Casting out Demons

When Christians cast out impure spirits, they do not know where to send them. Some command them to go to hell, but others are uneasy about this, because Jesus did not tell them to do that.

Jesus never told impure spirits where to go. He simply commanded them to leave the person they were harassing. In the case of the Gadarene man, he allowed the legion of spirits to go into a heard of pigs. The bible does not say where they went after the pigs drowned (Mark 5:11-13). I presume that they stayed in the same area.

When impure spirits are cast out, they wander around looking for a voice of authority to tell them what to do.

When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it (Luke 11:24).

In most situations, the area will be controlled by a spiritual principality or power. I presume that controlling spirit tells the impure spirit what to do. It will usually send it to harass another person in a similar way.

Jesus could not do anything different, as the principalities and powers working through the Roman and Jewish authorities still dominated the region. Once an impure spirit left his presence, they fell under that authority again.

The same is true now. If we cast out a spirit now, it comes under the authority of the principality that controls the region where we live. Fortunately, the time will come when the power of the principalities and power will be broken, as political power collapses. Once they lose their authority, there will be no regional principalities and powers to control the impure spirits that are cast out.

Followers of Jesus will be able to command impure spirits to shift allegiance and go and obey Jesus and the ones he has given his authority too. Then as impure spirits are cast out, they will be switched into the Kingdom of God and become servants of Jesus.