M
MysticMissMisty
Guest
Salvete, omnes!
When the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons through the prince of the demons, He counters essentially by saying that a house divided against itself cannot stand and that, therefore, He could not be working His wonders in alliance with the devil.
However, (and I do not mean this in malice at all, just an observation) this could(?) be considered a rather weak argument (unless I’m missing something?) as the Pharisees could have countered that Jesus was acting as if He were not in alliance with satan by “pretending” to do good on behalf of God by doing the good works that God would do against satan. I mean, how would one respond to such a counterargument? And, again, why is Jesus’ argument not weak/so strong here, if it can seemingly be countered so easily?
I suppose one could say that His argument is strong because He was speaking to the beliefs of the Pharisees themselves at the time who may have thought that satan, by default, could do no good and may have here just been trying to deceive others into thinking the thoughts that I mentioned just now. So, to the Pharisees, Jesus made their own argument sound absurd and called it out for the malicious and deceptive attack that it was.
Or, perhaps, since (they believed that?) the devil could not know the future and, thus, could not possess a man with the future intention of deceptively making him whole for purposes of deception, again, their argument, at least for themselves, would in itself prove absurd, as Christ may have been pointing out by His counter.
But, again, if a counterargument is put forward like the one I suggested above, how should we respond to it?
Perhaps we could counter that God would not permit men to be deceived in such a way out of genuine ignorance, so that God would not permit satan to deceive so cunningly in this case. Thoughts? Evidence for this assertion either from Scripture (particularly Jewish Scripture) and/or from reason?
Also, evidence of satan being unable to do good at all and/or not knowing the future so as not to be able to deceive in this way from (Jewish) Scripture and/or reason?
Gratias vobis multas.
When the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons through the prince of the demons, He counters essentially by saying that a house divided against itself cannot stand and that, therefore, He could not be working His wonders in alliance with the devil.
However, (and I do not mean this in malice at all, just an observation) this could(?) be considered a rather weak argument (unless I’m missing something?) as the Pharisees could have countered that Jesus was acting as if He were not in alliance with satan by “pretending” to do good on behalf of God by doing the good works that God would do against satan. I mean, how would one respond to such a counterargument? And, again, why is Jesus’ argument not weak/so strong here, if it can seemingly be countered so easily?
I suppose one could say that His argument is strong because He was speaking to the beliefs of the Pharisees themselves at the time who may have thought that satan, by default, could do no good and may have here just been trying to deceive others into thinking the thoughts that I mentioned just now. So, to the Pharisees, Jesus made their own argument sound absurd and called it out for the malicious and deceptive attack that it was.
Or, perhaps, since (they believed that?) the devil could not know the future and, thus, could not possess a man with the future intention of deceptively making him whole for purposes of deception, again, their argument, at least for themselves, would in itself prove absurd, as Christ may have been pointing out by His counter.
But, again, if a counterargument is put forward like the one I suggested above, how should we respond to it?
Perhaps we could counter that God would not permit men to be deceived in such a way out of genuine ignorance, so that God would not permit satan to deceive so cunningly in this case. Thoughts? Evidence for this assertion either from Scripture (particularly Jewish Scripture) and/or from reason?
Also, evidence of satan being unable to do good at all and/or not knowing the future so as not to be able to deceive in this way from (Jewish) Scripture and/or reason?
Gratias vobis multas.