Season 4 Podcast 192 Argument for the Existence of God, Episode 19, Satan
Season 4 Podcast 192 Argument for the Existence of God, Episode 19, Satan
The comedian Flip Wilson had a great routine called “The Devil made me do it.” I can still hear him affecting a woman’s voice and saying, “The devil made me buy that dress.” If he got caught in a lie, he would say “The devil made me say that.” Wilson’s genius was in his expressions. It was a delight just to watch him, but underneath his humor rises that ever haunting question, how much power does Satan have over us? Can Satan make us do anything?
The answer is no. God limited Satan’s power as stated in Genesis 3.
“And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
To bruise our heel means he may have power to cripple but not destroy us. To bruise his head means we have power to overcome his cunning and see through his deceit. With a physical body we are natural. With an immortal spirit we are spiritual. The physical and the spiritual are at war with each other. The natural man tends to be an enemy to God and the spiritual man tends to be an enemy to Satan. Sometimes I think the devil has a lot of help. Agency has two parts. First agency is the ability to discern between good and evil. And second agency is the ability to choose good or evil. Why did we have to come to earth where Satan dwells? Why didn’t we just stay in heaven where we could be eternally happy?
If agency is the ability to discern between good and evil, and agency is the ability to choose good or evil, it follows that evil is necessary to agency. Therefore, Satan is necessary?
In other words, for agency to exist, we must be enticed both by God and By Satan. Satan entices us to do evil and Christ entices us to do good. We can choose between one or the other, but God and Satan cannot make us do one or the other. It must be a choice. God guards our agency even though we use our agency to defy him. It is among the great paradoxes of Christianity. Christ said,
“woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh.”
Satan rebelled against God, enticing a third part of the hosts of heaven to follow him. He was once an angel of light, but he stood in open rebellion against Christ. That is why he became a son of perdition. God did not create Satan. God created Lucifer, a son of the morning, and Lucifer chose to become Satan. He chose evil over good until he lost the ability to repent. Satan has no agency because he can never choose the good. That is why he and his angels were cast out of heaven and fell to the earth.
We were sent to the earth for two reasons. One to gain a physical body and two to have agency. Two things were necessary for us to have agency on earth. One, we had to have a veil drawn over our minds so that we do not remember living with God in his kingdom. Faith is a requirement of agency. On earth only through faith can we find God. Two, we can’t have agency without opposition. We must be enticed both by God and by Satan; however, they must remain invisible.
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