God vs. Satan - if God is all-powerful, why does He not just kill Satan?

https://www.gotquestions.org/God-vs-Satan.html

Question: "God vs. Satan - if God is all-powerful, why does He not just kill Satan?"

Answer: One of the mysteries of the Christian life is why God didn’t destroy Satan immediately after Satan sinned. We know that God will one day defeat Satan by throwing him into the Lake of Fire where he will be tortured day and night forever (Revelation 20:10), but sometimes we wonder why God has not destroyed Satan already. Perhaps we will never know God’s exact reasoning, but we do know certain things about His nature.

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An eleven year old near death experiencer was shown that G-d is dealing with Satan.... I assume G-d is arranging to bring Satan to repentance and back into light / truth / love.

https://www.near-death.com/experiences/children.html#a03
...

 

Not according to the Bible.

 

God reveals both good and evil because anything, even God, is revealed, defined, described, etc. just as much by what it is not as it is by what it is.

 

So your answer to this question is that you don't know the answer. Why make this thread at all if you don't know? Well, let me try to answer this question.

1. Maybe God can't. But isn't God supposed to be omnipotent? The definition of omnipotent is the ability to do all things. But what is a thing? I'd argue that a thing is something that is real, not any imaginable thing we can make up. So God can do things that are real, possible, and can be done, not things which are completely imaginary and impossible. For example, God can create water because its possible to create water. God can't make 2 + 2 = 5 because that isn't a real thing and can't be done. So maybe, God hasn't defeated Satan because such a thing isn't possible right now and can only be done in the future when certain conditions are met. Or maybe, God was only called all-powerful by the bible writers in context to our limited human abilities and really means he has a lot of powerful relative to the abilities of human, so its really an over-simplification, and doesn't mean he can do every cosmic thing out there.

2. He doesn't want to. Maybe evil actually is good in a certain way because it gets people to grow and improve. We need a devil to tempt people so they overcome it and grow. The problem with this though, is that it grays the lines of good and evil and means that evil is in a certain way good, and shouldn't be completely eliminated in a perfect world. It also questions whether a completely perfect good heaven is even something we want.

3. Its a plothole for a fictional story. There are many stories and myths out there and there is no evidence that the Hebrew one is any more true than any other. Also, the Devil is only first directly referenced in the New Testament so he may have been a creation of storytelling. As with all fictional stories, the bible one has plotholes. So having an all-powerful good being who allows a powerful evil one to mess up his plans, and an evil being who is stereo-typically and unrealistically evil without any good sounds more like the creation of a story.

 

There has to be good and evil in the world. Evil in hell and good in heaven. It's more a metaphor than to be taken literally. That's what people get wrong about the bible.

 

Because omnipotence is a contradiction in itself, God can only be very-very-very-very powerful, but not almighty.

Satan is invincible and immortal; so is God.
Neither of them can do any harm to the other.
He would harm himself because good and evil form a unity.
None of them can exist only by itself.

 

If one wants to believe that the Jewish or Christian God exists then one is limited to either the Old Testament or to both the Old and New Testaments and also in the speculation of trained theologians regarding why God does what He does and allows what He allows.

So far as authenticity itself goes one is primarily restricted to the recorded words of the acknowledged prophets, of the men who supposedly interacted in various ways with God. Trained theologians -- as opposed to self declared theologians who figuratively roll their own -- can do their best to clarify and even speculate in regards to what these men said, but they are not the prophets themselves.

All of this comes back to validity. Anything other than what an acknowledged prophet said about God is mere theory and speculation, fanciful thinking, if you will. But as to why God allows Satan to continue existing I speculate that God has a reason for wanting humanity to be endlessly tested by evil. What that reason could be is anyone's guess.

 

LOL How can god kill him after he's forgiven him for his sins???????????????

 

(scratching head) First you have to express regret for your sins. My understanding is that Satan never did that part. That would be one hell (ha! ha!) of a confession, though, wouldn't it? "Father bless me for I am Satan. It has been an eternity since my last confession. Not only have I violated every commandment but I invented new and interesting ways so to do . . . ."

 

GOD is love, love is caring and kind. Love is not controlling but rather freeing, ergo free will. If we had no free will to choose good or evil, our choice would not be a choice and be utterly meaningless.

 

The Bible is a pretty mixed-up collection of writings. "Old Testament" texts feature an entirely different Satan, being what his name means - an adversary, not the embodiment of evil. But then, Christian theology combines that character with the serpent in Genesis and Lucifer in Isaiah, but actually gets its idea of the devil from Persia, not any of those older texts or Judaic traditions. Christianity was to Judaism kind of what Mormonism is to Christianity, in that it brought in new material and new ideas, and in the process redefined and reimagined the older material to fit with the new thinking.

From a Judaic perspective, YHWH and the Satan were not even enemies. The Satan liked to challenge YHWH, but there was nothing of the bitter warring between good and evil that was introduced in Christianity, having actually been taken from Persian dualism:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/evil/hod/hod07.htm

 

God said love your enemy.

 

Depends on which verses you focus on. If you focus on the "reconcile all things unto himself" parts, it fits.

 

The link I shared answers it.

 

Satans sins have not been forgiven.

 

He was an embodiment of evil. Genesis 6 describes how he caused evil to a point where God had to wipe everything out and start over.

 

It does not say love satan.

 

Well, since Satan is God's enemy.......it (Love Your Enemy) certainly applies.

 

Your link didn't actually. It basically said that God knows best and his ways are mysterious and we should have faith. Thats not an answer.

 

No it doesn't. That sounds like a product of Christian brainwashing.

1 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,

2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal ; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

6 The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
...

You'll notice that there is no mention whatsoever of the adversary of Judaism, nor of the serpent of Genesis, nor of Lucifer of Isaiah, nor of course of any Christian beast or other evil (Zoroastrian) character. This story merely claims that humanity crossbred with Nephilim and humanity became wicked, causing YHWH to regret their creation and decide to wipe them out (divine logic is the best logic).

 

No, it certainly does not. The Bible teaches us to love each other, humans. It does not say we should love God' enemy, Satan. Context matters.

 

How the the Nephilim came to be? They were the result of fallen angels polluting the human race with their seed. This was the reason God saw no hope of mankind as it was at the time.

 

The answer is that it is God's plan. I am satisfied with that answer.

 

I don't think so.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

Maybe I misunderstood the part about interbreeding with Nephilim. It appears the mythical interbreeding was just between "sons of God" and "daughters of humans," while the Nephilim were not involved. It looks like they are described as "the heroes of old, men of renown," and it seems the mythology places them both pre- and post-flood.

I can see where the assumptions about fallen angels come from, though, as one etymology claims the word is derived from the Hebrew verb for fall.