The strong man bound

Mar 3:27 No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.



What good news indeed, that we sinners are considered goods and treasures in God's eye whom God wanted rescued from Satan's house(world), We have been translated out of this world into the kingdom of the Son, from darkness into the light.



Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.



What first appeared to be a defeat for Christ with the principalities and powers crucifying Him, instead it was actually a great victory achieved by God where He triumphed, He bore the curse of the law upon himself, He nailed our legal obligations to the cross, and our debt is now paid in full.



Yet the world, those in darkness still reject Jesus and the free gift of life offered to all, they still choose the strong man to follow and want him unbound, We have a parable or a picture in the man Barabbas the name means son of the abyss, he was a insurrectionist he wanted to overthrow Roman rule, and return rule to Israel, to bring in the prophesied messianic kingdom through physical force as many wrongly interpreted scripture and wrongly assumed this was God's prophesied plan, therefore Jesus to them was contrary to their idea of a saviour, the saviour was meant to conquer the world and set Israel up as the head nation, yet not to us believers for us he was talking about a spiritual kingdom, we are a spiritual people with a heavenly inheritance we don't care about the world, or in the coming physical kingdom.



The ungodly have love of self, and their desire is for physical blessings, and we can see this play out with Pilate, he offered the people Barabbas or Jesus and their desire was for Barrabas (the son of the abyss)they wanted him released from his bonds to be released out of his prison and to have his execution stayed, to become their messiah to bring in the rule of Israel and the messianic kingdom...





Luk 23:18 And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:

Luk 23:19 (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.)

Luk 23:24 And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.

Luk 23:25 And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will.



The choice is of extreme characteristics for It seems obvious to us yet not people who must be in darkness for example in John 10:10 the two choices are highlighted between the destroyer: Apollyon or the life giver: Jesus ,verse :10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.



The people desired and demanded Barabbas be released, Barabbas controlled by Satan trying to take the place of the Messiah so he could continue to rule the earth, he was a murderer, a destroyer as he is also elsewhere described as the one who kills and destroys and the people rejected Jesus the prince of peace and demanded Him crucified..




Fast forward 2000 yrs and the picture comes into full focus, God will again soon give the ungodly want they want. The son of the abyss released from his prison.


The Antichrist is the first beast that rises up out of the sea(nations/peoples) and is a man, and we also see in the imagery of Rev 13 he will be a ruler over the earth(the seventh head), then we have the second beast who is Satan released from the abyss/pit/earth. (the eighth head)


Rev 13:11-14 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.


The strong man was bound at the cross, and will soon be released for a short time, and people's desire will be for him, even Israel(not the remnant who will choose the prince of life) will follow him until he does a u-turn to wipe Israel off the map.


He will unite the world and will bring nations up against Israel, he will then be bound again for another 1000yrs and will be released a second time and will perform the same role again, after the 1000yr period which will obviously have physical blessings galore, with the age of people living similar to pre-flood, as people who die at 100 will be considered young. We can see the world has already rejected Christ in the messianic period again as they are ready to once again attack Israel.


I won't go into it to much, but the spiritual blessings we believers have today are everything we need we have joy, peace, contentment, assurance etc, God set the world up as temporary and our bodies are temporary the sooner I leave it and receive my new perfected body the better, I really think this age is the better choice of ages to be in, not that its a choice or that it matters. But it is one of the reasons why I love Ch 15 of first Corinthians


1Cor 15:42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[f]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

Christ totally defeated Satan at the cross, removed him as ruler of the earth, he took care of sin, and swallowed up death in victory so that we may have eternal life, victory is also ours and all the blessings associated with it.

1Cor 15:57 but thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ

Hmm. That’s one way to look at it. Most of us view this scripture as if we are the strongman and if we are bound up with a sin, then Satan can come and plunder our family.

If you sort of do this and look at the context of what is happening and what he’s saying

“And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.

(hes responding to what they said about him in a parabolic form )

No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.



Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭3:22-30‬ ‭KJV‬‬

He was doing these miraculous things by Gods spirit and they were saying he was operating by a devils spirit is what he’s addressing

note he makes the point in response “ Satan wouldn’t be unbinding people and saving them healing them , he’s not working against himself “ then he gives the point that he’s overcome Satan and his power and is healing and doing all these miracles by gods spirit not the spirit of a devil

they made a false claim about Jesus and the power in him claiming it was of Satan and not God in rebellion still against him the context is within the parables he’s telling them

Actually Clayman has it right.

My understanding: The strong man is Satan.

So mine is wrong? Is his the only right interpretation? 🤔

Apparently, this is meant to be a treatise against any opposition to the Left Behind ideology.

Yes! Very good. Agreed.

I know others relate calling Christ or even the Holy spirit casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub as the unforgivable sin, but I relate the scribes to the same thing the devils had done, they rejected God come in the flesh, rejected Jesus who humbled himself to the point of becoming a man, lower than the angels, I know people find it weird that I have the angels sinning at the time the Lord vacated his throne in heaven to walk on this earth as a man, but to me it makes sense and lines up with all scripture.

So I rightly or wrongly see the rejection of Jesus Christ as the unpardonable sin, everything else to me we can repent from, of course not knowing Jesus and rejecting Him is different to knowing Him and rejecting Him, and yes that means I don't see angels as fallen beings and the war in heaven until about 2000yrs ago. When the God/man is finally revealed. And likewise the scribes have just witnessed the One coming fulfilling all the scripture yet they are deliberately rejecting Him as well.

