2006-07-19 23:36:43 · 27 answers · asked by Mr Serious 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Yep - by all accounts, he was the first slave revolutionary. I mean, how'd'ya make war in Heaven, if not be inventing the idea of individual free will? The whole Adam and Eve thing is more dubious ground, but no-one ever recognises the achievement that he's credited with - turning angels - who, it's reported, had no free will at all - into rebels. If we want to bring Adam and eve in, again, the idea is that they had free will all along, but they had no knowledge of good or evil, so how does that work? - "You are free to do as I tell you"? Only when it's a genuine choice does free will have any meaning, and for that, you go to the Slithery Dude. All hail free will! ;o)
2006-07-19 23:41:53 · answer #1 · answered by mdfalco71 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If indeed Satan exists, yes, I like your idea that he invented the concept of free will! It makes sense because every one else, all the other angels and stuff just went along with God's Will and toed the line and Satan was the first one to stop and say 'Oi, mate, it doesn't work like that. I'm going to do exactly as I please, what are you going to do about it?' But I think the Bible's take on the situation is that for some mysterious reason God gave Satan free will because he was his 'favourite'. So maybe it was God who invented the concept after all.
2006-07-19 23:50:46 · answer #2 · answered by Mountaineer 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Satan never invented any concept,talkless free will. Listen carefully, God gave every man the concept of free will to decide where to go, what to do.Satan was the first victim of this concept, in heaven, when he took the negative direction.God does not enforce things into people,He leaves you with option of choice."Behold, I lay before you this day, good and evil,life and death,choose life that you live,why will you die? oh! my people" The raeson why God gave us free will is that people will not see God as wicked when certain things happen.He also craeted us in His image to good things, not as robots.But the truth is that God as a Father guides to think as proper sons if we are born by His Spirit.He helps us (who is not born of flesh but by his Spirit)
God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, He is wonderful, He gave us life,truth, and showed us the way,He gave us light.He also created darkness, but He counselled us to choose light,and not darkness.So you are liable to your own decisions,whether good or bad. Why do somepeople choose bad in a place where people also choose good? God gave people equal opportunity, time and chance,we all have the same twenty four hours a day to make choice. Why do we have drop-outs in the same school that produced professionals, why do we have suicide bombers in a place that produce genius and rich enterpreneurs, why do we have lesbians,homosexuals in place where people marry properly with brilliant and talented, God blessed children,why do two couples wake up one day decides they would separare while the other couples decides to hold on despite the misunderstanding,These opportunities witnessed the same problem or atmosphere? Time and chancehappeneth to them all.
The ability to use the concept of free will to a positive conclusion is called an understanding.
Thanks
2006-07-20 00:29:23 · answer #3 · answered by Bestoil 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. We were cretade with free will, but without knowledge (so basically we had no free will - just like today's politics, eh?). Satan only convinced Adam to gain knowledge by eating that apple, so practically he gave us real free will. I admire Satan for that. If he was a good guy, I'd even become Satanist.
2006-07-19 23:45:33 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In ancient Jewish tradition Satan is simply an angel doing the work that God assigned to Satan to do.
The word Satan means challenger. With the idea of Satan challenging us, or tempting if you will. This description sees Satan as the angel who is the embodiment of man's challenges. This idea of Satan works closely with God as an integral part of God plan for us. His job is to make choosing good over evil enough of a challenge so that it becomes clear to us that there can be only one meaningful or logical choice.
Contrast this to Christianity, which sees Satan as God's opponent. In Jewish thought, the idea that there exists anything capable of setting itself up as God's opponent would be considered polytheistic or setting up the devil to be an equally powerful polarity to god or a demigod.
Oddly, proof for The Christian satin/devil mythology is supposedly found in the ancient Jewish texts that were borrowed to create the bible. One can’t help but wonder how Christians came up with such a fantastically different interpretation of Gods assistant Satan in their theology.
Other hints about satins role in human relations can be seen if you look at the name Lucifer. It meaning in the original tongue translates as Light bearer or light bringer. Essentially the bringer of enlightenment. The temptations of the satin idea bring all of us eventually into Gods light. Hardly the Evil entity of Christian mythology.
Love and blessings
don
2006-07-22 10:38:23 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God created people with free will as he did also the angels. Adam and Eve used their free will to decide to rebel against God - hense we're in the mess we are now awaiting God to put everything straight. GOD DID NOT CREATE SATAN - the bible clearly states that Satan was originally an angel who held a high position in heaven. He used his free will to decide that he wanted humans to worship him instead of God and so turned against God making himself Satan the Devil which is a name that means Slanderer and Opposer.
2006-07-20 01:26:01 · answer #6 · answered by Steph 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes Satan gave EVE advice to have free will and persuaded her to eat the forbidden apple. That's how I perceive it but the story doesn't stand up to all the discoveries have been made since.
2006-07-20 00:07:17 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Elaborate, please I am curious.....
For Christians: Is it possible some are predestined (chosen) for good, some for evil, and some are
the "free-willers"? This is my main question right now.....Having trouble with answer because the Bible talks about pre-destination, God calling (choosing) some for His purpose, some for good, some even for evil....(Pharaoh for example.) I can't grasp that we'd all be pre-destined- but I feel like my life was in a weird way.... Any ideas??? I feel like it would make sense because we are actually all in a spiritual realm, spiritual battle and some could be used for strategy, etc......
2006-07-19 23:41:41 · answer #8 · answered by gracefully_saved 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course not. Freewill is God given. It is only through human distortion and abuse of this gift that WE corrupt ourselves with evil (satan). Read about ying and yang. There is good and bad in each, but with the right choices we can help balance our higherself the right way. It is a constant battle, but strength in spirit is your best weapon. We battle against ourselves too much, this is not healthy, we must accept our human form faults and endure them, with goodness prevailing.
2006-07-19 23:46:18 · answer #9 · answered by Natural and Spiritual 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God gave man free will in that He allowed man to follow His commands or not follow them as he chooses. Satan knew this and manipulated man to his (Satan's) advantage.
2006-07-19 23:42:27 · answer #10 · answered by Ellen J 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