Satan's expectations and Christ's Resurection

  • Thread starter Thread starter liebenlieben
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

liebenlieben

Guest
Can someone point me to some sources about this?

Did Satan expect Christ to overcome death and rise on the third day? Or did he believe that the crucifixion was his “win” over God?

Thanks!
 
I think that Revelation chapter 12 implies that the dragon was unaware that Jesus was going to rise from the dead. He stood by waiting to devour him. If he knew the future and all it entailed, he would also know that standing by waiting would be fruitless. Secondly, after the war with the angels the dragon ‘saw that he had been thrown down.’ (13) This implies that he wasn’t aware of the consequences of what had happened until afterwards.
 
Satan thought that he had won.

See the “Christus Victor” theory of atonement and the “Ransom” theory of atonement.
 
Can someone point me to some sources about this?

Did Satan expect Christ to overcome death and rise on the third day? Or did he believe that the crucifixion was his “win” over God?

Thanks!
Malachi Martin has an interesting theory about this in his book, Hostage to the Devil. He’s actually talking about demonology, but one thing he points out is that demons often complain that they cannot see after a certain element of the exorcism rite (namely, when the priest is pressing home to win). This, he says, is because demons have lost all sense of beatific vision: they cannot see where the grace of God is… ergo at a certain point as a person is restored to grace, the demon begins to lose sight of the person they are trying to hold on to.

That plays out as well in the narrative of the gospels: Satan only knew that Christ was on earth to complete some sort of mission… but beyond that, he had no way of seeing God’s plan because he is blind when it comes to beatific vision. He, therefore, decided to stop Christ’s mission by having Christ killed… big mistake on his part, because that was all the will of God… and I think Gregory of Nyssa (who agrees insofar as the devil could not perceive Christ’s divinity) put it best when he said: “The deceiver was thus deceived”
 
Can someone point me to some sources about this?

Did Satan expect Christ to overcome death and rise on the third day? Or did he believe that the crucifixion was his “win” over God?

Thanks!
Only God knows what will happen. All his created ones, meaning Angels and Humans (not other animals) do not know the future.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top