14 Feb 22
@fmf saidSomeone recently posted this as a response to a related question of god’s sovereignty:
"There is no being called "Satan".
No being is leading a "rebellion" and there are no "willing accomplices" etc.
It's all metaphor wrapped up in a gruesome fairytale intended for superstitious minds.
None of that.
The adversary is within."
Thoughts?
”I believe God set up the universe to achieve one end, create one where true love was possible from those He created, and as such knew it would go wrong since that required choices had to be given, and not everyone was going to choose love. Some were going to choose themselves and everything that would go along with that. That also meant even those who would choose to love Him and each other would also be in sin guilty of corruption. To redeem those who willing chose Him over their own lives, as He gave His life for them. That keeps all of the guilty in their guilt and has the guilt of the redeemed paid for at a great cost to God Himself, as He laid down His life for us, taking on our sins upon Himself as we the guilty put our faith in His grace and mercy we find with Jesus Christ. This cure is being born again, changing us from the inside out, replacing our hearts of stone for ones of flesh.”
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@FMF wrote:
"There is no being called "Satan".
There is a being - Satan.
You can believe FMF or you can believe Jesus.
You decide which one you want to trust on this.
No being is leading a "rebellion" and there are no "willing accomplices" etc.
Again. Who has the approvedness and demonstrated trustworthiness on telling the world what is true.
FMF is really smart guy.
But I am more impressed with Jesus Christ.
I'm deciding on the tract record of Jesus.
What Jesus said about this, that's where I'm putting my trust.
And if someone says this is an argument from authority, I would say, Yes it is.
It's all metaphor wrapped up in a gruesome fairytale intended for superstitious minds.
None of that.
The adversary is within."
Satan is an objective being and the enemy within.
The advasarial relationship is more related to when a man decides to be in God's kingdom.
"And you, though dead in your offenses and sins,
In which you once walked according to the age of this world,
according to the authority of the air,
of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience;" (Eph. 2:1,2)
This "spirit which is now operating IN" agrees with the concept of a "advasary [or enemy] within". So to recognize an advasary within is a step in the right direction.
Though the spirit is operating "in the sons of disobedience" he also has an outside objective existence in the air as "the ruler of the authority of the air".
So he is without and he is within.
He is neither just within. Neither is he only without.
Though he is outside and working IN all the people of this world, he was not IN Jesus Christ. And this being had no ground, no vantage point of attack from WITHIN Jesus. And CHrist's life demonstrated that.
"And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens [His
arrest and crucifixion] you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and in Me he has nothing." (John 14:29,30)
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Jesus a part from all other human being who ever lived on the earth could claim that Satan had NOTHING in Him.
" . . . the ruler of this world is coming, and in Me he has nothing." (John 14:30b)
And life He lived and the testimony He bore proves that SOMETHING was unique about Him. And this is one of the unique things. In Him Satan had nothing.
Satan does have something in everyone writing on this Forum, including me.
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Satan sends deceptive error into the world on a two pronged attack.
He sends lies into the world in opposite pairs in order to catch people in one lie or its opposite lie.
Concerning his own existence his stradegy is also twofold:
1.) To capture the minds of those who do not believe in his existence.
OR
2.) To capture the minds of those who have too much of an interest in his existence.
Satan sends error into the world in opposite pairs to trap people on either side of what he has people propose.
14 Feb 22
@divegeester said Some were going to choose themselves and everything that would go along with that.That’s right, I see it now… “choose” the secretly hidden burning in hell for eternity.🙄
@sonship saidAccording to your own doctrine:
Satan sends deceptive error into the world on a two pronged attack.
He sends lies into the world in opposite pairs in order to catch people in one lie or its opposite lie.
Concerning his own existence his stradegy is also twofold:
1.) To capture the minds of those who do not believe in his existence.
OR
2.) To capture the mind ...[text shortened]... error into the world in opposite pairs to trap people on either side of what he has people propose.
1) God is sovereign … BUT…
2) God creates hell and eternal suffering in advance, you know, ready in advance!
3) God creates Lucifer/Satan
4) God creates humans and put them in a garden
5) God allows Satan into the garden
6) Humans get deceived by Satan
7) God boots humans out of the garden telling them to go and reproduce …. Knowing in advance that …
8) God destroys 99.99% of all humans, knowing in advance that…
9) Hell is still waiting for the rest
10) God loves ALL humans so much that he sends Jesus to save everyone … knowing in advance that …
11) Jesus will be in hell overseeing the burning alive for eternity
Great plan.
14 Feb 22
@sonship saidSo, if I don't believe there is a being called "Satan", you contend that this is proof that a being called "Satan" DOES exist because his strategy is to "capture the minds of those who do not believe in his existence" and I don't believe in his existence meaning he DOES exist and his capture of my mind is proof of it, have I got it right?
Satan sends deceptive error into the world on a two pronged attack..
Concerning his own existence his stradegy is also twofold:
To capture the minds of those who do not believe in his existence.
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14 Feb 22
4 edits
Who put a snake in the Garden?
As I briefly explained above, this enemy is called "the ruler of the authority of the air" in Ephesians. He is in the realm of the atmosphere of the planet.
In Genesis during the six days God successively pronounced each day that what He made or prepared was good. But there is the exception with the second day concerning the atmosphere, the firmament of air upon the earth. On that day conspicuously the pronouncement of "it was good was withheld.
That is because by then, left over from a more ancient time, Satan and his hosts were still in the vicinity. They were watching with interest in this new creation of man that God was making. This is brief.
Day #1 "And God saw that the light was good" (v.4)
Day #2 Nothing said about it
Day #3 "and God saw that it was good." (v.12)
Day #4 "and God saw that it was good." (v.19)
Day #5 "and God saw that it was good." (v.21)
Day #6 "and God saw that it was good." (v.25)
We do not need to know everything. We know that Adam was placed to be deouty authority over God's creation. And there appeared an advasary in the garden to slander God and lie to tempt man. And on the second day of the account concerning the air God withheld saying that "it was good" .
Satan and his hosts were there. And the serpent in the garden is clearly related to Satan. (Rev.12:9)
" . . . that ancient serpent, he who ois called the Devil and Sata, he who deceives the whole inhabited earth. . . "
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14 Feb 22
@FMF
I did not say that your saying he did not exist was proof that he does.
I did speak of his stradegy.
I did not say your unbelief was "proof."
