Curious question. Could the Devil (Satan) repent?

[2towers]

My understanding is that even if they were allowed to change their mind, they would not, not just the devil, but all the demons as well. Not only that, but there is no goodness in the devil or the demons. They only want our complete annihilation. They want all of us to join them in hell. They show no mercy, not an inch to anyone. The only reason they do not do worse things than they do, is because they are not permitted.

There is no fraternal love among their own. The are jealous of each other, and they despise each other, but they understand the need for cooperation. They hate their own master, though they fear and respect him, not out of any sense of loyalty, but because of his power and standing.

 

[Spyridon]

That’s a big negative on that one good buddy.

 

[2towers]

Youll have to take that up with the Saints my friend, as well as Chad Rippenger. I don’t make this stuff up ya know…

 

[Spyridon]

The Church infallibly teaches this in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).

CCC 392, 393, 394:

392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.269 This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: "You will be like God."270 The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is “a liar and the father of lies”.271

393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."272

394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls “a murderer from the beginning”, who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father.273 "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil."274 In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.

 

[2towers]

392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.269 This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: "You will be like God."270 The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is “a liar and the father of lies”.271

Check. yep no argument there…

393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."272
Check. yep no argument there…

394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls “a murderer from the beginning”, who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father.273 "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil."274 In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.

No argument here… so where’s the fire? No pun intended.

 

[2towers]

Sorry Spyridon, you weren’t talking to me were you?

 

[PJM]

NO! and here’s why:
2 Peter 2: 4 " [4] For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment"

Haydock’s Bible Commentary on Verse #4
Ver. 4. If God spared not the Angels, &c. St. Peter here brings these examples of God’s justice. 1. Towards the rebellious angels that fell from heaven; 2. that of the general flood, or deluge; 3. when he destroyed Sodom and those other cities. First, angels that sinned, God by his justice delivered them, drawn down with infernal ropes into hell to be tormented, and to be reserved even for greater torments after the day of judgment

 

[stpurl]

No, He is just as merciful to both.

Angels by nature are pure spirit. No body. That is, nothing related to ‘time’ about them. Angels have always been part of heaven from the beginning, and heaven does not have a ‘time’. However, ‘in the beginning’ some angels rebelled and so (it’s hard to understand, I grant you), they have always been in a state of rebellion and always will be. There was no “Hi, I’m Lucifer and I’ve lived in heaven 6 billion years with no problems, but now God is talking some human ‘thing’ and I’m not going to put up with that”, and now 6 billion years ‘later’, “Hi, I’m Lucifer and I’ve been in Hell now just as long as I lived in Heaven, and you know, maybe I was wrong, think I’ll repent now.” Can’t be done, any more than God could create a square circle or a rock too heavy for Him to lift or confect the Eucharist with beer and pretzels. Some things ‘are what they are’ by nature and justice. Again, hard for us to understand because as humans in a body with a soul, we exist in a perpetual, “We WERE there, Now we ARE here, and tomorrow we WILL BE somewhere else”, and we think everything is like that, but. . .it’s not.
The angels, even at that point which we cannot imagine, had a free choice, to love or not to love. Some chose not to love, even with the kind of knowledge of God that we would think made it ‘impossible’ to go against him (something which more people should consider when they think that people would NEVER choose hell. If angels, pure spirit and intellect, who are incredibly smart and blessed, could choose evil, what makes us think WE can’t?)

 

[Nap66]

I heard somewhere that satan’s purpose in wanting to gain so many souls in hell is to prove to God his power and worth so that God can someday welcome him back to Heaven. I guess satan is still not repenting but hoping for God’s grace or more likely God’s admiration (which led to satan’s fall in the first place).

 

[Cirdan_XII]

The Thomistic perspective on angels

Angels

Saint Thomas Aquinas and Angels By Joseph M. Magee, PhD The fact that Saint Thomas is called the Angelic Doctor is not due to his cherubic physique alone. Rather, he spent a considerable amount of …

aquinasonline.com

 

[Teek]

I heard somewhere that satan’s purpose in wanting to gain so many souls in hell is to prove to God his power and worth so that God can someday welcome him back to Heaven. I guess satan is still not repenting but hoping for God’s grace or more likely God’s admiration (which led to satan’s fall in the first place).

I’ve heard that, too. It is a lot like the tv shows and movies lately that try to make Satan/Lucifer/the devil look misunderstood. When you look at the big picture of what this narrative is saying…Satan is trying to prevent people from loving God to impress God? Satan works to thwart God’s plan hoping that it will prove his value to God and God will welcome him back?

