WE ARE GOING BACK NOW TO MATTHEW FOR 2 VERSES. THEN WE WILL COME RIGHT BACK HERE TO LUKE.

:: 1-5-26   The Christian Post   :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

How much do demons know?

By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist Monday, January 05, 2026

On October 27, 1989, while walking from her Middle School in Bay Village, Ohio, to a local shopping center, 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic was kidnapped. Sadly, on February 8, 1990, the girl's body was found in a rural Ashland County, Ohio field. To date, Amy’s killer has not been identified.

In a documentary detailing the events surrounding her kidnapping and murder, Amy’s best friend revealed that just before Mihaljevic’s kidnapping, she and Amy had been playing with a Ouija Board in Amy’s room. Amy jokingly asked the board when she was going to die. With both girls’ hands lightly touching the board’s pointer, it moved slowly and spelled out one word.

S-O-O-N

Those who have studied the subject of demonology warn that occult tools such as Ouija Boards can act as points of contact between people and the demonic. If that happened in this case, and Amy and her friend were unlucky enough to come into contact with a demon, how did it know that Amy was about to die?

And, bumping things up to a higher-level question, how much knowledge do demons actually have?

The mind of a demon

During an exorcism, Stephen Joseph Rossetti, an American Catholic priest, relays how the possessed woman called him by a nickname he was given in junior high school 60 years ago, which no one in the present day knew. He says that one sign of demon possession is knowledge of the unknown — what is sometimes referred to as “occult knowledge” — which this woman manifested. Roessetti posits that, in such cases, there is a fusion of the demon’s mind with its human victim that allows such knowledge and purpose to pour out.

You see a few examples of this in Scripture, such as one in the Old Testament when a demon tells God how he will help undo King Ahab in battle: “And he [the demon] said, ‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets” (1 Kings 22:22).

Getting back to the question of what demons know, the Bible is somewhat sparse on the subject, but it does provide a few clues that help us understand the extent of their intelligence and understanding.

Demons are portrayed in the Bible as real, personal, intelligent spiritual beings with significant but limited (in relation to God) cognitive abilities. Their knowledge is greater than humans' in some areas, yet far inferior to God’s and constrained by creaturely limits, moral corruption, and divine sovereignty.

As you might expect, only God is portrayed in Scripture as omniscient: “Can anyone teach God knowledge” (Job 21:22); “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite” (Ps. 147:5).

Knowing the future and our thoughts is also limited to God alone: “Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it … let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place” (Is. 44:6–7); “You alone know the hearts of all the children of mankind” (1 Kings 8:39).

When it comes to foreknowledge, Scripture does mention “spirits of divination” such as one example found in the book of Acts: “It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling” (Acts 16:16). Paul’s exorcism of the spirit evidently changed her foretelling abilities to some extent because her owners recognized the difference and had Paul arrested, although we’re not told exactly what capabilities left her when the demon departed.

The Bible depicts demons as possessing higher levels of real intelligence and awareness than us and that they are rational, communicative beings (Mark 1:24; Luke 8:28–31), recognize individuals (Acts 19:15), can form plans and strategies (Eph. 6:11), and know hidden theological realities like who Jesus was (“I know who you are — the Holy One of God!” - Mark 1:24). They often know orthodox truths better than us with James stating, “even the demons believe — and shudder” (vs. 2:19).

Dr. Ed Murphy, in his book The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare, asserts that demons observe human subjects, can ascertain their weaknesses, and go about planting thoughts into their hearts and minds in a way where the person may have no idea the thoughts originated from a supernatural source. This falls in line with what happened to Judas: “The devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him” (John 13:2).

Murphy intimates that a demon's knowledge and agenda are along the lines of being expert social engineers or hackers: they have a massive database of human history and psychology that allows them to “predict” behavior and manipulate systems. But in the end, they are ultimately barred from knowing God's secret purposes and the exact timing of future things.

As to truth and its adherence, the demon’s knowledge is corrupted by rebellion, distorted by hatred, pride, and deception. While theologically informed and knowledgeable, they are morally blind. Put a different way, demons believe true things but hate the truth; their problem is not lack of knowledge but pride and lack of submission to God. And as the Bible says, knowledge without obedience produces terror, not salvation (James 2:19).

All that said, what about the case of Amy Mihaljevic and the Ouija Board? Scripture makes it clear that demons don’t know the future, so any demon behind the board’s movements couldn’t have known what was about to happen to her. Perhaps it was aware of the killer stalking her and inferred what was going to take place, similar to how a skilled chess player may not be able to read minds but is capable of reading patterns.

In the end, demons’ knowledge makes them dangerous, but never ultimate. If G. K. Chesterton is right when he writes in his book The Everlasting Man that “Nature is always looking for the supernatural,” only two choices of supernatural knowledge exist for us: God’s and the enemy’s. Understanding what demons know can be helpful, “so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11), but pursuing their knowledge is off limits for Christians.

