Temptations of the Devil

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dizzy_dave

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How is the Devil (Satan) able to tempt so many individuals all at once
throughout the world? :confused:
 
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dizzy_dave:
How is the Devil (Satan) able to tempt so many individuals all at once
throughout the world? :confused:
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It’s sort of like high-speed DSL service. He is hooked up to us as long as we let him stay connected.
 
Bill Buck:
It’s sort of like high-speed DSL service. He is hooked up to us as long as we let him stay connected.
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be sure you don’t renew that subscription… 👍
 
Satan and the demons, like angels, exist outside of time. What seems simultaneous to us may appear consecutive to them.

JimG
 
Bill Buck:
It’s sort of like high-speed DSL service. He is hooked up to us as long as we let him stay connected.
Click to expand...
Hmmm…to continue the dorky analogy I’m thinking he’s actually a little more like cable. He offers the advantage of high speed internet AND the all-consuming TV service - the perfect way of bombarding us with a ton of media junk and making it look alluring.
 
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quintessential5:
Hmmm…to continue the dorky analogy I’m thinking he’s actually a little more like cable. He offers the advantage of high speed internet AND the all-consuming TV service - the perfect way of bombarding us with a ton of media junk and making it look alluring.
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Even if he doesn’t control Madison Ave directly, he must be happy with what they’re selling.
 
I’ve been looking for a “devil” thread to piggy-back on, if you don’t mind. What I can’t understand about the concept of the devil is…why is he allowed to have so much fun making fools out of us? Evil creatures “enjoy” watching others stumble.

Children need to be taught at an early age how to keep the devil out of their lives. Parents can start by reminding them that the devil does not like the sign of the cross because Christ died on a cross. Also, St Michael the Archangel is a good one to pray to for help when the temptations of the devil become overwhelming.
 
Great question. I also assume that Satan has trillions of demons helping him. But who does Satan himself tempt? We know he entered into Judas. Many people agree that he entered into Hitler. I think he entered into politicians and juges who are pro-abortion. Satan saves himself for the big fish, saints, Popes, kings, world leaders etc. I don’t think Satan is outside of time, only God is outside of time. In the Book of Job Satan admits he was walking to and fro on the earth.
 
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dizzy_dave:
How is the Devil (Satan) able to tempt so many individuals all at once
throughout the world? :confused:
Click to expand...
A tiny bit off of the subject, but have you ever read The Screwtape Letters, by CS Lewis? I’d like to know what you think of his take on the difference between how we understand temptation and how it looks from Hell’s standpoint.
 
How? Because we have free will and things are not preordained.

Peace
 
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ally:
I’ve been looking for a “devil” thread to piggy-back on, if you don’t mind. What I can’t understand about the concept of the devil is…why is he allowed to have so much fun making fools out of us? Evil creatures “enjoy” watching others stumble.

Children need to be taught at an early age how to keep the devil out of their lives. Parents can start by reminding them that the devil does not like the sign of the cross because Christ died on a cross. Also, St Michael the Archangel is a good one to pray to for help when the temptations of the devil become overwhelming.
Click to expand...
This is all IMHO, but your quotes around “enjoy” are appropriate. I think it unlikely that demons experience enjoyment. I think they experience the intense suffering and frustration of separation from God, brought on them because they will not cease wanting to be God. They are proud beings that cannot admit that they are creatures who bring nothing to God, a state that when fully experienced is necessarily to be in Hell.

Because of this fundamental choice that drives their existence, demons attempt to have power over all others, and desire always to dominate and accuse all others, to leave all others in a wasteland without God so that they might be the gods of all, instead. Having ensnared us in the original sin of relying on our own sense of what is good rather than on depending on God, they then try to prevent us from hearing His relentless call to reconciliation and love. They do not want us to heed His call, to be beloved creatures before Him, made in the divine image, lest we partake of the Divine Life whose Wisdom they reject.

I think it best that children be taught always to cling to the Love of God, to never fear to return to God, to always trust that their greatest happiness, both now and in eternity, lies in living the Will of God. When taught the reality of demons, they need to be taught how the devil’s methods act in opposition: to sow a desire to discern what is good by one’s own imagined wisdom, a desire to merit reward from God rather than to accept one’s own merits and those of others gratefully and joyfully as being completely the gift of God, a desire to “measure up” and to seem better than one actually is, a desire to sit in judgement of others, and so on.

The power of the sign of the cross is highest when one keeps in mind its reality: It is an act in which one takes off the self and puts on Christ. That is safety from evil in the highest degree.
 
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