If Satan is the devil, is God responsible for all evil?

[Taken]

Nobody here believes Taken NEVER sins! But Taken.

Surprise … Not.
You speak for every member of this forum..
LOL.

 

[Taken]

Everybody believes Jack is just a troller.

Likely probable.

 

[Jack]

Surprise … Not.
You speak for every member of this forum..
LOL.

Where are all those who believe you NEVER sin? Hiding?

 

[Taken]

Where are all those who believe you NEVER sin? Hiding?

Ignoring your foolishness.

 

[Jack]

Ignoring your foolishness.

Irony?

Everybody believes Jack is just a troller.

Do you believe Taken NEVER sins?

 

[Aunty Jane]

Everybody believes Jack is just a troller.

The worst kind of troll....I have had him on ignore for a while now, but why interact with an ignorant troll?
‘As he judges, so will he be judged’. It is obvious that he is not a Bible student but a zealous hellfire parrot.

Instead of pulling you out of the “fire” he is trying to drag you there kicking and screaming.....he seems to love the screaming....such a good Christian....

 

[Jack]

The worst kind of troll....I have had him on ignore for a while now, but why interact with an ignorant troll?
‘As he judges, so will he be judged’. It is obvious that he is not a Bible student but a zealous hellfire parrot.

Instead of pulling you out of the “fire” he is trying to drag you there kicking and screaming.....he seems to love the screaming....such a good Christian....

Thus said the WatchTower puppet! All you know is what they tell you.

 

[TazzJazz]

Many Christians equate Satan with the Devil – and insist they are one and the same. But let’s assume for the sake of argument that this identification is correct:
That Satan, the Accuser, is also the Devil – the personification of evil.

Then the question becomes unavoidable:
If Satan is the Devil – and God is sovereign over Satan – isn’t God ultimately responsible for all the evil Satan causes?

You can’t have it both ways. Either:

God permits Satan’s actions and uses him as a tool (as seen in Job 1),
or

God is opposed to Satan but somehow powerless to stop him, which undermines divine sovereignty.


Most orthodox positions choose the first: God is in control, and Satan operates only with divine permission. But that leads to an unsettling conclusion:

> All suffering, deception, war, and religious strife are part of a divine script – a cosmic drama where Satan plays his role under God’s direction.



If that’s the case, then:

Human suffering becomes a prewritten element of God’s plan.

Religious wars, mass delusion, genocide, and even the “end times” become part of a divine performance.

Human dignity, free will, and the meaning of moral choice are reduced to scripted reactions in a play authored by God.


Is this really consistent with the God revealed by Jesus?

A God who:

Weeps with the brokenhearted (John 11:35)

Wishes that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9)

Warns against religious pride (Matthew 23)

Calls us to love even our enemies (Matthew 5:44)


How can such a God deliberately authorize a supernatural evil force to mislead, destroy, and cause misery?

This theological trap stems largely from a medieval synthesis of biblical and extra-biblical tradition. In the Hebrew Bible, haSatan is not the devil – he is God’s prosecutor, not his opponent. The devil, as a figure of ultimate rebellion and chaos, developed later and was merged with Satan.

If we don’t distinguish between Satan (God’s tester) and the Devil (false god, deceiver), we end up with a theology where:

Evil is part of God’s plan.

People are judged for roles they were assigned.

And the Gospel becomes a rescue from God himself – not from sin or injustice.


The dignity of human life suffers under this view.
It becomes a divine chess game, where our pain serves some “higher purpose” we can never challenge – because Satan is doing God’s will.

So I ask:
If Satan is the Devil, and God is his master, how do we avoid making God the author of all evil?

And if we can’t… isn’t it time to revisit the assumptions?

I don't think you are taking into account Free Will, the God-given ability for His intelligent creatures to make their / our own choices, even if its in opposition to God's will, as detrimental as that is.

The reason God hasn't (completely) intervened yet in what resulted from Adam & Eve's bad choices, is because those issues raised by the Devil in Genesis 3, regarding Sovereignty & truthfulness, are still being settled.

