I'm beginning to work through the recently added series of lectures on the Narrow Path web site about discipleship, and the first lecture in the series raised a question. Steve is discussing Matthew 7:22, and the significance of false Christians claiming to have cast out demons in Jesus's name. Steve says the following: "Now these guys weren't, apparently, the real deal. But they thought they were. They thought they were disciples -- they thought He would recognize them at the judgment day. But he didn't recognize -- said, 'I don't think I know you. I never knew you. You're not even familiar to me. Get out of here, you don't belong here. Depart from me. You're a worker of iniquity.' A worker of iniquity, casting out demons in Jesus's name? . . . How could that person be a worker of iniquity? Well, apparently it's possible. In fact, if you're familiar with the lives of television evangelists, it's not even unfamiliar. But the fact of the matter is there are people who think the proof of the pudding is that they have signs and wonders, or they cast out demons, or they prophecy, or, in other words, they have phenomena that they are identifying as the proof that they are Christians. But this is the wrong phenomena. . . . Apparently even casting out demons and doing mighty works, it's not always of God."
This point strikes me as eminintly reasonable and seems to be the natural point of the passage. But I was curious how this is to be reconciled with later on in Matthew 12:24-28. This passage is not without ambiguity, and I have never researched it in-depth. But I had always thought that the essence of Jesus's answer to the Pharisees here is to reject the suggestion that Jesus drives out demons as inherently illogical, that the act of driving out demons is something that by its terms cannot be a satanic act, because this would entail a house divided against itself. This reading, though, would be in tension with 7:22 as Steve reasonably reads it. I was curious whether I'm reading the latter passage correctly or if the tension here is only apparent.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Best regards,
CThomas
Question re Significance of Casting Out Demons
Re: Question re Significance of Casting Out Demons
I don't think that the only two options for exorcists would be that they are either true Christians or else operating by satanic power. We know of some who were not actually following Christ, but who seemed to be casting out demons in His name—and He did not wish to prevent them (Luke 9:49-50). Jesus also implied that some of the Jewish exorcists were experiencing some success, but not in His name, nor (He seemed to imply) by satanic power (Matt.12:27). There may be other possibilities.
Jesus said that His casting out demons by the Spirit of God was evidence that the Kingdom Age had arrived (Matt.12:28). The arrival of the Kingdom may have resulted in a general rout of the demonic powers, so that they could be cast out (though perhaps not as effectively or predictably) even by some persons other than Christ, using His name. I have known people, whom I did not think to be Christians, who, when attacked by palpable demonic presences in their beds at night, were able to get relief by calling out the name of Jesus. In the cases reported to me, the name of Jesus always got immediate results, even when the actual Christian commitments of the sufferer were questionable.
Even the true disciples' efforts proved ineffective on one occasion. Jesus told them that this was a case of an especially resistant "kind" of demon (Mark 9:29). It seems to me that demons are not all of one order or rank. The really tenacious ones may, for a time, resist the efforts of even those who know Christ—or even Christ Himself (Mark 5:7-12). However, the really wimpy ones might be able to be resisted by anyone using His name...or even by Jewish exorcists, who act in the interests of Yahweh, but do not know or use the name of Jesus. If this is so, there might be some who succeeded in casting out demons in His name, even if they were not genuine believers.
There is also the possibility, of course, that those who make such claims, in Matthew 7:22, were themselves mistaken about the nature of their experiences and even fooled by demons who pretended to exit but did not really do so.
Jesus said that His casting out demons by the Spirit of God was evidence that the Kingdom Age had arrived (Matt.12:28). The arrival of the Kingdom may have resulted in a general rout of the demonic powers, so that they could be cast out (though perhaps not as effectively or predictably) even by some persons other than Christ, using His name. I have known people, whom I did not think to be Christians, who, when attacked by palpable demonic presences in their beds at night, were able to get relief by calling out the name of Jesus. In the cases reported to me, the name of Jesus always got immediate results, even when the actual Christian commitments of the sufferer were questionable.
Even the true disciples' efforts proved ineffective on one occasion. Jesus told them that this was a case of an especially resistant "kind" of demon (Mark 9:29). It seems to me that demons are not all of one order or rank. The really tenacious ones may, for a time, resist the efforts of even those who know Christ—or even Christ Himself (Mark 5:7-12). However, the really wimpy ones might be able to be resisted by anyone using His name...or even by Jewish exorcists, who act in the interests of Yahweh, but do not know or use the name of Jesus. If this is so, there might be some who succeeded in casting out demons in His name, even if they were not genuine believers.
There is also the possibility, of course, that those who make such claims, in Matthew 7:22, were themselves mistaken about the nature of their experiences and even fooled by demons who pretended to exit but did not really do so.
Re: Question re Significance of Casting Out Demons
Hey, thanks, Steve. Very helpful.
CThomas
CThomas
Re: Question re Significance of Casting Out Demons
Once in a dream that was more a nightmarish vision than a dream, I had such an experience. I tried commanding in the name of Jesus that the demon let me go and be gone. To my shock, my command had no effect at all. After trying the same thing several times, and just before it seemed I would die, I cried with what little breath remained in me, "JESUS!!!" The sound I made was barely recognizable as the name of Jesus, but the demon instantly let me go. I've thought about that since, and wondered whether it was the authority of the name of Jesus that drove the demon away, or if it was Jesus Himself, responding to my cry. As for my first efforts, I think it was a case of my thinking that I had personal authority in the name of Jesus. Not so! All authority is His. In any case, I am a Christian, yet was unable to 'drive out the demons.' Jesus did it, whether by name or in person, when I realized I was helpless without Him and cried out for help.