Why Did Jesus Allow Demons to Possess Pigs?

Why did Jesus send demons into pigs? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us with your question at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

You might want to make a note of that number. You can call us actually anytime and leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day at 833-THE-CORE. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can check us out on YouTube and always email us your question.

Here's the email address. It's questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to John in St. Louis, Missouri. John, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hey, John, are you there?

I think we lost John. All right, let's go to an email question that we received from one of our listeners. This is from Linda, and she says, How do you know if you're struggling because God is testing you or because he's telling you not to go down a certain path?

Hmm, that's a great question. So one, well, what if God said in his word, what is his revealed will according to his law? Sometimes we do struggle because we break God's law. We're disciplined when we sin, and this is one of the wonderful things about the Lord. He doesn't just let us go down the wrong path in disobedience to his law without disciplining us as his children. This is something you see in the Old Testament, the New Testament, as well. But then sometimes we experience hardships in life, and we're not sure why we're experiencing them. It doesn't seem like we've done anything wrong.

What's going on here? Is it that the Lord is trying to teach us something? I think one passage of scripture that we can go to is the encouragement that James gives early on in the book of James. In James chapter one, he says in verse two, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Now, boy, what an encouragement there, a difficult encouragement there from James. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

They're going to come. I mean, you think of what Jesus said in John chapter 16. In this world, you will have tribulation. So if we're expecting life in the Christian life to be a life without trials, without tribulation, we're just wrong.

That's not true according to Jesus, not according to James. The question is, how do we respond to these things? And that's where we're called to perseverance, to faithfulness, to even joy, James says, because it is the testing of our faith that produces steadfastness. In other words, through the trial, God is working in you. He's shaping you more and more into the image of his son, Jesus, as we draw near to him. And so really a difficult encouragement there, but something we're called to. And so I guess I would just differentiate between those sort of trials that we experienced throughout life as Christians walking with the Lord and the discipline of the Lord that comes when we're disobedient to his word.

And so I think if you keep those two things in mind, that'll help to clarify for you what it is that you're experiencing in a given moment. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our callers.

This is Amy. I have a question as to when Jesus was dealing with the demon-possessed man and the one that had many legions in him, and he sent them into the pigs, I was just wondering why he would entertain them at all. And then once they went into the pigs, and the pigs died, where did they go? Yeah, it's such a strange story in the Gospels, right? I remember preaching through this text years ago when I was preaching through the Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter five, really verses one through 20.

And this is a guy who he really is in bad shape. We read early on in chapter five, verse one, they came to the other side of the sea, the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces.

No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day, among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, what have you to do with me? Jesus, Son of the Most High God, I adjure you by God, do not torment me. For he was saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And Jesus asked him, what is your name? And he replied, my name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, send us to the pigs, let us enter them. So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs.

And the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. Okay, I wanted to read that text, one, because it's kind of scary. I mean, you think about the description of this guy, but boy, just the compassion of our Lord Jesus here. Here's a guy who seems like he's totally beyond salvation. He's lost his mind. He lives in the graveyard, in the tombs.

He howls at the moon. He cuts himself with stones. People have tried to lock him up, to chain him up, and yet he breaks the chains. He has this superhuman strength. And yet when he sees Jesus, he falls down before him.

Wow. And you think of Jesus, the eternal son of God, with power, with authority, casting the demons out and sending them into the pigs. Now, why pigs?

Well, here's a guy with an unclean spirit. Pigs were this unclean animal. He sends them into the pigs, and then they go into the sea. And often in scripture, the sea is, I mean, here, this is a story, a historical account, but the sea throughout the Bible, in particular, in the sort of poetic books of scripture, even in the prophets as well, is this place of turmoil, this place of, you know, the sea is where the monsters live. So it's almost as if what's being depicted here is Jesus sending these demons into these unclean pigs and down into the sea, back from whence they came, the place of turmoil, the place of destruction.

