The Gadarene Demoniac

GOLDEN TEXT: “And Jesus answering unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” —Luke 5:31,32

LUKE 8:26-39

THE Pharisees condemned Jesus for eating with publicans and sinners, and in our Golden Text he explains that he had not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The Pharisees claimed to be righteous, but actually they also were sinners. In repentance there is a recognition of sin. All must acknowledge their sins and seek forgiveness in order to receive the Lord’s blessing.

The modern trend in the denominational churches is toward discounting the reality of the miracles performed by Jesus. Many claim that those possessed by demons, as mentioned in the Bible, were merely emotionally disturbed. Perhaps some were alcoholics, it is suggested. This may be why the lesson committee designates this lesson as being in the interest of temperance. But such an interpretation is unwarranted.

One of the groups of religious leaders in Israel in Jesus’ day did not believe in the resurrection, nor in angels, good or bad. These were the Sadducees. It would seem that more and more “Sadducees” are appearing in nominal church circles today. These unbelievers attempt to explain away all the miracles of Jesus, some of them going so far as to deny that he was raised from the dead. Yet these parade as Christian teachers before their fellows.

The Bible clearly reveals that there are orders of creation higher than the human. David wrote that man was created “a little lower than the angels.” (Ps. 8:4-8) There are many references to these angels in both the Old and New Testaments. Daniel was delivered from the lions by an angel. (Dan. 6:16,20-22) Peter was delivered from prison by an angel. (Acts 12:4-11) These angelic beings are invisible to man except as they miraculously appear in visible bodies. They are used by the Lord in his dealings with his people. Psalm 34:7 reads, “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.”

In Matthew 25:41 “the Devil and his angels” are referred to. This implies the existence of unholy angels. In I Peter 3:19,20 these are referred to as “spirits” who disobeyed God at the time of the Flood. Jude 6 mentions them as “angels which kept not their first estate.” Jude explains that they are since restrained in chains of darkness—hampered, that is, from the full activity which they enjoyed before they fell from divine grace as a result of their disobedience.

It is these unholy angels, we believe, who are referred to in the Gospels, as possessing various ones in Jesus’ day, and over whom he had the necessary power to expel from those whose minds they controlled. And it is through the minds of humans that these conduct much of their evil work. At times their presence manifests itself in violent form. In most instances probably their presence is undetected, yet they deceive the minds of millions, turning them away from God and away from the truths of his Word.

Another way in which they deceive many is by impersonating the dead. The Bible clearly teaches that the wages of sin is death. (Rom. 6:23) Death is the absence of life. (Eccles. 9:5) The Creator warned Adam that his disobedience would result in death. (Gen. 2:17) But, speaking through the serpent, Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die.” (Gen. 3:1-5) Ever since, his great desire in this connection has been to prove that “there is no death.”

One of the methods employed by the Devil is to use the fallen angels, which are now “his angels,” to impersonate the dead. These are often able to make the relatives of those who have died believe that they are in contact with them, and that therefore they cannot be dead.

One instance of this recorded in the Scriptures is the case of King Saul, when he appealed to the Witch of Endor to contact the dead Samuel to find out how he would fare in his battle with the Philistines. In this instance the witch described to Saul a person whom he supposed to be Samuel. But Samuel had been forbidden to give any information to the wicked king, and even if he could have been recalled by the witch he would have adhered to the Lord’s instructions. The point is that Samuel was dead, and the witch deceived Saul into supposing he had received a message from him. (I Sam. 28:5-25) Modern spiritism is made possible today by the same deceptive influences. Christians should adhere to the plain teachings of the Bible, and not be deceived by these specious methods of Satan and his angels.

QUESTIONS

What is the only possible way in which this lesson could be in the nature of an admonition to temperance?

Who were the demons who possessed many unfortunate persons in Jesus’ day?

What is another manifestation of the work of the fallen angels?

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