Why doesn't God destroy Satan?

[lostsurf911]

So you don't believe Satan is evil then?

 

[Quagmire]

So you don't believe Satan is evil then?

I don't believe in the traditional Christian cosmology so the question is a moot point.

What I do believe is that "Satan" is meant to represent an aspect of human nature.

 

[zenzero]

Friend lostsurf911,

So you don't believe Satan is evil then?

Though the response was for someone else am just taking it to throe some light on the subject with reference to personal understanding of it.


Take a scale. Centre you put a ZERO and then on the right you mark +1, +2, +3 etc. and on the left you mark -1, -2, -3 etc.
Similarly is GOD and SATAN they are on either side of zero.
Point Zero is the balance where there is neither god nor satan.
That is buddhas middle path to find the centre of everything, find balance and so never spoke or either god or satan.
God / Satan are just another set of dualities which comes as soon as one uses the mind and perceives something from a point which is on either side of the scale and so is either good or bad depending on the point on that scale from which it is observed.
Love & rgds

 

[Zardoz]

Why would he kill something/someone who is in his service.
...
Satan/devil/Lucifer is just like any other angel. He works for God, and perform what God allow him to do.

I have to agree. Ha Satan is an angel, as I have explained in many other such threads. He has the thankless job of tempting us, as can be seen in Job. This task is given to him by G-d, and it's not to cause us to sin as many think, but to help us have free will. To exercise free will, there must be choices. Obedience without such choices is a moot point. The angels do not have free will, only we do, in part because of the balance that the choices that Satan provides. Without him, we would not be the humans we are.

 

[Falvlun]

I have to agree. Ha Satan is an angel, as I have explained in many other such threads. He has the thankless job of tempting us, as can be seen in Job. This task is given to him by G-d, and it's not to cause us to sin as many think, but to help us have free will. To exercise free will, there must be choices. Obedience without such choices is a moot point. The angels do not have free will, only we do, in part because of the balance that the choices that Satan provides. Without him, we would not be the humans we are.

In regards to the part I underlined, where exactly does it say anywhere in your scriptures that angels have no freewill? In fact, I would think since 1/3 rebelled against God, siding with Satan, that indicates angels do in fact have free will.

 

[Mr Cheese]

In regards to the part I underlined, where exactly does it say anywhere in your scriptures that angels have no freewill? In fact, I would think since 1/3 rebelled against God, siding with Satan, that indicates angels do in fact have free will.

angels have no genitals either...

but they have sex in apocryphal texts...

...

The solution, in my opinion...

there are many types of angels.....

 

[Azakel]

In regards to the part I underlined, where exactly does it say anywhere in your scriptures that angels have no freewill? In fact, I would think since 1/3 rebelled against God, siding with Satan, that indicates angels do in fact have free will.

I'd say it's more a part of the Jewish Oral tradition then anything written down. The 1/3 of Angels rebelling against God is a Christian thing in there Scripture. It has nothing to do with Judaism and is just another thing early Christians did to twist Jewish Scripture to fit there Propaganda.

 

[arimoff]

Why did God kill/order the killings of people who have done wrong to Him (Canaanites, Egyptians, Sodom and Gomorrah, pre flood civilizations, etc) and not kill the source of the evil, thus preventing the wrongdoers from doing those things that were bad?

In other words, instead of killing humans that were deceived by Satan, why didn't God just kill Satan?

Is God protecting Satan? If so, why?

Is God using Satan as a pawn in His elaborate, divine plan? If so, where does Satan's free will come in?

Thoughts?

Because satan doesn't exist

 

[Shadow Wolf]

But he's not like any other angel. He was God's most beloved angels. Then he rebelled so God put Satan in Hell. Now, why would Satan, who rebelled against God and hated God, still work for Him? Sure, Satan doesn't have God's power and authority to do whatever he wants, but he still operates on free will.

If you look at Judaism or the OT, Satan very much works for God. In a nut shell, you could say he is God's prosecuting attorney, and a tempter when you look at Job. When you look at the NT, Satan was completely redesigned as a monstrous devil.
Either way, God and Satan are equals, and create a balance. Or, at least that's how I'd look at it if I believed in the Christian God and Devil.

 

[Falvlun]

angels have no genitals either...

but they have sex in apocryphal texts...

I can't find anything that says that angels don't have any sex organs. As for them having sex:

"Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.' 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."

This is the passage most often used in support of angels having sex with humans, but even then it's vague. Never comes out and says that these "sons of God" or "Nephilim" were in fact angels.

The solution, in my opinion...

there are many types of angels.....

'Praps.

I'd say it's more a part of the Jewish Oral tradition then anything written down. The 1/3 of Angels rebelling against God is a Christian thing in there Scripture. It has nothing to do with Judaism and is just another thing early Christians did to twist Jewish Scripture to fit there Propaganda.

