The sons of god ended up becoming the gods of these nations. My office mate of several years back was interrupted by a young and very zealous new Christian teacher accompanied by a student from whom she wanted my friend to cast out a demon. Why were the people of Gerasene afraid of the presence of Jesus? Jude 6), no longer to afflict men or resist God. In that case, of course, it would be in the early morning that the Gerasenes afterwards resorted to Jesus and that He again returned to Capernaum. June 2021 127 The view of Greek philosophy was that these were the spirits of those who lived in the Golden Age. December 2016 Those demons were terrified of Him! print and digital media outlets, dedicated to reporting the truth in light of the Gospel and the Exercising authority in the land allocated to Abraham, for Israel, the land set aside for God and his people. 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. 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. 122 Quoted by Alfred Plummer, The Gospel According to Saint Luke, (Edinburg: T. and T. Clark, 5th ed., 1969): p. 228. They were willing to post guards and chain and shackle their neighbor to keep him from hurting someone. 14ff. As indicated in the textual note, the best Greek text reads Gerasenes in Mark and Luke, Gadarenes in Matthew. 15; Mark ix. 1, pp. And, lastly, this would allow sufficient time for those miracles which took place on that second day in Capernaum after His return thither. The healing of the demoniacs and the repulse of the Healer by the inhabitants are historical, but the incident of the swine is a later figment. And he said to them, Where is your faith? 34When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. And, yes, Dana did just read us something about a man possessed by a whole bunch of demons that later go and possess a bunch of hogs. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Dr. Thomson discovered on the eastern shore the ruins of a village called Khersa. The country of the Gadarenes (Gergesenes) is one of the few areas Jesus visited where Gentiles (non-Jews) composed the majority of the population. Bible scholar Gleason Archer (Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties) argues similarly, It is entirely possible that the political control of this region was centered in Gadara as the capital city. verse 5). 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. Fallen people reject God not because they do not know His power. COMMENTARY: Atheism is generally the expression of a moral attitude more than a real intellectual conviction based on evidence thought through. Although his symptoms would have appeared to be those of an insane man,113 the Gospel writers inform us that he was demon-possessed.114. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. First let us see what the Sacred Texts says: The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Five squad cars converged on it. This makes sense, I couldn't believe they asked Jesus to leave. The occult and every front for demonic influence and activity should be avoided like the plague. "The name "Gerasenes" is to be associated with the modern city of Jerash, located in Transjordan, 22 miles N of Amman." John McRay, "Gerasenes," ed. If they dare to open up their lives to Jesus what will happen? They likely were Gentiles and had been under the influence of the demonic principality of the region their whole life. Sermon for July 26, 2020: Why Were They So Afraid: Mark 5:1-20. January 2016 You are welcome here. Jesus had been performing miracles in Gods nation - Israel. 110 C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1971), p. 3. September 2021 In all three instances the word is chra (Strongs word #5561). When our Lord confronted the demons, they had to submit to His power and authority. . Will they be condemned like unclean animals? 7 After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, b he entered Capernaum. This was a region east of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. Rev. In contrast, the people of Gerasene are asking him to leave their place. The pig tenders reported it far and wide, in city and country (verse 14). - And they came to the other side of the sea.The other side of the sea would be the south-east side of the sea. Top Ten Reasons Why There Were Pigs In Gerasenes Remember the story of Jesus casting demons out of the crazy man in Luke 8? Thats why also Peter having realized who Christ was, was dreaded and asked Him to leave him for he said to be a sinful man (Luke 5:8). She is a graduate of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University and Chicago Theological Seminary. Therefore, Jesus Christ for demons is God and thus even demons inadvertently reveal themselves as being better theologians than Arians and their modern day heirs - Jehovawitnesians and all different breeds of Unitarians - their name being legion! HELPING CHRISTIANS BUILD POSITIVE, GODLY FAMILIES, CHURCHES, AND NATIONS, Follow us on social media for daily Scripture comments and more at. In recent years the matter has been getting uncomfortably close to home. 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. 2. 3. Understand the meaning of Luke 8:37 using all available Bible versions and commentary. March 2017 For more information about Glenn Davis see our About Glenn page and/or his Author's Page. and our Matthew 9:2-8 Why was "This man is blaspheming" considered an evil thought without knowing Jesus' identity? The pig shepherds had gone and spread the news of what had happened all around. The people were more terrified of Jesus and His authority than they were of this crazed and demonized man living among the tombs. 