The Kingdom of God Will Come Like a Thief in the Night

Michael Conquers Satan by Guido Reni, in Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome, 1636

I have recently finished reading the New Testament again, primarily to prove a point to a friend who says that the Devil is barely mentioned and Hell is never mentioned at all in the New Testament, save in Revelations. To all of which I said, “Bullshit!” To add to that, he says that demonic possession was only treated in the New Testament as a metaphor for diseases (bullshit!)—because Jesus cast the flu out into the swine… yeah, that’s what he meant. No, sad to say, no matter how much modern Christians and New Agers think of the reality of (or lack thereof) evil, demons, the Devil, and eternal damnation, it was very real to the writers of the Gospels and epistles, and a thorough read of the New Testament will yield such an understanding.

But while I was rereading the Gospels and epistles a few passages and parables struck me as being quite peculiar, especially for Jesus to say. No, I do not mean things like “He who does not hate his mother and father cannot follow me” or “resist not evil” or even when he calls Peter “Satan” or when he starts flipping tables in the Temple. Rather the passages that strike me belong to the parable of tying up a strong man to plunder his property, found in Matthew 12:29, Mark 3:27, and Luke 11:21-22:

“But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.”

—Mark 3:27

In each instance of this parable Jesus uses it as a conclusion to how he can cast out demons. The Pharisees accuse Jesus of being able to cast our demons with the assistance of Beelzebub, the ruler of demons (i.e. Satan). To which Jesus retorts that Satan cannot cast out himself, for then he would stand as a house divided, and a divided house cannot stand. Jesus claims that through the power of Spirit of God he can cast out demons.

But it does not follow well that in order to steal from a strong man (i.e. Satan) Jesus must tie up Satan to steal his property… what property? Not the demons. The demons are cast out, not pilfered. Nor does it seem reasonable that Satan must be tied up to exorcise demons from human victims, for Jesus does not ever seem to need to do this when performing an exorcism. Rather it seems another parable of thieves gives us better insight into what Jesus meant: that the Kingdom of God will come like a thief in the night:

“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

—Matthew 24:42-44

“For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

—I Thessalonians 5:2

The notion here is that the Kingdom of God (i.e the new eon of righteousness and holiness) will come at an unspecified time and date, but it was presumed two-thousand years ago that it was going to be very soon. It comes and cast down the wicked, and holiness will finally reign supreme. It is abundantly clear that writers of the New Testament regarded their time as an age of evil. Even Jesus calls the people of his time an “evil generation” (Matthew 12:39, 16:4; Luke 11:29). Thus this world is the Kingdom of Satan. Satan is referred to in The Gospel of John as being the “ruler of this world” (12:31, 14:30), and that he will be driven out of this world. Paul also took up this notion that Satan is the Lord of this World in II Corinthians 4:4 (“god of this world”). The basic notion implied here that since the world is sinful, the Pharisees are corrupt, government officials are wicked, and many are possessed by demons, then this is Satan’s world. But Jesus’s promise is that when he returns he will put down the power of Satan and bring the Kingdom of God.

It seems that Jesus’s primary occupation was to exorcise demons in the efforts to put down the rule of Satan in this world, for he even gave his apostles the same power. Along with demonstrating the power of the Holy Spirit, cleansing people of their sins with baptism, and preaching the Word of God, it seems that just in his life time Jesus made a huge dent in Satan’s power. Then by his own sacrifice he offered the way to salvation from death and sin (i.e. eternal life and forgiveness of sins), both of which assisted Satan’s dominion over people and were now taken from him.

Even though Satan’s power has been crippled, he still holds some power in this world. Why Christ’s sacrifice did not total destroy the Devil and why the Devil still wields his wickedness has been a problem for Christian theologians since 1^st Century AD. And why does Christ have to return to completely annihilate the Lord of this World has been equally troublesome. And when the Kingdom of God will come became a point of anxiety for many of the early Church fathers. Perhaps this is why John says that Satan will be put down for a thousand years, and then return with full might so that he may finally be put away forever (Revelations 20), and Death and Hell may, too, finally die. Then everyone waited a thousand years and still the world was corrupt and wicked, and even waiting another thousand years has yielded little. So when will the Kingdom of God come? Since we do not know and cannot know, it is not our concern, at least for this discussion.

