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Do you believe that Satan exists? If so can you tell me what his purpose is and where did he come from? Is he for real?
Yes I believe he exists, his purpose is to deceive and lie, according to the Bible he was an angel in heaven and wanted to be greater than God and God cast him out.
He was the greatest angel in Heaven, given honor and status above all angels by God. He was originally created along with all other angels by God, meaning that Satan was not like God who has existed without beginning or end, he was created. Many think of and perceive it like a yin/yang thing which is a false conception. Satan is a created being who somehow became proud and impressed with his own exquisite beauty and attributes. He was never a god nor was his past eternal without a beginning. He fell, and in the course of falling, he convinced 1/3 of the angels in Heaven to follow him. They have no recourse to be saved as fallen man is offered because they lived in perfection before falling and made their decision in full knowledge. No one handed them a forbidden apple. And it was Satan who successfully introduced sin into the world in the Garden of Eden by claiming that God was keeping secrets from Adam and Eve and introduced to them the concept of deception, lies, and that they were 'gods' (which many religions nowadays promise their followers ironically enough...and one or two religions professing to be Christian promise their followers godhood as well ). They fell for it (and people still do) and immediately 'died' spiritually.
That is part of the long war Satan has undertaken against God and his angels. Man is particularly cherished and loved by God and Satan has tried to destroy us in his war against God.
Because God is a God of Justice, when man, who had been given dominion over the earth and its creatures, fell, Satan assumed ownership. He is still the legal owner of the earth. God does not dispute this, but He has worked evil to good to ultimately defeat Satan and save man.
God has already defeated Satan by defeating the result of sin, death, by rising from death. He rose alive three days after His crucifixion where He paid the penalty of sin, death, for man and again sits at the righthand of the Father in Heaven.
Satan knew he would lose (a foregone conclusion anyway... how the fallen angels and Satan ever thought they could defeat the Creator of all things and the universe who always was and always will be is beyond me. I guess it's a good example of extreme pride blinding one's senses and reason.)
Satan tried to interfere many times with the events leading to the birth of Jesus, and after He was born, tried to kill Him by influencing Herod to kill the first born male child of everyone in the kingdom. Hence the flight to Egypt.
But, Jesus escaped these attempts to kill him before He could serve His purpose and resisted the temptations of Satan out in the desert. Satan offered Him all the kingdoms of the world...which he legally (as stated) had a right to do. Jesus didn't challenge Satan's ownership and right to offer these worldly things, but He did use the Word to rebuke Satan for testing the Lord and cast him away from Himself.
As the Bible states, Satan knows his time is short and he's on a high-speed plan to do all he can before he is cast into the Lake of Fire forever.
Because of God's justice, He must let this all play out. But Satan knows scripture too...and he knows he's coming to the end.
Satan is not all-powerful, but he does run the unseen demonic world and they are everywhere and involved in everything and each has his post. We are not to underestimate his power which is immeasurable compared to our own, or try to rebuke him in our own names. We must use the Word as Jesus did and use the armour of God through Jesus to fight him and his demons. Their job is to thwart people coming to salvation through Jesus, spread violence, sexual promiscuity, disease, illness, hypocrisy that results in neutralization, etc. Their job is to prevent unsaved people becoming saved and to keep those who are saved neutralized by still preying on their sins.
People imagine a Dante's Inferno red devil with horns and a pitchfork. But he's beautiful beyond description and appears as an angel of light to deceive people.
This is why we are told to test the spirits if we get a visit (respectfully of course as it may be a representative of the Lord).
Actually, Satan is something a few of the Jews carried off to Babylonian captivity brought back with them. Most Jews did not accept the concept of Satan. The sects which constructed Christianity 100 years before Jesus adapted the Babylonian Shaitan to their needs.
The idea of Satan is Babylonian, not Jewish, therefore a suspect import adapted by Christains at some point.
Pretty interesting, so the Christians have two gods.... one borrowed from the Jews, with the son borrowed from the Mithraics and the other god borrowed from the Babylonians.
Ya'll unnerstand that muslims don't believe Christians are monotheistic?
Pretty interesting, so the Christians have two gods.... one borrowed from the Jews, with the son borrowed from the Mithraics and the other god borrowed from the Babylonians.
Ya'll unnerstand that muslims don't believe Christians are monotheistic?
Nope, I and all y'alls readin' this unnerstan y'all ain't got no concept of Christianity.
But ya gotta do what ya gotta do when makin' claims like that 'suppose.
Actually, Satan is something a few of the Jews carried off to Babylonian captivity brought back with them. Most Jews did not accept the concept of Satan. The sects which constructed Christianity 100 years before Jesus adapted the Babylonian Shaitan to their needs.
The idea of Satan is Babylonian, not Jewish, therefore a suspect import adapted by Christains at some point.
Actually, the Jews do believe in a "Satan" - The Challenger, who is an angel who does God's work by making making choosing good enough of a challenge to make the choosing good meaningful.
The Christian concept of Satan as a rebellious evil being is tied to Zoroastrianism.
Another view of it from a Jewish perspective is that Satan is here to make things difficult for us, so we can overcome our evil temptations, and PASS the test. That is the purpose of Satan. Satan is an angel whose purpose has been determined by God and he may only act in accordance with God's permission (Job for example). He's the prosecuting attorney of our deeds basically, but an agent acting in complete obedience to God according to Jews.
Obviously....Jewish and Christian concepts of evil, the nature of sin, grace verses works for salvation, etc. are very different.
Christians tend to think that because we have the Torah in our Bible, we have most of our theology in common with the Jews. It isn't so. The differences are vast and make us completely different in our concepts of God, who He is, and the role and state of man.
The Jews were clearly influenced in their Babylonian exile by Zoroastrianism, which solidified their concept of God being more than an ethnic God, but God of all mankind.
The features of Judaism that are most indebted to Zoroastrianism, such as angels, devils, Heaven and Hell, and eschatology, faded among believers in later centuries, and they are no longer emphasized in the Jewish mainstream, though they continue to hold sway among Jewish sects such as the Hasidim.
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). They fell for it (and people still do) and immediately 'died' spiritually.
Nope
