levi86:
I’ve noticed that when evangelicals have difficulty in life they often say “the devil is attacking me”, but when I see Catholics going through difficulty they say “God is testing me”.
I agree that the protestant disposition is to lean towards blaming the devil often.
But it is indeed true that the devil attacks us, and this can be correlated in the lives of the saints. These attacks are tests for the proving of virtue and acquisition of merit for the reward of additional glory.
levi86:
Personally I prefer to accept the latter. If we automatically assume that anything “difficult” comes from Satan aren’t we placing too much power in his hands, and ultimately minimizing Gods authority?
Yes. The fact is, everything comes from God, including all difficulties. God is in control and allowing it all to happen, but for the ultimate good.
levi86:
If we accept that Satan has authority on earth aren’t we accepting that there is a power that exists outside of the supreme authority of God?
Jesus came to save us from slavery to sin. But He also came to save us from slavery to the devil. (John 12:31, Hebr 2:14, etc.)
levi86:
How much power does the devil have?
Church teaching:
** The Devil possesses a certain dominion over mankind by reason of Adam’s sin** (De fide)
a) The evil spirits seek to do moral injury to mankind through temptation to sin…
Man’s will is not forced to sin by the temptation of the devil, but retains its natural freedom. The evil enemy can only tempt man to that extent, which God in His wisdom permits. (1 Cor 10:13)
b) The bad spirits seek to harm mankind physically also, through the causing of physical evil (infestatio). (Tob 3:8, Job 1:12;2:6, 1 Cor 5:5).
c) A particular kind of demoniac infestation is possession (obsessio, possessio), in which the evil spirit takes forceable possession of the human body, so that the bodily organs and the lower powers ofthe soul, but not the higher powers of the soul, are dominated by him…
Ott, pp. 121-122
From a Doctor of the Church:
The Devil, dearest daughter, is the instrument of My Justice to torment the souls who have miserably offended Me. And I have set him in this life to tempt and molest My creatures, not for My creatures to be conquered, but that they may conquer, proving their virtue, and receive from Me the glory of victory. And no one should fear any battle or temptation of the Devil that may come to him, because I have made My creatures strong, and have given them strength of will, fortified in the Blood of my Son, which will, neither Devil nor creature can move, because it is yours, given by Me. You therefore, with free arbitration, can hold it or leave it, according as you please. It is an arm, which, if you place it in the hands of the Devil, straightway becomes a knife, with which he strikes you and slays you. But if man do not give this knife of his will into the hands of the Devil, that is, if he do not consent to his temptations and molestations, he will never be injured by the guilt of sin in any temptation, but will even be fortified by it, when the eye of his intellect is opened to see My love which allowed him to be tempted, so as to arrive at virtue, by being proved. For one does not arrive at virtue except through knowledge of self, and knowledge of Me, which knowledge is more perfectly acquired in the time of temptation, because then man knows himself to be nothing, being unable to lift off himself the pains and vexations which he would flee; and he knows Me in his will, which is fortified by My goodness, so that it does not yield to these thoughts. And he has seen that My love permits these temptations, for the devil is weak, and by himself can do nothing, unless I allow him.
Dialgue of St. Catherine of Siena (p. 51)
catholicprimer.org/catherine/catherine_dialog.pdf
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