It doesn’t make much sense.

It also isn’t an authentic teaching by anyone with authority. It’s more of a fairy tale.

A detrimental one.

 

[Teek]

Other people have already said this in other words. This is how I came to understand it, back when I wanted it to be possible for every creature to love God because it is unjust that any creature could not love Love Himself. (Which ultimately would mean no free will—slavery to Love is not freedom.)

At the moment of our death our choice is final. At the moment of their creation, their choice was final. They are created immortal spirits. They aren’t physical—no matter, no time. They exist outside of time/space. They do not change. We change because of time. So we progress towards or away from our goal. When we die, we are no longer subject to time, so our choice and our purpose/goal/end become eternally present to us. The angels are eternally present with their choice and their goal from the beginning.

They are outside of time, so they don’t “look back” on their choices and wish they could change them. No regrets. Eternally who they are. No change.

We just can’t understand what that is like exactly. Kind of like our understanding of a bat. We understand that they use their ultrasonic radar to “map” their surroundings. We picture a visual grid to comprehend it. Dogs use their sense of smell. When you try to picture a spacial construct of a dog’s awareness of their surroundings, it becomes a visual representation. We don’t know exactly how it IS to map the world by sound or smell. We have to interpret it by our experience of navigation.

So it is with understanding the eternal God, and understanding angels or eternal
life. We have to translate it into a time framework because that is all we know how to use, but they are outside of time so our attempts are clumsy and crude at best.
That is how I came to understand it.

 

[stpiosson]

Satan would never repent. He knew God with angelic knowledge and was fully aware of what his definitive rejection of God would mean and all the consequences of this rejection yet went ahead with it anyway. He would not accept God’s will. He was implacably opposed to it. He fell in an instant. One third of the angels were persuaded to follow him. Again they had every opportunity to side with God but like Satan, they too decided to reject God knowing full well the outcome and consequences of their decision. They took this decision in full, free knowledge. Their will is fixed like Satan’s.

So neither Satan nor the demons would ever even entertain the possibility of repentance. They hate God and their hatred is eternal. They seek to enlist as many human beings as possible in their rebellion against God using temptation as the ordinary tool to incite mankind to turn away from God.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I think trying to figure out how angels and their wills work is way beyond my pay grade.

I would like to see the Devil and everyone else repent and be saved.

Probably not gonna happen though, but God could do anything, he could even give everyone another chance to choose if he wanted. I’m fine with leaving it up to God as I have enough to worry about with my own repentance.

 

[Teek]

True, but it remains an important reminder, especially to people of our time, that God does allow eternal consequences.

Justice AND Mercy.

Not mercy alone.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

No mercy if you repent, that’s quite obvious. The question is, however, could Satan even repent, as in, is he even capable of doing it. I must say I myself have no idea, and I think any human claiming to have the answer to that one is conjecture at best.

 

[stpurl]

I think the Church has spoken on it, which means that God has answered the question.

Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy.266 Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil”.267 The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing."268

392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.269 This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: "You will be like God."270 The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is “a liar and the father of lies”.271

393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."272

 

[De_Maria]

Nelka:

No he cannot repent.

Why?

(16 annoying characters)

As I understand it, it is basically because he lives in eternity. IOW, outside of time.

 

[Benadam]

St. John Paul II said, and I paraphrase, God has revealed Himself to them in as much as they can receive Him, they still rejected Him. What more can God Do?

 

[Teek]

The question is, however, could Satan even repent, as in, is he even capable of doing it. I must say I myself have no idea, and I think any human claiming to have the answer to that one is conjecture at best.

Well, I thought that Pope St. John Paul II’s conjecture was beautiful.

From:

Catechesis on the Holy Angels by Pope John Paul II, given at 6 General Audiences from 9 July to 20 August 1986. (Link below quote.)

“The others instead turned their backs on God contrary to the truth of the knowledge which indicated him as the total and definitive good. Their choice ran counter to the revelation of the mystery of God, to his grace which made them partakers of the Trinity and of the eternal friendship with God in communion with him through love. On the basis of their created freedom they made a radical and irreversible choice on a parity with that of the good angels, but diametrically opposed. Instead of accepting a God full of love they rejected him, inspired by a false sense of, self-sufficiency, of aversion and even of hatred which is changed into rebellion.” (Bold added for emphasis.)

http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2angel.htm