and rebellion against Yahweh.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So while accuracy matters, accuracy does not establish divine origin.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have to pay attention.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I say this really affects the practice of prophecy in the church, and I believe in the practice of prophecy in the church.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the early church recognized this category.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Irenaeus in uh in his famous Against Heresies in the second century, he's talking about a false teacher named Marcus.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can go and read the account where uh Marcus is encouraging a woman to prophesy.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Oh, just open your mouth.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't have anything.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, just open your mouth and say whatever.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like a lot of charismatic prophecy trainings that I've heard before, at least a few of them.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's not good.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, anyway, so Irenaeus labels this as false.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says this he says, the man possesses a demon as his f familiar spirit by means of whom he seems to uh be able to prophesy.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: So in that case, he's talking about Marcus, and so uh and so he has Irenaeus has a category for someone who has what he labels a familiar spirit, which is a demonic spirit, and that they're able to prophesy by that demonic spirit.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so the uh and so what's kind of scary here is that this is something like Marcus is claiming to be Christian, it's presenting itself as authentic Christian spirituality, and so this can happen in churches where you believe in prophecy, demonic prophecy could be happening.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we have to have our ears perked up.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Another example from church history is Chrysostom.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I won't go into all the detail, but you can read his homily uh uh uh in uh over 1 Thessalonians, the section is chapter 5.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: But um but within that, because there it's talking about you know testing all prophecy, he's gonna refer back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and he's gonna say this.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna say, to discern and know uh which is he which is he that speaks by a pure spirit and which by an impure spirit.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: So he's talking about the gift of discernment of spirits, like, hey, this will help us discern in the church, are they speaking by an evil spirit or are they speaking by uh a pure spirit?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And in first Thessalonians, on First Thessalonians we'll talk again about both the demon and the spirit prophesying concerning the future.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh Chrysostom has that same sort of category, but I want to come back to because he mentions this, predicting the future, because I get asked this sometimes.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Can demons predict the future?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to be very careful about how we articulate this.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there is such a thing as a spirit of divination in Acts chapter 16, where she is portrayed as foretelling things, uh, and this would be by a spirit of divination or by a python spirit.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: So this would be another example of a sort of prophecy, although the scripture doesn't use the word in Acts 16, uh, that's taking place by a demonic spirit.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and so it does raise the question of can demons predict the future?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why that's a challenging question.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Demons, a lot of times people think of Satan and demons as being like Satan is the opposite of God, but Satan is really the opposite of Michael the archangel.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Satan is not the opposite of God because Satan is not omni anything.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I hear hear people say, like, oh, you gotta be careful because Satan never gets tired.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, really?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Satan is inexhaustible and infinite in his inner energy.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of Christians have a dualistic view of evil.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And no, God is more powerful, he has all the omnis, and Satan, he's omni omni, and Satan has none of them.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So God's omnipresent, God is uh omnipotent, God uh is omniscient, all these things, and on omniscient, God perfectly knows the future, and the devil doesn't.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: So Isaiah 46, Isaiah is gonna repeatedly make this same point, where it says, I am God, and there is none like me, including the demonic false gods.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: His point is Yahweh is unique in his ability to perfectly foretell the future.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and you actually see this in church history as well.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Athanasius will talk about it, uh, Antony will talk about it, uh, the desert father.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh and so you see this throughout church history.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they'll they're they'll talk about how demons can kind of fake it.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, for instance, in in that context, I just mentioned it, story is told about demons traveling, you know, like maybe somebody says, Hey, we're gonna go on this trip, we're gonna go from A to B.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so the demons that are faster, they go to B ahead and they say, Hey, you know, these guys are coming.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's a limited way of predicting the future, but they just sort of forecast it.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it would be similar to like if somebody visits a psychic and the psychic says, Tomorrow you're going to meet a man who is tall, dark, and handsome, and the person says, Oh my gosh, I just so wanted to meet a tall, dark, and handsome man.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh, you know, she's operating by a spirit.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so that spirit or one of his, you know, associates, screw tape, I don't know, right, goes over to a tall, dark, and handsome man, says, Hey, you know, like put something in his mind, put something in his heart, brings a little rendezvous, they go on a date, she says, Oh my gosh, my psychic was so accurate.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, is it predicting the future?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I I think we can only say ish, ish.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, only God to can declare the end from the beginning.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: He is unique in that.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, and so back to our main point, though, is that uh declaring the future accurately is not enough to determine its source.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Satan can do that in a limited fashion.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to be careful, even if the prophecy is right, as in Deuteronomy chapter 13.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: So let's all let's bring it all back.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can demons prophesy?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they can with qualification.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: If prophecy means God revealing his word through the Holy Spirit, then no, no, absolutely not.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Satan doesn't operate by the Holy Spirit.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Satan himself is an evil spirit and he works with a company of evil spirits.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's what we mean by prophecy, no.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: But we should have a category for demonic prophecy because the Old Testament will use the the Hebrew word for prophecy to speak of uh phenomena involving evil spirits.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if we're talking about prophetic utterance presenting itself as supernatural revelation, perhaps even containing genuine, uh genuinely hidden or accurate information, and there are lots of documented cases of that, then we could call that demonic prophecy, as long as we're not confusing the word prophecy with it always has to be uh the Lord, because if we're talking about the Holy Spirit, it can't, obviously, the the devil's not operating by the Holy Spirit.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we just have to think in categories here.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And applicationally, I wish we had time for this, but we have other remnant radio episodes you can look at on testing the spirits.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is the real outcome, and this is where uh Chrysostom and his sermon really presses us, is like we need discernment of spirits, we've got to test the spirits.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and of course, first John gives us the mechanics of how we test the spirits.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: So uh anyway, encourage you to look that up.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: I did another uh another episode on um discernment of spirits.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to that, and I really encourage you guys if you haven't booked a ticket already, come to Houston October 1st through 3rd, and we'll be doing a uh conference on prophecy, and we'll talk about all things prophecy related, and you'll get more of this kind of information, but I think more than information, we have some prophetically gifted folks that are going to be uh prophesying, and you'll get to see how the gifts are operating uh in practice, and so it's a great time of worship and fellowship as well.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: So uh hope you guys consider coming out to the remnant radio conference in Houston here on October 1st.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you like this video, hit that like button, comment on it, tell me why you disagreed, tell me why you agreed.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have nice civil arguments online, and uh anyway, so appreciate you guys and and you're following the channel.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So bless you and have a great day.