“The Devil’s best trick is to persuade you that he doesn’t exist.” from a short story by Baudelaire published in 1864.

“Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished [struck with intense amazement] at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Mark 1:21-22.

The difference between Jesus’ teaching and those of the scribes was one of authority. The scribes would read the Scriptures and quote one of the famous Rabbins such as Hillell or Shammai, saying they, or some doctor, says such and such.

However, Jesus spoke with gravity and authority, His manner and demeanor must have been something to see. And the words He spoke were actually those of God.

This is the difference between a Christian pastor and a liberal pastor (or Christian pastor who is not a Christian; yes, they exist).

The liberal might quote some famous pseudo theologian, or he can make things up, his words will appeal to the flesh (sin nature), but they will never have authority.

“If its new, its untrue, if its old, it’s been told.” anon.

I find this old saying quite often to be true.

The serious Christian pastor will preach the word of God with authority because he has the Holy Spirit teaching him. It is the authoritative word of God that touches the heart, not endless argumentation.

“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” 2 Timothy 4:2-4.

“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ but we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:9-16.

The only person who truly knows you, besides God, is you; your mother or your spouse may know more about you than anyone, but your spirit within you is the only person who really knows the real you.

This is true of God; we cannot really know Him unless He reveals Himself to us.

But, as the last line in the verse above says, the Christian has the mind of Christ; this is through His Holy Spirit dwelling within the heart of the Christian. God’s Holy Spirit tells the Christian all about the things on God’s heart.

At times this guidance can come through the Spirit speaking to you in your heart, but mostly God teaches you about Himself through the Scriptures; this is why Bible reading and study is so important.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20.

The words “dine with him” have the idea of fellowship. Just as some folks often do after dinner at the table, they sit around and chat about the things that happened that day or of something they learned, so it is as we fellowship with Christ. Hang out with Him and you will learn a lot from the Creator of everything.

“Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying, ‘Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are – the Holy One of God!’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be quiet, and come out of him!’ And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.’ And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.” Mark 1:23-28.

Before we elaborate on the identity of this unclean spirit, let us look at the events themselves. This spirit is speaking through the man using his voice and cries out, “Let us alone!” which gives the impression that there is more than one spirit infesting this man.

However, when the spirit left him it, “cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him”; he being singular indicates that there was only one of them.

While it is possible to be possessed by more than one spirit, it was not likely in this case. So, this leaves us with only two possibilities, either the spirit was content living within his current victim and the “us” meant the spirit and the man.

Or the spirit was referring to himself and all the other unclean spirits in the world.

The unclean spirit’s first question was, “What have we to do with You Jesus of Nazareth?” Judging by the spirit’s second question “Did You come to destroy us?” it appears as though he is asking Jesus, “What are You up to, why are You here?”

These unclean spirits are well aware that they are facing doom, and it draws closer every day. God has already prepared a place for them, the lake of fire where they will spend eternity after just a few short thousands of years of having their own way.

“Then He [Jesus] will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels…’” Matthew 25:41.

When they are cast into the lake of fire, all of this will seem as if it were a dream, because suddenly their power and the evil things they are doing today will vanish!

Their power over men, the blood lust, the tortures and horrendous murders they are doing through the army of Islam, represented right now by Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS and the Taliban in the Middle East.

The first two Hamas and Hezbollah with the help of Iran are the terrorists who, in an act of war, raided Israel on October 7th, raping women and children, while torturing and killing many others along with taking hostages.

Even now Satan has managed to incite hundreds of the ignorant masses to protest Israel’s attempts to rescue the hostages and eliminate the terrorist threat on their borders.

Child molesters, rapists, and murderers are incited by these vile beings and driven by them to still greater evil in an effort to pervert and destroy men, women, and children both here and throughout the world.

The pogroms in Russia, the cruel and murderous rage in Africa, and North Korea; the murder of at least six million Jews by Nazi Germany, the tortures and killings of Jews and Christians by the Medieval Church during the Middle Ages.

