The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by David Lee of Malaysia, from the tape GC 1301-N, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 16."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1981. All Rights Reserved.

Questioner

I was listening the other day to a pastor Fred Price from Crenshaw Christian Center, the church where I was saved at, and I had problems speaking in tongues, and I no longer attend there. He said that the reason why Michael the Archangel did not enter into an argument with Satan in disputing for Moses’ body was because angels are not given authority to bind Satan or to cast out demons or anything like that. So I wanted to know what are thoughts about that?

John MacArthur's Answer

Well, that whole thing about binding Satan to me is a lot of hocus pocus that I don’t understand to begin with. They keep talking about binding Satan, I don’t even understand what that means? That isn't even in the Scripture. The only time Satan is bound is in the thousand year millennium, and the Lord is going to do that. I don’t know where that came from. I don’t know who invented that.

But anyway, I think the reason that Scripture stresses that "Michael made not a railing accusation against Satan over Moses’ body," [Jude 1:9] was to point out to us, the seriousness of dealing with the devil. Michael has power over the devil, I believe that. I believe there was the demon in [the Book of] Daniel who was withstanding the holy angel and Michael came and just knocked that demon off and sent that angel on his way. So Michael can handle the situation. But I think that the point there that Jude is making in context is, you know where he says, we have to be careful when we deal with apostates because they are like brands snatched from the burning, and if we get too close we’ll be spotted by their filth? And I think he is saying, be very careful how you play around with that dimension, even Michael was careful not to get himself involved with Satan in an argument.

Now if Michael, who is super angel, who is the champion of all angels, who can handle Satan, you just read revelation 12 and you’ll see Michael can handle Satan, he can handle not only Satan but the whole of the demon host. But the point there that is being made is not that Satan is a match for Michael, but that Michael recognized the fearfulness of dealing with the devil, and it’s a warning to the believer to stay away from those things, which are the manifestation of the devil.

Whenever I see a Christian fooling around casting out demons and messing with Satan, that’s somebody in violation of that Scripture. You run around binding Satan, binding demons, you are actually violating that Scripture. All you need to do, no matter what the situation is, is to go to God. Don’t mess with the devil, mess with God. And God will take care of the devil.

It's like a guy on guard, he see the whole enemy coming, he doesn’t run out and fight the war, he goes and tells the commander, if he's got any sense. You don't stand up and say, "I bind you all!" What does that mean? That doesn't mean anything to them. I stood in that office up there one night and cast out demons for three hours until I was blue in the face and none of them went anywhere. And that girl [with the demon] kept kicking me until my legs were bleeding. All these demon voices were talking and I was sending them to the pit, I sent them everywhere…Phoenix, you name it! They didn’t go any place. I was dealing with the wrong thing and I learned that early in my ministry, about my third year here. I realized you go right to God and God takes care of those things.

So I’m worry about people constantly binding Satan and going around binding the devil and pleading the blood and so forth.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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