God, the Devil, and the Church: Does Satan Ever Win a Battle?

[John Bauer]

Free will allows everyone to choose their own paths, and of course some go left when they should have turned right.

Choosing your own path is sin (idolatry), which is fitting for a will that is enslaved to sin (i.e., not free).

 

[Carbon]

I don't go along with the premise that Satan wins battles by overpowering God.
Satan wins battles every time it is in accordance to God's will. Satan got his way (won the battle) with Job as it was God's purpose to do so. Now, Satan may win battles but never the war. Satan pummeled Job but when it was all finished, God purpose was achieved and the war won.

Yes, though Satan may think there is a chance he can win (because he’s delusional) he can’t!

 

[Carbon]

I have no real opinion ot if Satan wins a battle... but

It is obvious with the decline of everything these days from gays in the pulpit, to transgender kids that God is obviously letting him have his way
because if there ever was a time for world destruction... Sodom and Gomorrah style... it is now.

So maybe small battles yes, but certainly not in the long run.

My mind still goes back to this brief example....

I don’t believe He’s letting Satan have his way, though like @Arial said he may seem like it. This sin and filth is the result of a fallen world, and the enemy really doing his best to power it up and keep it going. He hates humans, we were made in God’s image.
Believers see these things as filthy, sinful, totally horrible and evil. The lost see it as alright and pretty much normal. It is also very disturbing and scary what is happening to our children. I can’t help but think we all to some degree are desensitized. Maybe to some degree it’s a form of protection. I just cannot imagine if my eyes were open to the total evil of it I don’t know if I could bear it.

 

[Carbon]

The only thing I would suggest when considering whether Satan wins any battles or if things like the above are his winning a battle, is to search for the answer to the questions: Is God Sovereign over all that he created? Does any being exist that God did not create? Can Satan do anything that God does not allow him to do? Does Jesus tell us plainly that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church?

Amen sister!

 

[Carbon]

Satan wins lots of battles within peoples minds and hearts.

Sure he does

Free will allows everyone to choose their own paths, and of course some go left when they should have turned right.

Yes, people are not forced to choose.

 

[Musician]

Is that Satan winning a battle within peoples minds and hearts, or is it our flesh winning a battle with our spirit? (Speaking of only the regenerated here.)

Our flesh is lead by our minds, so more like mind over spirit. Which is still will power, I don't believe in angels and devils sitting on our shoulders pulling our thoughts one way or another.

 

[Musician]

Choosing your own path is sin (idolatry), which is fitting for a will that is enslaved to sin (i.e., not free).

I disagree, we choose to live by Gods word, or choose not to. The days of Holy intervention are long past.

 

[Musician]

A "WILL" is the ability to choose, but you do you define "FREE" in the context of "FREE WILL"? "FREE" from what/who?

God gave us free will.

 

[Rescued One]

I had enlarged it before posting, and only a little, one number larger, (18 instead of 15) so would not categorize it as Large Print---but this instead of this. I did this because it is easier for me to proof read accurately, and I forgot to change it back before posting it. When it was brought to my attention, I did so which is why it is now normal print size.

I love size 18!

 

[fastfredy0]

God gave us free will.

You refused to answer my question. I'll try again.
A "WILL" is the ability to choose, but you do you define "FREE" in the context of "FREE WILL"? "FREE" from what/who?

 

[John Bauer]

I disagree.

Okay.

 

[Carbon]

God gave us free will.

You mean we are free agents? Yes.

 

[Musician]

You refused to answer my question. I'll try again.
A "WILL" is the ability to choose, but you do you define "FREE" in the context of "FREE WILL"? "FREE" from what/who?

Free from having to cater to the religious establishment. Like you're doing, you create this pincer movement to have me give you the answer you're looking for. You want me to say free from God? Am I supposed to have this pre conceived answer that meets your standards?

I see this in church all the time, and it's why I left church. Somehow if I don't follow the Scriptures word for word (which were created by the Roman church btw) Then somehow I don't meet your standards, or the standards of any modern church. This is why I took the Gnostic path, it was declared heresy for a reason, because it's the only way to achieve salvation.

 

[Carbon]

Free from having to cater to the religious establishment. Like you're doing, you create this pincer movement to have me give you the answer you're looking for. You want me to say free from God? Am I supposed to have this pre conceived answer that meets your standards?

I see this in church all the time, and it's why I left church. Somehow if I don't follow the Scriptures word for word (which were created by the Roman church btw) Then somehow I don't meet your standards, or the standards of any modern church. This is why I took the Gnostic path, it was declared heresy for a reason, because it's the only way to achieve salvation.

Well, thanks for answering the question freely.

 

[fastfredy0]

Free from having to cater to the religious establishment. Like you're doing, you create this pincer movement to have me give you the answer you're looking for. You want me to say free from God?

You're the one that used the term "free will". When people use words, those reading the words assume the person can explain what they are talking about. This is a critical component of discourse.

Am I supposed to have this pre conceived answer that meets your standards?

My standard merely is: You should have a pre-conceived idea of what you are talking and what words and phrases mean before doing so.
It is true, you have not met my standard.

This is why I took the Gnostic path, it was declared heresy for a reason, because it's the only way to achieve salvation.

Wow!

 

[Musician]

You're the one that used the term "free will". When people use words, those reading the words assume the person can explain what they are talking about. This is a critical component of discourse.


My standard merely is: You should have a pre-conceived idea of what you are talking and what words and phrases mean before doing so.
It is true, you have not met my standard.


Wow!

Wow is right, most of you in here worship the Demiurge and you don't even realize it.

 

[Arial]

Wow is right, most of you in here worship the Demiurge and you don't even realize it.

In you are a Gnostic as you claim, that would be you, not Christians. Or else you have no idea what you are talking about.





Gnosticism presents a distinction between the highest, unknowable God or Supreme Being and the demiurgic "creator" of the material, identified in some traditions with Yahweh, the God of the Hebrew Bible. Several systems of Gnostic thought present the Demiurge as antagonistic to the will of the Supreme Being, with his creation initially having the malevolent intention of entrapping aspects of the divine in materiality. In other systems, the Demiurge is instead portrayed as "merely" incompetent or foolish: his creation is an unconscious attempt to replicate the divine world (the pleroma) based on faint recollections, and thus ends up fundamentally flawed. Thus, in such systems, the Demiurge is a proposed solution to the problem of evil: while the divine beings are omniscient and omnibenevolent, the Demiurge who rules over our own physical world is not.