In his book, The Haunting of Bishop Pike, Dr. Merrill Unger chronicles the tragedy of listening to demons and provides a good warning we should all adhere to: “The [conveying of knowledge] through demonic power is not free and purely beneficent. They always operate under the principle of compensation, with a price tag attached to them … one that must be paid throughout eternity.”

Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master's in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/how-much-do-demons-know.html

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:: 5-17-26 The Daily Mail :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

I'm an exorcist... Here's the chilling encounter that made me believe UFOs are the work of Satan

By ROB WAUGH

Published: 11:54 EDT, 17 May 2026 | Updated: 11:58 EDT, 17 May 2026

A Catholic priest and exorcist who has encountered demons first-hand has revealed a chilling experience that led him to believe UFOs are actually the work of the devil.

Father Carlos Martins, an Ontario-born priest who has performed exorcisms around the world, believes the UFO phenomenon is part of a larger spiritual deception designed to undermine Christianity and cast doubt on the Bible.

The priest said a longtime friend who later converted to Christianity once witnessed a gigantic spacecraft hovering silently over a suburban park before it shot away 'instantly to the speed of a bullet.'

The object was allegedly so enormous that the two witnesses could see details on its surface and estimated it stretched across 'many football fields in size.' Yet despite the extraordinary sighting, no one else in the town appeared to notice the object, and there were no local news reports about the alleged encounter.

Years later, after converting to Christianity, Martins' friend came to believe the vision had not been an alien craft at all, but a supernatural illusion sent by the devil.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Martins said Satan could use belief in extraterrestrial civilizations to create 'a competing account' to Christian scripture and weaken belief in divine revelation.

He also claimed modern UFO encounters, particularly alien abduction stories, often mirror the psychological and physical torment seen during cases of alleged demonic possession.

'If the devil brings it about, he can put it into the human imagination that there is extraterrestrial life, that there are civilizations out there, then he can cause doubt in the Scriptures,' Martin said.

'What he's done then is set up a competing account to the Christian scriptures, something the Judeo-Christian scriptures cannot account for, and so there's an indirect repudiation of the truth of revelation. He's accomplished that.'

The idea that UFOs may have demonic origins has gained traction in some conservative religious circles in recent years.

Vice President J D Vance said on a podcast in March: 'I don't think they're aliens, I think they're demons.'

Martins converted from atheism to Christianity while studying as an undergraduate and says one of his closest friends experienced an encounter that radically shaped his understanding of UFOs.

The priest recalled: 'I have a good friend who is a convert. He converted to the Christian faith in his late teens or early 20s. We grew up in the same hometown.

'[My friend] was walking with another friend on a weeknight along a trail in a suburb that ran between two homes and opened into a large park.

'They looked up into the sky and saw this enormously large spaceship. It was immensely large, many football fields in size.'

The two men allegedly watched the giant craft hovering silently overhead and were close enough to make out details on its surface.

Martins said: 'They look at one another, and then they look back at the ship, and it would have been less than a minute.

'All of a sudden, it takes off with a speed that's just unfathomable, instantly to the speed of a bullet. So it just shot out of the sky. There wasn't an acceleration, it was just instant darting away.'

According to Martins, the most disturbing aspect of the encounter was that nobody else seemed to have witnessed the gigantic craft.

There were no reports in local newspapers, no emergency calls and no indication anyone else in town had seen the alleged spacecraft.

For years, his friend struggled to understand the experience until later converting to Christianity.

'My friend, when he converted, or after he converted, we talked about this again, Martins said.

'I remember a couple of times, and I said to him, "Look, what do you think that was?" He said, "No question. It was the devil."'

'He said, "If I were to buy into this concept, then of their being ET life, then it would cast a doubt on the Christian account of what exists in the universe of God's plan for it."'

He said reports involving UFOs and alien encounters have increasingly appeared alongside exorcism cases during the last decade.

'There's definitely been a rise, I would say, in the last 10 years of integration of UFO and extraterrestrial, alien life stuff and exorcism,' Martins explained.

'I wouldn't say that it's common, but I would say it's definitely on the rise.'

Martins believes many UFO sightings are elaborate illusions created to deceive human senses.

'The senses can be deceived. Fake sense experience can be produced. That's the point,' he said. 'So an illusion, a mirage, which I've seen many times.'

The priest said he witnessed this phenomenon firsthand while performing an exorcism on a firefighter he believed was possessed.

Martins said he secretly flicked a tiny amount of holy water onto the man's clothing while walking behind him.

According to Martins, the man suddenly reacted violently.

'He shot up out of his chair and started hissing, and his teeth seemed to grow some two inches, like there were fangs at that moment,' Martins said. 'For a split second, the fangs were protruding from his mouth.'

Martins believes the apparent transformation was not physically real, but rather a visual illusion generated by demonic forces.

'The devil is perfectly capable of bending light. He's perfectly capable of causing a mirage and illusion,' the priest said. 'I mean, he is by far the greatest magician, the greatest sleight of hand performer that has ever existed.'

The priest also argued that alleged alien abductions closely resemble accounts of demonic oppression and possession.

