Satan, a personification evil as of loss of good?

[workinprogress]

Some say that evil is the lack of good and so Satan is just a personification of evil. Why is it then that people are the agents of deconstruction of morals, art, architecture, music, etc. from the high forms of worsjhip most gave to God to folksy or art-deco, made to accomodate meetings and environmental preferences of some as well as the destruction of art that praised God? These things didn’t decay on their own? If there is a First Mover in the creation of Earth and things therein; could not Satan be a first mover of its destruction so as to create an absence of good? If God created everything and made everything good and worked through man to create more good is it not possible that His adversary, with our help, would deconstruct or destruct everything God helped us make in His (God’s) honor? To lose one’s sanity one must have it in the first place, but our disorders, made by our allowing of strange ideas (outside of anything we would have imagined beforehand) into our head, are often carried out by own hands. Paul said he does things he doesn’t want to do and doesn’t do what he wants to do? What or who could inspire anyone (whether their orientation is to God, to other through God, or to themselves) to do something as ridiculous as doing what they don’t want to do or not doing what they want? What or who could inspire such loss of something good such as self-control? What (or who?) indeed?

 

[FrmrTrad]

Dear work(name removed by moderator)rogress: I empathize entirely with you. Our Lord Himself clearly referred to the devil. The Scriptures do not support the notion that the devil is merely ‘evil personified’. People with branded consciences (1 Tim 4:2) are eager to turn the Scriptures inside out, but we shan’t let them. Your arguments are decent enough, and I can’t do better without looking things up. I will add one thing: I think it is general belief that God gave the angels a revelation prior to their act of will, deciding for or against God and His plan. I think the reason why the devil is so successful is that he has great intelligence and a fixed will, and the knowledge of the revelation given to him by God. He uses the details he knows, and that we don’t know, to his advantage. This is why sometimes the devil is working on us without our being aware, why something can seem good but be evil, and why we must cleave to faith and strive for devotion (1 Tim 2:2). This keeps us safe despite the ‘best efforts’ of the devil.

 

[Exporter]

Anyone who says evil occured because “good” had left is not exactly correct. To look for an excuse after evil has happened and say evil is a nebulous untouchable enity floating around the earth, is wrong. It is not an unpersonified nothingness. Evil has a source. Who was the very first source of evil? Who led one-third of the angels out of heaven after he was beaten in a battle with St Michael? Who used his lies to succesfully tempt Eve.

When Satan and his followers were thrown from heaven they retained many powers. They were intellegent and they were quite angry that God made the universe for Jesus. Those demons and Satan want to take as many souls away from Jesus as they can. They are on the job every day, all day long. They lie, appear as beautiful temptations, they have had lots of practice attracting man and women and they sometimes become angry and scare people.

There are seven kinds of demons so says Brother Ignatius Mary.
saint-mike.org/qa/default.asp

 

[Teresa9]

Dear friend

To say evil is a lack of good is a semi-truth, it is like saying God is a sort of good, not wholely good , but sort of. It is non-descript at best and at worst is a misrepresentation of what actually is.

To say we must therefore personify evil so that we have something to focus on is also a half truth. Evil survives on half truths. It takes what could be seen as a ‘swallowable’ truth and distorts it that it may seem more, dresses it up as a benefit to humanity and bingo, you have evilness, but you do not have evil in it’s true essence. All evil proceeds from the ‘evil’ one. Satan is as real as the nose on your face as is God and to recognise God without recognising that evil exists is an unintelligent paradox in itself. Everyone knows that in all laws of the universe there is an equal and opposite reaction, what goes up must come down! It’s common sense and most of Christ’s message is common sense if we only listen…

We did not personify evil, evil exists in total defiance of God even with full knowledge of God and still defies God! This is the angel that was most beautiful and he is beautiful nothing worrying to see there, he seems most lovely and beautiful most beguiling and on the most part seems to act in your personal interest appealing to the self above anything else. But he is the master of lies and deceit and his ultimate goal is your eternal death, he brings no life, life is the premise of God and life is only sustained in a relationship of love, without love all is dead. God is the Eternal being of love, God is love and what is therefore satan?, but the anti-love, Christ was/is love, eternal love, satan is the anti-God and will in due time bring for a period of reign the anti-Christ to earth and you can bet that this anti-Christ seems a good thing, seems to do alot for human needs and wants, seems to help humanity satisfy the self and forget worrying about caring for others. You can bet the anti-Christ is a political leader who seems to have all the answers and defies nature and all that can happen around him to harm him. He will not serve or sacrifice, he will not give to those and spend time with sinners, no, he has the sinners, he has those who are not in Christ, he will spend time making signs and great accomplishments that wins the hearts of the so-called intelligent…the businessmen and bankers those who hold power in the world, he will trap humanity in what is the greatest weakness…human comfort! ease of life! riches! want and greed and brought about by what…pride!! We have no God but ourselves, we need no sustinance , we are able to survive by ourselves and we can do this because we are superior to all creation, forgetting that we are also created! Like children who defy their parents, we scream and complain, poor children that cannot see anything but that what is before our eyes, we know that the air is there that sustains our breathing, though we do not see it. We know something causes life, we know because when we see death we wonder what animates the body, yet we still defy our Creator! We still put trust in what we see to the neglect of God who is hidden from us in our ignorance. It is only when we live in faith that God no longer hides and we see what evil is and the work of God and who He is.

Trusting that those who will have an ear to hear will ‘hear’ and those who will desire to see, ‘see’…perceive that you are not a mortal body you are eternal and your premise in not just earthly!!

God Bless you and much love and peace to you and those you love always and into eternity xx

Teresa

 

[Dj_Roy_Albert]

The name or title “satan” comes from the Hebrew word for “the accusser”. There is a passage in the OT that tells of a “light-bearer”, or “lucifer” as a rebelious angel.

The only power the evil one has over you is the power you allow him.