cthom
3,011,451,295
given that when anything bad happens it's 'gods will', 'gods judgement', or 'an act of god', it would seem we don't really need satan at all.
How powerful is Satan?
- Thread starter El_Machinae
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ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Where's the "Satan does not exist" option? The first option doesn't count.
But if he did exist, if he could beat Odin he'd beat Loki for sure since Odin was King of the Norse gods.
But if he did exist, if he could beat Odin he'd beat Loki for sure since Odin was King of the Norse gods.
Sometimes the king doesn't know how to fight best . . .
(Admittedly, my knowledge of the Norse pantheon is shallow. Still, Loki always seemd cooler.)
(Admittedly, my knowledge of the Norse pantheon is shallow. Still, Loki always seemd cooler.)
Yankee knows. See?
If you have to ask, then he's already won.
That's an amusing question.
I guess there's little parallel with the chocolate bar on my desk, helping me build my willpower.
How doesn't it count?
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Loki was the jester sort of figure of the Norse gods but was evil as well I seem to recall. All this from playing Valhalla on the spectrum, what an awful game that was. Mary hit you with an axe if you swore though.
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
The first option doesn't count because it implies existence of said Satan so that he can trick people into believing he exists. It's an oxymoron.
Satan exists because God created him, along with all the other angels. (He was created good, though, like humans, and then later fell from grace) He is allowed to continue to exist because it serves God's purpose to do so.
Christ, the Son, and God the Triune Being are not exactly the same.
Integral
Can't you hear it?
A related question: when did Satan fall? It had to be before the events in Genesis 3, but iirc, the story of Satan's fall isn't in either the Bible or the Apocrapha...
As to his power, I'll throw my vote in with the crowd that says, "As strong as God wants him to be." Satan is shown to manipulate weather and cause disease in the book of Job, and he possess people and takes physical form in the Gospels...
Integral
Erik Mesoy
Core Tester / Intern
Disclaimer: My posititions have no ecclesiastical endorsement of any sort and may be in contradiction to stuff officially published by a given Christian church. I also reserve the right to retract them and contradict myself if you point out flaws.
Today, Satan is only powerful enough to give bad ideas to good people, which is what I voted. Giving people ideas is pretty much what he's left doing, after Jesus died on the cross to defeat Satan. What we're seeing is pretty much the equivalent of "death throes" since that time, and repercussions of the seeds Satan planted before then.
A person who invites Satan or his devils into their life or to possess them gives Satan more power over that person. Exorcisms are not particularly helpful here unless you convince the person to stop doing so, too.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Mat/Mat004.html#top
http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=3985
The word also means to test as in assay, examine.
)
Satan was more powerful in the past, whether you measure by the personal charisma that convinced one-third of the angels to follow him, or by that army of fallen angels that he had. I think that he was powerful enough to make bad things happen to bad people, seeing as he needed God's permission to make them happen to Job, his family and servants, etc., and to affect macro-events.
Today, Satan is only powerful enough to give bad ideas to good people, which is what I voted. Giving people ideas is pretty much what he's left doing, after Jesus died on the cross to defeat Satan. What we're seeing is pretty much the equivalent of "death throes" since that time, and repercussions of the seeds Satan planted before then.
A person who invites Satan or his devils into their life or to possess them gives Satan more power over that person. Exorcisms are not particularly helpful here unless you convince the person to stop doing so, too.
The first I found was this:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Mat/Mat004.html#top
http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=3985
The word also means to test as in assay, examine.
I believe that God allows him to exist because 1) God isn't omnipotent (as in snap-your-fingers-poof-goes-Satan), only almighty, and 2) Satan dwells in the world, which God is not actively ruling as long as humans are there playing with free will. (Then again, didn't I disprove free will a while back?
)
Integral
Can't you hear it?
This is a pretty good point. All the events where we see Satan actually doing something (physically tempting Jesus, causing a building to collapse in Job) are pre-Cross events. How important was Jesus' death on the Cross in the sense of a supernatural "war" between God and the fallen angels?
Integral
Japanrocks12
tired of being a man
about the Odin-Satan fight thing - one god being more powerful than the other doesn't necessarily mean the powerful god will win 
. Money's on Odin though, if you take the odin from Age of Mythology and match him up with the Satan from South Park 
. Money's on Odin though, if you take the odin from Age of Mythology and match him up with the Satan from South Park No sense of humor, eh?
Masquerouge
Deity
So basically Satan is allowed to exist for reasons we don't know, correct?
I'm perfectly fine with that, I just wanted to know if there was a reason other than "God wants it so" for Satan's existence.
Well if that is the case, there are reasons, we just don't know them.
Erik Mesoy
Core Tester / Intern
The common phrase is "broke Satan's power". Here are a few more references. Click for more.
"The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work."
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
"he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil"
Do you have a comment to spare (
) for my position that Satan is allowed to exist because God doesn't have the power to destroy him?silver 2039
Deity
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If I let Satan posess me will I get superpowers? Or I could just sell him my soul in exchange for 3 cookies which I crave right now....
Japanrocks12
tired of being a man
yes but you'll be like Faust and Paganini
Plus, the cookies are made with carob chunks, they're really nasty.
Pokurcz
Emperor
No body can defeat Odin in hand to hand combat! Well maybe Tor...
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