Is Satan real and all this powerful?

by RULES & REGULATIONS 10 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  RULES & REGULATIONS

  WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ON JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES:
  Satan
  Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Satan was originally a perfect angel who developed feelings of self-importance and craved worship. Satan influenced Adam and Eve to disobey God, and humanity subsequently became participants in a challenge involving the competing claims of Jehovah and Satan to universal sovereignty. Other angels who sided with Satan became demons.
  Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Satan and his demons were cast down to earth from heaven after October 1, 1914, at which point the end times began. They believe that Satan is the ruler of the current world order, that human society is influenced and misled by Satan and his demons, and that they are a cause of human suffering. They also believe that human governments are controlled by Satan but that he does not directly control each human ruler.

  Satan never made any sense to me! Here is one lone angel who becomes just as powerful as God. He has other angels follow him. He has Adam and Eve disobey God. Satan challenges God that Job only follows him because of all the benefits and wealth that are bestowed upon him. God lets Satan strike Job with a disease, the death of his livestock and family, and loss of his wealth. Satan is able to tempt Jesus, rules and influences the current World, controls human governments, and will control the ''new system'' for 1000 years.

  How can one lonely angel be this powerful? How does he control humans and human governments? Why is Satan even allowed to live through Armageddon ( while all humans who didn't obey God be wiped out) and tempt all survivors and newly resurrected?

  Maybe Satan is just an imagination from some very good storytellers!
• 

  sir82

  Yeah, the whole thing falls apart after just a few minutes of thought.

  For example, why would any intelligent being rebel against an entity that is "almighty"? By definition he cannot win.
  
• 

  JW_Rogue

  If God is almighty then Satan is just the duality of God, another side of the same coin.
• 

  James Mixon

  OK this is the deal my man Satan is smart, he did away with the crap of making pigs run off cliffs (animal right folks upset) and possessing people and what not (people were ending up in a nut home).. That kind of stuff doesn't happen very much anymore.He has been much more successful by getting people not to believe in him and in God.
• 

  All or nothing

  The fear that vanished from my life as I started to dismiss belief in Satan was remarkable. I highly recommend purging this toxic lie from your life
• 

  WTWizard

  It makes no sense that a loving god would punish one of its workers for doing a much better job than the other workers at protecting humankind. Satan, according to this story, did nothing worse than wanting to protect us from threats regardless of the source. And it didn't matter who the source of that threat is--even if it is the boss that expects the workers to do a lousy job so that thing can enslave us all under miserable conditions. And the angels that became Demons only wanted for mankind to be better, not see us all enslaved. And that is according to the story found in that damnation book.

  Why are we venerating that evil boss that wants us all enslaved and will punish anyone that actually does the job of helping mankind instead of having those under them enslaved? Why venerate this thing and vilify those who cared more about the work than about the boss?
  
• 

  cofty

  Can God control Satan?

  If not then he isn't God.

  If so then he is an accomplice.
• 

  Doug Mason

  Satan was invented when the 6th century BCE Monotheists gained ascendancy.

  Before then, by far the largest number of people accepted the existence of several gods. The monotheists are responsible for the Hebrew Bible that we read today, and they freely acknowledge that the people worshipped several Gods, including theirs (Baal, Asherah, etc.)

  When the monotheists came to power, they ran into the problem of the existence of "badness". Previously, the people had any number of gods who could be blamed, so now they had to invent a scenario that put YHWH at arm's length from "badness". Check the www for the word: Theodicy

  Gradually, this "son of God", Satan, became personified in writings such as 1 Enoch and Jubilees.

  I take issue with any idea that Satan was in the Garden of Eden story. That idea was invented in the 2nd century CE, after the writing of the Scriptures.

  When the Septuagint was written in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, they imported the Greek word Diabolos (meaning: Devil).

  Satan was never known in the Scriptures as "Lucifer". That word means the planet Venus, the Bright Morning Star (the name given to Jesus in the Book of Revelation).

  Doug
• 

  ttdtt

  Listen....

  If there was a Satan, a powerful and vastly old spirit creature, he would be amazingly smart, right?

  So when JC came to Earth, all Satan would have to do to Thwart gods plan was to PROTECT JC at every turn.

  If he kept him alive, there would have been NO sacrifice. God would have failed.

  So either this super powerful creature was really stupid, or its a made up story.
  Which is more likely?
• 

  eyeuse2badub

  Satan--that poor chap can't catch a break!

  just saying!