Christians: which is it?

Question

a) God controls Satan, but choose to let him run amok.

Of course, that means God is ultimately responsible for Satan's evil in the same way you would be responsible if your child was a serial murderer, but you refused to stop him/her.

or

b) God can't control Satan, and therefore Satan is really the omnipotent one.

In which case it would only stand to reason that we should placate Satan, who seems to have ultimate control.

So, which is it? It has to be one OR the other.

I'm Obsolete: read Genesis. It is Satan that gives man moral awareness. Before Satan, Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good and evil.

I mean really, how can you read it any other way. It's clear as day!

Answer 1

Ooooh, tough one. Nicely worded.

\V/.

Answer 2

The way you worded your question makes it tough to answer. So, let's pretend you don't already have your mind made up. Satan is a created being. He has free will. However, in Job we see Satan asking permission to hurt Job. Jesus tells Peter that Satan has asked to sift him like wheat. Also, the Bible calls Satan the prince of the earth. So, he's got a lotta power on earth, but he still has to ask God's permission to do stuff. You probably won't like this answer, but God is completely omnipotent, while at the same time we have perfect free will. Paradoxical, but true. And God hasn't refused to stop him. He will stop him. He already defeated him on the cross. You asked a very complex question about someone else's relationship in a very simple (and may I say kind of arrogant?) way. It's not either/or. You're asking the wrong question.

Answer 3

God is giving you a taste of disobeying Him and obeying the sin of Satan because Adam and Eve your great, great relative disobeyed. God gave man a chance to live sinless under the Commandments and man couldn't do it. So God gave His Son to take these sins away and triumphed over Satan and took the keys of hell from Satan. Before Jesus you were dead in your sins and the sin of Adam and Eve. The only way you could cover your sin was by the blood of goats and bulls. But Jesus once and for all, His blood, took care of that problem. And all you have to do to receive eternal life is accept Jesus as your Savior and His death, burial and resurrection, believe on Him and you will be born-again when the Holy Spirit comes in. The old man gone and the new man standing - an overcomer in practice.

God is responsible for everything - including Satan because God created Satan as the most beautiful angel. God is in total control and God will let Satan run amok as long as God wants. Satan can only do what God allows him to do. Satan can't touch me unless God lets Satan touch me. Read the Book of Job. Satan had to ask God if he could test Job. God set limits on the testing of Satan. These limits probably apply to us. If this means Satan can do whatever he wishes except for the limits God has placed on Satan concerning His creation then what you are thinking is true. But to say God can't control Satan is wrong. Satan is under the control of God and limited by God. Satan has stones on his breastplate and if you knew the Bible you would know these stones limit Satan. Satan was created "limited." Only God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient

Answer 4

The answer is "a". He is responsible, BUT justice will be served and Satan will be put away. To us it may seem like God has let Satan run amok for such a long time, but to God it has only been within the blink of an eye.

Answer 5

You got it right!

A) God controls Satan, but choose to let him run amok.

Of course, that means God is ultimately responsible for Satan's evil in the same way you would be responsible if your child was a serial murderer, but you refused to stop him/her.

How is it one knows what evil is?
How is it one chooses between the two?
How is it THE ONE used this to demonstrate the difference?

Answer 6

There is no Satan. Satan simply means Adversary not demon goat man with horns the rules the fiery underworld.

The story of Adam and Eve is simply a story of creation that was originally told by the polytheistic Sumerians in their ancient texts that was passed on for thousands of years, changed and re-written in an effort to explain creation to a new monopolistic culture in a new time.

In the original story God was the leader of the gods or "Lord of the gods", (Enlil), and Satan or the serpent was his brother Enki.

Enki created man and made them where they would be able to procreate and reproduce on their own. Enlil was infuriated by this since only gods could do this, and cursed his brother the wise Enki who was represented by the winged serpent which was a symbol of knowledge and medicine.

Enki was always on the side of man and Enlil was not happy with Enki for giving man the ability think and procreate. He wanted a dumb slave race to work in the mines mining gold and that was all. When he found out that Enki had given man knowledge he expelled them from the Garden of Eden or the ED.IN as they called it, back to Africa to work in the mines.

Later some of the sons of gods began to mate with female humans and had children with them. This further infuriated Enlil because he was afraid that men would try to become like gods and sent the flood to kill them. But Enki, (or EA), had a half human son named Noah that was a product of an affair that he had had with Noah's mother, (who has a different name in Sumerian and Babylonian versions) and saved him and his family from the flood. Read the Epic of Gilgamesh. Read the book of Enoch and the fragment text of the Book of Noah and you will discover that even in the story of Noah, they thought that he was one of the Nephlfilm and that Noah's father was not really is father but that he was the son of one of the sons of god.

This is also why the bible says that Noah was perfect in his generations. It is not that he was the only non sinner but that he was the son of Enki.

Answer 7

A is closer to the real answer which is, God has power over Satan but since Satan challenged God's ability to rule over human kind, and challenged the integrity of God's followers, God lets Satan rule over the world temporarily. 1 John 5:19.

Feel free to e-mail me.

Answer 8

A. Isn't it great that God allows us all to choose? Satan wouldn't be such a problem if people would stop following him instead of God. One of the things that makes the USA so great, IMHO, is our right to choose. We get to pick our elected officials, our jobs, our friends, our spouses, what to eat, what to wear, etc. God gives us freedom too. It's what we do with that freedom that matters. Satan decided to go against God. He will pay for that. Let's pray more people are wiser than Satan.

May God Bless you.

Answer 9

Non of the above. God created satan as an angel but satan envied to be god. He caused rebellion in heaven and was cast down to earth. God did not take the power the devil had, after all the devil is a spirit being, meaning that even if he has limited powers his little power can not not be matched with human understanding because man is very limited. The devil landed on earth and man was given authority by God to rule, when man sinned and disobeyed God he was in the same rebellious position as devil but since devil has limited powers he took over to rule the earth. God had to reclaim the powers through coming down in the image of man, and that is Jesus Christ to die and redeem man from satan's hold. The day satan rebbelled God judged him that he will burn in hell forever but that day was set and is still coming but the devil cannot go alone. He is looking for those he will deceive to be with him in hell.

Answer 10

DO we hold parents responsible if their child grows up and becomes a serial murderer? No? Why not?

Another question: If there were no challenges in this life, how much could we learn? Could we grow? An analogy would be a weight lifter. If a weight lifter goes to the gym each week and never lifts any weights or the weights he lifts never really challenges him...how strong will he get?

A final question: If there was no evil...could we recognize good? If there was no contrast, how would we ever know the difference? How could we ever make choices?

Answer 11

I don't understand how God can be held at fault for man's sinful nature and standing condemned before the Lord anyway. Does it matter what Satan does in the world if all of humanity has always been in need of a Savior?