God has an "appointed time" when He will, though.

 

[OneGospel]

Thus said the WatchTower puppet! All you know is what they tell you.

Yes, I've noticed that too with the JW diehards, many of them though are nice people and some even manage to escape with their sanity in check :)

 

[Aunty Jane]

Yes, I've noticed that too with the JW diehards, many of them though are nice people and some even manage to escape with their sanity in check :)

Would you like to explain why you think we are “diehards”? It is so easy to drop criticism without explaining what you believe we have in error....anyone can repeat hear-say, but how about doctrine....?
Can you be specific about what you believe are our doctrinal errors, along with Scripture to back up your own beliefs? Empty criticism actually just betrays ignorance.

“Many of them....are nice people”...do you know many of us?

“Some even manage to escape with their sanity in check”.....wow.....I wonder how many of them you know personally, as well...?

Might I just get you to think back to the days when Jesus walked the earth.....how were he and his disciples treated? How many Jews believed that Jesus was the their Messiah?....he died as a blasphemer....humiliated, mistreated, beaten and executed by those who bore the guilt of that injustice, unforgivably.

How did Jesus reveal the way the world would treat his disciples....?

John 15:18-21....
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.” (ESV)

Are your members persecuted and hated by the world for doing nothing more than disagreeing with Christendom’s teachings?
Are they part of the world by supporting worldly kingdoms instead of God’s Kingdom?
Are they keeping all the words and teachings of Jesus Christ? Or only some of the more convenient things?
Do they really know the God they claim to worship?

I was not born a JW....I chose to become one, after freeing myself from the shackles of Christendom, over 50 years ago...my sanity was never threatened....Bible truth is logical and does not contradict itself.....it is one truth...”one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”......a description does not fit the divided churches of Christendom, in any way. (1 Cor 1:10)

 

[Wrangler]

Yes, I've noticed that too with the JW diehards, many of them though are nice people and some even manage to escape with their sanity in check :)

My future son-in-law left, along with half his close knit family. The other half is not supposed to talk to family members. Every get together someone who left the JW ends up talking about the trauma the cult caused in their lives. It's been years and the ongoing pain from being shunned by beloved family continues.

 

[Jack]

Yes, I've noticed that too with the JW diehards, many of them though are nice people and some even manage to escape with their sanity in check :)

The escapees will be very glad on Judgment Day.

 

[Jack]

God provided a way to save our families.

Acts 16:31 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you AND YOUR FAMILY!

Too bad Satan has hidden God's promises in most churches.

 

[OneGospel]

Would you like to explain why you think we are “diehards”? It is so easy to drop criticism without explaining what you believe we have in error....anyone can repeat hear-say, but how about doctrine....?
Can you be specific about what you believe are our doctrinal errors, along with Scripture to back up your own beliefs? Empty criticism actually just betrays ignorance.

“Many of them....are nice people”...do you know many of us?

“Some even manage to escape with their sanity in check”.....wow.....I wonder how many of them you know personally, as well...?

Might I just get you to think back to the days when Jesus walked the earth.....how were he and his disciples treated? How many Jews believed that Jesus was the their Messiah?....he died as a blasphemer....humiliated, mistreated, beaten and executed by those who bore the guilt of that injustice, unforgivably.

How did Jesus reveal the way the world would treat his disciples....?

John 15:18-21....
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.” (ESV)

Are your members persecuted and hated by the world for doing nothing more than disagreeing with Christendom’s teachings?
Are they part of the world by supporting worldly kingdoms instead of God’s Kingdom?
Are they keeping all the words and teachings of Jesus Christ? Or only some of the more convenient things?
Do they really know the God they claim to worship?

