Some appeared not to be oppressed by them so much as exploiting their powers (cf. Ed, Issue 46, Winter 2023, Highlights in the Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ. October 2018 Some today have given demons far more than their due by blaming demons for every malady of mankind. Another reason they may have been afraid of Jesus was the realization that if they accepted Him, it would mean a radical change of lifestyle. That is why he was living in the solitude of the tombs, away from civilization. The spectrum ranges from those who seem to control the demonic powers to those who are utterly controlled by them. Jesus was saying, (demonstrating) that He had all authority, in any land. What sort of strategies would a medieval military use against a fantasy giant? Matthew 8:4; Luke 8:56). I am wondering if the demoniac was pagan or an Israelite. It would seem that these people had no Messianic expectations, and therefore wanted nothing to do with One Who had such awesome power, a power over which they had no control. January 2016 iv. There was no such danger in Perea, and thus the mercy of the Lord was to be heralded. For example, He didnt condemn a prostitute for her actions, He saw a daughter of God who was valuable beyond measure and only needed genuine love and forgiveness. The drowning of these pigs has caused a great deal of discussion amongst Bible students, for as a friend of mine once observed, Thats a lot of pork chops! Had our Lord achieved such a miracle today He would have been in deep trouble. If we put ourselves in their place, and use empathy to feel how we might have reacted if we were confronted with the loss of our next year's source of feeding our families, it will be easier to understand that they were afraid to suffer any other loss that might result if Jesus stayed in their area. January 2015 They were content where they were. They are happy in their sin and the consequences seem far away. Well, it is because atheists, in their zealous rush to make fun of Christians, Christianity, and the Bible, start to lose their logical rigor and rationality, leading them to contend for implausible things: as presently. For the Christian, there are two extremes which must be avoided with reference to Satanic activity. In the form of tongues as of fire, the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples on the morning of Pentecost and fills them with himself. (CCC 696). Like it or not, demons and demonic activity are likely to become much more of a concern to you in days to come. xx. The man, who was naked when he saw Jesus, had the added ability of enduring both freezing and sweltering temperatures as well as pain he inflicted upon himself! March 2022 8; Mark vi. November 2017 "And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes round about asked him to depart from them, for they were holden with great fear: and he entered into a bo." 111 Edersheim maintains that it must have been late the same night of the storm: Most writers have, indeed, suggested, that the healing of the demonized on the other side took place at early dawn of the day following the storm on the lake. Daniel 10:13; Ephesians 6:12), whose leader and prince is Satan (Matthew 12:24). I felt somewhat guilty, particularly fearing that I may have created an unintentional hardship for some classmate. His teachings have inspired great moral reformations such as abolition of slavery and the Civil Rights movement. The religious rulers hated Jesus for exposing their hypocrisy and feared the consequences His actions might have with Rome, but they were not afraid of Jesus as a Person. January 2021 September 2021 As Jesus began to get back into the boat, the delivered demoniac pleaded with Him that he might accompany Him. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. March 2016 "Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear." (Luke 8:37a) Fear plagues us. June 2015 How Satan blinds our minds! This is when the storm arose which threatened to destroy the ship (Mark 4:35-41). (3) Spiritual insight. Create your own unique website with customizable templates. . I was in a dialogue with an atheist regarding what he believes is one of many so-called biblical contradictions. Odd guy that I am, I actually find this sort of thing fun. The Gadarenes was the place where Jesus confronted a man whose possession by demons gave him a level of superhuman strength like Samson (Mark 5:3 - 5, Luke 8:27). The price tag of possession was high, for those who fell victim to the demons agonized in constant torment. The demoniacs were mere maniacs, whom Jesus cured by humouring their fancies; and His giving leave to imaginary demons to enter into the swine, produced the story of the disaster to the herd.All these explanations assume that the Gospel narratives are wholly or in part unhistorical. Plummer, Luke, p. 228. November 2021 Men in their unbelief suppose that the choice is either to be free (independent of God) or to be the slaves of Christ. For those near by the local name would be used; but in writing to a distant people, as the Greeks and Romans, the more comprehensive and general name would be given.. 8ff.). 13; Luke iv. xvi. They would have to trust Jesus. 125 This is the position of Lane, Mark, p. 187. And they were afraid. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. 4, p. 180. Author of The Gnostic Notebook series, stand-up comedian, and Gnostic. Jesus had freed the man and for a reason known only to Himself, He had granted the demons request to go into a nearby herd of pigs rather than go into the Abyss [bottomless pit]. Earles comments are helpful: The difference in names for the destination on the east side of the take has caused considerable comment. SubscribeStart your Register subscription today. Is there any archaeological evidence for Joshua entering Israel and conquering cities in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age? They became as afraid of Jesus as the demons were. The people were gentiles who had not yet any interest in the Messiah. A land that was essentially under another god (lower case g). He seemed to view Jesus approach as the launching of a direct attack on the demonic forces. NEW STAR WARS MERCH PAGE: https://bit.ly/3baWVZv For all sponsorship and business inquiries please contact: thestupendousscrub@gmail.com NEW CHANNEL: https:/. Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1951), p. 174. Small sins lead to big sins, and big sins bring about a terrible spiritual darkness. This incident in the Gerasenes requires some entry understanding. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. May 2022 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. 14. It should also be observed that nowhere in the Old Testament (except in I Sam. How do I connect these two faces together? 28); Mark the country of the Gerasenes (v. 1), and Luke, probably, the country of the Gergesenes (viii. Anonymous, October 25 2014 November 2020 The scene which Mark presents is deliberately dark. 184-185. Luke 8 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear (Luke 8:35-37). "They sailed to the country of the Gerasenes which is opposite Galilee. May 2015 (3) Our Lord was moved with compassion by the torment of Legion and the loss of these pigs should in no way dim our view of the deliverance of the demoniac. Like children convinced there are monsters under our beds, the unknown scares us. He felt Jesus' reassuring hand on his shoulder. It is amazing to think that people could be fearful of Jesus. Ouija boards are found in many American homes. Our Lord responded sternly by calling this accusation blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and as such was the one unpardonable sin (verses 28-30). Why did Jesus allow the legion of demons to stay in the area when they begged him? Follow Up: struct sockaddr storage initialization by network format-string, How do you get out of a corner when plotting yourself into a corner, Movie with vikings/warriors fighting an alien that looks like a wolf with tentacles. 0 Responses Satans most useful instrument is the outstanding, outwardly moral and upright religious man, whose good deeds are done independently of God. May the Spirit of God be so evident in us that men may see God in our lives. Why did the demons ask to be cast into the herd of pigs, and why did the pigs then run into the water to be drowned? Accordingly this was not merely an ordinary form of mental disease as some writers have alleged, but a special phenomenon which was particularly frequent during Jesus earthly sojourn and thus was directly connected with His coming to destroy the power of darkness. So much pain, so much sin. With a little knowledge of the geography of the region, this apparent contradiction can be resolved. Asked October 24 2014 110 C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1971), p. 3. The subject of demons and demon possession has always seemed somewhat remote and academic to sophisticated 20th century Americans. He was a totally safe Person. This city was better known than Gadara or Gergesa; indeed in the Roman age no city of Palestine was better known. No matter what men attempted to bind him with, he broke loose. French Monastery Survives War and Famine After 885 Years, the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan, and More Great Links! The Greeks were believers in the spirit world, but not necessarily convinced that demons were evil.127 As a result, Marks readers needed to be instructed as to the essential nature of demons and demon possession. 17, pp. Why are trials on "Law & Order" in the New York Supreme Court? 117 so that, by their own confession, a time is coming when there shall be an entire victory of the kingdom of light over that of darkness (Rev. DEUT 32:8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples, according to the number of the sons of God. Since the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave in their fear, it seems that Jesus' ability to exorcise Legion was disturbing to the people. This reveals to us that demons have an intuitive knowledge of their impending doom.117. Pig carcasses were washing ashore and drifting out to sea. It didnt take long for the word to spread quickly. 23, 24, viii. Gergesenes is also in some manuscripts (Khersa or Gersa was a town actually on the shore of the sea). From this point on, Jesus began to speak to the crowds in parables in order to veil or conceal the gospel from those who had blasphemed the Holy Spirit (Mark 4:lff). March 2020 Mark 9:17-29). Who do you care more about, people or pigs? 5. This request was granted and the entire herd rushed headlong to their own destruction. First of all the Scriptures do not say that the local Pagans were afraid of Jesus, but that they merely begged him to leave their neighbourhood. (London: InterVarsity Fellowship, 1950), fn. 122 Quoted by Alfred Plummer, The Gospel According to Saint Luke, (Edinburg: T. and T. Clark, 5th ed., 1969): p. 228. 4. He said he had come to the house of Israel, not to the gentiles. And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. Wasn't the answer obvious? How to show that an expression of a finite type must be one of the finitely many possible values? Neither is it only a kind of physical disease, although spiritual and physical disease often accompany it (e.g. Confusion, fear in moments after crash "There were many big pieces of steel," said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who said he was one of the first people on the scene. Like the Samaritans who followed the woman at the well to see this One who had told her all she had done, so these residents came to see for themselves what had happened. Christians are to be the answer, but often they are part of the problem. All of this sure seems perfectly consistent with calling the same area the country (chra) of either the Gerasenes or the Gadarenes, after the two major cities. Yet, conversely, the known can be just as scaryif not more. The country of the Gadarenes (Gergesenes) is one of the few areas Jesus visited where Gentiles (non-Jews) composed the majority of the population. So who was afraid? The capital of the region was Gerasa, and the largest city in the region was Gadera. More from Medium Jameson Steward in. Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! . Not long after that, while I was still a student in seminary, there was a car parked by the seminary in a somewhat suspicious manner and I called the police to check it out. August 2022 14). Those possessed are depicted throughout as unfortunate sufferers who by no fault of their own are dominated by evil spirits and who, when the spirits are cast out by Jesus, accept their deliverance with joy and gratitude (Mark v. 18-20, Luke viii. On the other hand, Gadara is only six miles from the southern tip of the lake and could easily have given its name to the district. The passage in Daniel especially suggests specific geographical boundaries within which spirit beings must abide. Matthew is habitually more oriented to a Jewish readership, and so he refers to Gadarenes because Gadara was the most important Jewish city in the area. 16ff., xix. