{"id":15096,"date":"2024-09-21T16:25:08","date_gmt":"2024-09-21T21:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15096"},"modified":"2024-09-21T16:27:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-21T21:27:12","slug":"a-son-vs-the-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15096\/a-son-vs-the-son\/","title":{"rendered":"“A Son” vs “The Son”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

I have a question about this, from Matthew 8 (King James Version).<\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew 8:28\u201329 “And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.\u00a0\u00a0And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Jesus\u2019 true identity as God’s “fellow”\u00a0(above everything but God\u00a0Himself) was hidden from everyone and everything at the time, would the text from Matthew be an instance where a demon is declaring Jesus to be “a\u00a0Son of God” versus “the Son of God,”\u00a0even though it sounds like he is confessing the latter?\u00a0\u00a0The demon did accuse\/question Jesus about coming early to torment him, which sounds like it would be specific to Christ versus just one of many of God’s creations who might be called a son of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

As you may recall, Jerry, the phrase, “the Son of God” was used by the Jews of the time as a synonym for the Messiah.\u00a0 That is what the demons meant by that phrase.\u00a0 Everyone in heaven knew that Jesus was the Messiah and had no qualms about calling him the Son of God, and the angels in the sky did the night Jesus was born.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That is what made the Messiah distinct from the many “sons of God” in heaven, as mentioned in Job, chapter 1.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel like you have explained this before.\u00a0\u00a0I seem to recall now you saying that Jesus’ presence could provoke a demon to speak the truth even if it didn’t know what it was saying.\u00a0\u00a0(I believe that can happen right now on earth – with God’s saints who are full of the spirit.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Is that the case here?<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jerry<\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus’ powerful presence does bring out true confessions, and I am sure that played a part in some scenes such as you described.\u00a0 The powerful presence of God certainly moved the prophets to speak of things far beyond their understanding,\u00a0didn’t it?\u00a0 It even moved a donkey to reprove the prophet Balaam!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for the questions.\u00a0 I hope that helps.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us what you think:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/WitnessofSpirit\/status\/1837604311859069173<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John, I have a question about this, from Matthew 8 (King James Version). Matthew 8:28\u201329 “And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.\u00a0\u00a0And, behold, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15098,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15096\/revisions\/15098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}