Pride and Satan

[aspen]

Seems to me that our ideas about the Devil are more about our own pride than an accurate portrayal of the Prince of Darkness......in fact, the more clever we believe ourselves to be, the more ingenious the Devil has to become in our minds, in order to have the ability to deceive us. Of course, if you stop for a minute, it is a crazy way to think; yet, it sure is prevalent, We, the same people who were not created perfect like Adam and Eve, think that we can only be deceived through elaborate means, when A&E were duped unto death with a piece of fruit?

I've heard some Christians go so far as to believe and report that the Devil, himself, appeared to them or possessed someone they know - in their minds, he is practically omnipresent......

Others have developed complicated, elaborate, sensational, overarching schemes that the Devil will use someday to deceive and claim us for Hell - suggesting omnipotence.........

Many people have the idea that the Devil knows us personally - he knows what we are tempted by and every detail of our history. As if he were omniscient.......

First, we are not that important or that bright.

Second, the Devil does not have any of the attributes of God. He is a created being. He is not interested in having any personal relationships - especially with other created beings. He wanted God to bow down to Him - why would he care if dust mites, like ourselves, worshiped him?

Third, we are a people who cannot go a day without damning ourselves to Hell without God's forgiveness, and that is just through our own sinful behavior; not even taking into account the curse of the Fall. Judgmentalness, selfishness, sex, drugs, consumerism, materialism, and all forms of disorder and disobedience are tripping us up all the time - how does a train wreck (Lucifer's rebellion) from antiquity influence the train wreck of humanity more than just as a cautionary tale?

We have a strange image of the Devil - on one hand we give him godlike characteristics and on the other, we think of him as really dumb and one dimensional - having a long term interest in our fate? challenged through the centuries by tempting us? Finding meaning from chaos and disorder? Sounds more like the Joker from Batman than an accurate understanding of a real, created being who disobeyed his creator.

The bottom line is, no one needs to be particularly bright or even moderately persistent to deceive us - average criminals do it everyday. Go check your email for examples from Nigeria. Transforming the devil into a cartoon nemesis, instead of facing our own disordered and sinful behavior does not shift the blame off of ourselves before God, it only repeats the actions of Adam and Eve trying to hide because they were naked.

 

[rand]

First: We are that important. Not to Satan, but to God the Father.
Second: The devil does want to be worshiped. He didn't want God to worship him, he wanted to be like the Most High. While tempting Jesus on the Mt. Satan told Him that if He would bow and worship him, he would give Him everything in sight for he had the right to do it because it was given to him (by us, by agreeing with him). Note that he was willing to give it all away just to be worshipped.

Third: I agree with pretty much everything else you said, but I do believe the devil is very powerful which is why it's such a big deal that Jesus gave us authority over him. Satan can only do in our lives what we allow him to do. We allow him, by agreeing with him. Fear is one way of agreeing with him for God has not given us a spirit of fear. Have you ever noticed in the book of Job that the one thing Job was affraid of the most is what Satan gave him? Job feared that his kids would dishonor God and God would destroy them. Well, God didn't destroy but satan got job to agree with him on this Believing the lie empowers the lier. Unforgiveness is also agreeing with him

 

[aspen]

First: We are that important. Not to Satan, but to God the Father.
Second: The devil does want to be worshiped. He didn't want God to worship him, he wanted to be like the Most High. While tempting Jesus on the Mt. Satan told Him that if He would bow and worship him, he would give Him everything in sight for he had the right to do it because it was given to him (by us, by agreeing with him). Note that he was willing to give it all away just to be worshipped.

Third: I agree with pretty much everything else you said, but I do believe the devil is very powerful which is why it's such a big deal that Jesus gave us authority over him. Satan can only do in our lives what we allow him to do. We allow him, by agreeing with him. Fear is one way of agreeing with him for God has not given us a spirit of fear. Have you ever noticed in the book of Job that the one thing Job was affraid of the most is what Satan gave him? Job feared that his kids would dishonor God and God would destroy them. Well, God didn't destroy but satan got job to agree with him on this Believing the lie empowers the lier. Unforgiveness is also agreeing with him

I agree that we are important to God. We mean nothing to Satan.

Jesus is God, and Satan wanted Jesus to worship Him.

No doubt that Satan is powerful - but he is not obsessed with us - we are suckers - rubes - certainly not challenging for him at all. How many times would it take to dupe humanity before it would become boring - for another person, let alone the most evil creation to ever exist?

Instead, we are our own worst enemies - we cannot even stand on our own, to give Satan the opportunity to push us down. This is what I mean by saying that Satan's example is dangerous enough, even without his evil intervention.

 

[Foreigner]

I agree that we are important to God. We mean nothing to Satan.

Jesus is God, and Satan wanted Jesus to worship Him.

No doubt that Satan is powerful - but he is not obsessed with us - we are suckers - rubes - certainly not challenging for him at all. How many times would it take to dupe humanity before it would become boring - for another person, let alone the most evil creation to ever exist?

Instead, we are our own worst enemies - we cannot even stand on our own, to give Satan the opportunity to push us down. This is what I mean by saying that Satan's example is dangerous enough, even without his evil intervention.

-- Incorrect.
We are not 'nothing' to Satan.
We are hated and despised by him on a visceral level - he is personally offended at our status within Christ - and he desires to ensure that we fail and spend eternity in his dominion.

He ignores those who are happily traveling down the 'wide path to destruction' wrapped up in sin and having nothing to do with Christ.
But when a person begins to explore who Jesus is and is being drawn towards Him, Satan uses every resource he has to confuse, beguile, distract, discourage - attack.
Even after a person becomes a Christian they are still subject to attacks by Satan.

The attacks serve two purposes:
One, to minimize their efficiency as a Christian and reduce their ability to draw others to Christ - or even provide an example which repels others from Christ.
And two, to try to get the Christian to become confused, disappointed, disillusion and weakened so they will either walk away from their faith or fall back into sin even as they feel they are still following God.

Hell will be occupied by millions of people who have given their lives to Christ, but then fell (or walked) away.


They key is that Christians do not need to fear Satan or demonic influence. We have dominion over him in all areas.
As long as we are following Christ with our whole hearts, his attacks will continue but they will be futile.