question about satan

Several thoguhts come to mind.

Satan is not sovereign but is under the authority of God and is limited to what God allows.

Even if Satan knows prophecy, he is bound by his nature just as unregenerate man is bound by his sinful nature. No man can just decide to stop sinning, for that is his nature. Likewise, Satan cannot just decide to stop being Satan for that is HIS nature.

Satan knows that in the end he will be defeated and suffer eternal torment. But in the meantime, he wants as much freedom as he can get.

Charlie

 

Pride has blinded him. He thinks of himself as smarter than God. It was said that this is his nature, and that is a very good point. Have you heard about the scorpion and the frog?

A scorpion wanted to cross the river and asked the frog if he would carry him. The frog said, no way, you will sting me. The scorpion said that would be silly. If I sting you I would drown.

Ok the frog agreed to carry him. He thought it would be good to have the scorpion owe him one. Well half way across the river the scorpion did sting the frog. Before the frog died he ask why did you do it. Now we are bothe going to die? The scorpion just said, "sorry, I can't deny my nature". "Stinging is what I do".

 

A couple of other thoughts.

For some, when you are angry, you don't care who you take down with you. In fact, the more people you can hurt, the better.

Misery loves company.

When some authority has thwarted you, as God did Satan, then the more you can strike back at that authority, regardless of damage to yourself, the more you will do just that. If you are going to die or be tortured anyway, the thought just may be "Go for broke" and do as much damage along the way as possible.

 

Satan also goes along with what is written because he wants to prove God wrong. And so many Christians think that they can't be swayed from the truth, so Satans best way to lead them astray is to be as close to the truth as possible. This is the grey lines that so many follow. If he taints truth enough, and pulls the grey line over so slowly so that many won't even realize they have faultered; many even fighting for what they believe.

 

You are confusing knowledge and intelligence with morality. Sin is insanity in the sense that when we sin against God, we know we can't get away with it... It is a form of self-delusion. If you multiply that several hundred thousand times you can get the sense that while the adversary knows a lot about God and is devious, the adversary is self-deluded and self-exalting. It's kind of like those addicted to gambling who think they "just might win" in the next round when they known that the odds are *always* stacked in favor of the house.

Since God has established the flow of history (imagine a river rushing to the sea) there is coming a day when judgment will come. We can exercise our wills within the flow of the river of time, but we can't leave the flow. In the same way the adversary has the ability to exercise free will within the realm of the possible (the river), but he is unable to control the final destiny.

Using another illustration, consider history as a chess match. At the beginning of the game you have lots of pieces and a number of options and possible strategies. You are limited only by the dimensions of the board, the occupied squares, and most importantly, the skill of your opponent. As the game progresses, you and your opponent lose pieces and you have to compensate for the lost pieces and maximize the ones that remain. When Christ walked upon the earth, the adversary energized all the pieces to checkmate the King of God, but suffered great losses at the resurrection whereby he effectively lost the game -- all that remained was just enough pieces to put up a holding actions and snipe and attack the forces of God. While the adversary is still prowling and active, trying to make the most of every opportunity, it is only a matter of time before God decides to end it and take him out. We are in the "end game" of history and the adversary will certainly be checkmated because of the skill of the Master.

 

God is omnipresent, He is in the past present and future. He is not subject to any time constraints. What has happened with satan has occured even though for us we are going through the outworking of it. But satan has already lost.

 

Because Satan is 100% evil, narcissistic, rebellious, and malignant. Pure evil has no capacity for logical reasoning.

 

As an LEO for 14 yrs I never met a thief that thought he would get caught.

Old Sloughfoot ain't no different.

Thanks -------Bart

 

Whilst Saturn is a devil in more ways than one he does not have complete control over the earth,God has.Please help who was it in the Old Test.that saturn wanted to tempt( Job or someone) and God said ok but you cannot take his life. Sorry I can't remember.
John

 

The Book of Job, Chapters 1-2

 

Hi Massdak;
I think most all of the responses are right. This is just some of what my thoughts are.
Pride, besides Satan himself has got to be the single greatest deceiver there is.I find myself struggling with it every now and then.Sometimes and (No doubt Satan is no different), I find that pride has a way of over taking you,Before you are aware that you are prideful. I have been so prideful that I thought I was always right .The truth is I'm not really so sure I'm ever right now because God has thought me to be humble.Humbleness is the opposite of prideful and we are told to be humble.Thinking everyone else is more deserving than our selves.Treating everyone with respect and showing your self to be a humble servant is not easy.I fail now and then.
Satan on the other hand has made his choices and no doubt knows full well the consequences.He has no humbleness God didn't make him humble after he became so prideful. I don't know if he was ever given the chance to repent,but then he was already in heaven, he just thought he was deserving of more.In short his pride has made him arrogant and his arrogance is the blindness that, he see's him self becoming a god.We know better and he does too.it's just to late and like Helen said he wants to take as many as he can with him.Satan wants to be God so bad that I'm thinking that he wants to imitate him by creating false religions and confusing those who have just heard the gospel.He also works over time to torment those he knows he can't have who have already made the decision for Christ.
Romanbear
Peace

 

massdak, you said
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satan must know about the Bible and prophecy, wouldn't it be smarter if satan tried to do the opposite of what is written in the Bible?
not that it is so smart to go against the Lord, but i do not understand why satan would do what the bible tells he will do
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The Bible tells of Satan's failures.
Satan, of course, does not believe he is bound by scripture. He thinks he can alter the course of events and win.

MR

 

and so will be the end of liberalism forever and ever[/QB]</font>[/QUOTE] I don't understand what you mean by your comment.

 

Could you please provide scripture for this?

Thanks,
Jason