Athanasius: Christ and the End of Demonic Rule
Athanasius hammers a recurring theme in his short little piece, On the Incarnation of the Word , which might seem a bit far-fetched to some 21st Century American minds. He repeatedly talks about demonic forces as being alive in his day and age, as well as how he saw them being quashed under Christ’s victorious reign. “For where Christ is named, and His faith, there all idolatry is deposed and all imposture of evil spirits is exposed, and any spirit is unable to endure even the name, nay even on barely hearing it flies and disappears” (Paragraph 30). And in another place, “[...] in like manner, the evil spirits formerly used to deceive men, investing themselves with God’s honour; but when the Word of God appeared in a body, and made known to us His own Father, then at length the deceit of the evil spirits is done away and stopped, while men, turning their eyes to the true God, Word of the Father, are deserting the idols, and now coming to know the true God” (55). With this theme ...