5. Why would the Gerasene people beg Jesus to leave their region after He cast the demons into the pigs? These men were a danger to themselves and others. Even the demons confessed that He was the Son of the Most High (Mark 5:7). Our Lord responded sternly by calling this accusation blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and as such was the one unpardonable sin (verses 28-30). The reference could hardly be to the better known Gerasa (Jerash) between thirty and forty miles southeast from the lake. Unbelieving men may not rave and carry on like the Gerasene demoniac, but they are nevertheless under Satans control, doing his bidding. And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another . October 2020 Immediately, as this weary group disembarked from the ship, they were met by what appeared to be a madman. xvi. What purposes did Mark intend to achieve by the inclusion of this event? They became as afraid of Jesus as the demons were. Holiness hurts! I will not ask him to leave. November 2014. Jesus had actually helped them. Swine were unclean animals according to the Torah. June 2020 Today, it is identified with El-Koursi or Kursi. Christians are to be the answer, but often they are part of the problem. The conduct of this pathetic individual was obviously anti-social. 2). (2) Anti-social behavior. Why was Jesus going to walk past the disciples as they were rowing on the Sea of Galilee? June 2015 Other demoniacs described in Scripture were bent on self-destruction as well (cf. No matter where you are on life's journey. But notice, even though Jesus permitted them to enter the swine, they were unable to overcome their evil impulses and drove the swine over the cliff to their death. May the Spirit of God be so evident in us that men may see God in our lives. December 2022 to men facing fear and death. How to show that an expression of a finite type must be one of the finitely many possible values? If he was a pagan, why did Jesus cast out his demons? 05 /5 Another theory. "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. Although God's word does not name which cities were considered part of this region, Pliny's Natural History (c. 77 A.D.) lists these cities as Gerasa, Scythopolis, Hippos, Gadara, Pella, Philadelphia, Capitolias (Dion), Canatha, Raphana and Damascus. If anything, that would have made them angry. "The trains were . Although it is often claimed that Christians were persecuted for their refusal to worship the emperor, general dislike for Christians likely arose from their refusal to worship the gods or take part in sacrifice, which was expected of those living in the Roman Empire. Here in Mark, he purposely set out to travel into another land. (6) Tendency towards self-destruction. And they were afraid. The best known Gerasa was a Greek city nearly forty miles southeast of the lake (modern village of Khersa, on the east shore of the lake. They have three sons and a daughter (all homeschooled) and reside in southeast Michigan. As we pass from this section to the next, let us not end on the note of the death of the pigs, but on the deliverance of the demoniac. April 2021 August 2022 Jesus has lead me away from my old life. where something similar occurs) is a demon-possession mentioned, and that outside the Gospels it is referred to only twice in the New Testament (Acts xvi. Order Bulk SubscriptionsGet a discount on 6 or more copies sent to your parish, organization In this account we, by inference, learn much about the demonic spirits. This story is a little bit of an Easter story. They were afraid and astonished, saying to one another, "Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the sea, and they obey Him?" . Jesus did say to count the cost [Luke 14:28-33]. But let us return to the gist of the matter: if Christ showed them His Divinity through the reason given above, is it easy to be in the presence of God? Into the country of the Gadarenes, or rather, Gera-senes, which is now generally admitted to be the true reading, from Gerasa, Gersa, or Kersa.There was another Gerasa, situated at some distance from the sea, on the borders of Arabia Petraea. 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? Then people came to see what it was that had happened. Some illicitly use drugs, supposing that they have them completely under their control. Oh Hye-son recently published a Korean-language memoir on how she and her husband Thae Yong-ho, then deputy ambassador at North Korea's London embassy, defected in 2016. He who feared His arrival now dreaded His departure. In fact the region was known as the Gadarenes-Gerasenes region. It is ironic that while the demons didnt want to leave the country, the dwellers of that land didnt want the Messiah to stay. The word translated windstorm here, and storm in the KJ, is the word lailaps, which is more than just a storm. The lesson of this passage is that Satan is a defeated foe. We should know from other Scriptures that our present spiritual experience is one of spiritual warfare. But from all of the Gospel accounts, I get the distinct impression that this mans eyes were riveted on Jesus. October 2018 Subscriber Service CenterAlready a subscriber? 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. As an alternative to confinement, the demons posed the option of being permitted to enter the pigs, some 2,000 in number, feeding nearby. Who was afraid of Jesus and why? It is now called Jerash and is a deserted ruin. The best human analogy might be in the area of drug abuse. to sign up for our free Water Of The Word newsletter at the top of any page! They were instructed to keep quiet about what Jesus had done for them (cf. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? January 2022 ), you also need to understand the significance of this - to the people in Gerasene. The pleas of Legion were in response to the command of Jesus for the demons to come out of him (verse 8). Ouija boards are found in many American homes. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 991. 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. August 2018 How many demons possessed the man in Mark 5:6? It became one of the proudest cities of Syria. It was situated some 30 miles southeast of Gadara, on the borders of Peraea and a little north of the river Jabbok. He was Someone Who could control the spirit realm. September 2016 Gergesenes means "those who come from pilgrimage or fight.". (3) Spiritual insight. EIN 27-4581132 It is a violent tempest, that is, outside of the natural. 112 Skeptics and liberals have made much of the differences between the Gospel writers as to the place Jesus landed with His disciples. