BCPaolo Posted October 23, 2005 Group: Members Followers: 0 Topic Count: 12 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 54 Content Per Day: 0.01 Reputation: 0 Days Won: 0 Joined: 07/25/2005 Status: Offline Share Posted October 23, 2005 1) Should we really blame the devil for everything? What is our fault for being sinners, and what's Satan's fault? To me it seems like some people can use Satan as a scape goat ie "I didn't mean to do that, but I gave in to Satan" or something to that effect. I personally think we should fess up and take the blame for our mistakes in life. If I go out and kill someone, that's me killing another person, not satan! 2) I'm familiar with the concept of Evil being the corruption of something good, but if the world and everything in it was good before the fall of man, why did the snake in the garden of eden tempt Adam and Eve? It seems like evil was present in him before Adam and Eve screwed things up for everyone . How could the snake talk anyways?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
other one Posted October 23, 2005 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 29 Topic Count: 599 Topics Per Day: 0.08 Content Count: 56,254 Content Per Day: 7.56 Reputation: 27,984 Days Won: 271 Joined: 12/29/2003 Status: Offline Share Posted October 23, 2005 1) Should we really blame the devil for everything? What is our fault for being sinners, and what's Satan's fault? To me it seems like some people can use Satan as a scape goat ie "I didn't mean to do that, but I gave in to Satan" or something to that effect. I personally think we should fess up and take the blame for our mistakes in life. If I go out and kill someone, that's me killing another person, not satan! 2) I'm familiar with the concept of Evil being the corruption of something good, but if the world and everything in it was good before the fall of man, why did the snake in the garden of eden tempt Adam and Eve? It seems like evil was present in him before Adam and Eve screwed things up for everyone . How could the snake talk anyways?!? The devil never made anyone do anything. He may entice one to do things, but each of us makes a decision to or not to do everything that we do..... be it good or bad.... sin or not sin, each of us are responsible for all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kodischild Posted October 24, 2005 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 7 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 187 Content Per Day: 0.03 Reputation: 0 Days Won: 0 Joined: 09/24/2005 Status: Offline Birthday: 04/28/1977 Share Posted October 24, 2005 Satan can't be everywhere all the time. He has a bunch of demon buddies, but even they can't be there all the time. I suppose Satan spends his time sneaking things past the sensors at the tv station, or putting music on the air so we are feeding our minds with garbage without even realizing it, or hanging out with the fashion people making those clothes just a little skimpier. Satan and his minions may even spend time tempting the pastor or roaming around Christian radio stations to try to get a larger number of people to slip. Anyway, it just seems to me that his best troop deployment would be to bring down the big guys or lower society's standards so he can get more bang for the buck. So since I am a small fry in the big picture, I figure all my sins come from me. My worldliness, my temper, my need for people to like me even if it means I'm afraid to share the gosple, my temper, my laziness, my temper.....Did I mention my temper? Yep, I don't need satan to tempt me, I get into plenty of trouble all alone. The above is only opinion. I can't think of a single scripture to back it up. I can't even think where I came up with the theory, but it is my theory anyway. Have you ever read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis? Wormwood or Screwtape, whoever is the senior demon doing the writing tells the junior demon that it isn't so much what you put into a human's mind as what you keep out of it. For example, don't let the human ever question why it is ok for him to commit a sin and be a Christian, but if he sees others sin he assumes they are not really Christians. If you allow humans to start thinking like that then they will develop empathy and lose their judgemenatlism. Anyway, he says things to that affect. I think Lewis might really have something with the way the devil works. A lot of what he said is stuff I can see has helped me stumble before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad Ernie Posted October 24, 2005 Group: Royal Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 75 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 2,802 Content Per Day: 0.35 Reputation: 46 Days Won: 0 Joined: 03/29/2002 Status: Offline Birthday: 06/01/1945 Share Posted October 24, 2005 Greetings BCPaolo, 1) Should we really blame the devil for everything? What is our fault for being sinners, and what's Satan's fault? To me it seems like some people can use Satan as a scape goat ie "I didn't mean to do that, but I gave in to Satan" or something to that effect. I personally think we should fess up and take the blame for our mistakes in life. If I go out and kill someone, that's me killing another person, not satan! James 1:13-15 