'When you read accounts of abductions of people that have been allegedly abducted, very similar to ones that are demonically tortured,' Martins said. 'There are large gaps in memory.'

He added: 'The phenomenon, the experience of the victim, is kind of always the same. Across the board, there's an abuse of the body, an abuse of the person.'

Martins believes modern fascination with extraterrestrials emerged during the Space Age and gradually replaced older supernatural folklore.

'This is the modern-day folk account of leprechauns, tooth fairies and pixies,' he said. 'It was only when we entered the Space Age.

'Then the view of man changed, and that became kind of the new realm, the blank slate by which the devil could approve and kind of begin to dictate a new story.'

https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-15820559/exorcist-carlos-martins-ontario-ufos

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:: 5-18-26 Daily Mail :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Texas pastor says there are recurring 'spiritual patterns' in UFO files that paint terrifying picture of what aliens really want

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Published: 11:25 EDT, 18 May 2026 | Updated: 13:01 EDT, 18 May 2026

A Texas pastor has issued a chilling warning about what he says are hidden messages lurking behind UFO encounters.

Josh Howerton, leader of Lakepointe Church, made the claims in a recent episode of his podcast show, Live Free.

'People who have had "alien abductions", they consistently report messages from these "beings" that are explicitly antichrist,' he said.

The conversation painted a disturbing picture of mysterious entities that allegedly reject Jesus, contradict Christian teachings and encourage people to embrace a new spiritual consciousness.

According to him, many reported encounters revolve around messages claiming all religions are equally true, Jesus was merely human and humanity is preparing for a dramatic transformation.

The discussion also connected the alleged messages to biblical warnings in Galatians 1:8 and the Book of Revelation, including references to false gospels, spiritual deception and a coming one-world government.

Howerton says the overlap between alleged UFO encounters and anti-Christian themes had become too consistent to dismiss as a coincidence.

Repeated warnings were given throughout the episode that the theories remained speculative and should not become an obsession for Christians.

'Is it okay to try to make sense of it? Yes.

'Is it wise to devote yourself to it?

'Definitely not,' he said.

One of the biggest warning signs raised involved what Howerton called a strong correlation between occult or New Age practices and alleged alien abductions.

'There is a high correlation between people experimenting with occult and New Age practices and, quote unquote, alien abductions,' Howerton said, before adding: 'When you're messing with that stuff, that stuff's real.

'It's really demonic.'

The most alarming detail, he says, are the messages allegedly delivered by the entities themselves.

Many of the UFO reports involve beings encouraging humanity to prepare for a coming 'spiritual ascension process' while abandoning traditional religion.

Howerton also claimed many of the reported entities promote ideas centered around global unity and centralized world leadership.

'The claimed messages often encourage a one-world government,' he said before linking the idea to biblical end-times prophecy.

He linked it to the Book of Revelation, citing environmental collapse, nuclear war and humanity entering a new phase of existence as recurring themes.

Several non-Christian writers and UFO researchers were then introduced as examples of people who allegedly reached similar conclusions about the disturbing nature of the encounters.

One of the first names mentioned was Whitley Strieber, who wrote extensively about alleged alien contact.

According to Howerton, Strieber once concluded: 'The visitors seem to consistently and profoundly opposed to the idea of Christ.'

The quote was presented as evidence that even researchers outside Christianity had noticed what the speakers described as anti-Christian patterns surrounding UFO phenomena.

The discussion also highlighted John Keel, best known for The Mothman Prophecies.

Keel reportedly argued that UFO entities behaved more like deceptive supernatural beings than extraterrestrials from another planet.

One quote read aloud during the episode described UFO manifestations as 'minor variations of the age-old demonological phenomenon.'

'Bro, he's a non-Christian saying this guy,' Howerton responded in disbelief after reading the quote aloud.

The pastor also referenced Carla Turner, a researcher of alleged abduction experiences who reportedly concluded the entities 'lie consistently' and 'take control of human beings against their will.'

Those descriptions were compared to biblical depictions of demonic possession and spiritual deception found throughout the New Testament.

The most dramatic part of the discussion came when the conversation turned to reports of encounters allegedly ending after people invoked the name of Jesus Christ.

Stories shared during the episode claimed some abductees saw terrifying experiences abruptly stop after praying, singing hymns or crying out to Jesus.

One example involved a newly converted Christian identified only as 'Bill D,' who allegedly shouted 'Jesus, help me' during an encounter before it immediately ended.

According to Howerton, some UFO investigators privately acknowledged hearing similar stories but avoided discussing them publicly because the claims were religious rather than scientific.

'The truth was that they all knew of similar accounts of abductions being stopped by people praying, singing hymns or calling on the name of Jesus,' Howerton said.

As the discussion widened into theories about demons, angels and unseen spiritual realms, listeners were told that many beings described today as aliens may have been interpreted very differently in biblical times.

'What a lot of people may be calling aliens, the Bible might call things like cherubim, seraphim, angels, archangels, thrones, principalities, demons and powers,' the pastor said.

https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-15827729/pastor-warns-antichrist-ufos-texas.html 

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