Transplanar

Hopefully I can get this in the right forum this time.

Lets assume here, that the God of the Christians exists.

Now, we all know about how Satan was cast into hell or something when he made a mess of things on Earth. My simple question is: how can Satan manipulate us from his prison? Does he possess powers that circumvent the powers of God? It doesn't make sense...

Danon72

Satan is a seperate divine entity. His power is pulled from those that worship him, or in a related way, by people that perform acts that directly correlate to his area of "expertise", such as evil acts. Since much more evil is commited in the world, Satan has that much more power. Conversely, God has a multitude of worshippers, and some good acts are performed in his name. However, there is no comparison. The Devil, or Satan, has so much more divine power, only evil is apparent. :thumbs:

DBT

In the OT, Lucifer is portrayed as being an agent of God, but by NT times he had evolved into being an adversary. God having supposedly given Satan free reign on earth until the judgment.

Transplanar

Why would God knowingly appoint an malign entity as ruler of the Earth?

DBT

It's all a part of Gods grand plan. God supposedly uses Satan and evil spirits to test the believer’s faith and obedience.
And of course it's all a load of crock.

Straight A

Broadband, god originally had Satan only on 56k dial up, but around the time of the new testament, Satan got a good deal on a 2mg broadband package and now uses this to control all the evil acts in the world.

John A. Broussard

My impression of Satan, mostly from reading the posts of the believers who post here--which I recognize as being a biased and very small sample of same--is that Satan has gone out of fashion even more thoroughly then the WASP, bearded, robed god who mooned Moses.

Satan, and accompanying hell fire, have been very much dampened ("Hell is really the deprivation of the sight of god"), or free will with it's capacity for choosing between good and evil makes that choice solely human beings' responsibility.

We may still see occasional bumper stickers proclaiming, "Your Satan may be dead, but my Satan is alive," but I'm convinced those sticker bearers are aberrations.

FatherMithras

He's spreading evolution, taking prayer out of schools, making new Marilyn manson music, and making gay marriage legal.

JaredM

Satan is doing what he does best. He's making believers give more time & money to the church because they are afraid of him. He's also letting us unbelievers know that God cannot possibly be benevolent, if he is still allowed to interact with us in any way.

If Satan is a mere allegory then tell me...who's to say God is not as well?

--Jared

JEST2ASK

Real stretch but only for this brief exercise .... OK

Actually no from Genesis 3:14 - 16 he was cursed to crawl on his belly, eat dirt and to have his descendants be at odds with humans ...
In Job we see him freely roaming the earh and allowed in the Heavenly Court speaking directly to God ...
In the N.T it simple states he is one of the rulers of the Earth and Air ...

True it makes no sense ...

It is the final book "Revelation" that he is to be imprisioned for a while then finally destroyed ... personally I give it a thumbs down for convulted plot, flat-two dimemsional characters, and unneccesary violence prolonged beyond boredom ... Also the only attempt at romance appears to be an all too brief last minute insertion (no pun intended)