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Is Satan Ruling the World?

rusra02

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Luke 4:5,6 says:"he [the Devil] brought him [Jesus] up and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time. Then the Devil said to him: “I will give you all this authority and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish." This seems to show the Devil controls the governments. Do you think the Devil controls the world? Why or why not?
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
I don't think a supernatural or super-powerful malevolent entity rules the world, and I don't consider the Bible to be a source of absolute facts about the world either. It seems to me that different humans can be benevolent or malevolent regardless of any external influence from supposed super-powerful malevolent entities, and people just tie value judgments of what is "good" or "evil" to such concepts and ascribe at least a degree of responsibility to them for actions they consider undesirable or harmful in an attempt to explain the motivations for those actions.
 
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Father Heathen

Veteran Member
Luke 4:5,6 says:"he [the Devil] brought him [Jesus] up and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time. Then the Devil said to him: “I will give you all this authority and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish." This seems to show the Devil controls the governments. Do you think the Devil controls the world? Why or why not?

It's funny how readily people attribute things to either satan or god, demons or angels, because it makes these entities appear rather underwhelming, incompetent, ineffective, and feckless.
 

Awoon

Well-Known Member
Luke 4:5,6 says:"he [the Devil] brought him [Jesus] up and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time. Then the Devil said to him: “I will give you all this authority and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish." This seems to show the Devil controls the governments. Do you think the Devil controls the world? Why or why not?


Since Jesus refused, what individual person did the Devil give the world to?
 

Kilgore Trout

Misanthropic Humanist
Luke 4:5,6 says:"he [the Devil] brought him [Jesus] up and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time. Then the Devil said to him: “I will give you all this authority and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish." This seems to show the Devil controls the governments. Do you think the Devil controls the world? Why or why not?

Only if the devil is a small-minded, self-absorbed bureaucrat of limited intelligence.
 

rusra02

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Since Jesus refused, what individual person did the Devil give the world to?

Apparently, to whomever he wishes, as he said, since power is divided among many competing factions and national entities.
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
Luke 4:5,6 says:"he [the Devil] brought him [Jesus] up and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time. Then the Devil said to him: “I will give you all this authority and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish." This seems to show the Devil controls the governments. Do you think the Devil controls the world? Why or why not?

Not sure he would want it. Too evil, you know.
 

Erebus

Well-Known Member
Apparently, to whomever he wishes, as he said, since power is divided among many competing factions and national entities.

I don't think political, military or economic might constitutes rulership over the Earth. Our species can be wiped out in a heartbeat and I'd be very surprised if the planet, let alone the entire universe, missed us. Let the most powerful man in the world discuss his influence with an approaching tsunami and you'll see just how important he really is.

As to Satan ruling the world... Well I guess that depends on each person's interpretation of what Satan is. Going off my own interpretation Satan does not rule the world and probably wouldn't care to either.
 

NobodyYouKnow

Misanthropist
It also seems to me that I would make a better 'Christian' than a lot of Christians.

*tongue removed from cheek now.
 

EtuMalku

Abn Iblis ابن إبليس
According to whom?

Seems to me that the concept of "devil" means quite a number of things across various cultures and traditions, including what NYK described. :shrug:
I would imagine Satanists, Luciferians, O9A, Thelemites, and a host of other Left Hand Paths as well as many Eastern, NeoPagan, and Traditional Earth religions.

The Devil representing "greed, selfishness, corruption, immorality" . . . seems the way only Christians understand Him, no one else.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Luke 4:5,6 says:"he [the Devil] brought him [Jesus] up and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time. Then the Devil said to him: “I will give you all this authority and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish." This seems to show the Devil controls the governments. Do you think the Devil controls the world? Why or why not?

To me, the devil is a fiction upon which we project our negative traits in order to feel better about ourselves.
 

Yadon

Active Member
I wouldn't take such documents of having any literal, objective truth.

That aside I can't say how a symbol that no one agrees on what it means could "rule the earth". In the end it's better to talk about such abstracts for what they really are.
 

crazedrat

Member
Both words Satan and Lucifer have been horribly mistranslated from Hebrew. The deity of Satan who christians believe exists is someone they invented along the course of history.. The original hebrew phrase only appears twice in the original hebrew bible as 'the satan', and it means 'the adversary'. Both of the uses were not referring to a deity, but individual adversaries. In the book of job the word is used to refer to an angel God himself dispatched. I forgot where the other place the term was used was, but it was actually referring to a man then... it isn't important where it was, google it if you want to know.

From the two uses of the word, over time, Satan grew as a superstitious deity of opposition and fear in the minds of theists. As bibles were retranslated from one generation to the next scribes began substituting 'satan' in place of other conflicted oppositional words or phrases. Now what you have is a bible filled with the term 'Satan' apparently in reference to some diety which never infact existed.

The word 'Lucifer' comes from latin 'the luxfer' which in turn was a mistranslation / transliteration from the original hebrew phrase 'the light bearer' - a phrase which refers to the planet venus. Venus was referred to as the lightbearer as it often pops up over the horizon preceding the rising sun. Venus as a planet has always been associated with sensual indulgence. It is for this reason the mistranslation of venus into 'lucifer', a deity, stuck and embedded itself into the minds of theists - their superstitions regarding anything sensual in nature make them a very neutoric brand of people.

Satanism is really a naturalistic philosophy. It's all about appreciating ones animal nature. The name Satanism is really not relevant to the philosophy; this name was chosen to sardonically mock the biblical anxiety toward natural animal behavior. A real Satanist is not going to indebt himself to another diety, because that's contrary to his entire philosophy. Some people may actually pray or do rituals to Satan, but they are poseurs who have no clue what they are really thinking.

God/"Satan" (the dark side) have always been the same force, they have always ruled the world together.
 
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Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
Satan doesn't rule anything. He just has the power to tempt humanity to do evil. God is the only true King of the entire universe.
 
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