Mark 3.23-26, Matthew 12.24-30, Luke 11.17-18.
Jesus was in the habit of ignoring
Pharisees who legitimately tried to follow God, easily
So Pharisees had nothing. But it looks like the Galilean Pharisees decided to pick the brains of Judean Pharisees, who came up with the explanation, “He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.”
In response, Jesus told this parable.
Mark 3.23-26 KWL - 23 Jesus, summoning them,
- is telling them in parables,
- “How can Satan throw out Satan?
- 24 When a kingdom is divided against itself,
- that kingdom can’t stand.
- 25 When a house is divided against itself,
- that house can’t stand.
- 26 And if Satan rises up against itself and is divided,
- it can’t stand. Instead it’s the End.”
Can Satan overthrow Satan?
In the Mark version of this parable, Jesus caps it with the statement, “Instead it’s the End”—
This is actually an
I know; in all the wacky End Times scenarios Christian prognosticators have invented, not one of us figures on a battle between Satan and itself. The closest some of us have come to is a Battle of Armageddon scenario; some future World War 3 (or World War 4, at this rate) which takes place in Israel, where the Beast marshals the world’s armies to fight Israel, but loses ’cause Jesus picks right then to have
Look, the main reason Satan’s never successfully taken over the world, is because it does chaos, not order. It sucks at order. We humans are barely capable of it ourselves; we keep making it all micromanagerial and totalitarian. I used to joke the best example of Satan fighting Satan was when the Nazis fought the Soviets during World War 2, but I now figure Satan fighting Satan looks way more like libertines fighting libertarians. Chaotic people fighting other chaotic people.
There’s a lot of this chaos evident in pagan mythology’s End Times scenarios. In most of their creation myths, the world was established only after the gods all fought one another. One of ’em came out on top (and frequently formed the earth out of the corpses of his enemies; ewww) and became king of all gods. In Baalism, this god would be Baal; in the Greco-Roman religion, this’d be Zeus or Jupiter; in the Norse religion this’d be Odin. But pagan mythologies regularly taught this battle was never gonna be the last battle. Kronos overthrew Uranus, Zeus overthrew Kronos, and if Zeus became any more of a jerk, someday one of his kids would overthrow him. Odin overthrew Ymir, and one day would be overthrown by Fenrir. The pagans always foretold a future of chaos, destruction, disaster… and especially for us humans, ’cause pagans feared we’d be trampled underfoot in this war of the gods. It’s the End.
Okay, we Christians (and the Pharisees) understand the End Times way differently. Most Evangelicals believe in
Well anyway. Pagan mythology or revelation, the results are essentially the same: If Satan’s fighting itself, its end has come. But you realize if Jesus is fighting Satan—and winning—its end has also come.
Matthew and Luke’s variants.
In the other synoptic gospels, Jesus says a little bit more; some stuff about God’s kingdom going over the Pharisees’ heads. Here ya go.
Matthew 12.25-28 KWL - 25 Jesus, who knew their reasoning, tells them,
- “Every kingdom divided against itself is ruined.
- Every city or house divided against itself can’t stand.
- 26 If Satan throws out Satan,
- it’s divided against itself.
- So how will its kingdom stand?
- 27 If I throw out demons by Baal Zevúl,
- by whom do your sons throw them out?
- This is why they’ll critique you.
- 28 If I throw out demons by God’s Spirit,
- then God’s kingdom goes right over your head.”
Luke 11.17-20 KWL - 17 Jesus, who knew their thoughts, tells them,
- “Every kingdom split against itself is laid waste,
- and house falls upon house.
- 18 If Satan splits against itself,
- how will its kingdom stand?
- —for you say I throw out demons by Baal Zevúl.
- 19 If I throw out demons by Baal Zevúl,
- by whom do your sons throw them out?
- This is why they’ll critique you.
- 20 If I throw out demons by God’s finger,
- then God’s kingdom goes right over your head.”
The word
It goes to show how completely blind these guys were to the Holy Spirit’s activity. All because you had a Messiah who didn’t look and act like you expected, and an End Times timeline which wasn’t at all going as you’d calculated. You do realize these are the very same problems certain Evangelicals are gonna have when Jesus returns, right?
