Satan and love

[uglygal]

I submitted this question to apologetics but didn’t get a response. Could someone answer this for me, according to catholic doctrine/teachings.

Can the devil lead people to love and teach people about love? Can the devil lead and teach people to love God above all things? through visions, apparitions, locutions, revelations etc

Thanks

 

[MarieVeronica]

My response is simple. No. Love is truth. And the devil can not teach anyone truth…

“he was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie he speaks from his very nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44-45).

 

[Michael038]

My response is simple. No. Love is truth. And the devil can not teach anyone truth…

“he was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie he speaks from his very nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44-45).

Agreed.

 

[gavanhe]

Can the devil lead people to love and teach people about love? Can the devil lead and teach people to love God above all things? through visions, apparitions, locutions, revelations etc
Thanks

I wonder why you’d think that the devil would lead people to love God.
The devil by definition is evil and incapable of any good.
Gerry

 

[Tigg]

I submitted this question to apologetics but didn’t get a response. Could someone answer this for me, according to catholic doctrine/teachings.

Can the devil lead people to love and teach people about love? Can the devil lead and teach people to love God above all things? through visions, apparitions, locutions, revelations etc

Thanks

I would say that definitely the short answer is “NO!” But I am curious as to why you ask this question when the answer is so obvious.

Please beware that Satan has power and has even appeared to certain saints as an angel of light. That’s why many wise spiritual fathers have not been overly impressed with those who claim to have locutions and visions. His deceptions know no boundaries and that is why we are called to know our true selves. If we work on “self” and truly know our sins and weaknesses, it is harder to be deceived.

 

[glenaitken]

I submitted this question to apologetics but didn’t get a response. Could someone answer this for me, according to catholic doctrine/teachings.

Can the devil lead people to love and teach people about love? Can the devil lead and teach people to love God above all things? through visions, apparitions, locutions, revelations etc

Thanks

the only way that this would be possible is if God used the devil to that end. the simple answer is NO. the devil is so filled with hate that there is no room for love in him for anything

 

[MarcoPolo]

From the Catechism:

*2851 In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who “throws himself across” God’s plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ.

2852 “A murderer from the beginning, . . . a liar and the father of lies,” Satan is "the deceiver of the whole world."165 Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death."166 Now "we know that anyone born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one."167

The Lord who has taken away your sin and pardoned your faults also protects you and keeps you from the wiles of your adversary the devil, so that the enemy, who is accustomed to leading into sin, may not surprise you. One who entrusts himself to God does not dread the devil. "If God is for us, who is against us?"168*

God Himself is love (1 Jn 4:8) and as God’s antagonist, the devil does not lead persons to love, but to sin, as detailed above.

 

[Belle10]

the only way that this would be possible is if God used the devil to that end. the simple answer is NO. the devil is so filled with hate that there is no room for love in him for anything

…except himself.

I agree with all the other posters: Satan is pure evil and is not capable of leading anyone to love in the sense that I think the OP is asking. He could lead a person to love evil things, but then that perverts the true meaning of LOVE anyway, so it isn’t love.

(Hope that was clear…)

 

[beckycmarie]

I submitted this question to apologetics but didn’t get a response. Could someone answer this for me, according to catholic doctrine/teachings.

Can the devil lead people to love and teach people about love? Can the devil lead and teach people to love God above all things? through visions, apparitions, locutions, revelations etc

Thanks

The devil’s goal is for us to choose something - anything - over God and end up in Hell because we chose sin.

Can the devil act through visions, apparitions, locutions etc? Yes, he can appear as an angel of light (2Corinthians 11:14) and trick people into following a lie.

The devil is fully capable of tricking someone into believing that only God the Father is to be loved, and that Jesus is to be feared or hated, if that answers your question. The devil will have accomplished his goal of leading someone to Hell by getting his victim to reject Christ, who is “the way, the truth, and the light.”

A couple podcasts that may interest you:
Saint Michael and the Angels

The Demonic and the Occult

 

[Pro_Domina]

No. The Devil hate everything, including himself.

His desire would be to destroy the whole universe, but he is only allowed to rage war in souls.

Yet on occasions, by force, the demons have been made to do something objectively good.

Like hold the candles in a mass (forgot what saint)
Build a church ( a lazy builder who made a pack with the Devil but was saved by Our Lady)
Or even scare a person as to convert him

But this is by force, not by virtue.

 

[Mark_Robert]

I suppose Satan could preach love under false pretenses. That is, proclaim love in a distorted meaning such as the “free love” that was propagated back in the sixties to promote the sexual revolution. He does come as an “angel of light” under the appearance of goodness and love. He preaches a message that seems right to man but in the end is death. He’ll promote any message that takes the focus off of Christ and His Church including, I suppose, a twisted interpretation of love that focuses on man instead of God.