And so I think that's some of the imagery that we are getting here. And the point is that Jesus delivers this man, that he redeems him, that he saves him, that there is hope for people no matter how far gone, and that hope is Jesus Christ. And so really, I think, an amazing story there and one which should encourage us to pray for the people around us. We think, man, that person is so far gone, they're never going to come to the Lord. Well, look at this story and look at what Jesus is able to do and pray with that kind of confidence. Lord, you're able.

We look to you. I've never looked at a ham sandwich the same ever since I read that particular story. Yeah, I just don't eat ham anymore, right?

Actually, that's not true. Give up bacon. So there you go. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's our phone number. If you want to leave us a voicemail with your question, it's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. We'd also like to invite you to join what we call our inner core. This is a very special group of people who believe strongly in what we do here at Core Christianity, and they support this program on a monthly basis. And we'd like to invite you to be part of that group.

Yeah. If you've been blessed by Core Christianity and if you want to support us and help us to continue to get the word out, you can join the inner core. We send every inner core member a copy of the book Core Christianity by Dr. Michael Horton, a wonderful theologian. You get into the deep core doctrines of the Christian faith that are going to help you in your walk with the Lord grow closer to Jesus.

And so we'll send that book to you. We sent up a number of other resources to our inner core members. I do a monthly video devotional that we send out to inner core members.

It's a monthly donation of $25 or more. It really helps us continue to get the word out. And so if you want to partner with us to that end, join the inner core. You can check it out at corechristianity.com forward slash inner core.

And you know what? We could really use some additional inner core members here. So if that's something you feel God might be leading you to do, go to our website corechristianity.com forward slash inner core to learn more. Let's go to Crystal in Beggs, Oklahoma.

Hi, Crystal. What's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, Pastor Adriel. So Proverbs 22 six says that if you train a child up in a way that he shall go, he shall not depart from it. And, you know, reading First Samuel, so I believe it's chapter eight, the Israelites came up to Prophet Samuel and said, Hey, we want a king to reign over us because your sons do not walk in your ways.

And I know that Prophet Samuel was a praying man for sure. So I'm just kind of wondering, I'm just kind of wondering, so how did that happen? And does that actually, in fact, happen to, you know, Christian folks in this day?

Crystal, just following up real quick. So you mean, you know, like, is there a contradiction here? Because Proverbs 22 says if you train up a child in the way he should go, he's not going to depart from it. And yet you seem, it seems like there are examples throughout the Bible in places like First Samuel, where just the opposite happens, where people receive godly instruction, but then they go astray.

Is that what you're asking? Yeah, because, you know, I really do believe that if you do train a child up in the way of the Lord, like, that's what I'm trying to do with my daughters. And, you know, I really have faith that they will not depart from it. But, you know, yeah, there's a contradiction there. So I was wondering, how did Samuel's sons actually not walk in his ways? Because I know Samuel was definitely a praying man. Yeah, great question.

And God bless you as you seek to love your daughter and teacher about Jesus. So first, when we're looking at the book of Proverbs, we're looking at wisdom literature. And you have these general principles that are true. And oftentimes you have these sort of short one-liners, you know, if you do this, this will happen.

If you don't do this, this will happen, good and bad, right? But you also have other proverbs. And you also have other books of the wisdom literature, which sort of, I think, are meant to be read together. So you have, like, these general principles in the book of Proverbs, do good and good happens. But then you also have other books in the wisdom literature, like the book of Ecclesiastes and the book of Job, where you have a guy who seemed like did a lot of really good things.

And yet really bad stuff happened to him. I'm thinking of Job, for example. And so the proverbs and proverbs, like Proverbs 22, verse 6, don't mean that it's just sort of this easy formula.

If you just do this, then this is going to happen 100% of the time, all the time. No, these are general wisdom principles. This is what we're called to. We do train our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We take them to church. We share the gospel with them. We live lives as followers of Christ that are going to be good examples, good models. And that really is the main thing in terms of helping pass the faith on to our children. But we know it's primarily and ultimately a work of the Holy Spirit.

