What are the powers of fallen angels?

What then, we may inquire, is the extent of the power of evil spirits?

1. Undoubtedly they have great power over the minds of men. They may tempt, deceive, darken the minds of men, pervert the judgement of men, excite them to pride, anger and other evil passions. It was Satan that instigated the Jews to put Christ to death. The old phraseology of the courts of justice in indictments for murder recognize his power. It is not confined to the subjects of his kingdom; but over the people of God also, even after they have been rescued from their slavery to Satan, does he maintain and exercise the power to tempt, though not to destroy.

2. Satan also possesses power over the bodies of men. In Job 2:7, it is said that he “smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.” In Luke 13:16, a woman is spoken of who had been bound by Satan for eighteen years by disease. In Acts 10:38, one of the works of Christ is said to have been the healing of all who were oppressed with the Devil. In 1 Cor. 5:5, excommunication is spoken of as the delivering over of one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Satan is also said, in some sense, to have or to have had the power of death, Heb. 2:14.

It is here that naturally arises the question of demoniacal influence as proving, if true, the existence and number of such beings. Have Satan and his messengers the power thus to enter, and afflict the bodies of men?
The most serious objection to the idea of such possessions is that they have been confined to the age of Christ and the Apostles.

(1.) But this is not certain. We even have declarations to the contrary. The Jews of the second century professed that there were such in their day. This was true, also, of the Christians of the third century. But the evidence of such possessions at these periods is not conclusive. It is not probable that any existed at that time.

(2.) Dr. Macknight, quoted by Dr. Dick, Theol. vol. 1, p. 403, says “that the possessions mentioned may have been diseases carried to an uncommon height by the presence and agency of demons.” And, if this is allowed, there have possibly been such in all ages.

(3.) But this difficulty must yield before the direct testimony of Scripture. A reason may be given for their especial prevalence in the time of Christ. The great struggle was about to take place between Christ and Satan, and uncommon freedom was doubtless granted to the Devil, and his assistants.

The following points show that the idea of demoniacal possessions is Scriptural.
(a) The demons are expressly separated from the persons possessed. See Luke 6:17, 18; Matt. 12:43–45; Mark 1:32, 34; 9:18.
(b) The actions and language show the personality of some evil being or beings within the sufferer. They beseech Christ not to torment them before their time; they answer his questions; they come out of the possessed and enter into the swine; they know Christ and call upon him as the Son of God.
(c) The writers mention facts connected with them, needless to be mentioned, which favour this. The number of demons cast from Mary Magdalene is given. In Mark 9:29 Jesus says of a demon, “this kind can come out by nothing save by prayer.”
(d) Jesus addresses the demons, Matt. 8:32. He orders the demons to come out, and permits them to go into the swine. In Mark 9:25, Christ rebukes the foul spirit. See also Luke 4:35. In Mark 1:25, Christ orders the demon to hold his peace and come out.
These are sufficient to prove the Scripturalness of this doctrine, and to show that Christ did not speak and act merely from a spirit of accommodation.

3. As to their power over the laws of nature and natural causes.
They have no power to change the laws of nature. These are established by God, and are beyond the power of any of his creatures. He upholds and preserves with the same almighty power with which he created.
But, from Satan’s superior wisdom, from his spiritual nature, and from his numerous emissaries, he has great power within the circle of those laws. It is thus that he performs the lying wonders by which, were it possible, he would deceive the very elect. It is thus that, in connection with his power over the mind, he has aided to establish false religions, to vitiate certain forms of the true religion, and to work as the great power of Antichrist in the world.

The connection held by him with the ancient heathen oracles is a subject worthy of study, and eminently suggestive of the extent of the power he exercises. Those oracles failed precisely where Satan’s knowledge failed—the want of power to predict the future. Answers that affected present knowledge were abundant. Ambiguous replies that could bear various interpretations were frequent. The case of divination spoken of in Acts 16:16–18 seems conclusive upon this point; “a certain maid,” says Luke, “having a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same following after Paul and us cried out, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, which proclaim unto you the way of salvation. And this she did many days. 
But Paul, being sore troubled, turned and said to the spirit, I charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour.”
Dr. J. Pye Smith presents in his First Lines of Theology some valuable points in reply to the objections that may be made to the doctrine of wicked spirits, and also on the practical uses of the doctrine. 


Boyce, J. P. (2010). Abstract of Systematic Theology (pp. 187–189). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.