Does Satan exist?

[Petros2015]

If yes:

1. What is he/ it?
2. Why doesn't God simply destroy Satan or is he not all powerful
3. Do Christians really believe in a being called Satan, or just in the possibility that some people are capable of doing bad things?
4. Where does Satan exist, it can't be in heaven, it can't be in Hell so where is it?

I know several committed Christians, and they seem to be confused about whether Satan is "real" or not, can anyone explain what Christianity teaches, and incidentally does Islam and Judaism have the same entity in their faith?

1. Probably something fairly incomprehensible, but leading a rebellion against God. I would say it's ego is probably large. I'm not sure if it or things in rebellion can be considered sane. If you are rebelling against things like peace, love, sanity, holiness a natural consequence is going to be an increasing absence of those things. A black hole of self centeredness.

2. I'm not certain that spirits can be destroyed. When God creates a spirit, what do you think that spirit is made out of? Up for debate. So if you can't destroy or heal something that has become corrupted, what do you do with it?

3. I believe in demons, of which Satan would be one that is named and I guess has some kind of personality. People are capable of doing bad things apart from God. A demon wants to keep them in that state, preferably self-justifying it all the way to Hell. A demon (I believe), ultimately wants the spirit of a person to conform more and more to the spirit of the demon. Same as God wants. I think whereas we are 'made in the image of God', a demon seeks to re-mold the image.

4. Welcome to Earth.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

I think whereas we are 'made in the image of God', a demon seeks to re-mold the image.

In Ephesians it is written that most of the population are subject to the prince of the power of the air (the devil). Even believers saved are , until they are saved.
"Sons of disobedience" are not in the image of YHWH.

 

[Daniel9v9]

Pretty much what @Shoetoyou said. I would also add that these things are profoundly difficult to grasp, because we can only know what God has revealed to us - and they are usually epic things explained in very simple terms, so the precise nature of these matters are challenging to explain, because they are simply too high to fathom. Still, from Scripture we can know some things:

1. Satan is a powerful created being that rebelled against God. God did not make him evil, but Satan made himself evil by abusing the gift of free will. He is bent on evil and destruction, whereas God is holy and good.

2. Satan exercises some freedom to roam and cause evil. This God allows in due measure in order to test people - though only for a short season, for Satan and all evil will be punished; they already stand condemned. For God to punish evil is in itself a good thing, in accordance with God's good and righteous nature.

3. People do evil because they are tempted by Satan and consents to do evil, or by tempting themselves into evil. God, however, tempts no one. It should be understood that all of mankind are by default children of Satan, because we all have fallen short of the glory of God. We have a natural disregard, hatred and disbelief in God, but we love to make ourselves "god" and do evil (though we often don't consider what we do evil). In this way, we are really one with Satan and so we can't purely blame Satan for all the evil we do - this is a kind of Stoic belief - but both we and Satan are guilty of evil.

4. Satan is all around in our world, and he can also move outside the frame of time and space, at least conditionally. However, once again, only for a season. He stands condemned and will be thrown away into darkness for eternal punishment, along with all evil.

No other major religions share Christianity's view on Satan. While HaSatan exists in Judaism, they make the claim that he is an agent of God and not opposed to God, but that he is doing God's will. This may sound like Christianity, but they are fundamentally different in that Christians hold that only God is good and He is not the source of evil. In other words, in Judaism God can bestow evil, but in Christianity evil is the absence of God.

In a word, God can punish evil, but He does not create or bestow moral evil - though out of His longsuffering He may allow it for a short time. This is good news for all people, because if God instantly punished evil, none of us would stand. However, God is merciful and has given us Christ, that whoever believes in Jesus will be forgiven their sins and will not be punished for their evil.

I hope this clarifies some!

 

[Adstar]

If yes:

1. What is he/ it?

He is a former Cherub Angel.. A Cherubum Angel is an Angel that has both Human and beast life features.. Satan was an Angel with wings.. After He rebelled against God He lost His beauty..

2. Why doesn't God simply destroy Satan or is he not all powerful

Because God wants to show by demonstration why satan is unjustified in his rebellion against God to the Hevenly Host .. There are many Angels who God also wants to save from His judgement.. We do not know how many angels there are.. There could be billions ?? God could have simply Zapped satan in an instant.. But that would only prove that God is more powerful then satan.. The Heavenly Host would then only follow God out of fear of his superior power, If satan was destroyed many of the angels might then think satans claim to Godhood and rebellion against God was justified and would from that time on only submit to God because they would believe God was just an all powerful tyrant... So God created the universe where the claim of satan to Godhood could be tested.. satan made his sabotarge effort to wreck Gods creation by enticeing it to take the knowledge of good and evil.. The God started he plan to Redeem his creation through the Way of the LORD Jesus Christ..

