THE FANATICALLY AND HARMFUL VIEWS JESUS HAD TOWARDS DEMONS AND POSSESSIONS
Regarding Jesus as exorcist we note:
The gospel of Mark accounts regarding his anti-demonic activities overrule any other source for it is the earliest.
Jesus orders his followers to exorcise too. None of them including him did this in a responsible way. They just checked if a person was sick and supposed to be possessed and that was enough.
Jesus had a loophole for failed exorcisms: "Demons come back or stay if you are possessed and don't really want them to go." He used the image of demons returning to a person and finding the house swept and ready.
Failed exorcisms are not mentioned.
Exorcisms should have been private but Jesus wanted the fame. He did them on the busy streets.
The idea that Jesus was the Messiah and holy son of God was first declared by demons if Mark is to be believed.
Incredibly Jesus lets them speak and then silences them. This is not the act of one who is trying to be discreet about who he is. It is very faked.
Against the superstition that a mere mention of Jesus or a crucifix can chase demons away, we have demons calling him Jesus and challenging him. They do not run at the sight of him. If demons really did control you, they would have you out the front door if a true exorcist calls around. That they do not tells us that something is happening and it is not real demons.
The analysis below argues that the tradition of demons declaring Jesus to be God's son and Messiah is too strong to be just dismissed as an invention by the early Church. Demons would be necessarily unreliable so why do the gospels even care what they say? Yet they care.
The analysis also says that the story itself makes no sense. Now it complains that if you say the stories are legends, the problem is you have no way to trace the legendary development and explain it. But we don't have to. We do not see what documents or stories preceded Mark. And there is nothing wrong with looking at something and seeing it is legend. It is nice if you can show how it developed but it is not a huge thing if you cannot.
The gospel story says Jesus raged against the Jewish leaders when they said his exorcisms were demonic deceptions themselves. Yet you cannot blame them. There is that and also the fact that Jesus was trying to scare them into silence. He told them that whoever says demons are doing his exorcisms or making it look like they are real exorcisms when they are not that they faced something unimaginably terrible. He told them they lose God forever for they have committed an eternal unforgiveable sin. That is your answer then if you want to explain the success of the legend of Jesus' exorcisms. People were bullied.
He argued that Satan cannot put Satan out but that presumes the demons were obedient to Satan. And that Satan would not put demons out if ejecting them fitted a plan to allow something worse to happen. And that demons really have to possess people instead of merely trying to induce them into sin! What use is a body that is not yours anyway? He gives no reason for why a demon wants and needs to inhabit a human body.
