Section 28

“I have already touched on these matters in passing, but I must not hesitate to speak about them at greater length, because remembering them will help keep you safe.

“Since the Lord came to earth, the enemy has fallen and his powers have grown weak. Therefore, although he can do nothing, he does not accept his fall quietly. Like a tyrant who has lost his power, he continues to threaten, though his threats are only words. Let each of you consider this, and you will be able to despise the demons.

“If they were confined in bodies like ours, they might perhaps say: ‘We cannot find people when they hide, but when we do find them we can injure them.’ In that case we too could escape them by hiding and shutting our doors. But they are not like this. They can enter even when doors are closed, and they and their ruler, the devil, fill the whole air. They desire evil and are eager to do harm. The Savior himself says that ‘the devil was a murderer from the beginning’ and is the father of evil.

“Yet despite this, we are alive—and we live all the more in opposition to him. This makes it obvious that they are powerless. Places do not prevent their schemes. They do not regard us as friends and spare us for that reason, nor do they love what is good and therefore correct themselves. On the contrary, they are evil, and nothing is more desired by them than to injure those who love virtue and fear God.

“But because they have no power to accomplish anything, they do nothing except threaten. If they possessed the power, they would not hesitate; they would immediately do evil, since all their desire is directed toward it, especially against us.

“Look: we are gathered here now speaking against them, and they know that as we advance they become weaker. If they had power, they would not allow a single Christian to live, for godliness is an abomination to the sinner. Since they can accomplish nothing, they only wound themselves more deeply, because none of their threats can be carried out.

“Consider this also, so that we may have no fear of them. If they possessed power, they would not come in crowds. They would not create apparitions or devise deceptions by constantly changing their forms. It would be enough for one demon to come and simply do whatever he had the ability and desire to do. Anyone who truly has power does not need to kill through theatrical displays or terrify people through noise. He simply uses his authority at once in whatever way he wishes.

“But the demons have no power. They are like actors on a stage, constantly changing their appearance and frightening children with noisy apparitions and different costumes. Their very behavior should make us despise them, because it reveals their weakness.

“The true angel of the Lord who was sent against the Assyrians needed no commotion, no outward display, no noises or rattling. He quietly exercised his power and immediately destroyed one hundred eighty-five thousand. But demons, because they possess no such power, try at least to terrify people with displays.