I was not born a JW....I chose to become one, after freeing myself from the shackles of Christendom, over 50 years ago...my sanity was never threatened....Bible truth is logical and does not contradict itself.....it is one truth...”one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”......a description does not fit the divided churches of Christendom, in any way. (1 Cor 1:10)

I'm a Bible ALONE diehard, you're apparently a JW diehard, others here maybe Catholic diehards, Lutheran diehards, Methodist diehards etc etc

 

[OneGospel]

My future son-in-law left, along with half his close knit family. The other half is not supposed to talk to family members. Every get together someone who left the JW ends up talking about the trauma the cult caused in their lives. It's been years and the ongoing pain from being shunned by beloved family continues.

I belong to a cult, it's called Bible ONLY :)

 

[Aunty Jane]

I'm a Bible ALONE diehard, you're apparently a JW diehard, others here maybe Catholic diehards, Lutheran diehards, Methodist diehards etc etc

So you really don’t know anything about us except what others have told you?
If you know anything about JW’s....you would know that we are Bible ALONE Christians, which is why we don’t put Paul on a pedestal as if he was somehow a replacement for the apostles or for the teachings of Jesus Christ himself....we promote the whole of Scripture as God’s word and it all must agree without contradiction.

Being a “diehard” is beneficial in an atmosphere of the ridiculous division seen in Christendom....so which “branch” do you subscribe to......and do you all hold to one truth without divisions? (1 Cor 1:10) Like others here, it is apparent that Paul is your focus.....but I have to ask why?

 

[OneGospel]

So you really don’t know anything about us except what others have told you?
If you know anything about JW’s....you would know that we are Bible ALONE Christians, which is why we don’t put Paul n a pedestal as if he was somehow a replacement for the apostles or for the teachings of Jesus Christ himself....we promote the whole of Scripture as God’s word and it all must agree without contradiction.

Being a “diehard” is beneficial in an atmosphere of the ridiculous division seen in Christendom....so which “branch” do you subscribe to......and do you all hold to one truth without divisions? (1 Cor 1:10) Like others here, it is apparent that Paul is your focus.....but I have to ask why?

If you are happy being a JW diehard, then good for you, myself I let the Bible ALONE teach me

 

[Aunty Jane]

If you are happy being a JW diehard, then good for you, myself I let the Bible ALONE teach me

So you have your own unique ‘branch’ of Christianity, and no one can tell you any different....? Do you have a global brotherhood who all share one truth....? If not then how can you call yourself a Christian?

Genuine Christianity has no nationality but it also has no divisions or Scriptural arguments as Paul indicated. (1 Cor 1:10) With whom do you then find agreement....and with whom do you meet for worship and instruction? This admonition was also from Paul and it carried a sense of urgency. (Heb 10:24-25)

Are you a member of any particular church, or are you one of those “lone rangers” to whom God speaks directly.....we have a few of those here....I wonder if any of them agree with you as well?

 

[OneGospel]

So you have your own unique ‘branch’ of Christianity, and no one can tell you any different....? Do you have a global brotherhood who all share one truth....? If not then how can you call yourself a Christian?

Genuine Christianity has no nationality but it also has no divisions or Scriptural arguments as Paul indicated. (1 Cor 1:10) With whom do you then find agreement....and with whom do you meet for worship and instruction? This admonition was also from Paul and it carried a sense of urgency. (Heb 10:24-25)

Are you a member of any particular church, or are you one of those “lone rangers” to whom God speaks directly.....we have a few of those here....I wonder if any of them agree with you as well?

Yes, the Bible is unique and I follow it only.
Where does the Bible teach that Paul wrote Hebrews ?

 

[Aunty Jane]

Yes, the Bible is unique and I follow it only.
Where does the Bible teach that Paul wrote Hebrews ?

View attachment 82955

OK, so now we are nit picking as to the author of Hebrews, as if it matters in connection with the actual information it contains....? The fact remains that Hebrews was widely ascribed to Paul by the early writers. The Chester Beatty Papyrus no2, written about 200 C.E. contains Hebrews among the nine letters of Paul, also in the Canon of Athanasius in the 4th century, Hebrews is attributed to Paul.

The lack of personal identification does not rule Paul out as the writer, and it does not in any way devalue the contents of it, if it was written by another inspired writer......it is all God’s word....is it not? (2 Tim 3:16-17)