Mark 1:23

And straightway there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Nazarene? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God.

THE HEALING OF THE DEMONIAC IN THE SYNAGOGUE

With an unclean spirit ... Luke's account of this (Luke 4:31-37) calls this "an unclean demon," the expressions being synonymous.

What have we to do with thee ... The plural indicates that the demon was speaking either upon behalf of himself and other demons, or for his victim and himself. Regarding other demon possession, of which there is so much in Mark, the following observations are in order.

DEMON POSSESSION

Our Lord used language in addressing demons which is not reconcilable with any explanation of such maladies as mere diseases or mental disturbances. He addressed the demon as distinct from the man (Mark 1:25); and, in private conversations with the Twelve, indicated that particularly malignant demons could not be expelled except by "fasting and prayer" (Matthew 17:21). Any scheme that confounds such diseases as epilepsy, insanity, paranoia, etc., with demon possession as related in the New Testament is refuted by the words and actions of Christ who clearly regarded the phenomenon of demon possession as real.

Why, then, it may be asked, are there no examples of demon-possession in the current era? A double reply to this is as follows: (1) It is by no means certain that demon-possession has disappeared from the earth. As Trench said, "The assumption that there are none now, itself remains to be proved."[4] In the same vein of thought, William James, noted philosopher and psychologist, said:

The refusal of modern "enlightenment" to treat possession as an hypothesis, to be spoken of as even possible, in spite of the massive human tradition based on concrete human experience in its favor, has always seemed to me a curious example of the power of fashion in things scientific. That the demon theory will have its innings again is to my mind absolutely certain. One has to be "scientific" indeed to be blind and ignorant enough to deny its possibility.[5]

Moreover, Worcester and McComb affirm that:

There are today educated and skilled physicians who believe in obsession by an extraneous intelligence and whose therapeutic system is based on this conviction.[6]

(2) Aside from the fact that demon possession indeed might still exist on earth, there must be added the inference that even if it should be proved impossible today, such would not deny its existence then. At a time when the true Spirit was coming into the world as a Redeemer, it is certainly fully reasonable to expect that the most intensive activity of Satan would have been multiplied in opposition to the Lord's work. The triumph of Christ would therefore explain the disappearance of the phenomenon in our own times. Either of the solutions to this problem presented here could be correct.

Despite the fact that Jesus Christ obviously treated demon-possession as a reality in certain cases, he certainly did not refer all diseases to such a cause; and there were notable instances in which he went out of the way to demonstrate his rejection of popular notions of his day regarding demons. Thus, he commanded the crumbs to be taken up after the feeding of multitudes, defying the superstition that demons lurked in crumbs; also the popular notion that demons could take advantage of people who borrowed water was flaunted by our Lord's borrowing water from the woman of Samaria. The Saviour himself represented demons as preferring "waterless places" (Matthew 12:43); but he did not hesitate to frequent waterless places, or desert places.

The child of faith will not be intimidated by the accusations of those who would make of our Lord a mere child of his age, ignorantly making their own prejudices his own, and falling in with an erroneous superstition regarding demon possession. The dogmatism and arrogance with which some allege such things cannot fail to raise the thought that possibly such men might be an example of what they are denying. For further discussion of this subject, see Commentary on Matthew, (Matthew 8:21-32).

I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God ... appears as the testimony of the demon himself, and, as such, is one of the most interesting things in Scripture. Scribes and Pharisees at that point in time did not recognize heaven's messenger, and not even his closest disciples fully knew him. Yet heaven had shouted the message from God himself that here was the Son beloved; and here darkness itself acknowledged the light; hell bore witness of the Christ, although he received it not. At Gadara also, demons confessed Christ as "Son of God"; but there too, it may be assumed, Jesus did not receive their testimony. The apostles likewise followed in this same pattern of rejecting the testimony of demoniacs (Acts 16:16-18). Paul did not allow the girl with the spirit of divination to bear witness of his preaching, although her words were true: "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation." Paul cast the spirit out of her, thus ending her witness. Thus, neither Christ nor his apostles permitted hell to witness of heaven, nor the kingdom of evil to testify of the kingdom of God.

What motivation produced the remarkable testimony of demons? If men had written the New Testament, it is incredible that the enemies of all light and truth should have appeared in such a role. Why would they have confessed the One who had entered the world to destroy their works? Every human thought inclines to the view that demons would have avoided such a confession at all cost. Why, then, did they do it? Certainly, they were not forced to do it by Christ, because he expressly forbade them. Trench understood their motivation to have been in the "hope that the truth itself might be brought into suspicion and discredit in thus receiving attestation from the spirit of lies."[7] The purpose of Satan in prompting such testimony of demons comes to light in a similar instance of it in Mark 3:11, followed quickly by the Pharisees' charge that Jesus cast out demons by the prince of demons (Mark 3:22). Thus, the use which Satan attempted to make of the alleged rapport of the demons with Christ reveals the diabolical purpose which instigated the kind of confessions which might have aided the devil. That such is the truth appears from the fact of Jesus' unequivocal rejection of them.

Art thou come to destroy us ...? The fear of the demons was also noted by Matthew who recorded the complaint of the Gadarene demons, "Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" (Matthew 8:29). The faith of demons must therefore be viewed as something exceeding that of many so-called Christians. Various New Testament references reveal them as believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, having absolute authority over them, having also judged them, consigning them to destruction, a fate already determined to be executed upon them at a given time. The destruction envisaged in this passage is hell; and the fact that demons believe in such destruction should give pause to sinners who deny any such place, supposing that their conception of a "loving God" negates any possibility of eternal condemnation. As Ryle wrote:

It is a sorrowful thought that on these points some professed Christians have even less faith than the devil. There are some who doubt the reality of hell and the eternity of punishment. Such doubts find no place except in the hearts of self-willed men and women. There is no infidelity among devils. "They believe and tremble" (James 2:19).[8]

[4] Richard C. Trench, Notes on the Miracles (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1943), p. 174.

[5] Quoted by Elwood Worcester, Making Life Better (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936), p. 45.

[6] Samuel McComb, Body, Mind and Spirit (New Hampshire: Marshall Jones and Company, 1931), p. 272.

[7] Richard C. Trench, op. cit., p. 250.

[8] J. C. Ryle, op. cit., p. 12.