The Strand Study Bible

MARK MARK could not have died anywhere but at Calvary (Gen 22:1-8).Their problem is much like our own today –we have little understanding or trust in the Scriptures ( how is it that ye have no faith? ). 5:1 According to The New Testament and Wycliffe Bible Commentary : 1582

Greek manuscripts are divided among three names here – Gadarenes, Gerasenes, and Gergesenes. The best evidence favors Gerasenes, a term which some have taken to refer to the well-known Gerasa (called Kersa), twenty miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee. 1

5:6 As soon as Jesus came ashore, these demons felt the power of His presence ( and worshipped him ). James 2:19 says, “ Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble .” Every angel, good or bad, knows full well who Jesus is –his Creator! 5:7 The torment of which the demons spoke is the final punishment for the Devil and his demons before Jesus' GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT begins (Rev 20:10). 5:9 A legion (3,000 to 6,000 strong) was the largest unit in the Roman army. 5:13 Notice that Jesus did not command the demons to enter the swine; He allowed them ( And forthwith Jesus gave them leave ). It was the demons, not Jesus, who caused the damage. The fact that Jesus permitted the act makes Him no more responsible than God is responsible for evil of any kind because He permits it (Job 1:12 & 2:6-7). The question is not, “How can a holy and loving God allow evil?” As a holy and perfect Being, God is incapable of evil, and He cannot cause evil. James 1:13 says: Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man : Creating self-willed creatures with the capacity to choose to sin is not the same as creating sin. Therefore, the question is not, “ How can a holy and loving God allow evil, as if He’s in any way responsible for evil?” The question is, “ Why would a holy and loving God allow evil?” The question of God and evil goes to the heart of free will ( Gen 2:9 & 2:17 a ). Simply put, evil exists because of free will. If evil did not exist, we would not have free will. We would be creatures with no choice but to do well. God did not want beings that loved Him because they had no choice. He wanted beings that loved Him voluntarily (of their own free will). Thus, evil exists because God loved us enough to give us freedom of choice. Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz, in Bible Answers to Life’s Big Questions , note: If there’s no God, what’s the alternative? The alternative is that we still have evil, but in the end there’s no hope. When death happens, that’s it. Game over. Nothing. But with God in the picture, we have hope. Hope that one day God will deal with evil, and we will spend eternity with God in absolute glory and perfection, with no evil and no suffering and no pain (Revelation 21:3-4). 2 Because God is just and righteous (Gen 18:25), He is going to do something about evil. According to His own Word, He is going to judge it. 5:15 When people are right with God they "cover their nakedness" ( clothed ), not expose it (Gen 9:21 and Exo 32:25). 5:17 You would have thought that the people of that area would have been glad for the man who had just been released from demon possession. Sadly however, humanity tends to think far more of worldly loss than of spiritual gain ( And they began to pray him to depart - Rev 18:9-19). 5:25 Ray Comfort, author of The Evidence Bible , came up with an excellent point concerning this woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years. He notes: Platelets (which release proteins called “clotting factors” at the site of a cut) play an important role in preventing the loss of blood (i.e., hemorrhaging) by beginning a chain reaction that results in blood clotting. As blood begins to flow from a gash or wound, platelets respond to help the blood clot and to stop the bleeding after a short time. Platelets promote the clotting process by clumping together and forming a plug at the site of a wound. These proteins start a series of chemical reactions that are extremely complicated… To form a blood clot there must be 12 specific individual chemical reactions in our blood. If evolution is true, and if this 12-step process didn’t happen in the first generation, no creatures would have survived. They all would have bled to death! 3 Chandra Wickramasinghe, Professor & Chairman of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy at the University College in Wales, notes:

Precious little in the way of biochemical evolution could have happened on earth. If one counts the number of trial assemblies of amino acids that are needed to give rise to the enzymes, the probability of their discovery by random shufflings turns out to be less than 1 in 10 40 , 000 . 4

1 The New Testament and Wycliffe Bible Commentary . New York, NY, The Iversen Associates. 1971. Print. 2 Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz. Bible Answers to Life’s Big Questions , Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2006. Print. 3 Comfort, Ray. The Evidence Bible , Gainesville, FL, Bridge-Logos Pub. 2001. Print. 4 Wickramasinghe, Chandra. " Where Microbes Went Boldly ." New Scientist 91(1991): 412-415. Print.