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Miracle… or ventriloquism?He made a snake talk.
He made a snake talk.
Who says he did? There was never an indication of that in Genesis.
If so... by what authority (scripture)?
The rest of the bible clears that up.
Where, exactly? I don't recall any concrete mention of the serpent being Satan.
Plus, it not being in the Book of Genesis is like giving a meaning to one of Shakespeare's works 400 years later that Shakespeare never intended.
Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,
(2 Thessalonians 2:8-9 NASB)
All authority is given by God, so Satan is allowed by God to perform certain "signs and false wonders". Why does God allow this? The next verses tell us:
and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
(2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 NASB)
Many christians see how these verses connect.
2 Cor 11:3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
If so... by what authority (scripture)?
Understand that Satan was the most powerful of all angels. If you believe in the idea of guardian angels and pray in the Lord's prayer for God to protect us from evil, then you know the power of angels to affect the physical world.I wonder about the use of "false wonders"....currently I can't be dogmatic about Satan being able to perform miracles.....there is the possibility he is a great magician. Faking miracles.
The first one mentions the serpent deceiving Eve, but it's just a serpent. As for Revelation, not only is that heavy in symbolism and the last book to be added (and almost wasn't added at all), it's many centuries removed from the original writing of Genesis, so by then people had started applying a meaning to the text that wasn't there to start with. It's like taking Shakespeare's work and someone 400 years later saying that one character is really the same as a different character, while centuries earlier the two had almost no relation to one another. (Except with the serpent thing it's much longer than 400 years)
Well that's exactly what the "snake" didWhere, exactly? I don't recall any concrete mention of the serpent being Satan.
Plus, it not being in the Book of Genesis is like giving a meaning to one of Shakespeare's works 400 years later that Shakespeare never intended.
I wonder about the use of "false wonders"....currently I can't be dogmatic about Satan being able to perform miracles.....there is the possibility he is a great magician. Faking miracles.
Remember the reason that he has powers st this given time is because of 2 Thessalonians 2That's possible, but I doubt that for two reasons.
First of all, look at the passage again... it says "all power and signs and false wonders". He has been given power to perform these things by God.
Second, as another poster noted, in Revelation 13:13 it is said that the false prophet will be able to call down fire from heaven. I seriously doubt any magician could pull that one off.