If god is all powerful....

....why doesn't god get rid of satan?

 

Because He desires to create virtuous people, and without temptation there is no virtue.

 

Was the protoevangelium, accomplished?

 

God NEEDS him! Without a hyper-competent foil upon whom to heap Man's ills, God is exposed as a weak sort of Deity.

 

God is nil powerful.

Kind of funny that so many people believe in something so ineffective, isn't it?

Anyway, the devil wasn't so much an enemy of Yahweh prior to Christian dogma as the yin to Yahweh's yang. Considering what a nasty character Yahweh was, though, it's more of a supernatural good cop, bad cop teaming..

 

Because apparently God needs to make it seem as though he doesn't exist at all.

For thousands of years when people overcame the malevolence in the world or within themselves they have given the credit the very being who created it.

And we wonder why things haven't improved much.

You cannot correct the errors in the human condition when you ignore their true nature.

When one thinks about the implications of this one might come to the conclusion that it seems far more probable that there is only the devil and this God fellow never existed.

 

I think it's a pretty well-established idea, though, that this world is of the devil. It's a world full of wickedness because the devil has been allowed to roam free and cause mayhem.

Why God is such a git as to allow this situation, well, we dare not question his spiritual majesty, he works in mysterious ways, yadda yadda.. All in all, this thinking helps people endure evil in the world since, as you've pointed out, it allows them to blame the bad on the devil. In addition to that, even though they don't see God hanging around and doing good things (very often), they believe in him regardless and have hope of a better world to come after death. It's a good model, I suppose, for helping a lot of otherwise helpless, suffering mortal creatures like us cope with an indifferent universe full of both indifferent and malevolent forces.

 

Why doesn't he just create virtuous people in the first place instead of creating (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)s?

 

You're looking at it all wrong. If God creates, and satan negates, then he's the black hole in the universe that swallows everything up. I mean how can God get rid of something that is all negation and non existent. Would satan be able to exist if God didn't exist? Questions, questions, questions!

 

Why don't you tell HIm how?

 

Why should an omnipotent/omniscient god need to be told how? Are you saying he's a moron? Are you saying babies that went to heaven can't be virtuous because they have not been tempted? Are you saying no one in heaven is virtuous because there is no temptation?

 

For the same reason a master builder needs to be told by an apprentice how to build a mansion with a snap of his fingers - except that the apprentice would at least know a mansion when he sees one, whereas you do not.

 

One possible reason might be that Satan, isn't a helluva lot worse than you or I and perhaps just as God takes our stupid and selfish actions and transforms them into an asset over time.....so also perhaps Satan will be brought back to God and become one of the most staunch defenders of truth once he has been convinced that his old way of thinking and behaving was detrimental to both himself as well as to all of us??!!

 

I have read of some unusual visionary dreams of heaven that indicate that heaven is so permeated by the love and power of God that being tempted is difficult.

I guess God may have decided to set things up that way after the fall of a former covering cherub????!!


https://www.facebook.com/notes/fans...ho-had-been-very-shy-on-earth/438250039585847
Rick Joyner meets old friend in heaven who had been very shy on earth!

....

 

he needs someone to take the blame

 

That makes absolutely no sense at all.

I have no idea what this has to do with my questions.

 

It makes every bit as much sense as your question.

 

You are not the first to ask this question and you probably won't be the last. Here are some possible answers in short form. You can take them or leave them:

[video=youtube;aIrFCmUkQ4w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIrFCmUkQ4w[/video]

[video=youtube;Y5wYOZSh4GU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5wYOZSh4GU[/video]

 

which god?

 

I'm afraid it's us human beings who needed someone to take the blame. If you allow me to speak in biblical metaphors: the speaking snake may well have been Eve speaking to herself.

 

The proper question is how could a loving God let pain enter the world?

It is said that God is love. If so, then what loving relationship is devoid of the choice to reject the other? This is the dark side of love. At some point, you must be willing to let go of those you love, whether it be of their own choice or simply a time of seperation. Ironically, I just heard the song, "Love Stinks" on the radio. Some say that love is not worth it, but I say they are wrong.

 

i like that thing about it being Eve speaking to herself. First time I saw any sense in the story at all.

As for "god"needing someone to take the blame, that is me being metaphorical; god, like the snake, is people talking to themselves.

People conceive of an ideal, a perfect god,but then need a way to explain
how it could be author of such imperfection.

Of course a perfect god cant take the blame..

so its turned kind of inside out, blame the victims.

How do you see satan fitting into that?

 

I like your answer: "Which god?"

 

Just to make you post things like this.

 

Glad to have been of service.

If you like to see it that way. Being a believer in the “Kingdom Within” I’d even agree to an extend: we can indeed find God within us.

However: people don't tend to externalize being good as much as they tend to externalize being bad, that Eve should do that would be a rather unusual step.

And your view still leaves us with the question why there is something rather than nothing. Which would bring me to the “Kingdom Without”. (I can but hope you get what I mean by this rather Christian terminology)

The question is whether evil is really an imperfection or a necessary ingredient . As Augustines classical answer of “free will” - outlined amongst others in the videos I’ve already linked on page 2 - states: For Eve to be perfectly free she has to be able to choose to disobey God. If anything she’s a victim of that freedom. As for God being perfect, maybe you’re interested in one of my favourite theologians explaining what he’d mean by that:

[video=youtube;rJsIftyx-FY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJsIftyx-FY[/video]

[video=youtube;WgUkW65AkPE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgUkW65AkPE[/video]