What is curious in Revelations 20 is that Death and Hell will give up their dead and the righteous (those found in the Book of Life) will have eternal life (20:13-15). A similar notion of the righteous being raised from the dead is to be found in The Gospel of Matthew: after Jesus perishes on the cross the saints (i.e. the righteous) come out of their tombs as if they had only been asleep (27:52).

In the early years of Christianity there was hardly any consistency between groups of Christians, much less orthodoxy. There were a variety of books floating around, many of which were never canonized into The Bible. These other non-canonical books became known as the “Apocrypha.” Among the Christian Apocrypha (for there is also Judaic and Christian-Judaic Apocrypha) is The Gospel of Nicodemus (or The Acts of Pilates), which was a very popular work among early Christians (it was not canonized because of its controversial subject matter, and if Revelations is the dividing line of what is acceptable, one can only imagine what The Gospel of Nicodemus holds in store).  In Part II of Nicodemus (not originally a part of Nicodemus, but added sometime later) a few of those saved from Hell attest that Christ came down to Hell, commanded the gates to be opened, and Satan and his demons grew fearful. After some contention with Satan and his demons Christ takes the righteous, including Adam and David, out of Hell with him and leaves Satan confused and destitute. This scene is best known as the “Harrowing of Hell.”

While Nicodemus was not canonized, the Harrowing of Hell became accepted into orthodox Christianity, and found favor with many early Church fathers, such as Irenaeus and Augustine.

And though Nicodemus had not been written for almost three centuries after the composing of the Gospels, the idea that Christ descended into Hell was a prevalent idea, even in canonical New Testment writings. Matthew 12:40 says, “… for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.” And Romans 10:7 says, “or ‘Who will descent into the abyss?’ (this is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” And in Ephesians 4:9, “When it says, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?”

The idea at hand here is that the Devil rules the underworld and the dead, for it is by the sin of Adam and Eve that death came into this world, and so through sin and death Satan reigns over the dead regardless of anyone’s righteousness or wickedness. Christ is God in the flesh, so upon his death he must enter the realm of the dead, Satan’s rule. But Satan cannot keep him, for Jesus was without sin, and death could not hold him. I suppose the idea amongst early Christians was that while Christ was in Hell he figured he would bring the righteous back with him. At the same time there are several references in the New Testament to Jesus being a “ransom” for sin and death (Mark 10:45 and I Timothy 2:6), which we might assume would mean he ransomed himself to the Devil for salvation of people from sin and death, but, of course, Death cannot keep someone who is without sin, and so Christ was released from Hell (this was thought of as God’s trick on the Devil by Rufinus and Aquileia in the 4^th Century, and the idea of it being a trick was perpetuated by Gregory the Great; but it was not a favored notion among many early Christian theologians, for it implied that God was petty and had to play tricks).

With the notions of Christ’s descent into Hell, binding Satan in darkness and fire forever, and freeing the righteous from death we might begin to be able to make sense of Jesus’s parable of how to rob a strong man’s house. Perhaps, though it is with some conjecture, what was meant was that in order to save the righteous from death one must bind Satan (i.e. the strong man) and plunder his house (i.e. Hell) for his property (i.e. those who were condemned to death for original sin, but where righteous nonetheless).

I personally do not like to interpret something in one Gospel with other works, such as another Gospel or an epistle or an Apocryphal text (such as trying to interpret the beloved disciple in John by using texts outside of John, for that is a notion and term that can only be understood through John). However, this parable is one of those few instances in which I feel one must look outside of a single Gospel to attempt comprehension of its meaning. This is why I hesitate to assert completely that Christ is robbing Satan of his souls in Hell as being the precise interpretation, though I do feel it is closest.

Further Reading:

Irenaeus. Against the Heretics.

Jeffery Burton Russell. Satan: The Early Christian Tradition. 1981.

The New Testament

The Gospel of Nicodemus.