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. We can blame no one but ourselves for commiting sin, the same as with Adam. 2) I'm familiar with the concept of Evil being the corruption of something good, but if the world and everything in it was good before the fall of man, why did the snake in the garden of eden tempt Adam and Eve? It seems like evil was present in him before Adam and Eve screwed things up for everyone . How could the snake talk anyways?!? Consider: Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. "that old serpent" is reference to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. It was the Devil or Satan. Pornography IS EVIL, are you saying that it was created for good? Today we recognize slavery as EVIL, was it intended for good? No Adam had no "evil" present in him before the fall. His natural condition was that when provided with the opportunity to sin, he sinned. We are the same way. Blessings, Dad Ernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jesussaves Posted October 24, 2005 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 210 Topics Per Day: 0.03 Content Count: 1,144 Content Per Day: 0.15 Reputation: 11 Days Won: 0 Joined: 06/14/2003 Status: Offline Share Posted October 24, 2005 1) Should we really blame the devil for everything? What is our fault for being sinners, and what's Satan's fault? To me it seems like some people can use Satan as a scape goat ie "I didn't mean to do that, but I gave in to Satan" or something to that effect. I personally think we should fess up and take the blame for our mistakes in life. If I go out and kill someone, that's me killing another person, not satan! 2) I'm familiar with the concept of Evil being the corruption of something good, but if the world and everything in it was good before the fall of man, why did the snake in the garden of eden tempt Adam and Eve? It seems like evil was present in him before Adam and Eve screwed things up for everyone . How could the snake talk anyways?!? You are right. When Cain killed his brother Able, it was not the devil the Lord mentioned as taking his blood, but Cain. Matter of fact the whole earth was once so corrupt that only eight people were saved from the great flood. When people turn away from the Lord and want to go their own way, all that is cultivated is wickedness. That is what the devil wants to do, draw people away from the Lord. Thankfully, Jesus came to redeem us and restore us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah68 Posted October 24, 2005 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 2 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 224 Content Per Day: 0.03 Reputation: 1 Days Won: 0 Joined: 01/25/2005 Status: Offline Share Posted October 24, 2005 Of course we can't blame it on satan if we choose to do something wrong. It was him that offered us the possibility but it was our responsibility to refuse it. That's what free will is all about. You have the choice but God wants you to choose God out of love for Him. Jesus left us the power of his overcoming life, the Holy Spirit to give us the power to overcome. If we call ourselves Christians, we have to use it to that end. He came to destroy the works of the devil. Now it's up to us to refuse to give in. That destroys it in our lives. It can have no power over us unless we give it power. The Scripture says, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." That's pretty clear. (1 Jo 3:8) It also says, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." (Jo 8:34) So, a person's choices are important. We do not want to serve sin or the devil so we must choose God. Choosing God is choosing life. De 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. It has always been God's desire to give us life. The choice is up to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenwar Posted October 24, 2005 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 1 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 161 Content Per Day: 0.02 Reputation: 0 Days Won: 0 Joined: 06/16/2005 Status: Offline Share Posted October 24, 2005 Pornography IS EVIL, are you saying that it was created for good? Today we recognize slavery as EVIL, was it intended for good? But pornography is one of many corruptions of something God made - the sexual relationship between man and wife. Sex is a wonderful thing which God created - and it was good. Sin has corrupted that by exploiting the desire and offering other ways of fulfilling it. Likewise slavery is a corruption of a relationship of submission and obedience. Jesus showed how such a relationship was designed to work when he washed his disciples' feet. Those with power are supposed to wield it for the benefit of those without. Slavery exploited that by saying "why not use that power for yourself?