Is there a logical reason God allowed Satan to have authority?

I think the scam is that the Devil will tell you "he was there in the beginning", when in reality we were.

Like get a shot of perspective, we're not trying to defeat the Devil with something we made up after the fact!

If he thinks we won't hold him to account for everything we were promised, he is going to be sorely corrected - at the hand of God!

What is beginning to dawn on me, is that the Devil realizes his time is short.

He's running a fine line between sin and madness, and his only escape is Man's despair.

But there is a flaw: he is counting on the gates of Hell staying open - God never promised that!

pittsburghjoe said:

Satan has authority because he is going to fight to keep disorder/sin from getting back into heaven. His pride wants every person possible.

Click to expand...

Where do you get the idea that Satan prevents disorder/sin in any capacity? We are talking about the nature of a spiritual being, not the world/earth/humanity. Sin is disorder, I think we agree there, but Satan is the embodiment of complexity/disorder. As such, he can only degrade things, not restore them. Restoring things is Christ's job. Christ gave Satan SOME authority, but pretty much only on earth and not in the heavenly places. This is because Spiritual things are pure and we are not pure because we are made of fallen flesh. Flesh does not only mean sinful or carnal but also corporal. We possess a Spirit, but we also possess a body. Satan does not have flesh, but instead, is pure as far as he is disorderly. He is chaos incarnate. Christ makes all things new. So the purpose of God giving Satan authority is so that Christ can restore humanity. This is all done by the councel of His council, the Trinity and their Holy Angels.

pittsburghjoe said:

Satan has authority because he is going to fight to keep disorder/sin from getting back into heaven. His pride wants every person possible.

Click to expand...

Part of the answer to your question is in Isaiah 10, and in Hebrews 2:14-15, and 1 John 3:8.

In Isaiah 10, God uses the "Assyrian" as a type for Satan, and reveals that He is using Satan as "the rod of Mine anger", i.e., a punishing rod upon the rebellious. And when He is done, He will cast that rod away into the fire.

Hebrews 2 and 1 John 3 reveals that Lord Jesus was specifically born in the flesh like us so as to destroy the devil and thus death, thus revealing that we all need The Savior Jesus Christ. Without Satan's working for this present world, we would have no need of The Savior. Satan is allowed to work to test us, and punish those who rebel with wickedness and sin which leads to death.

I'm not convinced that Satan ever had authority. He claims it in the temptations of Jesus, but he is a liar. John talks about him as ruler of this world. But "this world" in John isn't a neutral reference to the physical world. It's a reference to that world that is outside and opposed to Jesus' realm. Being ruler of those opposed to Jesus may give you influence over those people, but it doesn't give you authority in the real world.

pittsburghjoe said:

Satan was already in this fallen reality before we ate from the tree.

Click to expand...

The woman in the garden wasn’t surprised or confused when she saw Satan. She knew who/what he was.

hedrick said:

I'm not convinced that Satan ever had authority. He claims it in the temptations of Jesus, but he is a liar. John talks about him as ruler of this world. But "this world" in John isn't a neutral reference to the physical world. It's a reference to that world that is outside and opposed to Jesus' realm. Being ruler of those opposed to Jesus may give you influence over those people, but it doesn't give you authority in the real world.

Click to expand...

There are many levels of authority in the universe. Satan has authority, but that doesn’t mean he has more authority than Christ or God.

pittsburghjoe said:

Satan was already in this fallen reality before we ate from the tree.

Click to expand...

So how did Adam bring sin into the world?

pittsburghjoe said:

Satan has authority because he is going to fight to keep disorder/sin from getting back into heaven. His pride wants every person possible.

Click to expand...

I think about this problem a lot, there probably is a reason but we may never know what that reason is.

pittsburghjoe said:

Satan has authority because he is going to fight to keep disorder/sin from getting back into heaven. His pride wants every person possible.

Click to expand...

Not much authority really. More of a severely limited ability to act. Remember - Satan and the rest of the fallen angels are extremely powerful. Much more powerful than men by nature. They could easily destroy all of mankind if God allowed them to do so. But God does not. At least in my opinion, God places severe limitations on their power and ability to do harm.

pittsburghjoe said:

1/3 of the angels found a way to do it.

Click to expand...

That's not in the Bible.

True Counterphobia said:

That's not in the Bible.

Click to expand...

In the 12th chapter of the Apocalypse we read about the "war in heaven" between St. Michael the archangel and "the dragon", many interpret the dragon sweeping "down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth" as figuratively speaking of 1/3 of the angels abandoning God and following the devil in his fall.

Is that the meaning of the text? It's difficult to say, seeing as we are dealing with the most hard to understand book in the entire Bible; and just about any interpretation of any part of it is fraught with debate and disagreement.

-CryptoLutheran

Satan has no authority whatsoever. Any human being has the authority to reject Satan, to ignore Satan, to avoid Satan, with the guidance of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Those who fall victim to Satan did not do so because Satan had power over them, but because they themselves were foolish enough to listen to Satan instead of listening to God.

pittsburghjoe said:

Did Satan end up with authority because he was here first and got it from us when we surrendered it ..as a default procedure?

Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, why are you asking about all of this?

pittsburghjoe said:

Satan has authority because he is going to fight to keep disorder/sin from getting back into heaven. His pride wants every person possible.

Click to expand...

There is no disorder/sin in the highest heaven. God can have meetings with the lesser gods. Psalm 82, Job 1. It doesn't say these meetings were in the highest heavens. God or the pre-incarnate Christ could've come to a realm where they were allowed to meet him. Probably a hundred-fold holy angels would be there too.

pittsburghjoe said:

Satan was cast here before us. So Satan being represented at the tree is wild to think about. It was the gateway to this fallen reality.

Click to expand...

Satan is not mentioned in Genesis. It says, "the serpent" or nachash

Satan means adversary and can be used of many beings.

1a) adversary (in general-personal or national)
2) superhuman adversary
2a) Satan 7854 [e] haś·śā·ṭān

Like "legion" there could be many of them "satans", though there is rank and order. Eph 6:12

Religiot said:

Where do you think Satan is from?

Click to expand...

Ezekiel 38:14 says he was a Cherub.

Gottservant said:

The point of the authority given the Devil

Click to expand...

Do you think authority was given to them? They were already awesome beings, (Cherubim, Seraphim). They misused their existing powers. I think it was an insurrection, a revolt.

True Counterphobia said:

Christ gave Satan SOME authority, but pretty much only on earth and not in the heavenly places.

Click to expand...

So what does Eph 6:12 mean to you?