About Christianity
- Locked due to inactivity on Oct 16, '17 3:54am
Thread Topic: About Christianity
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Well, I'm not Jewish, and I'm not anything other than a born-again Christian, so I can only tell you what I know.
I know God won't just follow Satan's requests. God does everything on His own at His own timing for His own reasons. "Every good and perfect gift is from above"--James 1:17. As for who prosecutes, God is judge. That's why we're called not to judge others because that's God's job. Satan is simply death and in control of hell. If you're not with God, judgement will come and you go to hell.
God let Satan test Jesus in the desert, to literally just test Jesus. It proves how it's not a sin to be tempted, but only if you give in to the temptation. Jesus never did, and we should follow His example. And like Jesus, if we remain faithful, God will bless. -
Tsanchan2 NewbieI should have said God allows Satan's requests (like destroying Job's life to prove Job is unworthy). Satan appears to be God's Prosecutor with YHWE being the King. Satan rules over this world with God's permission (the kingdoms of the world) are Satan's to give) and acts as God's Prosecutor and Governor on Earth. Satan has to obey Jesus because he is subordinate to Jesus, but he still has the right to test Jesus. Satan is Prosecutor and God s the Judge.
Satan only becomes a Bad Guy figure in Revelation. No where does Satan rule Sheol as that is Death, which God has appointed for all of us. Hell is Greek-Zoroastrain dogma added to Christianity later. Sheol is Death. That's why there's inconsistency between OT, NT, Gospel, Revelation. Could be translation. OT translated from Hebrew/Aramaic to Greek to English. NT translate from Greek to English. -
Ok thanks for clarifying. You're pretty knowledgeable, which is scaring me so slow down! Anyway, so Satan is the prince of this world. Definitely, so that's why the world is broken. Why we're falling apart. But in Revelation after the tribulation God's going to destroy the world and then finally defeat the antichrist. Then there is heaven on earth, a new world. God can't like Satan that much if He's going to destroy him, right?
I don't know about if there is inconsistency between the OT and the NT and Revelations. I think of the Bible as a whole, where everything is tied together. All the prophecies listed in the OT come true in the NT. Paul talks a lot about what will happen in the endtimes in the NT, and all that is later stated in Revelations. 66 books of the Bible with a couple dozen authors and translated from a few different languages, and written over 3 continents, and the fact that it all lines up is astounding and I see no inconsistency. -
Tsanchan2 NewbieIn Genesis, there's a serpent who ends up cursed. Most associate this serpent with Satan. Or is it allegory? In Job, Satan appears in YHWE's Court in the role of a prosecutor and Accuser (Satan meaning Adversary/Accuser). He says Job is not really faithful and asks God's permission to test Job by destroying his life. God gives Satan permission. Satan the Accuser now is an official in the Court of God and talks to God.
In the Gospel, Satan tests Jesus. Again fulfilling his appointed role. Once Jesus passes the test, Satan then obeys him.
In Revelation, there appears to be a Bad Guy Satan called Devil and Dragon. The character of Satan changes throughout the Bible. In the OT, there is no afterlife until a undefined later time. The dead sleep in Sheol. In the NT, the story changes to Gehenna (Hell) and threats of torment which reflect Greek myth of Tartaros. The end of the world and resurrection is promissed through Jesus. The Bible isn't the only work where the story changes.
The Quran says Satan's motivation is jealousy of Adam and he asked God's permission to destroy mankind through temptation. He is given permission to do so. Does Satan work for God? Is he doing his job? Is he an over the top out of control prosecutor who went beyond his limits? Is he a jealous bureaucrat? -
Satan isn't working for God. He has his own aims and goals and all he wants is to sow death and fear and to tear apart the world. He always trying to be better than God. So with the tests of Job and Jesus, Satan is trying to prove that his temptation is stronger than their faith. And God knows their faith is stronger but to prove it, He lets Satan test them. And Satan wants to, so in these cases I don't believe Satan is just a prosecuter for God. I believe he is evil and trying to prove that we would choose his ways over God, and God is letting us have that choice, that free will. And the fact that Satan has to ask God for permission to be horrible simply shows that God is the one in control, and I believe that that is all this means, when Satan has to go to God. It is nothing more than a show of who is in control. So I do not believe that Satan works for God, but rather has his own selfish plans. Plans he can't do without God's permission, because if he could, then God wouldn't be in control.
So in Genesis, the snake was Satan. He had come to tempt Eve, and being tempted isn't a sin, but giving in to it is. So when Eve picked the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it was her fault, her sin. Satan tempted her, yes, but the choice was hers.
Um, as for those faithful that die in the OT, before Jesus's time, I think--I can't remember off the top of my head--that they don't just go to heaven. Something about a special waiting place. They'll eventually get there once Jesus returns. I'm not really an expert on Revelations. -
The thing about animals is stupid btw
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What thing
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Tsanchan2 NewbieSnakes are symbolic. Even in Judaism a snake can represent wisdom or evil or both. Medieval Christians decided to just fear snakes. Satan was offering wisdom and yet it was sinful. It is like a paradox. Adam and Eve were good as long as they had no wisdom. The "snake" gives them wisdom and they are condemned. If they were not condemned would any of us exist? God knows the future and past so he knew they would sin. Was it planned all along?
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Yes God knows the future and the past, but by putting the tree of the knowledge of good evil in the garden, it shows Adam and eve still had a choice. There's still free will to choose between right and wrong. And though God knows where we're going, like if he knows we're going to hell when we die, it's not like we're condemned as soon as we're born. We still get the choice to choose between right and wrong.
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