Board index ‹ Satan

[Pardner]

Is God stronger than the devil? If so, why not just kill/get rid of him instead of allowing humans to suffer due to sin? (I saw this question on Twitter and now I am curious).

[jimwalton]

People suffer from sin because of their own sin. They can't blame Satan for that one.

God doesn't get rid of Satan because Satan has a role to play. He serves a purpose. As Frodo said to Sam about Gollum: he was evil, and trouble, but he had a part to play in their quest. We could debate for a while whether Gollum was necessary or not. it's very possible that Frodo and Sam could have found their way on their own. But he was certainly useful and helpful, despite his evil.

[Peanut Butter Jif]

What’s Satan’s role and why is it necessary?

[jimwalton]

Evil has a tendency to motivate people toward good. After these horrific school shootings, the community bands and bonds together. They are more involved, more caring and more thoughtful.

Nelson Mandela said that after centuries of racism in S Africa, being elected president gave him an opportunity to forgive, in both a personal and official way, all the hate that had been exercised against him.

I know that when I come across what I consider to be deceit in the media (and deceit is one of Satan's two main character traits—though I'm not claiming that deceit in the media is the hand of Satan), it motivates me to investigate deeper and listen more critically so that I'm not taken in.

And we all know that when people deceive us, we learn important lessons and it makes us sharper and more wary.

Evil is a foghorn to notify us that something isn't right. Evil often trains a normal person to "do it better."

Satan's role is not God-given. It's not like God assigned him the job of Chief Deceiver and President of Trouble-Making. Satan chose what he chose, and God didn't stop him from that choice, as God most of the time doesn't stop us from our choices. That's what free will is: it's free.

Taking all those illustrations together, Satan has chosen the role of Deceiver. Almost every reference to him in the Bible is of deceiving somebody about something. His other primary role is Blasphemer. He wants to knock God down as many notches as possible and to put himself in God's place.

Why are those necessary? I don't know if they're NECESSARY as much as that God finds a way to use even that to draw people to Himself, even while Satan is working to draw people away from God and make fools of us all.