question about satan for Christians?

Question

God made satan,satan rebelled against god ,god cast satan down here to tempt us.First,since satan was an angel and therfor more knowledgeable about god than any of us humans,why we would he be stupid enough to start a war that he already knew he couldn't win? Second, since god was having trouble controlling satan and knew satan wasn't such a "good" guy,why would a good,loving ,god,allow satan to torture his creations?And don't say "to test our faith "or something like that because common sense dictates that if god would just show himself or drop by to say hi once in a while,everyone would be a believer.

so far only ambiguity has given me a straight -forward answer of any kind ,this is the kind of crap iwas talking about,Mr Ed,use your head,man according to the bible God is all-powerful and all- knowing if anyone tried to crucify him he'd know before-hand and he could pull some matrix s*h*it and dodge bullet if he had to.this is not an answer.

impossible and selar;I believe I said "every once in awhile" in my question,for god a thousand years are as a day but for us people1000 yrs is 1000 yrs so noone I know saw the crucifiction of christ,you included.

plus, I'm talking about God HIMSELF,not jesus,if he came down out of heaven in the middle of new york with a 1000 angels, and lightning bolts shooting off of him, every one would believe in him.

danni_d21: God told adam and eve they would die if they ate from the tree,satan said they wouldn't but instead their eyes would be opened and they would know good and evil .They did not die.Their eyes were opened. How did satan lie?

TTC, my father is a minister ,I know ALOT about christianity and if you can rationally explain my question I won't mock or disparage you or your beliefs in any way .I'm not trying to be disrespectful, I'm genuinely curious how christians explain this paradox to themselves and others.

Answer 1

If it all be true God and Satan and the whole bit. Satan has done his work through the manipulation of people through the very thing that they think is protecting them from him. Come on a creature like Satan, with powers and has been around for who knows how long, you don't think he was smart enough to think of that and do it? It's what I would have done and I am just a regular mortal person, and if someone tries to twist that idea by saying things like God would never let the Devil do that, well he need not do it him self, he could just manipulate someone else to do it. People talk about the coming of the anti-Christ, maybe he was already here, say about one thousand, nine hundred and sixty years ago. That would have been about the right time for him to do all the damage to the human race that he needed to through their own religion. This maybe the reason the Bible is so absurd. Knowing some would buy into it and other wouldn't, know that this would put people in opposition to each other. I would have done the same thing.

Answer 2

Well for the first point, God had created a lot of angels, with free will, one was bound to think they could take over. Satan might have known God better than we do but that didnt prevent Adam and Eve from going against Him either. Second point, like the angels, God gave us free will. He allows bad along with the good so we can really know the difference. If not, we wouldnt be able to make an honest choice. Third point, God "dropped by and said hello" as you say and much much more for 4,000 years and there were still people who rejected Him. There have been and always will be people who just dont want to accept Him until the day Satan is cast into the lake of fire along with his cronies.

Answer 3

God could have destroyed satan right away when he tempted and misled the first human pair,however if you know the account in Genesis you will realise that a lot was at stake here.satan lied that if eve ate the forbidden fruit she would not die and rather her eyes would be opened.In simple terms satan implied that God was a liar by warning Adam and Eve of the death that would come upon them if they disobeyed.satan also implied that by eating the fruit their eyes would be opened hence they would be independent and never need God's guidance in how to live their lives. So to cut the long story short,God had to allow these two to realise that satan was nothing but a slanderer by sentencing them to death as forewarned together with their offsprings( US). The wonderfull news is that Jesus died so that we can put faith in him and gain the lost life once resurrected as satan with his demons will be but to an end after having been allowed time to prove their case they started in the garden of eden.God has confidence that those who want to prove satan a liar will succeed and he helps out with his holy spirit by giving us power beyond what is normal.
The moral of this issue of sovereignity is that the true God is not a dictator even if it means allowing his main enemy to cause suffering to the ones he loves dearly such as Job of the old testament.Hope this analytical fact helps you understand what is the main issue in God's dealings with satan.