3. Do Christians really believe in a being called Satan, or just in the possibility that some people are capable of doing bad things?

Yes i believe in a being called satan.. And i believe that humans who now have the knowledge of good and evil can do evil independant of satans influence.. But i also believe satan and his allied fallen angels do seek to influence and use those people who are not indwelled by Gods Holy Spirit..

4. Where does Satan exist, it can't be in heaven, it can't be in Hell so where is it?

Satan had access to heaven during the time of Job.. He had freedom to travel between heaven and earth at that time and since he has the power to interfere with humans today satan still has access to this world.. Only after the return of the LORD Jesus Christ will satan be bound and cast into the bottomless pit..

I know several committed Christians, and they seem to be confused about whether Satan is "real" or not, can anyone explain what Christianity teaches, and incidentally does Islam and Judaism have the same entity in their faith?

Well i have given you a fair bit already.. islam as far as i know does teach that satan exist i think they call him shatan,, I do not think they believe he is a former Angel.. I think they believe that angels cannot rebell against God.. I think they believe this because they claim muhammad received the quran from an angel .. So for them to acknowledge the possibility of there being rebellious angels is to open the door to the possibility that muhammad was given the quran by an evil angel.. Incidentally the same problem is present in the Mormon religion who teach that an angel moroni gave their founder his doctrines..

 

[bling]

If yes:

1. What is he/ it?
2. Why doesn't God simply destroy Satan or is he not all powerful
3. Do Christians really believe in a being called Satan, or just in the possibility that some people are capable of doing bad things?
4. Where does Satan exist, it can't be in heaven, it can't be in Hell so where is it?

I know several committed Christians, and they seem to be confused about whether Satan is "real" or not, can anyone explain what Christianity teaches, and incidentally does Islam and Judaism have the same entity in their faith?

God had a plan from the beginning of time to save everyone that would accept His help and condemn everyone that would refuse God’s Help. This does not mean specifically you, but could include you if God knew your free will decision to accept His help that would come about in human future, but this may not really be future for God.



Satan has a purpose in all this.

If you don’t start with the objectives you can never see the purpose and that goes for everything:

Everything can be understood from the objectives:

Man’s objective seems to be to obtain and grow this Godly type Love to fulfill the mission (statement) of Love God and secondly others with all our heart, soul, mind, and energy.

Our “objective” while here on earth is to just accept God’s gift as it was given as pure charity.

God is not trying to get you to do something, but is trying to give you something.

That “something” is the most powerful force in all universes since it is the force that compels God to do all He does.

God’s Love compelled God to create beings that could Love like He Loves and did it for the sake of those few that would accept His Love.

There are some things that God just cannot do like create a being that was never created and the one important to us is instinctively create us with Godly type Love since that would be robotic type Love. God will also not force his love on us since that would be unloving on God’s part (there has to be reasonable alternatives to make it a choice [the perceived pleasures of sin]). The easiest way for us to get this Love is through accepting it as a pure charitable gift. The problem being humans (due in part to the needed survival instinct) do not like accepting Charity from a Giver that paid a huge price for the gift.

The easiest way for humans to accept God’s charity (Love) is out of a huge need and that need is the relief from the burden of hurting others in the past (sin). By accepting God’s forgiveness we accept God’s Love (mercy/grace/charity) and thus we will Love much since Jesus has taught us (we also see this in our own lives) “…he that is forgiven much will Love much…”

Once we accept Godly type Love, we can truly Love and have the privilege and honor of Loving God (the forgiver) and others (God’s children) with all our heart, soul, mind, and energy.


This Godly type Love is defined by Jesus’ words and deeds (you can also use 1 Cor 13 and 1 John 4).


Since God is “Love” and part of the definition of Godly type Love is unselfishness God is totally unselfish? If God is totally unselfish, He will do and allow all He can to help those that are just willing to accept His help fulfill their objective (Love). That “all” includes: Christ to go to the cross, satan to roam the earth, tragedies of all kind, hell, evil, and even sin.

