Most religions believe entities, outside our perception, interact with us in various ways. Even religions without deities acknowledge a greater entity in how humans and the environment interact. Taoists acknowledge heaven, though heaven is not composed of any particular being. Many religions stemming from the Mediterranean acknowledge deities in the form of angels and demons.
Angels have wings of a dove and demons encompass an array of appearance. Religions like Hinduism have a God who runs everything. He is called Rama. Everyone cites helping with a caring nature towards humanity as good, harming humanity for selfish reasons as evil.
The division of angels and demons has a clear philosophical point-of-view. The angels are good, because they life better. Demons are evil, because they make people suffer. Beyond philosophy, angels and demons as real entities, the Bible contains defines this relationship.
God offers blessing and punishment in relation to following the recommended way of life (Lev 26:8, 14-17). How are these blessings and punishments enacted? It could be repercussions for harming another person or harming themselves by acting inappropriately. However, it is possible both angels and demons are acting together to carry out God's will.
This spiritual inaction is found in several parts of the Bible. In Exodus 14:19-20 a cloud appears before Hebrews while escaping from Egyptians in the parting of the Red Sea. The angel protects them from their enemy. The cloud moves behind them and turns into a pillar of fire. To Hebrews it is light in the night; however, to Egyptians it is hostile threat. Fire is also associated demonic activity.
The entity is performing God's will. God helps Hebrews find freedom so they may worship God in peace after returning to the place of their origins. Egyptians want to keep the Hebrews as slaves and deny their ability to practice religion.
Many stories relate to angels and demons in modern life. They are probably correct accounts; except, in one factor. People make assumptions about angel and demon activity based on an erroneous philosophical standpoint. This creates exaggerated characteristics when attempting to establish them as exact opposites. When a person understands they all enforce God's will stories change drastically.
Think of a child who is harassed by several people and isolated from other students. The students may want to harm the child. The isolated child starts to see imaginary people. Are they intervening to protect the child? The child sees them as good. The child becomes and adult and still sees the entity as good. They want to do well by the entity and express loyalty. If they believe they saw a demon and believe the stories about demons, as an adult they are predisposed to emulate the demon; however, they are unaware the demon wants to maintain order. Therefore, when the child grows up and harms other people the same entity appears to turn on them. The demon now favors another innocent being. They don't work for humans. They work for God.
This does not remove the horror of seeing a demon. Only a confident person would know they are not in danger. Many people engage in exorcism; however, the interaction could be misinterpreted. If acting on the person's behalf, removal of the demon places an innocent person in danger. If the demon is delivering a punishment, the demon is no longer pacifying a harmful person. Other people are no longer safe. It is difficult to be certain what the entity is trying to accomplish. Yet it is certain God is taking care of things. People may return to regular lives when the issue is resolved.
The common angel and demon philosophy makes people strive for an unattainable good; ergo, they justify sin. In this paradox, as the person suffers by giving more than what they own to charity, lose friends to maintain integrity and suffer in a loveless relationship because temptation is evil; they turn outward wanting to make other people miserable.
The best action is to talk to people and offer assistance in the form of advice. The entity might be acting as a messenger so the person avoids harm, change a harmful thought process, or contain a situation. On that note I have written about the system of forgiveness from God. The best way to assist in containing situations is to help a person figure out how to atone for their sins or acknowledge how other people might be plotting to harm them. Resolving issue releases or changes the angel or demon's ongoing activity in their life. Medicine could also be a method to create a physical cure along with spiritual healing.
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