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Was Peter Demon Possessed? — 18 Comments

  1. Praise God. This further clarifies what Jesus meant when said he who loves his father or his mother more than Him was unworthy to receive the kingdom of God.Even our closest family member; like Peter can be used by Satan to sway our minds away from God and by so doing keep us from inheriting the kingdom of God.

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    • Yes indeed, Lyndah. And that is how it was in the beginning, wasn't it? Adam allowed his love for Eve to over-ride his love and loyalty for God. It was such a tragic episode, and the same thing is happening among Christians to this very day.

      Adam put her first...

      Adam "resolved to share her fate; and if she must die, then he would die with her." (PP 56.)

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  2. Yes, William, in reading your blog I was impressed that even Peter's human love for Jesus may have been used in such a way that Satan was able to get into his thinking process so as to cause him to try to get Jesus to shrink from his upcoming death and victory over Satan.

    Makes me wonder if I may have some selfishly (humanly) motivated desire that would divide me from the Will of God. Humans need to emulate Jesus when He said, "Not my will but Thy Will be done."

    "Watch and Pray" are the watch words of Jesus to His people. May the Holy Spirit always be my inspiration and motivation. May my selfishness be crucified with Christ.

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  3. To die to self as William brought out, is as described. In thinking about this, I ask us, me, how do we accomplish this, or is that a natural desire? How do many of us spend our time? We have obligations and other interests that perhaps
    consume an inordinate amount of time. Is this a problem that can be evidenced by some feeling of guilt? This AM I was thinking about the terrible scene of Jesus making His way to be crucified, and the treatment by a cruel, hateful, mob, that was inhumane. That kind of put thoughts at least for me, of wanting to die to self, more often.

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  4. Jesus' parable of the Rich man and Lazarus (spoken to people that believed in the immortality of the soul (Christ's Object Lessons p.263)), comes to mind.

    If one of our people were to present a lesson today, in which a number of dead people are having a conversation, and the presenter ends his lesson, without making any mention of actual "the state of the dead", would any of us come to the "rescue"?

    What might we have said or done, if we had been present on the day that Jesus delivered His lesson?

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    • I would say that the parable of the Richman and Lazarus is liberally sprinkled with metaphor, much like John the Revelator.

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  5. Jesus response to Peter gives evidence that Jesus' mission on earth was to save the lost, and this included even Peter his apostle who had unknowingly fallen into Satan's trap of interferring with the plan of salvation.

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  6. Peter's life reflects the life human beings, prone to mistakes. Thanks to God for His grace and willingness to forgive us if we repent in sincerity.

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  7. It makes sense that Peter's concern was out of "human" love. Much as some of us may condemn him, are we any better (NOTpossessed) when we evaluate how serious we are with matters of salvation - choosing between good and "small sins" like anger, road-rage, impatience with spouses/friends? Also, was Adam possessed when he abandoned God's command and received from Eve the forbidden fruit when he knew very well beforehand the consequences?

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  8. When Peter, who had declared Jesus as the Messiah suddenly began to command Jesus not to die on the cross to save humanity, it was no longer Peter who was in control but Satan. If Satan could convince Jesus to avoid the cross, then the plan of salvation would have been destroyed, and Jesus' mission would have failed. Like he did when he commanded the demons to come out of the men possessed with demons, Jesus was rebuking Satan to stop using Peter for his (Satan's) evil plan, and this was a powerful rebuke indeed.

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  9. "...So why was Satan using Peter to sway Jesus from dying? Because Satan knew that if Jesus died, his power would be destroyed. So he used someone close to Jesus to tempt Him."

    I'm sorry to say, Bro. Earnhardt, that as I looked diligently through commentaries, that I examined NO evidence of this statement. Peter's Love for Jesus guided his words. Proof that Peter's words were NOT guided by satan, was when Jesus further added: "For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." -(ESV). Jesus could have said: "For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of YOURSELF" (referring to satan). It's obvious here, that Jesus was speaking to Peter and not to satan. If satan WAS behind Peter's words, Jesus would have said so. joe.

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    • Joseph, sorry but I am having trouble understanding your words. The very fact that Jesus said "Get thee behind me Satan" shows those words were inspired by Satan and not Peter.

      As far as the Bible commentaries go, I did not realize that every idea we have must come from a Bible commentary.

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  10. Peter's words were simply based upon his Love for Jesus and so his words became EMOTIONAL. Jesus rebuked Peter for his emotional comment. To try and make this more than what it was, is conjecture.

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    • Of course I read what you wrote, otherwise I could not have responded as to what you wrote. Now as for your comment “As far as the Bible commentaries go, I did not realize that every idea we have must come from a Bible commentary.,” No one said that EVERY idea HAD to come from a Bible commentary.” I believe that the Holy Spirit leads us to understanding through prayer. However, Bible commentaries might be one way to “study to show thy approved,” even though I don’t ALWAYS agree with them.

