Expert: Eric Christy - 1/3/2007

Question
Hi thankyou for taking my question

          In this passage - The first thing the demons seem to want to do is to Announce that Jesus is the son of God. In fact Jesus forces them to be quite - It seems to me that it is not just a coincidence that the demons are making this announcement (after all - why would they want to acknowledge this rather than try to get people not to believe it). My question is: Are the Demons doing it ON PURPOSE because they, like Jesus, know that it would have hurt his ministry to reveal who he was at that time. Did they make such a bold proclomation in order to Undermine his ministry? Thankyou.  

Answer
Hi Pete,

You raise good reasons why the demons might declare the Jesus is the Son of God. Another reason could be that the demons are compelled to admit it, as Jesus is casting them out of the person they are possessing. This behavior occurs often as demons are being cast out by Jesus. It may the the spiritual equivalent of what humans see when two fighters are duking it out, and the vanquished admits to the victor, that he is beaten.

Also, the demons seem to know that they have only a certain amount of time before "the time", and they ask Jesus if He is unjustly using His power before that time. The demons *know* that Jesus is already victorious over them, as does Satan, himself. Apparently, they think that Jesus is using His authority before 'the time', that is, before THAT time. But Jesus is not bothered by their assertion, and defeats them handily. The demons know who's boss. The demons answer to Satan, who answers to Jesus, who answers to God.

Eric