Will we know people do not like to accept charity especially from a giver that paid a huge price? People will try to earn the gift, pay back the gift, be more deserving of the gift than the next person or just say they got the gift without having to accept it. The easiest way to accept the gift is through accepting God’s forgiveness (this is after you have sinned) since forgiveness is charity, grace, mercy Love. AND Jesus has taught us “…he that is forgiven much will Love much…”

The problem is God wants us to be like He is (God’s Love is compelling Him to create beings that can Love like He Loves and made these beings for the sake of those that will accept His Love).

If we continue to refuse God’s Love and really do not want to Love unselfishly, where is there for us to go? Heaven is one huge Love feast so we would not be happy there and God wants us to be happy.

Satan:

Satan is not around to give us someone to fight or to just help us to “know” good by seeing the contrast.

Satan helps us to reach the point of outwardly visibly sinning and makes us aware of our sinful attitudes.

You see: SIN IS NOT THE PROBLEM. God actual quenches His own desire of stopping us from sinning, to allow us to sin and satan to help us sin more. The whole problem is with our fulfilling our objective. God is allowing and/or doing all He can to help us fulfill our objective (this at great cost to God and shows the selflessness of God.)

Satan does what God cannot do, but is limited by what God will allow him to do. God allows satan to hurt innocent people in order to provide opportunities for willing individuals to see, experience, share, give, receive and grow Godly type Love.

Satan does not “cause” us to sin but is a tempter, so we do decide to do some sin (sin is necessary). After we receive the indwelling Holy Spirit we have a Spiritual power to go up against demons.

1. Satan was an angel and we knew very little about how angels came into being, for instance: We know we will become like angels and cease to be humans, so were angles once like humans?

2. Earth is a place where we can both sin and receive forgiveness of sin, prior to becoming Spiritual beings dwelling in the Spiritual realm. Once we ascend to the spiritual realm will there be need for Faith and Hope? Does acceptance of forgiveness (Mercy/ LOVE) require faith and hope?

3. What more is God to do for satan that would cause him to accept God’s Love?

4. What makes you think satan has an organic brain (mind) that can think and learn anything?

5. Satan has been around for a long, long, time knowing for certain there is a Loving God, I see satan having a purpose and a reason for God holding back his finial punishment that does not include his potential salvation. Everything I read in scripture says it is to late for satan, where do you read satan can avoid hell?

From the Job story we get the following:

1. God brings up Job to satan to get satan interested.

2. God limits satan to what satan can do to Job.

3. God manipulates satan into attacking and hurting an innocent person, which God directly will not do.

4. Job at the end of the story is spiritually more mature than at the beginning, which could have been the intent of God from the beginning for it certainly would have been God’s desire.

5. Would it not also have been Job’s desire to know God better and grow spiritually and would that not have been in Job’s prays?

6. If God had come to Job without Job getting to the point he was in at the end of the story and said, “Job you think of Me to much in human terms, feel I do not know everything going on and could make errors.” The response from prior to all this happening would have been, “No Lord”, I do not feel that way at all.” Job would not be aware of his inner feelings toward God, that come out at the end of the story.

7. God does not do stuff for His own sake (that is not loving or unselfish), but God quenches His own desires to do everything for the sake of others including Job.

 

[-V-]

If yes:

1. What is he/ it?
2. Why doesn't God simply destroy Satan or is he not all powerful
3. Do Christians really believe in a being called Satan, or just in the possibility that some people are capable of doing bad things?
4. Where does Satan exist, it can't be in heaven, it can't be in Hell so where is it?

I know several committed Christians, and they seem to be confused about whether Satan is "real" or not, can anyone explain what Christianity teaches, and incidentally does Islam and Judaism have the same entity in their faith?

First off, given your comments in post #3, you might want to ask a moderator to move this to "Exploring Christianity", as that seems to better fit your intentions.

As to your questions:
1. A fallen angel.
2. God allows the exercise of free will, which includes allowing disobedience and the existence of evil.
3. Some do believe Satan is an actual being, some of the more liberal types take a figurative view of it. The Bible, taken at face value, presents him as a real being.
4. Think of the spiritual realm as another dimension of the universe, it's just a dimension that we can't directly perceive. Think of heaven and hell as locations in that dimension, but there are areas in that dimension that aren't in heaven or hell.

 

[radhead]

The only "messengers" that the Bible could describe are those who have written laws contained within the Bible. And the New Testament would confirm that Jesus is greater than the angels, who wrote nothing other than whatever was in the sand, swept away by the wind.