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCPaolo Posted October 27, 2005 Group: Members Followers: 0 Topic Count: 12 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 54 Content Per Day: 0.01 Reputation: 0 Days Won: 0 Joined: 07/25/2005 Status: Offline Author Share Posted October 27, 2005 Pornography IS EVIL, are you saying that it was created for good? Today we recognize slavery as EVIL, was it intended for good? But pornography is one of many corruptions of something God made - the sexual relationship between man and wife. Sex is a wonderful thing which God created - and it was good. Sin has corrupted that by exploiting the desire and offering other ways of fulfilling it. Likewise slavery is a corruption of a relationship of submission and obedience. Jesus showed how such a relationship was designed to work when he washed his disciples' feet. Those with power are supposed to wield it for the benefit of those without. Slavery exploited that by saying "why not use that power for yourself?" that's very true. Only only that, but back to Eden... so Adam had no evil present in him. What about Satan? The snake? I thought everything god created in eden was good? What's this evil snake doing tempting Adam and Eve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah68 Posted October 27, 2005 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 2 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 224 Content Per Day: 0.03 Reputation: 1 Days Won: 0 Joined: 01/25/2005 Status: Offline Share Posted October 27, 2005 On the first day, God created light and God saw that it was good. After that, it says that He divided it from the darkness and that was the first day. Nothing more about things being good until the third day. The second day, it just says that He made the firmament and then divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament. And it just says it was so. God never called the darkness good, but it was there already. Any being that is good but has never been tempted with evil has the potential for evil if confronted with it. God created satan so beautiful and wise that he became proud and that pride caused him to fall. Since that time, God has always been working on His plan to free His creation and to help them to get back into a perfect state. The only way to do it is to be tempted with evil and reject it out of a free will love for God through the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. Then that person will be a new creature, one that has been confronted with evil and has overcome by the power of Jesus' life. The serpent may not have been so obviously evil as we think of a serpent today. Remember, its punishment was to go on its belly and eat dust, etc. That means that it didn't do that before. In Strong's concordance 'serpent' is #5175 which means: 'a snake (from its hiss), serpent and it comes from #5172 which means to hiss or whisper a spell along with a few other things that are very interesting to what happens to us here on earth. So you can see that satan certainly was like that to Eve. You can picture him saying to Eve, "Yeah, God didn't really say that. You're not really going to die. Your eyes are going to be opened." And he made it sound so interesting, which is exactly what he has been doing to human beings ever since. By principle we have to know his wiles and reject it soundly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yomotalking Posted October 29, 2005 Group: Royal Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 154 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 2,838 Content Per Day: 0.40 Reputation: 19 Days Won: 0 Joined: 10/18/2004 Status: Offline Birthday: 05/29/1991 Share Posted October 29, 2005 Satan can't be everywhere all the time. He has a bunch of demon buddies, but even they can't be there all the time. I suppose Satan spends his time sneaking things past the sensors at the tv station, or putting music on the air so we are feeding our minds with garbage without even realizing it, or hanging out with the fashion people making those clothes just a little skimpier. Satan and his minions may even spend time tempting the pastor or roaming around Christian radio stations to try to get a larger number of people to slip. Anyway, it just seems to me that his best troop deployment would be to bring down the big guys or lower society's standards so he can get more bang for the buck. So since I am a small fry in the big picture, I figure all my sins come from me. My worldliness, my temper, my need for people to like me even if it means I'm afraid to share the gosple, my temper, my laziness, my temper.....Did I mention my temper? Yep, I don't need satan to tempt me, I get into plenty of trouble all alone. The above is only opinion. I can't think of a single scripture to back it up. I can't even think where I came up with the theory, but it is my theory anyway. Have you ever read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis? Wormwood or Screwtape, whoever is the senior demon doing the writing tells the junior demon that it isn't so much what you put into a human's mind as what you keep out of it. For example, don't let the human ever question why it is ok for him to commit a sin and be a Christian, but if he sees others sin he assumes they are not really Christians. If you allow humans to start thinking like that then they will develop empathy and lose their judgemenatlism. Anyway, he says things to that affect. I think Lewis might really have something with the way the devil works. A lot of what he said is stuff I can see has helped me stumble before. I've got the screwtape letters. Neveer read them though. Would you recommend it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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