why were the gerasenes afraidwhy were the gerasenes afraid

why were the gerasenes afraid11 Mar why were the gerasenes afraid

Holy Communion From the Chalice Reintroduced in the UK: What About the US? It hit them hard in the pocketbook. Those who had seen it told them how the man who had been demon-possessed had been healed. Finally, there is in demon possession a counterpart to the filling (or control) of the Holy Spirit. Understand the meaning of Luke 8:37 using all available Bible versions and commentary. 5:5). Gerasenes could have had a sense of reference to the entire region (as well as to a city: just as New Yorker can refer to the state or city), and Gadarenes likely was a reference to the most prominent city of the region at the time. For those who are shaken like leaves in the wind at the mention of demons, let us remember from this story that demons cannot even possess pigs without prior permission from our Lord. They were content where they were. 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. Do roots of these polynomials approach the negative of the Euler-Mascheroni constant? July 2017 and our It is Geldenhuys who gives us the most concise description of demon-possession: in the New Testament demon-possession means that a person is dominated by the spirit of a demon and tormented by him. 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. They are happy in their sin and the consequences seem far away. Once a menace to society, now a messenger with words of deliverance and healing. vi. For many Christians today, the horrifying experience of Legion should be sufficient testimony of the reality of the Satanic underworld. April 2022 September 2015 The price tag of possession was high, for those who fell victim to the demons agonized in constant torment. Top Ten Reasons Why There Were Pigs In Gerasenes Remember the story of Jesus casting demons out of the crazy man in Luke 8? She and her wife moved to Maine from Illinois. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. This would also give time afterwards for the dispersion, not only into the city, but into the country of them who had fed the swine. Thayers Greek Lexicon defines it as the space lying between two places or limits region or country. The Sea of Galilee was clearly one of the limits. Is there a single-word adjective for "having exceptionally strong moral principles"? Verse 1. It is in no way certain, however, that the pig raisers were Jews. Having been properly warned of the demonic underworld, let us not fall into the opposite error of absolute paranoia. 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! 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. Gergesenes is also in some manuscripts (Khersa or Gersa was a town actually on the shore of the sea). When Jesus asked his name the man answered, Legion, for we are many (Mark 5:9). Pigs were specifically set aside as the animal used in sacrifices to their god. In Mark 1:5 it is used of the land of Judaea (KJV) and in Acts 10:39, to land of the Jews (KJV). This reveals to us that demons have an intuitive knowledge of their impending doom.117. 16, x. The spectrum ranges from those who seem to control the demonic powers to those who are utterly controlled by them. October 2017 Even in our sophisticated times, there is an intense interest in the supernatural and the occult. If anything, that would have made them angry. Events that are important to our Church Community, Mark 5:1-20 Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac. 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. 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. "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." People who have no appr Fallen people reject God not because they do not know His power. From this it is clear that demon-possession is a phenomenon which occurred almost exclusively, but then to be sure on an amazing scale, during Jesus appearance on earth and to a lesser extent during the activity of the apostles. He pleaded with Jesus not to be tormented. Once naked, he is now clothed. How ironic, as others have noted, that the tormentor pleads not to be tormented. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. It is noteworthy that it is distinguished (especially in the Gospel of the physician, Luke) from cases of ordinary sickness, insanity (lunacy), leprosy, blindness, lameness, deafness and other natural defects and diseases (cf. It is even possible that his request was to become one of our Lords disciples.125. NET Bible Then all the people of the Gerasenes and the surrounding region asked Jesus to leave them alone, for they were seized with great fear. T. H. Huxley, in his Essays upon some Controverted Questions (1892), made merry over the escapade of the Gadarene swine, running the seven miles between Gadar and the lake of Galilee, crossing the deep river Yarmuk en route. Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M. Most people confessed to having the fear of things not working out, an inability to trust and others said they . September 2016 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. July 2022 While he was once wild and uncontrollable, he was sitting quietly at the feet of Jesus. In fact the region was known as the Gadarenes-Gerasenes region. How Can a Person Get Rid of Evil Spirits. To date they have failed to respond in any way. We dismiss it the more readily, that, in our view, it conveys a wrong impression. When once he was an instrument of Satanic opposition against the Messiah, now he is a witness to His power. Unfortunately, Christians [or those using the name] can be harsh, condemning and critical driving people further into sin and away from God. 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. Instead, they reject Him because all they know is His power and purity. 