Evil men giving themselves over to the depths of sin are goaded and driven on to greater acts of cruelty and murder by unclean spirits.

Both the evil spirits and the men who obeyed them will find themselves the victims, tormented day and night for eternity by the guilty thoughts of the things they did to others during their stay here on earth.

They will actually feel the terror that their victims felt as they were murdered, raped or tortured – for eternity.

“The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:13-15.

Indeed, the unclean spirit’s question was a good one, “Did you come to destroy us?” The destruction was not the destruction of annihilation; it was the destruction of all hope in the lake of fire.

This demon knew that it would be the destruction of all hope that tomorrow he would be able to influence someone else to rape or murder someone, it will be the destruction of the power that he has over mortal humans.

It will be the destruction of the glory in destroying the hopes and dreams of a nation or of an individual, the knowledge that life as he knew it would be over.

These spirits have no delusion of what the lake of fire is. It is not a place where men can get together with their friends, drink beer and play cards, while swapping hunting stories.

Wake up! You are dead and in a godforsaken place which is more horrific than any nightmare you have ever had, any horror story you have ever read or seen in the theatre, and throughout an unchanging eternity it will only get worse.

“I know who You are – the Holy One of God!” Mark 1:24b.

Never, ever believe anything these spirits say because they lie. This guy however, nailed the truth right to the synagogue wall; Jesus Christ is the Holy One of God.

Jesus Christ is God the Son and He did not come to destroy, He came to seek and to save that which was lost, giving His life a ransom for many that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

This is the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He holds His hand out to every man, woman, and child without exception that whosoever will come will become a child of the living God.

“We then, as workers together with Him [Jesus] also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:1-2.

Jesus, however, does not need the witness of an unclean spirit so He tells him, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when He rebuked this man’s tormentor by saying this, He silenced this lying spirit and with great authority cast the demon out.

It seems interesting to me that when the Lord casts out an unclean spirit, often they convulse their victim before leaving.

“And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.” Mark 1:26.

One might expect this from an exorcism performed by someone else, but it is baffling that they would do this when commanded to leave by the Creator. However, the account in Luke says that the man was not harmed.

“And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.” Luke 4:35b.

Luke calls this unclean spirit a demon, and so they are. Demons are fallen angels, created beings, they are not equal to God, they were created by Him as good angels until they decided to follow Satan in his rebellion against God.

“You [Satan] were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.” Ezekiel 28:15.

“And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon [Satan] having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars [angels] of heaven and threw them to the earth.” Revelation 12:3-4a.

“So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9.

It is thought by many that these verses indicate that 1/3 of the angels in heaven followed Satan in his rebellion against God. It is also true that Satan is the ruler of the demons/fallen angels.

“But when the Pharisees heard it [that people were starting to believe in Jesus] they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub [or Beelzebul], the ruler of the demons.’” Matthew 12:24.

Beelzebub is another name for Satan, who is called the ruler of the demons. The King James Bible calls him the prince of the devils, but whether it is prince or ruler, it all means the same thing, ruler, commander, chief, or leader.

So, to rephrase the Pharisees’ statement by substituting the name Satan for Beelzebub, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Satan, the ruler of the demons.” Matthew 12:24b.

Demons are spirit beings, as they are called in our study here in Mark 1:21-28, they are again called spirits in Mark 9:14-29.

“When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, ‘You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter him no more!’” Mark 9:25.

Again, it is confirmed above that demons are unclean spirits that can possess people and they can cause infirmities.

“And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, ‘It was never seen like this in Israel!’” Matthew 9:33.

“And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.” Luke 13:11.

After Jesus loosed this woman from her bondage, He said this.

“So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound – think of it – for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” Luke 13:16.

Demon, an Unclean Spirit, Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-29-14, updated on 4-19-24 ck.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.