Scott Downey
Well-Known Member
I am going by the Christian scriptures, what they speak of to form my thoughts in these posts.Hang on. Didn't God create every human? How can the Devil be anyone's father?
So you believe that anyone who doesn't point people to Christ must be a false teacher. And thus people who teach the Rigveda or Quran are all false teachers? It's sad to hear this as of course this kind of fundamentalism is what divides people and nations and causes wars and suffering. If you understood that all these religious works carry and conceal the same messages and secrets allegorically and thus are in fact all in harmony, then you might think differently.
This is quite depressing really. You're saying we're all trapped, not free at all, we can't escape our captor. What an awful universe that would be. This doesn't speak to an all-loving God. It speaks to the jealous, wrathful, vengeful God described in the OT.
Slavery is slavery. Even if one slave master feeds his slave nice food whilst another is cruel and harsh. Neither are imo acceptable outcomes or desirable lives.
How the devil can be the father of all the unsaved is that idea like father, like son. And Jesus says the same thing of the unbelieving Jews who kept challenging His authenticity, read John 8:13-59
Scripture tells us wicked people desire to do things that the devil teaches them to do in the world.
The pursuit of the flesh really and all the evil things that means. Satan operates in the realm of the flesh, which is described as demonic wisdom in scripture that comes from below, from the satanic realm on the earth. But God is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
James 3
Heavenly Versus Demonic Wisdom
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
Wisdom from Satan
14 But if you have bitter envy and [h]self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
Wisdom from God
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Ephesians 4
The New Man
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as [f]the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 2
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the [a]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
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Adma and Eve made a decision in the garden of Eden to listen to Satan and not to believe what God had said. Ever since they made that choice, the human race has been under the sway of Satan, except for the ones whom God shines His light into their heart.
Due to that, Satan has blinded the minds of them that believe not, who are perishing, to prevent them seeing the light of the gospel of Christ. But God commanded His light to shine in our hearts and then we believe.
2 Corinthians 4
The Light of Christ’s Gospel
1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor [a]handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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