122 Quoted by Alfred Plummer, The Gospel According to Saint Luke, (Edinburg: T. and T. Clark, 5th ed., 1969): p. 228. A Jewish exorcist with such authority in the region, risked to damage the beliefs and reputation of the local pagan inhabitants. Significantly, the demons are called unclean spirits (verse 2,9). There seems to be no excuse here for the charge of contradiction. Luke 8 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine . The occult and every front for demonic influence and activity should be avoided like the plague. When the pigs were sent into the sea, the people of Gadara lost money. Gergesenes means "those who come from pilgrimage or fight.". But having recalled a passage in Ephesians, I realize now that this man is a reminder of the dilemma of every man, woman, and child who have not come to a saving dependence upon the work of Jesus Christ for sinners on the cross. (1) As Lord of all, God has the right to make use of His creation any way that He deems best, and this includes not only pigs, but people (cf. French Monastery Survives War and Famine After 885 Years, the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan, and More Great Links! 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. People who have no appr Yet, conversely, the known can be just as scaryif not more. The story shows Jesus exorcising a demon or demons out of a man and into a herd of swine, causing the swine to run down a hill into a lake and drown . I have always wondered what my Christian brothers had to say to the police officers by way of explanation. Jesus was saying, (demonstrating) that He had all authority, in any land. The exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac (Matthew 8.28-34; Mark 5.1-20; Luke 8.26-39), frequently known as the Miracle of the (Gadarene) Swine and the exorcism of Legion, is one of the miracles performed by Jesus according to the New Testament. xii. But as Gergesa was a small village, and little known, the evangelists, who wrote for more distant readers, spoke of the event as taking place in the country of the Gadarenes, so named from its largest city, Gadara; and this country included the country of the Gergesenes as a state includes a county. And, Gerasene was one. How many demons possessed the man in Mark 5:6? . 8; Mark vi. 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. It should also be observed that nowhere in the Old Testament (except in I Sam. 110 C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1971), p. 3. 4, p. 102. We owe it to Josephus, from whom it has passed into ecclesiastical language. Another approach is to note the different intentions of the Gospel writers. 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. Was there some sort of unwritten rule that Darrow (or any non-Bellona) was supposed to throw the fight? The lose of the pigs meant loose of partial income in the area. "They sailed to the country of the Gerasenes which is opposite Galilee. Textual variations have compounded the problem. I will not ask him to leave. Like it or not, demons and demonic activity are likely to become much more of a concern to you in days to come. 114 We are indebted to Edersheim, who reminds us that the expression demon possession never occurs in the New Testament: The term demoniacal possession occurs not in the New Testament. As the servant of Elisha was told, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them (2 Kings 6:16). And they were afraid. Fear that you might do something that would embarrass you? 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). What were the women in Mark 16:8 afraid of? "I am afraid of Trump on a very personal level because I don't think he likes me. 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. As C. S. Lewis aptly put it: There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. That the unclean spirits were personal beings is evident from what is related about their leaving a possessed person, talking or crying out, possessing knowledge concerning Jesus, as well as other supernatural knowledgeshowing fear, and the like. It was like being attacked by two Hulks. They probably thought of quickly getting aboard ship and pushing off. The entire population of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them because they were seized with great fear. What would happen to them? He was also humorous in his answers. Father Macaire, 33, who was ordained fewer than two years ago, was kidnapped the morning of Feb. 7 when he was on his way to his missionary community in Kazal, about 20 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Mark 5:16 says the thoughts of the people were on the swine. They became as afraid of Jesus as the demons were. And Jesus, being a Gentleman, was not about to force Himself on them. To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. 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. The difference between the phonemes /p/ and /b/ in Japanese, Is there a solutiuon to add special characters from software and how to do it. Did Jesus command the demon before he fell on his knees in Mark 5:6? June 2020 Author of The Gnostic Notebook series, stand-up comedian, and Gnostic. Also, the wholesale slaughter of these pigs dramatically illustrated the destructive purposes of the demons. The people (nations) were divided up, and boundaries allocated' and the sons of god were put over these nations. 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. Thus, it is not always used of one specific country (nation), but rather, usually to regions or areas of either small (Bethlehem) or large (Judaea and Samaria) size, including regions surrounding large cities. I would like to invite you to return to where we left off a few weeks ago in our studies in the gospel of Mark. Smiths Bible Dictionary provides what I find to be a quite plausible explanation (not special pleading at all), and analogous to how we still use place names today: These three names are used indiscriminately to designate the place where Jesus healed two demoniacs. 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. 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. June 2015 He said he had come to the house of Israel, not to the gentiles. That is why he was living in the solitude of the tombs, away from civilization. Jesus asked Mary why she was crying at the grave site. But for most of us, the world and the flesh are all that are necessary to cause us to stumble. 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.

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