Especially since he knows what they are...
2007-09-04 03:53:58 · 13 answers · asked by Meat Bot 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Fascinating question, and one I'm struggling with in a novel I'm trying to write. It's just a reaaaal squirly one, because the argument runs - if it's all signed and sealed, then what the hell does he get up for every day? Why BOTHER going through the motions of Armageddon, right?
Then there's the argument that God's omnipresent and omnipotent - is everywhere, knows everything. That means he knows the result ahead of "time" as we experience it in a linear fashion. If he's omnipresent, then presumably God experiences time in altogether flatter fashion, and he's not exactly predicting what will happen, or how, just seeing and reporting the outcome - which means that whatever Satan does with his free will, it ends up resulting in his defeat.
I reckon that within the mythos of the Devil in Christianity, it's got to come down to a belief in the self-fulfilling prophecy. Prophecy's a statement about the future, right? Once it's stated, people have an extraordinary capacity to find ways of "making" it true - seeing things that seem to fit the picture and making them significant, or even deliberately attempting to bring about the results of the prophecy. I reckon the Devil's banking on Revelations being an optimistic Press Release from God's PR agency.
So I guess, in answer, if you believe that God's omnipotent, then no he probably can't because the course he takes in Revelations will undoubtedly seem to him to be the best way of actually winning. So he'll exercise his free will and still get roasted.
Personally as an atheist of course, it doesn't matter to me beyond the confines of an interesting question.
2007-09-04 04:29:30 · answer #1 · answered by mdfalco71 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Satan was never given free will. He thinks he stole it.
Outside of this world, time is nothing, doesn't exist. Therefore, outside of this world (this life) one sees all things: the beginning, the end(of this world as we know it) and beyond. It's not that there is a plan set down and nobody can change that plan. It is that what plays out, is before the eyes of the spiritual world.
This is how prophecy was brought to our table. What God sees, He shared with mankind. For us, it is futuristic. For God it is now.
Satan also sees. Although it seems he could dodge what is coming, he will not/can not . He will do those things as though a new idea, at the time the prophecy sees it.
This business of 'seeing into the future' in the hopes of changing it, is a perversion of the devil to deceive the ones who cannot see. Just because the future is seen by God, doesn't mean anything can change. This is, of course, the big picture.
2007-09-04 11:05:06 · answer #2 · answered by judysbookshop 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Revelation,s are not prediction,s,,it,s the word of God and God know,s how it will be even to satan,s action,s.
2007-09-04 11:02:50 · answer #3 · answered by elaine 30705 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He could have but he didn't. From our time-bound perspective, predictions are something that will occur in the future. To God, however, they have been already been fulfilled since "pre" = "before" and "before" is a meaningless concept to a Being that is outside of time.
2007-09-04 12:28:25 · answer #4 · answered by Deof Movestofca 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no free choice that could be made that God is not big enough to have already contemplated and planned for. God's will in fact will be accomplished according to the Scriptures, regardless of free will.
2007-09-04 11:00:36 · answer #5 · answered by BowtiePasta 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Satan Loses - GOD WINS - it is without question - Satan just wants to take as many fools as he can with him - you goin?
2007-09-04 11:05:32 · answer #6 · answered by Lesley H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Satan had free will. He chose to abuse it. As is stated in Revelation, his fate is sealed.
2007-09-04 10:58:47 · answer #7 · answered by LineDancer 7 · 5⤊ 1⤋
C.L. Richardson is amazing. Is he making that stuff up on the fly or is there some reference he's regurgitating?
2007-09-04 11:02:13 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. Satan is bound by corruption and will always act in corruption. He's remarkably predictable.
2007-09-04 10:59:30 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Oh, He knows what the Bible says, He just simply don't believe it.
2007-09-04 11:04:45 · answer #10 · answered by sparkplug 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