Yeah, you're right. It comes from a certain interpretation of a verse in Revelations.

 

[Zardoz]

In regards to the part I underlined, where exactly does it say anywhere in your scriptures that angels have no freewill? In fact, I would think since 1/3 rebelled against God, siding with Satan, that indicates angels do in fact have free will.

Except that rebellion never happened. I can't explain it any better than Azakel did, so I'll just quote him:

I'd say it's more a part of the Jewish Oral tradition then anything written down. The 1/3 of Angels rebelling against God is a Christian thing in there Scripture. It has nothing to do with Judaism and is just another thing early Christians did to twist Jewish Scripture to fit there Propaganda.

Frubals. It is indeed in our oral tradition. Most angels, humans couldn't even relate to, as they have no personality, no ego at all. Automatons our Rebbi called them.

 

[Nothing]

lostsurf911,
I believe that Satan, or the capacity to do evil exists in all of us. I believe that God is Love and nothing else. I do not believe that God destroyed the Egyptians, Caanonites, Sodom and Gommorah, ect. I do not believe that Satan exists so how could God destroy something that isn't real? These peoples indulged the evil within themselves excessively and by doing so destroyed themselves. God had nothing to do with it.

 

[BucephalusBB]

Why did God kill/order the killings of people who have done wrong to Him (Canaanites, Egyptians, Sodom and Gomorrah, pre flood civilizations, etc) and not kill the source of the evil, thus preventing the wrongdoers from doing those things that were bad?

In other words, instead of killing humans that were deceived by Satan, why didn't God just kill Satan?

Is God protecting Satan? If so, why?

Is God using Satan as a pawn in His elaborate, divine plan? If so, where does Satan's free will come in?

Thoughts?

Because "Satan" is the best cover-up he ever had?

 

[Falvlun]

Except that rebellion never happened.

In the post before yours, I already acknowledged this.

 

[stars]

The best way not to be led into temptation is to take the temptation away. But there is more glory that will come to Jesus by his suffering to destroy Satan, by our sharing in the sufferings of Jesus.
God has ordained that Satan have a long leash—with God holding onto it—because he knows that when we walk in and out of those temptations, struggling both with the physical and moral effects that they bring, more of God's glory will shine in that battle than if he took Satan out yesterday. – John Piper “Desiring God”.org

Jesus wants us to have faith by our own accord, not because it was forced on us.

 

[Falvlun]

The best way not to be led into temptation is to take the temptation away. But there is more glory that will come to Jesus by his suffering to destroy Satan, by our sharing in the sufferings of Jesus.
God has ordained that Satan have a long leash—with God holding onto it—because he knows that when we walk in and out of those temptations, struggling both with the physical and moral effects that they bring, more of God's glory will shine in that battle than if he took Satan out yesterday. – John Piper “Desiring God”.org

Jesus wants us to have faith by our own accord, not because it was forced on us.

So, God allows children to be raped and murdered, so that the possibility of his glory can be greater. Do you see something wrong with this?

Why does God need more glory? He's supposedly the greatest being in the entire universe. What more glory can he achieve? And how, exactly, can we, in our comparative smallness, add to that glory? I hate to be flippant, but it sounds like this sort of God has self-esteem issues.

 

[stars]

I am certainly no expert in this field and I absolutely do not have the wonderful ability to be as articulate as most of the posters in this forum, but it all comes down to faith and choice. God gives us a choice as an individual to do good or bad - that's up to us. If he wanted automatons who bowed to his will, he would have made us that way. We are given free will and can choose our own path. It's people raping and murdering children, etc., not God.

 

[Falvlun]

It's people raping and murdering children, etc., not God.

But you specifically said that God allows Satan to tempt us in order for God to have greater glory.

That means that some people will be tempted, and will not resist that temptation. That means that kids are murdered simply because God wants greater glory. Am I missing something?

 

[Perfect Circle]

In regards to the part I underlined, where exactly does it say anywhere in your scriptures that angels have no freewill? In fact, I would think since 1/3 rebelled against God, siding with Satan, that indicates angels do in fact have free will.

Where in the scriptures does it say that 1/3 of angels rebelled against god? Do you count Milton as scripture?

 

[Falvlun]

Where in the scriptures does it say that 1/3 of angels rebelled against god? Do you count Milton as scripture?

How is it that everyone read this comment, but no one has read my recant? Post 30 and again in 34.

Since this seems to be necessary:
FOR THE RECORD, I RECANT MY ASSERTION THAT A THIRD OF ANGELS REBELLED WITH SATAN.
Apparently the concept comes from an interpretation of a verse in Revelations.