Smoodock's Blog

What are demons and how is it that one becomes possessed.[1] Some folks believe there are demons behind every tree, and they are responsible for all the evil in the world. However, I believe that such an attitude is just another excuse for mankind to avoid taking responsibility for the evil he does. The Bible does speak of demons, and it seems that we need to understand what they are.

My take on what the Bible says about them is that I don’t believe they are what we assume they are, vis-à-vis what Hollywood makes them out to be, which is probably recreations of what they’ve heard from the Church—a terrible thought, but let’s be honest. Imagine, many horror films are Hollywood’s impressions of what they believe Christians have said about the Gospel of Christ. What a shame for the Church to bear! The world knows about spiritual matters only through what we say. Whatever we claim is true cannot be hid, whether good or evil (Matthew 5:14; cp. 1Timothy 5:25). So, we need to be careful of both how (Luke 8:18) and what we hear (Mark 4:24)—and believe!

At this point in Jesus’ ministry, all three Synoptics have Jesus traveling across the Sea of Galilee during a storm (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25) and each immediately precedes healing a demoniac, but Matthew has Jesus healing two. In Matthew Jesus leaves on the day after healing Peter’s mother-in-law, escaping the multitude (Matthew 8:18), but both Mark and Luke have Jesus leaving by boat after Jesus taught the multitude in parables (Mark 4:1-34; Luke 8:4-18), and Luke adds that Jesus made a distinction between his physical family and his spiritual family (Luke 8:19-21), just after teaching the multitude. While the witnesses are slightly different in what they include, they don’t contradict what the others say.

Moreover, we are told that Jesus sailed across the Sea of Galilee to the country of the Gergesenes (Matthew 8:28). However, both Mark and Luke have the country of the Gadarenes. The difference is taken by some scholars to be a corruption in the text, introduced by Origen, a church father in the 3^rd century AD. Other scholars conclude that both Gadara and Gergesa were different cities of the Decapolis that were accessed by the same port on the Sea of Galilee. Matthew has two demoniacs, while both Mark and Luke have only one. What can be said of this?

Mark has a man coming out of the tombs to meet Jesus (Mark 5:2), while Luke has a certain man coming out to meet him (Luke 8:27). Matthew, on the other hand has “two” coming out of the tombs to meet Jesus (Matthew 8:28). “Two” what? The text doesn’t say. Most folks assume two men came out to meet Jesus. Yet, the text doesn’t say that. It says “two…” I wonder how schizophrenia would have been described in the ancient world. If a man had multiple personalities, would he have more than one demon? Would the ancients describe such a person as two, meaning more than one?

Once again, the text doesn’t say, but this seems to be a reasonable explanation of the difference, because Jesus never addresses two men in any of the Synoptics, for Matthew says nothing more about the man/men after the demon(s) was cast out. Was there more than one demon? All we have from Mark and Luke is the testimony of a demoniac, so how much of what he claims can be believed? Can a schizophrenic diagnose himself? All we have is the accurate testimony of Mark and Luke about what a demoniac told Jesus, vis-à-vis a schizophrenic speaking with his Doctor!

If being possessed of a demon is the same as a corruption of one’s mind or spirit, as I believe it is, then it may be possible for that one’s spirit/mind to perceive and address spiritual matters openly and publicly, while you and I ponder such things quietly and to ourselves. Nevertheless, it also stands to reason that the spiritual perception of the demoniac would also be corrupt, vis-à-vis his understanding wouldn’t be accurate, but he might be very vocal about his erroneous understanding. To know and understand that Jesus is the Messiah is a spiritual matter. The disciples of Jesus accurately perceived that Jesus was the Messiah, but they often didn’t understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask. The demoniac also knew Jesus was the Messiah, and he vocalized his error, laying it open to everyone standing by (Proverbs 12:15; 13:16). The demoniac/fool has no desire for understanding, only that he could be heard (Proverbs 18:2; cp. 29:11).

As for Jesus’ disciples, although they believed Jesus was the Messiah and had misconceptions about him, instead of vocalizing everything on their hearts publicly, they were willing to set their misconceptions aside and seek to understand things as Jesus said they were. They held their peace, until Jesus sent them out to preach what he taught them. Thus, they were willing to take the leap of faith, while the demoniac would rather trust in his own understanding (Proverbs 28:26).

It is truly difficult to get through to a possessed person who is overcome with his own ideas of things. Nevertheless, with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). After coming to trust in Jesus, the demoniac looked and saw that there was a herd of swine in the area. He was a troubled man and needed a sign that he was healed, so he asked Jesus, if he came to cast his spiritual demons out, cast it into the herd of swine (Matthew 8:30-31), which begs the question: could **a** demon possess more than one at the same time?

I believe it is significant that a man possessed of evil is often charismatic enough to convince others, whether a group of people or a nation, to do evil at his command. The thing is spiritual, and we need to understand that the spirit acts differently on physical matters. Challenge the demoniac’s followers and individualize them, and they will be in fear and back away, just like an officer of the law does, when he breaks up a crowd of people, who are up to no good.

Therefore, Jesus sent the “demon” into the herd of swine and the swine cast themselves into the sea and drowned (Matthew 8:32). The sign was significant enough to give peace to a troubled man. However, onlookers had a different perception of these events.

The keepers of the swine fled in fear, over what had transpired, and they ran into the village and told everyone, they saw what Jesus did to the swine (Matthew 8:33). Ignorance ruled the day, and the whole town came out to meet Jesus, pleading with him to leave their country, and Jesus accommodated their wishes (Matthew 8:34; cp. 9:1). In other words, he permitted the judgment of Genesis 3:22-24 stand, because the people didn’t know enough to welcome the Presence of God. They were too afraid of such a powerful God.

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[1] I have other studies on this subject, and they can be accessed through my web page: Our Demons