“JESUS CHRIST - A MAN APPROVED OF GOD (Acts 2:22)”
Miracle #14-
“JESUS
CHRIST - A MAN APPROVED OF GOD (Acts 2:22)”
Miracle #14-
Mark
5:1-4,5-8,9-12,13-16,17-19; Luke 8:26-29,30-33,34-37,38-39
Dear
Reader, this miracle raises a series of
points:
1.
Firstly, devil
possession is different from lunacy and palsy as stated …
“ … those
which were possessed with devils,
and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy;
and
he healed them.”(Matthew 4:24)
Secondly,
throughout scripture, evil spirits do take
possession of men’s bodies … two examples are Saul (1
Samuel
16:14); and the lying prophets (1 Kings 22:21-23).
Thirdly,
people out of curiosity, indeed invitation,
through seeking out a wizard for example (Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus
20:6-7),
become friendly and familiar with spirits, such that
the devils
become familiar spirits. Under Old Testament law, these people
were put
to death for this association.
Today,
in the ‘new’ age of Spiritualism (there’s
nothing new … meet the new boss … same as the old boss), there is an
alarming exponential
return to this dreadful sin … with horrendous consequences, as ungodly
mediums
communicate with the dead.
2. As strange
as it sounds, when Christ was on earth, that is before the cross, and
preaching
the kingdom of heaven, there was a special manifestation of devil
possession, which
Christ allowed, by giving the devils permission to inhabit, indeed,
transfer
from one creature into another … and in this case, into pigs (Mark
5:13).
3. It is only
after the cross, and under the dispensation of Paul the apostle’s
gospel (1
Corinthians 9:17; Ephesians 3:2; Colossians 1:25), that the kingdom of
God supercedes
the kingdom of heaven.
This is
explained by the scripture “But if I
with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God
is come
upon you.” (Luke 11:20). Note … Christ does not say into
another
animal, but simply cast out, as into darkness.
Now
although the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom
of God are present in the Lord Jesus Christ, while Christ remains on
earth, it
is the former, the kingdom of heaven, that is in operation. After the
cross and
under Paul’s kingdom of God dispensation, devils are cast into outer
darkness
and never into other animals as in this case.
4.
Why would the devils seek lenience from Christ?
“And
he (Christ)
asked him, What is thy name? And he (the devil) answered,
saying, My
name is Legion: for we are many. And he (Legion) besought him
(Christ) much that he (Christ) would not send
them away out
of the country. (Mark 5:9-10).
As
with the Gergesenes inhabitation of devils
(Matthew 8:28), the devils’ complaint was that Christ would torment
them before
their time as follows … “… they (devils) cried out,
saying, What
have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither
to
torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29).
Devils
are tormented if not allowed to inhabit a
living creature.
The time
was coming under the kingdom of God
dispensation, when devils would not be allowed to simply move
from one
living creature to another. Before the cross this was allowed but not
after, as
Satan’s works would be destroyed (1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14), although
he would still
able to go around as a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8).
The devils
in this man at Gadarenes, were fearful
of Christ tormenting them by preventing them residing in a living
creature, man
or animal, and so pleaded their case for another fate. Christ
acquiesces by
sending them into a herd of pigs. Christ would not cast them into a man
… but into
an already unclean animal … a pig (Leviticus 11:7).
5.
Once
again,
to the thinking Jew, as Christ had the authority to handle the
Gadarenes man’s
devils, he would have to have an ‘open mind’ that just maybe, Christ
created
Lucifer and the angels (Genesis 2:1; Luke 2:13), and had cast
them out
of heaven also?
Furthermore,
apart from using his own instant and
all powerful authority, a legion of devils presented no problem, as
Christ
could have twelve legions of angels at his disposal (Matthew 26:53) …
and
Christ never lied
(2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22).
6. People get
all upset over Christ’s treatment of animals. Today in the state of New
South
Wales, Australia, The Animal Justice Party (AJP) (animals are
people too
you know) … look like getting a seat in the government at the
latest
elections.
The AJP
would send Christ to prison for five
years and fined $10,000 for every pig killed … Mmmm! Let
me see …. if
a herd is about 200 animals, Christ would have to languish in
prison for
1,000 years and fork out two million bucks!
Killing a
person receives a lighter sentence … you
can get out on parole in three years!
Now
dressed up as concerned citizens championing
animal welfare rights, the AJP are simply closet Hindus who believe
animals
have a soul … which they don’t … and this is their
platform for
falsely believing that souls can migrate up and down the animal
kingdom, from
one animal to another … a ‘higher’ animal like a cow into a ‘lower’
form of a
lizard, and vice versa, according to their moral status and goodness at
the
time of death.
Anyhow, no
wonder the herders were upset with Jesus
(Mark 5:17) … firstly, they would have been opposed to Jesus for start,
as true
Jews would never raise pigs … being unclean (Leviticus 11:7-8) …
secondly, they
would be bankrupt if Christ’s practice of casting devils into swine
were to be
repeated (1 Timothy 6:10).
Harley
Hitchcock
April
2023
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
“JESUS
CHRIST - A MAN APPROVED OF GOD (Acts 2:22)”
Miracle #15-
