Refutes Pharisees’ false charge. After one of such cures by Jesus, his enemies, the Pharisees, charged: “This fellow does not expel the demons except by means of Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” But, says the account: “Knowing their thoughts, he said to them: ‘Every kingdom divided against itself comes to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. In the same way, if Satan expels Satan, he has become divided against himself; how, then, will his kingdom stand? Moreover, if I expel the demons by means of Beelzebub, by means of whom do your sons expel them? This is why they will be judges of you.’”​—Mt 12:22-27.

The Pharisees were forced to concede that superhuman power was needed to expel the demons. Yet they wanted to keep the people from believing in Jesus. Therefore they attributed his power to the Devil. Jesus then enforced the consequences of their argument by showing what the logical outcome of such an argument would mean. He answered that if he were an agent of the Devil, undoing what Satan did, then Satan was indeed working against himself (which no human king would do) and would soon fall. Moreover, he called attention to their “sons,” or disciples, who also claimed to expel demons. If the Pharisees’ argument was true, that the one expelling demons did so by the power of Satan, then their own disciples were acting under this power, a thing that the Pharisees were, of course, unwilling to acknowledge. Jesus said that therefore their own “sons” were judges condemning them and their argument.

What Jesus Christ said about expelling demons should not be understood to signify that the “sons” of the Pharisees and all others who claimed to cast out demons were necessarily God’s instruments. Jesus mentioned persons who would ask: “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?” But his reply to them would be: “I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Mt 7:22, 23) Not being true disciples of Jesus Christ, such workers of lawlessness would be children of the Devil. (Compare Joh 8:44; 1Jo 3:10.) So, any claimed expelling of demons on their part would be, not as instruments of God, but as agents of the Devil. In using persons as exorcists, even doing so in Jesus’ name (compare the attempt of the seven sons of Sceva at Ac 19:13-16), Satan would not be divided against himself. Rather, by this seemingly good work of undoing the case of demon obsession, Satan would be transforming himself into “an angel of light,” thereby advancing his power and influence over the deceived.​—2Co 11:14.