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The devil made me do it !

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rick:

Is Satan a real literal spirit or is Satan a figurative type of figure ? According to 1Pe 5:8 and Luk 8:44 and Luk 18:8 Satan is a literal spirit.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.

Luk 10:18  And he said unto them, I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven.

According to statistics there are six billion people on earth today and are all six billion people being effected by one spirit being? Are there enough hours in the day for one spirit being to deceive an entire world full of people ?

Well, according to Luk 18:8 there must be however no one scripture is of its own interpretation and I was not able to find another match for Luk 18:8 at this time but I shall keep searching. 

Luk 18:8  I say unto you, that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
 
But still I’m left with this though, is Satan a real literal spirit being or is Satan a system, what I mean by a system is I’m remembering back sometime ago while mowing my lawn and hit a foreign object that had been ejected through my above ground pool wall and the pool liner and lost all the water from the hole made by this object.

After calling the insurance company I discovered I was not covered from the damage caused by my lawn mower and me however I was told if someone rammed a knife through the pool wall and liner I would of been covered meaning they will cover vandalism, a hole is a hole to me but they used it as a loophole to not pay out.

This type of business can cause one to be disingenuous rather than being honest. There is a hidden system in this world that hurt honest people. This world encourages one to be dishonest.   :(

indianabob:
Hi Rick,
Please let me address the easy part first.
I used to be an insurance salesman/claim adjuster for small claims.
The insurance policy that we all buy has certain benefits and certain limitations. The specific limitations are necessary in order to price the insurance to the AVERAGE person's needs.
For example my present homeowners policy limits jewelry coverage to $1,000 dollars and that is because that is all the protection I'm paying for. It also limits the number of times they will pay when my own house catches fire. That is because after three or four fires they don't want me as a customer any longer. I'm too great a risk for the premium that is being charged. In other words there is something wrong with my habits that makes me have so many claims.
 
I can arrange to purchase better coverage at an additional annual charge if I list each specific item and have them appraised for true value.

The reason that the BASIC policy does not include UNLIMITED jewelry coverage is because most people don't own that much jewelry and would not be willing to pay the cost of providing such protection.

Without the appraisal the customer could cheat the insurance company and/or sell their jewelry and lie about a theft claim. Of course the insurance company knows how some few people lie all the time and has to protect themselves and their customer base.

The same limitations apply to personal property next to your house such as a pool.
You failed to anticipate what might happen during the operation of your lawn mower and didn't first pick up foreign objects or protect your pool from a hazard that "a reasonable person" might have expected to happen during the operation of a lawn mower.

I have mowed lawns for many years and know that debris is often kicked up by the blades, so I stop the mower whenever my wife or another person comes into the yard for any reason. Been lucky so far.. ::)

That is why I haven't had any claims in over 40 years of home ownership.   :)
Of course I still had to pay the agreed premium each year so that the insurance company could pay claims filed by others.

So then, I don't think Satan wrote the details of your insurance policy. The provisions were dictated only by good business sense. The insurance company pays all claims with the money collected from other insured people, their customers. They don't pay claims with their own profits, if they did they would shortly go out of business.

I do think that Satan can influence each of us by working to place temptation in our daily lives. Even temptation that leads to envy or greed or "unthankfulness" for the blessings we have been given. Because one of Satan's tactics is to distract us from worshiping the true God. As long as we are pleased with our lives and "have need of nothing" we humans will ignore God and all the blessings we have and come to think, as many do, that God is dead!

Revelation 3:17 (KJV)

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:[/i]

This is another way that Satan deceives us.

Hope that my comments are not too critical of anyone who reads this. I am the first to confess my own errors.
Indiana Bob

Gina:

--- Quote ---I do think that Satan can influence each of us by working to place temptation in our daily lives. Even temptation that leads to envy or greed or "unthankfulness" for the blessings we have been given. Because one of Satan's tactics is to distract us from worshiping the true God. As long as we are pleased with our lives and "have need of nothing" we humans will ignore God and all the blessings we have and come to think, as many do, that God is dead!
--- End quote ---

Nice post, Bob.  I found it really helpful personally. 

I was just thinking how the tree of knowledge of good and evil wasn't placed in the garden by Satan, but by God. 

It was the object of temptation and was already in the garden, but Satan didn't put it there.  Satan only influenced Eve to look on it with her eyes and mind and heart.  Then she "saw" with her eyes/perception that it was good for food, etc.....   

The greed, the lust, the envy is already in the heart.  It just needs an outside object of worship to get what is already inside that particular person to draw that person away from trusting God. 

(The just must live by faith, but Adam and Eve, everybody, lives by sight, until they are saved.) 

Eve didn't have to look at the tree  -- but she wanted to look at the tree.  Satan (whoever this was speaking to her -- whether it be a group or a single person) was with her.  The fact that she was in such close company with someone or group of people with that spirit is quite interesting. 

She was actually discussing with the "serpent" things that God told her to not do.  And she knew she was with the serpent because she even told God it was the serpent who deceived her. 

It's also interesting that you never hear of God telling the serpent he couldn't eat of tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Because after all, the serpent needs food too.  But the only way he eat is through what comes out of the lust that is already in the hearts and minds of those who are far from God.

That was my understanding, but I'm open to correction.

Kat:

Hi Rick, I have wondered about this very same thing and here are some Scripture that helped me understand what Satan is.

Eph 2:2  wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience;

1Tim 5:14  Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

The way that Satan is referred to as "the spirit," and "the adversary" (in all translations) indicated to me that he is a particular being, because you use 'the' in sentences to define or identify a particular person or object. We know that there is a spiritual realm with great hosts of spiritual being. Also I think we can understand that he is not just a mere demon, because he has a kingdom and he is the leader/ruler, the mastermind over the the whole horde of demons.

Luke 11:15  But some of them said, By Beelzebub the prince of the demons casteth he out demons.

Luke 11:18  If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.

As I think of God's throne and the hosts of angels that serve God, I guess it must be similar with Satan and the demons that serve him.

Rev 12:7  And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,

Rev 12:9  So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Satan was created by God as our adversary/opponent and embodies the opposite nature that God has. He was created that way from his beginning.

1Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

John 8:44  You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

He rules in the world (John 12:31) and directs his angels/demons to sow seeds of discord, influence toward wickedness wherever possible... I think Satan carries out the most 'devilish' tasks himself (pun intended), "then Satan entered Judas" (Luke 22:3).

Eph 2:2  in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
v. 3  among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

mercy, peace and love
Kat

rick:
Hi Kat,

It does appear from scripture that Satan is a real intelligent thinking being, thanks for adding Luke 11:15 and 11:18 as well and here are a few more witnesses below.
   
Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?

Job 1:7  And Jehovah said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Job 1:8  And Jehovah said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil.

So I must conclude that Satan is a real spirit being and that Satan has set up a world system that entices the many of this aged, I read where Ray said that God blinds and Satan deceives the whole world.

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