If Americans Shouldn't Negotiate With Terrorists Why Did Jesus Negotiate With Demons?

All the demons begged him, saying,
"Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them."
At once Jesus gave them permission.
The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea,
and they were drowned in the sea.

See? Even Jesus negotiates.

Nah, that's the demons negotiating with Christ. He had all the power in that situation, lol.

reply to post by thisisnotaname

yeah well steven segal doesnt negotiate with terrorists in his movies
so why should we?

Because the USA is not Jesus and terrorists are not Satan.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! that is the best post ever. You should have been able to get away with the title.. To answer this.. Bacon. I blame bacon.. It is too delicious to not be evil. Jesus actually gave a gift to us. The demons thought they had us but no force is more powerful than the deliciousness force of bacon, Jesus wins.

reply to post by thisisnotaname


I think it was more mercy on Jesus' part, since the Demons were basically begging. Not exactly negotiation.

Also, what?

Originally posted by etombo
HAHAHAHAHA!!! that is the best post ever. You should have been able to get away with the title.. To answer this.. Bacon. I blame bacon.. It is too delicious to not be evil. Jesus actually gave a gift to us. The demons thought they had us but no force is more powerful than the deliciousness force of bacon, Jesus wins.

best post ever.....ok

reply to post by thisisnotaname


Perhaps i can shed some light on the subject...

12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

actually, it's simpler than that.
The demons beg "not to be thrown into the Abyss".
Jesus sent them into the pigs because, quite simply, it wasn't time for them to be thrown into the Abyss. That happens at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ on earth (the 'Millennium').
So it's not that the demons negotiated with Jesus, it's that they feared that their time of judgement had come.

It hadn't.

Originally posted by Lionhearte
reply to post by thisisnotaname

 

I think it was more mercy on Jesus' part, since the Demons were basically begging. Not exactly negotiation.

Also, what?

Now you MAY have some special christian version of science/logic, which can 'prove' the efficacity of modern exorcism. I say modern, because the exorcism-methods used by both catholics and protestants through their getting-rid-of-opposition campaigns were exceedingly ineffective.

This ineffectivity resulting in the need of torturing and burning opponents to 'clean' their souls.

*******

I've had some direct contact with one of the really big names in the 'aliens are demons' business, who also claimed that Jesus' name does the trick of exorcising 'demons'. Unfortunately my contact with him never reached any conclusion, as he increasingly concentrated on my spelling as part of his argument, and kind of forgot what the real issue was.

*******

So please, some more substantial evidence on how to get rid of 'negatives' (as us rational metaphysicists like to call them). Not just hearsay from your mythological manual.

Any kind of propaganda-manifesto can make the chest-beating claims you present here. That doesn't make it true.

Broadly in my interpretation here, Jesus sent the demons into the swine as proof that He had indeed performed a supernatural exorcism, and hadn't just put on some show of auto-suggestion.
Even back then there were probably many charlatans who performed pop-psychology exorcisms with people that were never really possessed.
Still today we find this behavior in many sects and cults, who eventually blame every personality foible, mood or disorder on demons, spirits or even alien entities. This causes more harm and hysteria than good.
Jesus here implies that a true exorcism has proof: the demons possessed the swine as He commanded,and all could see the proof, since animals cannot respond to instant auto-suggestion.

Not sure, but in many cultures water seems to have a cleansing or attracting energy on entities (depending on its spiritual charge), and elsewhere in the Gospels demons are said to pass through "dry places" before they re-possess the unrepentant 7 fold. So this may have extra significance.

Originally posted by thisisnotaname
All the demons begged him, saying,
"Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them."
At once Jesus gave them permission.
The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea,
and they were drowned in the sea.

See? Even Jesus negotiates.

Pause and think about it. Pigs are NOT kosher. The reason they were there was for sacrifice in the temple to zeus.

Interesting though, in that story the demons knew they would someday face judgment from Him. They were terrified of the Lord.

"You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe, and tremble."

James 2:19

If we compare demons to terrorists, and the US to Jesus, it can have some disturbing implications for those who believe good and evil are opposing dichotomies (rather than God being both capable and responsible for good and evil, and thereby being able to employ evil to manipulate mankind via the carrot or the stick).

Nelson Mandela and the ANC who rule SA today (to huge international applause for some reason) were on the list of the top ten terrorist organizations of the USA (technically I believe until 2008).
So today's terrorists are tomorrow's "noble freedom fighters" (or in the case of the Mujahadeen and Taliban - vice-versa).

Jesus was actually accused of being the chief of the demons.
To this He replied that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.
But was this a satisfactory retort and explanation?
Surely a pretense of division can be very helpful for a kingdom.

Mainstream religion also seems to have changed its mind several times since my youth.
The very beat of rock music was once said to attract demons, and even Christian rock was considered suspect or wrong.
Now Christian rock is a major element of evangelical media.
In line with foreign policy streams, Christianity changed its focus from New Ageism and Eastern spirituality to Islam as the major perceived threat to Judeo-Christian culture.

So what is demonic, or at least alarmingly demonic seems to change, just as former terrorists are suddenly manipulated into power and celebrated as angelic heroes.

Yeah.

2nd line.