Everyone needs someone to blame. The first son blamed the wife in his arrangement marriage. The wife had to blame someone. And it seems that blame is often given for what should have no need for forgiveness to begin with. Jesus said that our sins were forgiven if we believe they are.

 

[ViaCrucis]

If yes:

1. What is he/ it?

A rebellious, fallen angel. The Bible itself doesn't say a whole lot; Satan is mentioned a couple times in the Old Testament, but "Satan" isn't a name but a title, in Hebrew it is ha-shatan, meaning "the accuser". In Job Satan acts, in some sense, as a prosecuting attorney. In the 2nd Temple Period the notion of fallen angels became more pronounced, a common name attached to the chief of the fallen angels is Samael, a name never used in the Bible, but found in non-canonical 2nd Temple literature. In the New Testament the idea of fallen angels, and their chief "Satan", is assumed rather than explained. In mainstream Judaism the idea of rebellious angels and of Satan as a fallen, evil angel ultimately lost traction; and instead Satan was understood more in line with how he's depicted in Job as a prosecuting attorney. While in Christianity the notion of Satan and the devils as fallen angels was retained.

2. Why doesn't God simply destroy Satan or is he not all powerful

The same question could arguably be asked for any particularly evil rational creature from history: Nero, Hitler, Herod, Tiberius, Caligula, Diocletian, Pol Pot, Stalin, etc. Fundamentally the question boils down to, "Why does God permit evil to happen?" To which plenty of answers have been submitted in the long history of western philosophy and Abrahamic religious theology; to what end any such answers are satisfying seems to depend on who you ask. Personally, I don't know if there is a single, all-satisfying answer to the problem of evil.

I would, however, add that I believe it is God's desire to redeem and save His creation; we learn from the Flood Story that destroying evil people doesn't resolve the problem of evil itself; and the over-arching biblical narrative is the narrative of redemption and grace: God's grace toward creation. We might say that God doesn't destroy evil men outright because, as we read in the book of the Prophet Ezekiel, that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather desires that the wicked turn from their way and live (Ezekiel 18:23 and 33:11). But what of the devils? Some notable Christian theologians have, historically, maintained that if we hold out hope for the salvation of all, that this all extends, perhaps, even to the devils themselves. Origen of Alexandria, for example, contemplates that perhaps in the end even Satan will repent and be saved; while other Christian theologians have argued that hoping for the salvation of the devils is foolish. I'd say we shouldn't exclude the possibility, though the position of the Church is, historically, non-dogmatic on the subject.

3. Do Christians really believe in a being called Satan, or just in the possibility that some people are capable of doing bad things?

Yes, orthodox Christian teaching says that there really are devils/demons, fallen angels. They are fallen creatures, just like human beings. But what's important to also say is that in orthodox Christian theology Satan and the devils are not the source or origin of evil, they are not the "yin" to God's "yang" or anything like that; because Christian theology explicitly rejects cosmic dualism as heretical and Manichean. Evil, in orthodox Christian teaching, isn't the opposite of good, in fact evil has no objective existence of its own; rather evil is understood to be the deprivation and/or malformation of good. Good exists, evil does not except as the deprivation and malformation of the good. The analogy the ancient fathers give is darkness and light; darkness doesn't exist, it is simply what happens in the absence of light. Evil, likewise, is what happens in the absence of the full communion and grace of God; and/or by taking the good and perverting it, distorting it, or abusing it in ways contrary to God. The natural appetites are not in and of themselves bad, but rather they are good; but abused by the lusts of the flesh they are twisted and contorted toward wicked purposes. For example, the sexual appetite is good, it leads toward love and procreation which are good and a blessing from God; but twisted and contorted it can be used toward destructive and harmful purposes, sexual assault, rape, the objectification of our fellow human beings created in God's image, adultery, etc. The sexual appetite, infused with pure love, is good; but twisted by sinful desire (concupiscience) becomes harmful, destructive, cruel, and evil.

4. Where does Satan exist, it can't be in heaven, it can't be in Hell so where is it?

The New Testament describes the devils as the "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." and Satan is specifically called "the prince of the power of the air". Paul in these places doesn't mean the devils inhabit "heaven" (which is probably better conceived of here as "the sky"), but seem to mean that the devils are ubiquitous and present in the world around us. They're here, not somewhere "out there" or "down there".

I know several committed Christians, and they seem to be confused about whether Satan is "real" or not, can anyone explain what Christianity teaches, and incidentally does Islam and Judaism have the same entity in their faith?

