Nevius, Demon-Possession, 294—“Paul teaches that the gods mentioned under different names are imaginary and non-existent; but that, behind and in connection with these gods, there are demons who make use of idolatry to draw men away from God; and it is to these that the heathen are unconsciously rendering obedience and service.... It is most reasonable to believe that the sufferings of people bewitched were caused by the devil, not by the so-called witches. Let us substitute ‘devilcraft’ for ‘witchcraft.’... Had the courts in Salem proceeded on the Scriptural presumption that the testimony of those under the control of evil spirits would, in the nature of the case, be false, such a thing as the Salem tragedy would never have been known.”
A survey of the Scripture testimony with regard to the employments of evil spirits leads to the following general conclusions:
First,—the power of evil spirits over men is not independent of the human will. This power cannot be exercised without at least the original consent of the human will, and may be resisted and shaken off through prayer and faith in God.
_Luke 22:31, 40_—“_Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat.... Pray that ye enter not into temptation_”; _Eph. 6:11_—“_Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil_”; _16_—“_the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one_”; _James 4:7_—“_resist the devil, and he will flee from you_”; _1 Pet. 5:9_—“_whom withstand stedfast in your faith._” The coals are already in the human heart, in the shape of corrupt inclinations; Satan only blows them into flame. The double source of sin is illustrated in _Acts 5:3, 4_—“_Why hath Satan filled thy heart?... How is it that thou hast conceived this thing in thine heart?_” The Satanic impulse could have been resisted, and “_after it was_” suggested, it was still “_in his own power_,” as was the land that he had sold (Maclaren).
The soul is a castle into which even the king of evil spirits cannot enter without receiving permission from within. Bp. Wordsworth: “The devil may _tempt_ us to fall, but he cannot _make_ us fall; he may persuade us to cast _ourselves_ down, but he cannot _cast_ us down.” E. G. Robinson: “It is left to us whether the devil shall get control of us. We pack off on the devil’s shoulders much of our own wrong doing, just as Adam had the impertinence to tell God that the woman did the mischief.” Both God and Satan stand at the door and knock, but neither heaven nor hell can come in unless we will. “We cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, but we can prevent them from making their nests in our hair.” _Mat 12:43-45_—“_The unclean spirit, when he is gone out of a man_”—suggests that the man who gets rid of one vice but does not occupy his mind with better things is ready to be repossessed. “_Seven other spirits more evil than himself_” implies that some demons are more wicked than others and so are harder to cast out (_Mark 9:29_). The Jews had cast out idolatry, but other and worse sins had taken possession of them.