Answer 4

1. Because the desire for power and worship is a powerful one. Satan saw that God was receiving the glory for His creation and work, and Satan was jealous. That's why he caused the serpent to speak to Eve and mislead her. His whole goal is to turn mankind away from God and mislead them so they will harm themselves. That's why he is called "the father of the lie."

2. The issue of universal soverignty, or the right to rule mankind, was brought up in the Garden of Eden. By Satan telling Eve that God was wrong and lying to her, he asserted that God did not have the right to rule His own creation. So God, being omnipotent and perfect, decided to let Satan try to prove his point. He allowed mankind to govern themselves, and yes, the Devil to influence them, to show without a doubt that only God can rule over mankind. The result is the world today: full of chaos, turmoil and sadness. It's not a test of faith, but rather God proving to mankind that they need Him in order to be happy.

As a side point, you are correct in saying that Satan has been cast down to the Earth. This ocurred in 1914. Good job! :D

PS: Satan told them they would be "like God" and that they 'positively would not die.' What happened? Adam and Eve both died. Not immediately, but they did lose out on eternity- Satan lied. (And he suggested that God didn't have their best interests @ heart by keeping the tree of the knowledge of good and bad from them- another lie.)

Answer 5

Okay, I'm not Christian, but I'd like to respond anyway.

Satan is actually holding his own in the war ... you just don't know exactly what the "war" is all about. It's not with God. It's with everyone in the lower planes. His job is to keep souls in the lower planes as long as possible (tempting them with their pleasures and desires) to make sure they are truly ready to come back home to the kingdom of heaven.

Where does it say that God can't control Satan? Satan is doing just what God wants him to do ... he's doing a very good job, or he wouldn't have the job.

How does Satan torture God's creations? Each is responsbile for their own causes ... cause and effect ... karma and reincarnation.

Last ... why should God come down here and say "hi" to those who wanted to leave heaven to begin with? It's far too coarse and crass down here for God. He knows you'll eventually be back, and realize why you were here to begin with.

Answer 6

#1 Satan did indeed know more about God than we do but he started to get prideful and puffed up about his power and beauty and this sinful thinking deceived him to the truth. Sin is not logical and it is very deceptive. It promises everything but gives only death.
#2 The truth is if God shows himself people will still reject him because we are slaves to sin. Even Adam walked with God and he choose to sin. Jesus did many miracles in front of the Pharisees and they did not believe.
The first chap of Romans (verse 20 -22) says very clearly that there is evidence of God in all his creation and people are without excuse for not believing in him.

Answer 7

The truth is, we don't know why God didn't just 'zap' Satan after his rebellion. The Bible doesn't tell us why he is allowed to continue to exist. For that matter, it doesn't explain why sinful people who rebel against God aren't immediately 'zapped', except to say that (2 Peter Chapter 3) "with God, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." God exists outside of time (difficult for us to understand) so He already sees the day that Satan will be destroyed. We are in time so we're living in it. It's hard for mortal minds to wrap around. The bottom line is, the Bible says there will be a day of judgement for all....why we're allowed to exist like this in the meantime, we can only guess.

Answer 8

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 Gods 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 satan/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 Satan’s role in human relations can be seen if you look at the name Lucifer. It’s meaning in the original tongue translates as Light bearer or light bringer. Essentially the bringer of enlightenment. The temptations of the Satan idea bring all of us eventually into Gods light. Hardly the Evil entity of Christian mythology.

Love and blessings
don

Answer 9

The reason it doesn’t make sense is because it’s mythology. Some people need a god, and since there’s so much unexplainable suffering, they also need a satan. Virtually all religions have the light/darkness principal, they only differ in the details. The Lord of the Rings would have been a great religion were it written in ancient times.

Answer 10

Who said that God had trouble controlling the devil? I've never heard about satan torturing us. He may tempt us, but we're the ones that decide to particpate or not.

What has more meaning to you, someone that loves you genuinely or someone that loves you because you proved something to them? God does show up. Most people just choose to ignore Him.