Bible Contradiction? Who can cast out devils in the name of Jesus?

Within the last six months I’ve looked at some alleged Bible contradictions supposedly found in Luke 9.

• Did or did not the Samaritans receive Jesus?
• Burying and Saying Bye to Parents in Luke 9:59-62.
• Did Herod think Jesus was John the Baptist?

These are claims that are found online.  I find these claims to be problematic when one considers the context.

Today I want to consider another one: “Who can cast out devils in the name of Jesus?”

Here’s the claim from the skeptics:

Only the followers of Jesus can do it.

(It’s one of the signs of a true believer.)

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils. Mark 16:17

Others can do it, too.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.Matthew 7:21-23

And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. Mark 9:38

And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. Luke 9:49

I took a lot longer to post today because of research within the text itself as part of my response.  So here it is:

1. We must be precise of what is necessary for this to be truly a Bible contradiction.  Our skeptic must demonstrate two premises are taught in the Bible:
   1. Premise 1: Only the followers of Jesus can cast out demons.
   2. Premise 2: Non-followers of Jesus can cast out demons.
2. I have to state the above in point 1 since I don’t think the skeptic is able to argue that the Bible simultaneously teaches both premises when the verses utilized are read in context.
3. Mark 16:17 is the only Scripture the skeptic invoked to support premise 1.  But premise 1 is not supported by this verse.  Technically the verse did not say “only” believers.  This fact alone shows the claim of a Bible contradiction here is done away with.
4. There is one clear instance of someone who wasn’t genuinely a believer who was given authority to cast out demons:  Judas.
   1. He was among the original Twelve disciples.  According to Luke 9:1 Jesus “called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.‘”
   2. The Scriptures never singled Judas out as uniquely unable to cast out demons.  If Judas alone couldn’t cast out demons, we would expect this unusual phenomenon to catch the attention of the other twelve and the writers of the Gospels.
5. Concerning point 3 and 4, this does not mean that Scripture teaches it is alright to cast out demons without being genuine believers or it is alright with it being done inappropriately such as syncretism with the occult, etc.  We should not be surprised that when Scripture does talk about non-believers attempt to cast out demons, we also see discussion of the spiritual problems of those who cast out demons and those who have demons removed but still haven’t trusted in Christ.
   1. As an example of the former, Matthew 7:21-23 is very telling (a verse that our skeptic cited).  Note that Jesus in Matthew 7:23 did not dispute the false prophets’ claim of casting out demons, at least, that wasn’t the focus in Jesus’ response.
   2. As an example of the latter we see in Luke 11:24-27 that for the unbelievers who have had demons cast out, the demons can returned back seven-fold.  True believers will never be demon possessed because of their union with Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit.  But for nonbelievers there is no safeguard to protect the demons returning.
   3. In Acts 19:13-20 apparently the seven sons of Sceva must have been involved with the occult and appealed to Jesus’ name in occultic fashion in their exorcism since they were attacked by the demons according to verses 15 and 16 and that led the people to see the connection of this attack with the occult since they repented from their occultic practices in verses 17-20.  The fact that these seven sons were attacked and the people repented shows that the people took the name of Jesus seriously and thus became believers (v.17-18, 20).  Their reverence and fear for the name of Christ was the result of seeing what happened when the opposite was the case: that is, when the seven sons took the name of Christ lightly (a characteristic of unbelievers) and thus were followed by demonic attacks upon the seven sons.  The people who believed is in contrast with the seven sons and thus we conclude that the seven sons were not believing before the attack took place.
6. Thus far the alleged “contradiction” has been removed (see point 1-4).  But we must go on for the sake of doing justice to the context of the verses cited.  Luke 9:49 is invoked to support premise 2 that “Non-followers of Jesus can cast out demons.”  Luke 9:49 states “John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us.‘”  But Luke 9:49 can’t be cited by the skeptic as an example of where the Bible teaches that non-followers of Jesus can cast out demons.  The debate hinges upon what does “us” mean in the part that says “he does not follow along with us.”  While the “us” includes Jesus, however, it is not only Jesus that’s in view; it’s the views of the tweleve disciples/apostles (see Luke 9:1).  Contextually it seems that when John said “us” he was emphasizing more on following the twelve than on Jesus for the the following are reasons:
   1. Right before Luke 9:49 we see that this was taking place: “An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest” (Luke 9:46).  The disciples were driven by pride at this point.  Being the greatest means being “first” with others following behind.  Being the least would mean being last with others ahead of oneself.  Jesus knowing their pride corrects their attitude in Luke 9:47-48 with the use of a child as an illustration.
   2. Luke 9:49 then is related to what came before in that it is revealing another way the disciples were displaying their pride in the instance of John.  We must also note that within Luke 9 John is singled out as an example of the disciples “not getting it.”  This is seen later in Luke 9:54 where John asks Jesus to call down fire on the Samaritans which Jesus had to correct in Luke 9:55.  We are thus not surprised that what John said in Luke 9:49 reveals how he still didn’t get Jesus’ teaching against pride and being great.  The twelve were arguing among each other about being great and each of them presupposes the greatest was definitely among the twelve and not others the twelve afterall, they were the chosen ones by Jesus.  Then here comes someone who is not even among the twelve that can cast out demons and in light of events earlier in Luke 9:40 where the disciples couldn’t cast out demons, one can imagine the jealousy and envy among the twelve against this man.  Someone else was casting out demons and didn’t follow them.
   3. Remember there were other believers at this time as well besides the Twelve Apostles.  It could be possible that the other person casting demons was another follower of Jesus but weren’t following the Twelve Apostles who were pretty silly at this point in their ministry.  The twelve was competing with one another, how much more so would they have been condescending with other believers.   They were carnal at this point in Luke 9.
   4. In summary, the focus of Luke 9:49 is on the competitive heart of John and not on the issue of whether or not one has to be a believer to cast out demons.  Thus, for our skeptic friend to use this passage as an example of nonbelievers’ being able to cast out demons is problematic.
7. Since Mark 9:38 is a parallel of the events in Luke 9:49, the discussion in point 6 also applies.

I think our meme for this post speaks volumes to the Bible contradictions we have surveyed thus far.