And God uses us in that process, but that it really is a work of the Holy Spirit. There's a sociologist named Christian Smith. He just recently wrote a book on passing the faith down to our children. He said, look, the main thing, all the research is showing, parents, we have the primary influence on our children in terms of them being religious, that is them embracing these truths. And we don't want to, again, view it as this sort of formula.

We know that it's the Holy Spirit. But I think that's what's being emphasized in Proverbs 22, verse 6, is do your job as a parent. But I know a lot of parents who really served their children, none of us are perfect, took them to church. And later in life, their children aren't walking with the Lord or are really struggling in their faith. Is God a liar?

No, because again, this is just general principle wisdom literature. And so I think what we need to continue to do is be faithful to the Word of God, be faithful to teach our children, to call our children back to the truth that they maybe once professed if they've turned away, but to continue to set that example for them and to share the love of Jesus with them over and over again. And so no contradiction there, sister. And I think all the more when we see those stories, it should drive us to our knees to pray, to say, Lord, I've done my best, but I know I'm not a perfect parent. You need to intervene. You need to work in the heart of my son or in the heart of my daughter so that they might love and know your truth. And that's what we do.

We go to prayer and we set our eyes upon the Lord and ask Him to do the work that only He can do. Thanks, Crystal, for your question. Thank you, Crystal. We appreciate you and the fact that you are really trying to do your best to be a godly mother and raise your children in the Lord. That's wonderful in this day and age.

We really admire you for that. This is Core Christianity. Let's go to John in St. Louis, Missouri. John, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes, I'd like to ask you, I appreciate your show, but I'd like to ask you, Pastor, what is it referred to in Babylon as the Babylon or the harlot that seduces all the nations? Is that a prelude to the Antichrist coming into the, I mean, the person of the Antichrist coming? And second of all is when Jesus returns back with the saints and casts, what is it, the Antichrist into the lake of fire and then a false prophet, then Satan is released a thousand years after Christ reigns for a thousand years, and then he seduces the nations again to come up, you know, against Israel, against the kingdom of Israel. Is that already when Christ has already established his kingdom? Hey, got a few questions there. So first, with regard to Babylon, the harlot, you're referring to Revelation chapter 17.

Let me just read that text. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came and said to me, come and I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters. Remember just talking about waters and how they're sometimes used in scriptures as this picture of turmoil or nations, peoples, that's what's being referred to here in verse one. With whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk. And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery, Babylon the great mother of prostitutes and of the earth's abominations.

And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Now Babylon here is being used symbolically. Of course many years prior to this Babylon was the nation that came against God's people that led them into exile in captivity for a period of time. You think of the captivity that God's prophets even experienced there in Babylon.

You think of King Nebuchadnezzar. It is this picture of this worldwide power in Revelation 17. It's depicted as rich, luxurious, you know maybe on the outside it looks really beautiful, really powerful, decked out in the best clothes arrayed in purple and scarlet and yet there is immorality, adultery, idolatry. That's what characterizes Babylon here. So it's being used symbolically for this system, this government if you will, that persecutes the saints, that persecutes the church and comes against them.

It's really actually quite interesting. Peter when he writes in 1 Peter chapter 5 he talks about Rome as a sort of new Babylon. In 1 Peter chapter 5 when he's saying his farewell at the end of the book he says, she who is at Babylon verse 13 who is likewise chosen sends you greetings and so does Mark my son, greet one another with the kiss of love, peace to all who are in Christ Jesus. She who is at Babylon, theirs is probably a reference to the Roman Empire as this sort of new Babylon persecuting the saints. So we might say that Babylon in scripture stands for these great and powerful governments that are characterized by sexual immorality, by wealth, by riches but they make a stand against the people of God.

