Admittedly, I haven't read the whole OT yet, but from what I could find so far, besides Saul's evil spirit sent by God, demons are seemingly absent in the Old Testament.
Yet in the NT, there are numerous accounts of people being demon-possessed. Jesus performs quite a few exorcisms, and it seems as though the practice existed before He came to Earth (as Jesus points out in Luke 11:19 for example).
Am I mistaken about their absence from the OT? And if not, what is the explanation behind this dichotomy?
Saul is plagued by a "distressing spirit" and needs David to send it away by playing his harp.
Sebastian Mitchell
Oh, you must have the handicapped version.
Juan Bell
They weren't absent in the OT, there was just less urgency in their work. They got scared in the year 1 AD.
Moloch is never explicitly referred to as a demon in the Bible, just a "false god".
John Butler
that's adorable.
Benjamin White
There's not a ton about Satan either. Genesis has the serpent, but never calls him Satan, that identification of the serpent with Satan doesn't happen until Revelation. Job has Satan as a being walking about on the earth, but he doesn't exactly seem to be on hostile terms with God, making bets with him. The part about a third of angels falling doesn't show up till Revelation either. Also not a lot about hell as a place of eternal burning torment; most use of hell in the OT is better translated as grave. And even heaven in the OT is either just God's home, or the sky, not usually where the saved will go.
Julian Brown
Who's to say false gods aren't demons? If you note Moloch worship in the past and compare it to all of the wrongs with our modern times (cultural sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, abortion, etc) you will see that they mirror each other damn near to a t just more hidden in plane sight in our modern times.
Satan was referred to as Belial in the book of Judges.
Owen Rivera
No one's worshipping that statue
Kevin Ward
Did you seriously use BCE and CE in your image…
Eli Campbell
Except for places like India and Latin America where people literally honor fictional saints like Santa Muerte as idols; the World may have outgrown the fleshly mindset of worshipping fictional creations that represent power over the elements, but the fleshly principle of "give me this, Oh great thing in front of my eyes" remains, with the demons moving the hearts of many towards the sins of idolatry and coveting.
Moloch and Mammon are pretty much interchangeable in our modern society; like women sacrificing unborn children for their career. Moloch represents the hidden evils that people do with money in the high places as well as the destructive aspects of desiring money, while Mammon represents the desire for more money.
The fallacy of unlimited economic growth, the perpetual bull, is an idol that leads many companies towards cutting costs, ignoring consumer demands, mismanaging brands with poor quality products, and withholding wages from their employees(James 5:4).
Even though nobody directly worships the statue itself, there is still wickedness in the high places.
Psalm 96:5 (LXX): "All the gods of the nations are demons".
Justin Jones
They aren’t absent in the Old Testament. There is an incident at the end of numbers, and there is a very weird summoning the dead seance this scene just prior to the death of Saul in (1 Samuel I believe, or maybe beginning of 2 Samuel?) David goes off to pray and fast and consult with the Lord, Saul goes to a witch and summons the dead. I also have not quite finished Old Testament just yet , but there are at least a few incidents , and the one in numbers especially is referenced elsewhere a lot more times than just the time there.
Connor Gutierrez
Thank catholicism for not genociding the native when they had the chance and for being indifferent with it's heresy.
James Wood
It's Psalm 95 though. 96 is from the MT.
Noah Collins
Could've said the same of the 40,000 denominations :^)