 

[LilyM]

I suppose Satan could preach love under false pretenses. That is, proclaim love in a distorted meaning such as the “free love” that was propagated back in the sixties to promote the sexual revolution. He does come as an “angel of light” under the appearance of goodness and love. He preaches a message that seems right to man but in the end is death. He’ll promote any message that takes the focus off of Christ and His Church including, I suppose, a twisted interpretation of love that focuses on man instead of God.

Bingo! The devil preaches many forms of false ‘love’ - love of self, love of money or possessions, love of power, adulterous love, love of drugs or alcohol, love of lies - I certainly think he can teach love of FALSE ‘gods’.

 

[uglygal]

Thankyou for your responses

 

[littleone]

Thankyou for your responses

Would you like to tell why you wrote

God is God
NOT YOU?

 

[Awake]

I’m curious… there is so little doctrine out there about satan, yet so many people seem to be experts on satan and demonology. How much of what people say about satan can actually be backed up by doctrine, and how much is just a personalized view on what it means to be evil?

 

[beckycmarie]

I’m curious… there is so little doctrine out there about satan, yet so many people seem to be experts on satan and demonology. How much of what people say about satan can actually be backed up by doctrine, and how much is just a personalized view on what it means to be evil?

I am no expert, but I do have some training in demonology through my participation in deliverance ministry. Much of what I have to say is based on 2 Corinthins 11:14, John 8:44, and CCC paragraphs 391-394, 414, and 2850-2854.

 

[uglygal]

Would you like to tell why you wrote

God is God
NOT YOU?

Just a little reminder for everyone

It’s more of a personal realization I reached over time.There was a time when I would listen to everyone about what they had to say and teach about God because I thought everyone else had more knowledge / authority etc than I did.
All I got taught was rubbish.
I have also had a fair bit of judgment pronounced over me - satanist, heretic, hell-bound etc etc

I now don’t listen to people as much. I sort out what is good and what is bad because I have gotten to know God myself, from His own mouth, and so I can recognize rubbish when I see it and I don’t care what people think so much.
after all, only God is God, who can judge me and who knows me, Not You or any other person (least of all those who come with the name calling)

ps: when I say “you” I am not referring to anyone personally

 

[littleone]

I’m curious… there is so little doctrine out there about satan, yet so many people seem to be experts on satan and demonology. How much of what people say about satan can actually be backed up by doctrine, and how much is just a personalized view on what it means to be evil?

Well if you want to follow the color white then you would look for it would you not? This is the reason why you would not have to look for other colors because they are inferior to your need.

People who have their eyes on Loving each other have their eyes on the creator and giver of Love and we know that that is God.
All inferior forms of deception have great amounts of information because there is no need.

God tells us in the bible to keep our eyes on God,
Jesus tells us to be weary of the one who comes dressed as the lamb but …
Jesus also tells us that the impostor will persuade many through deception, but we are to help each other and keep true to God’s word.
That is enough.

Godbless

 

[littleone]

Just a little reminder for everyone

It’s more of a personal realization I reached over time.There was a time when I would listen to everyone about what they had to say and teach about God because I thought everyone else had more knowledge / authority etc than I did.
All I got taught was rubbish.
I have also had a fair bit of judgment pronounced over me - satanist, heretic, hell-bound etc etc

I now don’t listen to people as much. I sort out what is good and what is bad because I have gotten to know God myself, from His own mouth, and so I can recognize rubbish when I see it and I don’t care what people think so much.
after all, only God is God, who can judge me and who knows me, Not You or any other person (least of all those who come with the name calling)

ps: when I say “you” I am not referring to anyone personally

Thanks for that and no probs it’s all cool.
I hope God blesses you and you have the most beautiful light of love from God on you to show you the way.
Godbless

 

[beckycmarie]

I now don’t listen to people as much. I sort out what is good and what is bad because I have gotten to know God myself, from His own mouth, and so I can recognize rubbish when I see it and I don’t care what people think so much.

It’s very easy to be led astray by one’s own thoughts and feelings when one abandons the visible teaching authority God appointed here on earth in His Church:

One of the acid tests of humility and thus also of prayer growth is obedience to human superiors. Proclaiming that one is “listening to the Spirit” rather than to the visible representatives Jesus has appointed in His Church can conveniently camouflage what is really a refusal to obey. It is surprising how otherwise intelligent people can convince themselves that they are listening to the Spirit when it is obvious to others that they are doing nothing other than baptizing their own personal insights and inclinations. The New Testament is far more realistic when it gives as a criterion of listening to the Lord the very obedience given to His representatives: “He who hears you, hears me; and he who rejects you rejects me.” Egocentrism is of course at the root of the refusal to obey human superiors and teachers in the Church: it is often the I-know-better syndrome: I know better than those whom “the Holy Spirit has made overseers to feed th Church of God.” This arrogance kills prayer at its root.

From Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, p. 119