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. . Some appeared not to be oppressed by them so much as exploiting their powers (cf. I think the coup de grce is to look up the Greek word for country in these passages, to see what latitude of meaning it has. That is not the choice at all. Demonized individuals are not to be viewed so much as a pigeon hole category, as they are a continuem. (2) Pork was a food forbidden to Jews, and as such, those who raised these pigs may have done so knowingly in violation of divine injunction. Second, while the death of the pigs is clearly an economic loss for the owner, Jesus is illustrating the infinite value of human life. The lose of the pigs meant loose of partial income in the area. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. His teachings have inspired great moral reformations such as abolition of slavery and the Civil Rights movement. Create your own unique website with customizable templates. Gadara, though not directly named in Scripture, was part of the Decapolis. When Jesus asked the demoniac his name, it was not without significance for He was, I believe, asking the demons to reveal their identity. In the past several weeks, there has come to light the case of a man arrested for various crimes who has several of the symptoms of demon possession, including multiple personalities, even multiple IQs. July 2018 Now' as to the pigs (an unclean animal, so you know Jesus wasnt in Israel! Also, the wholesale slaughter of these pigs dramatically illustrated the destructive purposes of the demons. SubscribeStart your Register subscription today. May 2018 They look forward to their future with great dread. Events that are important to our Church Community, Mark 5:1-20 Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac. And the people went out to see what happened; and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they became frightened. Perhaps they clenched their fists or picked up driftwood with which to defend themselves. April 2022 November 2017 But, Im telling you. Having been properly warned of the demonic underworld, let us not fall into the opposite error of absolute paranoia. The demonically possessed man who came to Jesus cried out his name was Legion. Whenever a man, woman, or child surrenders control of himself either to fleshly desires (anger, lust, passion, etc.) Such was the case with this man (cf. ESV - Sometime after the Lord Jesus miraculously calmed the storm, the ship landed, perhaps late in the evening,111 on the other side of the lake in the country of the Gerasenes.112 If, indeed, it was late at night, the scene must have been an eerie one, with the nerves of the disciples already worn thin by the terrifying experience of the storm. Where it falls apart for me is why the Bellonas, knowing that only one person is allowed to survive each duel, take the defeat so personally. 1) He Exposes Evil (v 28-30) . January 2017 How much more sinful than Peter were the Geraseneans, who because of love of money did not shun even to engage in a non-Jew business of herding swine; how much more unbearable and dreadful must have been for them the Lords presence! December 2015 They are happy in their sin and the consequences seem far away. Is there a single-word adjective for "having exceptionally strong moral principles"? 36Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. No! Luke 8 Holy Communion From the Chalice Reintroduced in the UK: What About the US? Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. Wasn't the answer obvious? March 2015 February 2018 No! 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. 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. 1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 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. As these people began to piece together the previous events, not only of the destruction of the pigs, but also the deliverance of Legion, they began to sense that there was One far more awesome, much more to be feared, than Legion. Yes, I know that Easter was weeks ago in April. Wikipedia states about it: In the second half of the 1st century AD, the city of Jerash achieved great prosperity.. In any event, I love defending the Bible and Christianity. No matter where you are on life's journey you are welcome here! Evil is self-defeating in the end. Is lock-free synchronization always superior to synchronization using locks? 4, p. 102. Jesus asked Mary why she was crying at the grave site. On the other hand, it may be correct to understand that although there were many demons, they had combined as one force to possess this man.119 While Mark records Legions request as one of not being sent out of the country (verse 10), Luke adds a significant explanation by interpreting the meaning behind this request: And they were entreating Him not to command them to depart into the abyss (Luke 8:31). When the townspeople arrived on the scene, they saw the formerly demon-possessed men, clothed, in their right mind and sitting at the feet of Jesus. 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. March 2022 There probably were not many who had been told yet of the Messiah, and so were not yet believers. But the city of Gadara owned some territory round about Khersa, so that the district and the pigs could properly also be called Gadarene. F. F. Bruce, Are the New Testament Documents Reliable? . Like children convinced there are monsters under our beds, the unknown scares us. Now appreciate the reaction - another God was messing with their god - and demonstrating authority! What they were not willing to accept was the frightening power that could cure him. Do roots of these polynomials approach the negative of the Euler-Mascheroni constant? Pastor Chrissy is a native of East Tennessee. That is why he was living in the solitude of the tombs, away from civilization. When Jesus and his disciples come to the mostly-Gentile region of the Gerasenes, they are met by a man whose life has been destroyed by demonic infestation. Men and women (as well as children) were demonized in that they fell under the influence of these unclean spirits. Another indication of demonic control is the fact that this man was continually doing harm to himself by gashing himself with stones (verse 5). diana ross concert 2022 usa, pineapple ricotta pie no crust,