The majority of Christians believe, and the orthodox teaching is, that the devils are real creatures, not merely allegorical concepts. As such the idea that "Satan" is simply an allegory is outside of mainstream Christian teaching.

I briefly touched upon the Jewish view above, better information can be found here:

Satan, the Adversary | My Jewish Learning
Satan

In Islam Satan (Shaytan) is Iblis, the devil. Rather than in Judaism or Christianity which conceives of Satan as angelic in nature; Islam regards Satan as a fallen member of the Djinn (or Jinn), a race of beings created from fire (as opposed to angels, created from light). In Islam angels lack free will and thus cannot fall; whereas Djinn, like human beings, have free will. Satan/Iblis is a fallen, evil Djinn who refused to bow down before Adam at God's command because Iblis considered himself superior to Adam--for his hubris he was condemned by God.

Devil (Islam) - Wikipedia
Iblis - WikiShia
Question 18: Power of Satan and Jinn

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Hawkins]

If yes:

1. What is he/ it?
2. Why doesn't God simply destroy Satan or is he not all powerful
3. Do Christians really believe in a being called Satan, or just in the possibility that some people are capable of doing bad things?
4. Where does Satan exist, it can't be in heaven, it can't be in Hell so where is it?

I know several committed Christians, and they seem to be confused about whether Satan is "real" or not, can anyone explain what Christianity teaches, and incidentally does Islam and Judaism have the same entity in their faith?

It's a two-winged cherub. It is the Lucifer described in the Bible. It is the dragon and the serpent described in the Bible. When he moves he's like a serpent, but when he stopped and with his broken wings stretched out, he looks like a dragon. That's what he is.

I believe that I had an encounter (last for around 45 minutes) with him directly 12 years ago. I am not alone because 2 weeks after the encounter I met with a Christian who was able to describe one of his key characteristics before I mentioned it. However ever since then I have yet to meet a third person ever saw him. I thus don't think that this is a coincidence.

God has a plan to build a forever realm we call Heaven. It's a future place where God and angels and humans will live together. However entities with freewill may choose to sin to leave God. The end result thus will be that a group of angels will make it to be with God while another group will fail. Similarly, a group of humans (the righteous) with freewill will make it to be with God but not another group (the wicked). It means God allows both angels and humans to divide. Earth is the place for human division, while the current heaven (God's current dwelling place) is where the angel divides as angels are made to be the servants of God.

When angels sin, they will be chained to a place in Hades called pit or Abyss. Hades is more or less like an ocean, the 'deeper' you go the darker it becomes. Abyss is one of the 'deepest' and darkest area in Hades. However, according to the book of revelation, sometimes some of them may wander off the area and go to the place where human souls are located. I believe that this way they can cast more direct influence to humans on earth. Satan was in this human part of Hades during my encounter.

God doesn't destroy anyone till after the final judgment. This is not about God's capability but legitimacy. Before that everyone, both human and angel alike, has the right to exercise his freewill to the maximum allowable extent.

 

[StTruth]

If yes:

1. What is he/ it?
2. Why doesn't God simply destroy Satan or is he not all powerful
3. Do Christians really believe in a being called Satan, or just in the possibility that some people are capable of doing bad things?
4. Where does Satan exist, it can't be in heaven, it can't be in Hell so where is it?

I know several committed Christians, and they seem to be confused about whether Satan is "real" or not, can anyone explain what Christianity teaches, and incidentally does Islam and Judaism have the same entity in their faith?

Hi Dave RP,
When you ask if Satan exists, I take it that you mean does he exist as a being? No, he does not exist as a separate being. He exists metaphorically, as imagery for evil. You must remember that the Bible was written in a very poetic way.

Cheers,

St Truth

 

[bhsmte]

Hi Dave RP,
When you ask if Satan exists, I take it that you mean does he exist as a being? No, he does not exist as a separate being. He exists metaphorically, as imagery for evil. You must remember that the Bible was written in a very poetic way.

Cheers,

St Truth

And you know this how? What is your level of confidence that you are correct?

 

[StTruth]

And you know this how? What is your level of confidence that you are correct?

I can only say it's highly improbable for Satan to exist. I'm not totally confident I'm right but it doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong here. As for your question "how", my view that he does not exist comes from my careful reading of the OT.

Cheers,

St Truth

 

[bhsmte]

I can only say it's highly improbable for Satan to exist. I'm not totally confident I'm right but it doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong here. As for your question "how", my view that he does not exist comes from my careful reading of the OT.

Cheers,

St Truth

Cool, thanks.