Can christians here explain Mark 5:2-13?

[Ksa]

That sermon is such a poor read. It is so tangled and frothy. The goal of communication is clarity of idea transmission. That word salad is pathetic.

It's just a heavier religious text...for example, this answers your question pretty accurately:

When we look at the conversation between the demoniac and Jesus, we see that in the case of the demoniac it is very difficult to get a sense of where the man ends and the demons begin. The text interweaves the responses so that they are hardly distinguishable. So we may wonder what or who it is that is responding to the Lord's presence in the Gaderene region.

We can gain an appreciation of the tension that the person in this state of mind must endure; for despite the opposition of the hells within the man to the Lord, he runs to the Lord and worships him. What a remarkable response, given this man's condition! What causes him to run to Jesus to worship him? Is it his perceived need for deliverance, or is it the demons within him, hoping for a reprieve? We are not told. But given the situation, it is probably a mixture of both.

Goes along the lines of what I said.

[Chad32]

I find it hard to read that sermon, since the guy is talking about stuff that doesn't really have to do with the story. He seems to think there weren't really demons, and it was all just the guy. I would want a more straightforward explanation. Obviously he thinks this story is a metaphor, instead of literal.

Edit: Actually it doesn't say Jesus paid anyone back for the pigs, or apologized. They just told him to leave, presumably because he just cost them a herd of pigs.

To be honest, the book was written by people who worshiped Jesus, and probably wouldn't care about what happened to the pigs. There is likely another reason that the group that saw their livelihood jump into the ocean would want Jesus to leave that the writers want you to think.

[Brakeman]

.for example, this answers your question pretty accurately:

When we look at the conversation between the demoniac and Jesus, we see that in the case of the demoniac it is very difficult to get a sense of where the man ends and the demons begin. The text interweaves the responses so that they are hardly distinguishable. So we may wonder what or who it is that is responding to the Lord's presence in the Gaderene region.

Nope, it is a bit of restatement, but not an answer. And the dodge doesn't follow logic either, as the man couldn't have recognized Jesus from afar. There wasn't TV coverage then, so there was no way for the man alone to recognize jesus upon approach, only the supposed demons could do that.

[Ksa]

^ Sounds correct.

[Chad32]

Next we'll talk about how he killed a tree for not bearing fruit out of season.

[Brakeman]

Demon possession is a pretty serious thing in christianity. King James made it a big hobby of his and loved to have girls killed for witch craft. I strongly suggest reading his book on demonology as it reads so well alongside the bible.

[orangebox21]

The quick answer to most of your questions is an issue of sovereignty. God is sovereign. An illustration is in the book of Job 1:6-12. Here we see that Satan (the leader and most powerful fallen angel) came before God and was only able to influence Job's life after gaining permission from God and God limited the power Satan was given.
1. Where did the man's will and the demon's will start and end?
The beginning and ending of the demon's will rests within the sovereignty of God, what He gives them the power to do and not to do at any given moment. The quantifying of man's will leads to the debate over man's free will vs. God's sovereignty. We can discuss that further if you would like as that is a topic with a large scope.

2. How did the possessed man recognize jesus? If the demon's told him that jesus was real and identified him, isn't that an unfair advantage? Why can't demons tell all of us which god is real?
How the man recognized Jesus is beyond the scope of my knowledge but it is quite possible that the demons did tell the man who Jesus is though that is not revealed in the text. The middle of your question is again answered by God's sovereignty, they cannot resist His will. Demons certainly could tells us who God is. James 2:19 says "Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." However, they are in rebellion against God so they would certainly have no interest in testifying upon His behalf.

3. If the man's free will is strong enough to drag the demons within him toward jesus, why couldn't he have excised them himself?

Here again it isn't the man's free will that allowed him to drag the demons toward Jesus but rather God's sovereignty limited the power the demons had over the man. The man was helpless against them until he met Jesus.

4. Why would the demons relinquish control since they obviously knew that meeting jesus wouldn't go well for them?

Again God's sovereignty.

5. Why would a loving god allow demon possession?

One of the toughest questions. Why would a loving God allow...? There are a lot of different reasons why things happen. Some explained, some not. I will defer to a similar question the disciples asked Jesus in John 9:1-3. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." The last part is the focus: that the works of God should be made manifest in him. The casting out of this demon was a testimony of the works of God and a testimony of who Jesus is. If you notice the story ends with the man wanting to follow Jesus and his disciples but Jesus refused him and told him to return to his town and tell everyone he meets what God has done for him and this testified upon the Christ's behalf.

6. What happened to the demons ultimately? From the story, it appeared as though they died. Can demon's simply die and no longer exist?

The parallel passage in Matthew 8 sheds light onto this in verse 29: "And, behold, they (demons) cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? This "before the time" has to do with the final judgment. Demons and unbelievers will share the same fate: "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matthew 25:41) They did not die, nor will they die. They will be tormented in everlasting fire.

7. Why did the demons drive the pigs into the sea to drown?

I've also wondered this as well as why the townspeople would beg Jesus to leave. The text doesn't provide an answer to either of those questions at least to my knowledge.

[Chad32]

As I said, one good reason the townspeople would want him to leave is because what he did caused a herd of pigs to die. They didn't dare attack him, since he was a holy man, but they figured if his method of saving a man was going to cause that much collateral damage, they didn't want him around.

The story doesn't explain why the pigs would rush off the cliff. I doubt the individuals would react that way from being possessed by a demon, and it doesn't say Jesus specifically did it on purpose.

[orangebox21]

Next we'll talk about how he killed a tree for not bearing fruit out of season.

If you're referring to Mark 11:12-14:

Alfred Edersheim has called attention to the fact that “in Palestine the fruit appears before the leaves . . .” (The Life & Times of Jesus the Messiah, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1947, Vol. II, p. 374; emp. WJ). Thus, to see a leafed fig tree (even at an unseasonable time — v. 13b), warranted the assumption that there would be fruit on the tree. But this tree was an oddity; the leaves were there, but it was fruitless. This act by Jesus is a metaphor for the nation of Israelites. Despite the fact that Israel had all the prophets and God's election they should have been able to discern the season they were in (namely the time of the messiah) and produce the "fruit" of belief. Instead they had only leaves.

[Chad32]

I think it mentions that the tree was out of season, and Jesus was using it as a metaphor, but they went back the next day and the tree was dead. Certainly not as bad as the herd of pigs thing, of course.