So throughout the history of the church you have had Babylon like kingdoms rise up and yet they all crumble as you say and ultimately will be done away with at the last day. Now in terms of the chronology you mentioned the binding of Satan. We're thinking then of Revelation chapter 20 just a few chapters later and there are a few different ways of looking at this the way I take it. Revelation 20 if you look at places like in the Gospel of John where Jesus says essentially that he's come to bind the evil one and that happens through his cross, through what he did, what he accomplished there on Calvary. So I would see Revelation 20 in the binding of Satan as this symbolic act that keeps Satan from deceiving the nations so that the Gospel can go out to the Gentile world which is what essentially happened immediately after Jesus' ascension. You know the Gospel is spreading from Jerusalem to Judea to the uttermost parts of the earth is what you see in the book of Acts. There are other ways of taking the binding of Satan but that's how I take it and so if you want to follow up feel free to give us another call.

Thank you for your question. A lot of these questions on end times end times in the book of Revelation so we love hearing from you. Thanks, John. Just a reminder we have a great Bible study on the book of Revelation. You can find that at our website corechristianity.com forward slash revelation.

Just a great study that will be really helpful to you. Again corechristianity.com forward slash revelation. Also a reminder that you can leave us a voicemail with your question 24 hours a day. Our phone lines are open.

Call us at 833 the core that's 1-833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail from Ethan in Minnesota. My question is from Romans chapter 2 verse 14 that says, For whenever Gentiles who do not possess the law do instinctively what the law requires, they are a law to themselves or unto themselves even though they do not have the law. I'm just curious what this verse means. Thank you very much.

Bye. Yeah, so in these early chapters of the book of Romans Paul is highlighting basically the fact that the entire world is under God's condemnation. Jews, because they've rejected his law, the law that was given to them, they don't live in line with the law.

This is something that is something that Paul highlights, but also Gentiles because they sin against the very law that's written on their hearts. You think of just conscience, the sort of natural law that everyone has. This knowledge of right and wrong, if you will. I was just talking to my neighbor last night.

We were able to have a conversation about the gospel and about this very thing. I was telling him, look, I don't have to teach my kids that there is something right and that there's something wrong. They know when my brother or sister takes something from me or hits me, I want to enforce justice. I want to hit them back or take something from them, sort of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or I'm going to go to mom or dad and tell on them because I've been hurt.

Something wrong has happened. I don't have to tell my kids that's wrong. They have this sort of sense of justice even from birth. That's part of what Paul is getting at here in Romans with regard to the Gentiles. The Jews sin with the law. God has given it to them.

He's revealed it to them very clearly. Gentiles sin against the law that's in their own hearts, their conscience. All have sinned then and fallen short of the glory of God. We're all justly condemned is what the Apostle Paul is highlighting there in Romans chapters one and two, even going as far as to say, look, even if they never hear the gospel, we get this question sometimes. What about people who never heard the gospel?

How are they going to be justly judged? He says in Romans chapter one, even people who haven't heard the gospel, they can see enough about who God is from creation, his divine attributes, his power, the fact that he is the creator. That knowledge in and of itself, that sense of God that they have through creation is enough to hold them accountable because we take that knowledge and what do we do with it? We suppress it, Paul says, in unrighteousness. We would rather instead of seeking the true God and worshiping the true God, we'd rather turn to creation and worship this world, money, success, power, relationships, trees, the stars, those kinds of things. You think of the pagan nations. It's this universal condemnation that Paul is highlighting here.

Why? So that he can lead us to the cross. He's saying, look, all of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone, Jew, Gentile alike is under God's just judgment and condemnation.

That's why we need the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's a transition point in chapter three in verse 21. He says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, he says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Jews and Gentiles, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So you can sort of see the argument as he's been making. Look, the gospel is central, but all of us have rejected God, his word, his revelation through creation. We've sinned, and so God sent his son into the world to redeem law breakers, to save people who didn't deserve it. And that's the point that the apostle Paul is making there in the early chapters of Genesis. We all know that there is a God.

We have this sense of God just through creation, and we're called to turn to the true and the living God through his son, Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.