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. Why would God tell King David to take a census of the people in verses one through nine, and then cast judgment on him because he did what he told him to do? xii. It was not the loss of their property or investment that caused them to be afraid of Jesus. Why were the Romans afraid of the Christians? Nor was it the Jewish population of Galilee. The demoniac further evidenced demon activity by the depth of his spiritual insight. The center of personality, the volitional and active ego, is impaired by alien powers which seek to ruin the man and sometimes drive him to self-destruction (Mk. Textual variations have compounded the problem. We owe it to Josephus, from whom it has passed into ecclesiastical language. December 2020 Early Christians like St. Polycarp clearly held the Catholic view on salvation. September 2015 It is not difficult to imagine what was going through the minds of the disciples as their ship landed and as these two demon possessed men rushed to them. May 2021 Our children would probably understand best if I said that his appearance must have been somewhat like that of the television creation, The Incredible Hulk. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. In recent years the matter has been getting uncomfortably close to home. The demonically possessed man who came to Jesus cried out his name was Legion. We read at Mk 5:14-17 (NRSVCE), the immediate after-effects of the driving out of evil spirits by Jesus at Gerasene by allowing them to enter pigs: The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. It is now called Jerash and is a deserted ruin. If it is a feminine spirit, the voice will be a feminine one, if masculine then very manly. The pig shepherds had gone and spread the news of what had happened all around. ), you also need to understand the significance of this - to the people in Gerasene. The Gospels use different names for the place where this occurred: This is supposedly a contradiction. Gerasa is (as we know) some 30-35 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee, but may have also been the name of the larger region. (3) Spiritual insight. So, they asked Him to leave. This was a power far beyond anything they had seen or even imagined. Matthew 12:43-45). Others cited unfaithfulness, lack of seriousness, and the lack of confidence to sustain a relationship. Pastor Chrissy is a native of East Tennessee. Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M. We are seeking a replacement and hope to have it in your newspaper soon. Gergesenes means "those who come from pilgrimage or fight.". So they refer to Gerasenes. First of all, I believe Mark was attempting to warn his Gentile readers of the great danger of demonic influence and activity. I think that this story is a little bit of an Easter story. Yes, I know that Easter was weeks ago in April. The New Testament speaks of those who had a spirit, or a demon, or demons, or an unclean spirit, or the spirit of an unclean demon, but chiefly of persons who were demonised. Edersheim, Life and Times, I, p. 479. 16, x. It is noteworthy that Jesus nowhere speaks of forgiveness of sins or of purification-sacrifices, that have to be brought after His curing of such cases (as He did in some cases of physical illness). The spread of cholera was linked to the movements of . 40, vii. The commission of our Lord is considerably different from His instructions to the Israelites whom He had delivered. They were instructed to keep quiet about what Jesus had done for them (cf. "The trains were . January 2023 You can flip a coin hoping for heads, but you know that tails is a very real probability. So he got into the boat and left., Luke 8:37, NIV, great fear [KJV] thoroughly frightened [Phillips]gripped with great fear [NASB]. Perhaps they clenched their fists or picked up driftwood with which to defend themselves. EIN 27-4581132 Why would the Gerasene people beg Jesus to leave their region after He cast the demons into the pigs? in a crowd in a crowd where many people were bumping into Him? Preisker, TWNT IV (1942), pp. 9. or by some form of self-emptying (such as various forms of eastern meditation) in my opinion, they are in a precarious position. The nearby townspeople, upon hearing of the great miracle (and not wanting to suffer further economic loss), begged Christ to leave the Gadarenes and never come back! What did Jesus do? Treasury of Scripture. They came face-to-face with the Son of God, the Being with the power to change their world forever, and they said, "Please leave." Why? At first we may deceive ourselves into thinking that we are controlling them, but the ultimate likelihood is that they will master us. In all three instances the word is chra (Strongs word #5561). As has been said before, look for Satans man behind the pulpit. These people from the region of the Gerasenes had undoubtedly felt the anger or disgust of Jews for making a career out of such unclean animals, but Jesus had not criticized them for their profession. Here is one of the few times that a miracle drove people away, rather than to draw them to Jesus. ii. Whenever a man, woman, or child surrenders control of himself either to fleshly desires (anger, lust, passion, etc.) The choice is to be free by submission to Christ (cf. The district of the Gerasenes probably included that of the Gadarenes; so that the demoniac of Gergesa belonged to the country of the Gadarenes and also to that of the Gerasenes, as the same person may, with equal truth, be said to live in the city or the state, or in the United States. In the third chapter of Marks Gospel, our Lords miraculous works were attributed by His opponents to the power of Satan (verse 22). 116 As Lane observes this title Son of the Most High God, is not a messianic designation but a divine one. Lane, Mark, p. 133, cf. How to prove that the supernatural or paranormal doesn't exist? He shivered at the disturbing memory. As I have been studying this account through the week, it has seemed to me a rather bizarre and remote situation, the liberation of this Gerasene demoniac.
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