Abshalom writes:
Why was Jesus visiting a bunch of heathen hog farmers when there were still good observant Jews to convert to his new religion? I’ll bet that was disconcerting to Brother James.
the accounts dont really say that he was there to visit hog farmers...they were travelling all around the territory preaching and in this case they boarded a boat and went to 'the other side'. Thats all it says. Perhaps the 'other side' just happened to be this particular field where they would have to travel thru to get to the city.
Abshalom writes:
Why did it take 2000 pigs to host the demons inhabiting one man
when Jesus asked the demon its name, its reply was Mark 5:9"But he began to ask him: 'What is your name?' And he said to him: "My name is Legion, because there are many of us."
who knows how all those many demons inhabited the man?? But it seems that they can inhabit a person in multiples or singularly.
Abshalom writes:
Why would Jesus do this work that resulted in the despoiling of the Sea of Galilee by 2000 bloated, rotting hog carcasses? And since he came to fulfill the entire Law, not one jot or diddle less, why would he cause someone to make themselves ritually unclean by carrying off the foul hog carcasses?
Wouldnt the carcass of any animal that ended up dead in the water be eaten by sharks and other fish and even birds?
Also, Jesus cannot be held accountable for what the demons may have done themselves. And if the people who were farming them were Jews, then they were already ritually unclean (if thats the case then it could explain why Jesus did not object to sending the Demons into the herd) However, if they were not jews, the mosaic law would not have applied to them anyway.
Abshalom writes:
why would Jesus honor the wishes and pleadings of the demons to inhabit the pigs rather than casting them directly back into the Abyss of Hell in the first place?
Probably for the same reason that he did not restore the kingdom of God to the Jews when he was on the earth.
Look at what the demons said in vs 29"And, look! they screamed, saying: "What have we to do with you, Son of God? Did you come here to torment us
before the appointed time?"
Jesus was working to Gods timetable, not his own. Also look at what the Jude wrote in Jude Vs6"And the angels that did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place he has reserved with eternal bonds under dense darkness
for the judgment of the great day"
There will be a day when the demons will be put into the abyss, but that time was to be in the future and at Gods direction.
™ Version 4.2