Nah bro, I get things wrong and will see it.... eventually

Not my intention, but intuitive for sure

Mat 12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
Mat 12:29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
Mat 12:30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.

Christ in no way said satan was bound and locked in a prison in this parable. Christ is speaking about how to steal from a strong man, and that is by binding him. In this situation the evil spirit/spirits are the strong man being bound. Instead of having material goods taken from them, it is their freedom and temporary home which Christ takes away. They are the strong man who has taken possession of a dwelling in which they don't belong. They were stronger than the one they dwelled in and thus someone spiritually stronger must cast these intruders out.

And contrary to the notion that satan was bound in a prison in this parable, Christ tells us instead that satan will be coming after the cross as the ruler of the world, not a bound prisoner in it.

Joh_14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

He is freely roaming around:

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

You did a lot of work on that. Very good 👍

I sort of go with the traditional understanding that the strong man is Satan and his house is the world for he is the ruler of it. So the goods in Jesus eyes are people as he desires all to come to Him and to have life, he will be lifted up to draw all people to himself etc. But I do appreciate alternative views put forth to see if our own view holds up to the litmus test.

The problem I have in getting my head around this is the fact we have gone from the singular to the plural, we are now looking at strong men not a strong man, and its not one house now, and we are now looking at houses and I presume the houses are who you see as all the people demon possessed.

Also If Christ the even stronger man comes and binds the spirits, what does he actually plunder, in my view of the parable the plundered people become recipients of salvation for they are removed from Satan's kingdom to Christs kingdom.


You say Satan will be coming after the cross as ruler of the world then you quote a verse, about Jesus on His way to the cross, His betrayal, the prayer in the garden where he asks if it possible for this cup to be taken from Him, Jesus was going to go through a very testing time, where He has just told the disciples He is going to leave them, and hence the verse that the ruler of this world Has nothing in Him, meaning His only desire and will is to walk in obedience and to do the will of the Father.

Great verse, have you noticed how when people quote verses in isolation its as if we all must immediately see and understand the correct context and meaning yet the funny thing with the bible is it always presents apparent contradictions that more often than not leads to deeper study.

Here's how I see it, if a neutral person reads the bible for the first time, he is going to read the gospel accounts where Satan is the strong man and it appears he is now bound, then he is going to read 1Pet 5:8 and go hold on, it now appears he is not bound then as with the case on so many other topics of the bible that its common to present for an apparent contradiction to be presented, we know God does this on purpose where one example has another meaning other than the apparent obvious.

You have changed the meaning of the strong man to not mean literally being bound and
And I have changed the meaning of Satan not literally roaming around devouring people.

Of course we will both argue we haven't changed anything and that we are in agreeance with what is written. So I guess we both have to explain how we see things to convince the other if you want to?

Ill make this quick, but ill come back and explain more if you want me too.

I see Satan as the ultimate pattern for sin including pride, to me when I read 1Pet5:8 it convinces me more that Satan is indeed bound, fore he is used metaphorically here, you cant have a metaphor used in conjunction with a literal object that is just confusing. So to me Peter is well aware the devil is bound and uses him this way because he knows(presumes) his readers are also aware the strong man is now bound.

Ill just quote more of the chapter for context notice that humility is the context.

1Pet 5:5-10 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Just a quick example, say a man in his 40's has been regularly attending a church and through growth in the Word has come to the realisation that the drinking and feasting after the service in the name of fellowship is leading to all sorts of problems including lewd talking and drunkenness let alone all the doctrinal error(please insert your pet peeve here) so he has decided to leave this church even though it has great standing in the community to go to the little conservative church a few streets over, however before he resigns from fellowship, he has been told he is going to be made an elder with an ordination and the works for his outstanding contribution to the church.

The man instantly realises all the benefits he is about to receive, the honor not only in the church but in the community and decides the faults he is becoming aware of are no longer faults and he accepts and adopts and promotes the doctrines and behaviour of his now beloved church.

This man has let the sin of pride into his life, he has been devoured by Satan/sin/self meaning he has followed the same mistake Satan has and the love of the world and the pleasures of it are more than the love of God, and he will most likely keep waxing worse and worse.

Probably not the best example but the point is Satan or sin can devour people without literally being in the same room literally eating them at the dinner table. We have to be alert not for a lion in the bushes but alert to our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities we have to put God first and self second, this should be a constant reminder to ourselves through constant reading and building one another up in Godly fellowship.

Anyway If I have the wrong end of stick please by all means show me how 1Pet 5:8 is talking literally about Satan where his hand is actively physically involved to prove he is not bound, I mean do you know anyone who has been devoured by Satan can you tell me what happened?

Honestly the last time someone someone tried to explain to me how it is literally Satan, they stopped halfway through, I'm sure it was when they realised the example they were giving was going to be metaphoric for sin and that the example could also have Satan indeed bound and out of the picture.

Those who are unsaved still walk in darkness, they have the same propensity to sin as Satan because by default the spirit of antichrist was in them/us the same spirit that Satan had, if not for the grace of God, and by His mercy we had a chance to respond to the light to the calling of God and are now alive in Christ.

Eph 2:1-2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.