Nevertheless, binding and loosing was a foundational understanding for the missionary ministry of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, dating back to 1937. It is rooted in actual missionary experiences of men like J .A. MacMillan and Robert Jaffray.21

In 1921, Corrie Judd Montgomery wrote,

Years ago we did not know how to loose people that were bound by the Devil. . . . Often our prayers cannot be answered until we are able to speak with authority and loose the one whom Satan has bound. . . . The Lord shows us in Matthew 12:29 that we "must first bind the strong man" before we can "spoil his goods." I can never begin to tell you what this power has meant in our ministry the last few years.22

Similarly, missiologists intent upon reaching unreached people groups and resistant populations need to pay attention to this Scripture. The proper interpretation seems to be that first the strong man must be bound, then the unreached peoples and resistant populations can be sprung free from the deception and control of Satan.

Using the analogy of military strategy, other Christian leaders counsel binding the strong man before launching into a spiritual warfare offensive:

A wise leader should first attempt to knock out his enemy's command headquarters and air support. If these elements can be disabled, then enemy ground troops can be crippled and scattered at will.23

Biblical scholar William Hendrickson recognizes this missiological purpose in Matthew:

The devil is being, and is progressively going to be, deprived of his "furniture," that is, of the souls and bodies of men, and this not only through healings but also through a mighty missionary program, reaching first the Jews but later on the nations in general (John 12:31,32; Romans 1:16). . . . Note how also in Luke 10:17,18 the "fall of Satan as lightning from heaven" is recorded in connection with the return and report of the seventy missionaries.24

G. Campbell Morgan also understands Matthew's intent, holding the belief that the treasures, the "furniture" in the strong man's house are indeed lost souls:

God's children who have entered into His victory by the Cross, also know something of what it is to bind the strong one. His Cross is the force that sets us free to spoil the house of the strong one, and rescue other souls.25

FIRST IS FIRST

There are reasons, I think, that the Holy Spirit has placed this pivotal passage in all three of the synoptic Gospels. Each in its own way reinforces the missiological and evangelistic intent in binding the strong man first. And loosing the evangelistic impulse. All too often, attempts are made to brush by the strong man to get at the work of the Lord. No Christian workers are more vulnerable to this error than the materialistic, secularistic, technological and spiritually insensitive missionaries from the Western world.

If this study draws any conclusion at all, it is that such "brushing by" procedure is a grave, grave error in kingdom work.

Endnotes