      I will leave it at this, and end it. I believe that Peter not wanting Jesus to leave him to death on the cross, was based, once again, on his Love for Jesus. Case in point, I’m not suggesting that the other disciples did not Love Jesus as much as Peter did, but you will be hard pressed to find a disciple who showed such outward displays of affection, as Peter did. In Luke 5, after the first account of the catch of fish, Peter admits to Jesus, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man.” In Matthew 16 (what we just studied) when Jesus asked, “whom do people say that I am?,” Peter verbalizes when no other disciple does, by saying, “You are the Christ, Son of the Living God.” In Matthew 14, the Bible records that it is Peter that makes the request to follow Jesus in walking on the water, when it was recorded that no other disciple made that request. In John 18, when the soldiers motioned to seize Jesus, it was Peter’s sword that cut off the ear of one of the centurions. In John 21, Jesus reinstates Peter after his three time denial of Jesus, after Peter became distraught over what he had done. Finally, In the book of Acts, Peter was the apostle to lead the charge on the Christian Day of Pentecost.

      In conclusion, Jesus’ exclamation, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” I believe, was Jesus’ way of saying to Peter, God forbid, you may want the event of my dying the way you want it to be, but is not going to happen YOUR way, it is going to happen GOD’S Way. Were his words selfish, most definitely. However, I believe, as I’m sure Jesus believes, that Peter’s words were based upon LOVE, more than anything else. The Bible does not directly say this, so saying that Peter was in some way, demon-possessed, is a bit of a stretch.

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      • Joseph you wrote, "The Bible does not directly say this, so saying that Peter was in some way, demon-possessed, is a bit of a stretch." Had you actually read my post you would know that I was explaining exactly what you said. Peter was not demon possessed. That was my point.

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        • ....Yes I loved what you wrote for the most part, until I came to this:
          "...So why was Satan using Peter to sway Jesus from dying? Because Satan knew that if Jesus died, his power would be destroyed. So he used someone close to Jesus to tempt Him." This for me, is confusing. It seems as if you did a 180 on your position. If I am wrong, please explain. joe.

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          • Joseph, Ah, I see. Thank you for letting me explain. First of all, I am sorry for assuming you missed reading the entire post. Please forgive me. In Testimonies to the Church, Vol.1 Pages 308-309, Ellen White writes, "Instead of praying to God for strength to resist Satan, we suffer our happiness to be marred by trying to stand for what we term "our rights." Thus we allow Satan a double advantage. We act out our aggrieved feelings, and Satan uses us as his agents to wound and distress those who did not intend to injure us." Ellen White was not claiming that we are demon possessed when we do this. yet at the same time Satan uses our emotions to his advantage. So you are absolutely right Joseph. Peter was just being emotional and human. Nothing more nothing less. Yet Satan used that to his advantage to get to Jesus. Of course Jesus quickly resisted it because Satan had nothing in Jesus that responded to selfish ambition. So it may be with us when we die to self. Does this make senses? Thank you for staying with me on this one brother.

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  11. William, thanks for raising a thought provoking question which certainly made me ponder my own humanity! Apparently Scripture uses "demon" possession in a variety of ways that I would summarize as a range of brain-related conditions that are outside our Creator's will for humanity.
    -Mt 17:15,18 describes a boy with epilepsy ("lunatic" KJV) having Jesus "rebuke the demon"("devil" KJV) in the course of healing him.
    -Lk 8:27,29 describes a man we might today describe as "mentally ill", having "demons" ("devils" KJV), also described as an "unclean spirit" driving his behavior, set free from the terror of "Legion" (Lk 8:30) by his Creator (Lk 8:35)
    -Mk 1:23-26 records an individual (interestingly, in the synagogue on a sabbath (v.21) proclaiming truth that Jesus recognizes as actuated by an "unclean spirit" (similar to Acts 16:16-18).
    Mt 16:17,23 appears to be giving humans insight into the "principalities" (Eph 6:12) behind our thoughts, ideas, words and actions that we are ordinarily blissfully unaware of (Jer 17:9)!
    Despite the blasphemous words spoken by the Pharisees towards Jesus (Mt 9:34), He didn't argue against their concept that there is one who rules over demonic activities (Jn 14:30; 2 Cor 4:4; Mt 4:8-9). The uncomfortable closeness of Peter's high (generated by Christ's Father v.17) and low (generated by satan v.23) should give all readers of Scripture pause, as Peter's experience parallels the human experience described in Gal 5:17 and Rm 7:14-23. Were it not for the kind intervention of Peter's capable High Priest (Lk 22:31-32), he, like Paul (Rm 7:24), like us would be hopelessly condemned to a "wretched" reality. We would forever think, conceptualize, speak and act in ways offensive to our Creator (Gen 6:5-6; 8:21). Humanity's story can, and does, have a better ending (Heb 4:15; 1 Cor 15:57)!

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