What is a spiritual spouse? And what is the marine kingdom?
I must confess I was confused by your two questions, for I had never heard of a “marine kingdom” and I wondered what connection there could be between a “godly spouse” (which is what I thought of when you referred to a “spiritual spouse”) and a “marine kingdom.” Yet after doing some research I discovered that a “marine kingdom” has to do with demon spirits who supposedly LIVE IN WATER and who seek to have sexual relationships with men and women in order to make them their SPIRITUAL SPOUSE. Does this sound weird to you? It should, for this teaching has no scriptural support; it is extra-biblical and has its roots in ancient folklore. Yet there are professing Christians who take this teaching very seriously, especially those of the “Charismatic movement.” They believe that marine spirits can literally take over the bodies and souls of people and thus they have developed “deliverance ministries” in order to identify those who are possessed with a marine spirit and they will then seek to exorcise the spirits from them.
On what “scriptural basis” do they believe in marine spirits? I will give you two examples from the gospel of Luke. In Luke 11:24 we read, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through DRY PLACES, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’” This, they claim, supports their view that some demonic spirits LIVE IN WATER and have no rest in DRY PLACES. They will also point to Luke 8:26-32 where Jesus exorcised demons out of a man and the demons then begged Jesus to allow them to enter into a herd of pigs. What happened next? Verse 33 says, “Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place INTO THE LAKE and drowned.” This, they teach, proves that there are demons that prefer to LIVE IN WATER. But this can be countered by asking, “If they want to live in water, why are they often found possessing the bodies of human beings?” You may be thinking, “But they did drive the herd of pigs into the water.” This proves nothing, for it is the only account of demons going into water. I believe that they drove the pigs into water because they are in the habit of ultimately DESTROYING THE BODY of those they possess (see Mark 1:26; 5:2-5).
They also believe that the origin of marine spirits occurred in the flood in Noah’s day when some angels left heaven in order to “take wives for themselves from the daughters of men” (see Genesis 6:1-2) and after God destroyed the earth with a flood those angels lived in water. The thought that the demons who left heaven and took human wives in Noah’s day now live in water can be refuted by Jude 6: “And angels who had not kept their own original state, but had abandoned their own dwelling, he keeps IN ETERNAL CHAINS UNDER GLOOMY DARKNESS to the judgment of the great day” (DARBY version). In 2nd Peter 2:4 we learn that “God spared not the angels who had sinned, but having CAST THEM DOWN TO THE DEEPEST PIT OF GLOOM.” So, they are NOT “living in water”; they are “living in the deepest pit of gloom” where they are imprisoned until “the judgment of the great day.” The “pit of gloom” is none other than the “bottomless pit” spoken of in Revelation 20:1-3 where God will eventually bind Satan for a thousand years. See also Luke 8:31 where the demons that Jesus cast out “begged Him that He would not command them to go out INTO THE ABYSS.” The “abyss” is another name for the “bottomless pit.”
In closing, I must stress that most of the beliefs about marine spirits come from ancient cultures such as Greek mythology where an emphasis is laid upon sexual unions between spirit beings and humans. The only reference I know of in Scripture where this kind of perversion took place is what we saw in Genesis 6:1-2, but we also saw that THEY DO NOT LIVE IN WATER and THEY ARE NO LONGER FREE TO SEEK A SPIRITUAL SPOUSE. Their perversion was judged by God once and for all and they are now bound in the bottomless pit awaiting their final judgment. I would encourage fellow-believers to avoid being taken up with the study of demons, for our focus should be on Christ and not demons (Colossians 1:13-18; 3:1-2). (425.1) (DO)