Has anyone made that awkward mistake of walking in on the tail end of a conversation, then based a claim on a small portion of the conversation, and made a ridiculous statement based on the minuscule of information we had? Yeah, I think we’ve all done it or had it done to us.
I was raised with a belief of rebuking satan and binding satan and his demons. I’ve been surprised at the amount of doctrine practiced in the church that is not in Scripture. “Now wait a minute. I know the Bible says, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven”. Absolutely it does. It also says whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven. Does that mean if you loose demons here, they will be loosed in Heaven? Let’s look at this misapplied passage.
This passage is misinterpreted and misapplied because people have taken a statement from the tail end of a conversation Christ is having with His disciples, and they have made a claim upon that small amount of information pulled from the context of the conversation.
Jesus gave the apostles sole authority to bind and loose things on earth. In Matthew 16:18-19 Jesus says,
"You are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
(Matthew 16:18-19)
Later He said essentially the same thing to the rest of the apostles in Matthew 18:18.
Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven
(Matthew 18:18 NKJV)
Ephesians 2:20 tells us the church is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone."
The apostles' ministry was foundational--they constituted the authority and formation of ministry within the early church as directed by the Holy Spirit. There's an example of that in Acts 15, where the apostles and elders of the church working through perhaps the most significant issue they had dealt with thus far. Some people associated with the church claimed circumcision was a requirement for salvation. The apostles' decision against that position became binding on all the churches (Acts 15:22-31). The Holy Spirit orchestrated their decision according to God's will (v. 28).
After Y’shua commanded His disciples to receive the Holy Spirit in John 20:22, He told them, "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained" (v. 23). He was not giving them the power to forgive sins--only Messiah Yeshua can do that (Mark 2:7-10; Acts 4:12). Rather, He gave them the authority to declare what God has already done in Heaven (Matthew 6:10).
In both cases of this comment, Y’shua was instructing and giving the apostles the authority to bind and loose--speak and act under God's authority--as the foundational representatives of the church.
So, it’s really common, in today's church, to hear “I bind you satan in the name of Jesus” or “I rebuke you satan in the name of Jesus” Let’s look at all the passages that tell us to do this.
….
I know that seems a bit sarcastic, but, how is it that this is such a common practice in the contemporary church but there is not one single piece of Scripture to support it.
Y’shua, God in flesh, didn’t even bind or rebuke satan. It may be fashionable to learn all the ways one can rebuke him through spiritual warfare seminars but the Bible says nothing about this.
When tempted by satan, Y’shua correctly quoted Scripture. It’s really not even necessary for us to rebuke satan. Satan is not omnipresent, he is one being. He does have his kingdom and his little demons; yet, in most cases, if we are honest with ourselves, we caused our problems by our own actions. He is not the one who personally causes every person's temptations or trouble or sicknesses, many times it is our own flesh. While satan’s little demons do tempt and harass believers, we are told greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.
We cannot rebuke Satan any more than we can bind Satan. If Satan is being "bound" by people saying words out loud, their "binding" certainly does not last very long. God has given us His way to withstand the evil, it is called the armor of God (Eph.6). We defeat satan by resisting satan; and this is done through the full armor of God. James 4:7 tells us to
submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you
(James 4:7 NKJV)
Whatever we might be disobedient in, we are to correct ourselves, this is submitting to God, resist any temptations, and the enemy will no longer have a foothold in our lives, no chink in our armor.
There’s no reason to rebuke or bind satan. When we resist, the Lord promises us that the Devil will flee. Why? Because satan sees he cannot penetrate our protection, even our greatest weakness cannot be used against us if we submit to God.
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