What does Satan know about me?

[MarcusAndreas]

That’s my question. What does Satan know about me/us? Does he know my name? Does he how I am as a person? What does Satan know?

 

[Barbkw]

He is intimate with all human weakness that draws our connection away from Christ.

 

[MarcoPolo]

The Church has no dogmatic position on knowledge of angels (or fallen angels like Satan). However, according to the pious theological speculation of St. Thomas Aquinas, angelic beings have knowledge parallel to human intellect. Thus, just as you can know and identify someone, so much better can an angelic being with its high intellect. Aquinas does not believe that angels can know “thoughts” but that due to the angels’ high intellect and acute sense of observation, the angel can often deduce our weaknesses or desires based on the sins our outward actions we commit.

See St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica section on the Angels’ knowledge of the material world.

 

[centurionguard]

That’s my question. What does Satan know about me/us? Does he know my name? Does he how I am as a person? What does Satan know?

Hello Marcus;

I congratulate you as a young Catholic for being a member of this site.

I’m afraid Satan if he so chose and (“if God allowed him”), he could easily know more about you I or anybody else in the world than we would want him to know.

Read here: newadvent.org/cathen/04764a.htm

and below.

**Satan and Evil “But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are in his possession experience it.”—Wisdom 2:24

Jesus speaks of evil as disobedience to the will of the almighty God, and a rejection of his divine love. Evil first entered the creation of God through Satan, the angel of death and the prince of evil. The Church teaches that Satan was once a good angel created by God. However, Satan (because he was given the gift of free will) decided to reject God in preference to his own selfish desires. Christ tells us, "I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven" (Luke 10:18). Satan was expelled from heaven, but was allowed to tempt mankind away from God’s goodness and divine justice. Through Satan sin entered the world, corrupted it and brought about death.

The allowance of evil within God’s creation is above human reason and is a divine mystery. We cannot fully understand why an infinitely good God allows evil to corrupt his creation. However, it is a fact that Satan does exist and is "a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). Satan is opposed to the truth and deceives many by tempting people to abandon God in preference to lower forms of good corrupted by evil.

Over the centuries, Christian theologians and philosophers have speculated on the problem of evil. There are four possibilities for the existence of evil and suffering:

1. Suffering is a punishment for sin
2. God permits evil because God can draw a higher form of good from it (the salvation of Christ and the consequence of eternal life from bodily death).
3. Evil is a consequence of God’s gift of free will. Man must be free to either embrace God or embrace evil. Satan, a spiritual being, was also given the gift of free will and he chose to abuse it.
4. God permits evil for soul making: Man must be free to choose his moral destiny and be able to respond with virtue or evil to challenges. Evil is allowed in order to provide the possibility of a higher order of goodness.

However, it must be noted that these are only hypothesis and cannot fully explain the mystery of God’s divine plan. A prophet named Job once experienced terrible suffering and evil despite his virtuous life dedicated to God. He demanded an explanation from the Lord for his suffering and pain. God replied, "Who is this that obscures divine plans with words of ignorance…Where were you when I founded the earth?…Will we have arguing with the Almighty by the critic? Let him who would correct God give answer!" (Job 38:1-2,40:2). God gave Job a lesson of humility from which we should all learn.**

Peace
Chris

 

[po18guy]

He is pure spirit, yet he walks this earth. He may very well know all that is humanly knowable about you, but mostly, he knows what your weaknesses are, because he has been watching. That is why he always sends you the temptations which push your particular “sin” button. He attacks on at least two occasions: when you are drawing closer to God, he will try to confound your journey, so that you lose hope. When you are far from God or drifting away, he will tempt you to remain afar, or move even farther away - again, so that you lose hope.

 

[centurionguard]

The Church has no dogmatic position on knowledge of angels (or fallen angels like Satan). However, according to the pious theological speculation of St. Thomas Aquinas, angelic beings have knowledge parallel to human intellect. Thus, just as you can know and identify someone, so much better can an angelic being with its high intellect. Aquinas does not believe that angels can know “thoughts” but that due to the angels’ high intellect and acute sense of observation, the angel can often deduce our weaknesses or desires based on the sins our outward actions we commit.

See St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica section on the Angels’ knowledge of the material world.

One of the best books and spiritual classics I’ve ever read about Satan is by Tan books

tanbooks.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/18/

 

[Havard]

A) Don’t we believe that fallen angels had full knowledge of their sins?

B) Do fallen angels even perceive time? Don’t we perceive time in a finite universe, whereas they exist in an eternal Hell?

These two issues make me wonder if fallen angels are aware of what decisions we will make also.

 

[MarcoPolo]

A) Don’t we believe that fallen angels had full knowledge of their sins?

B) Do fallen angels even perceive time? Don’t we perceive time in a finite universe, whereas they exist in an eternal Hell?

These two issues make me wonder if fallen angels are aware of what decisions we will make also.

From my memory of studying this earlier this year:

A. According to Pope John Paul II’s general audiences in 1986 on angels, he posited that the angels knew with tremendous intuition what the consequences of rejecting God would be, but that they allowed in themselves a blindness that resulted in them over-rating themselves. Search for the word “blindness” on this page.

B. As I recall, St. Thomas put angelic “time” somewhere between earthly time and the absence of time as God experiences it. It is more like “sequence” or “intervals”. i.e. the angel is here…then here…then here…with no transition between, yet not outside of time. Basically, he hypothesized a different kind of “time.” See article 3 here.

 

[centurionguard]

He is pure spirit, yet he walks this earth. He may very well know all that is humanly knowable about you, but mostly, he knows what your weaknesses are, because he has been watching. That is why he always sends you the temptations which push your particular “sin” button. He attacks on at least two occasions: when you are drawing closer to God, he will try to confound your journey, so that you lose hope. When you are far from God or drifting away, he will tempt you to remain afar, or move even farther away - again, so that you lose hope.

I like everything you wrote here. If your really honest and humble with yourself it really makes you contemplate how one arrives sometimes repeating old sins.

Saint Paul said; (“why is it I do that which I most hate”)

Romans Chapter 7: 14-28

**As Paul describes his frustration in Romans 7, with his mind he desires to serve God. He agrees with the Law of God and rejoices in it. He wants to do what is right, but his body will not respond. He watches, almost as a third party, as sin sends a signal to his body, and as his body responds, “What would you like to do?” Paul finds, as we do, that while our fleshly bodies refuse to obey God and do that which we desire and which delights God, they quickly and eagerly respond to the impulses and desires aroused by sin. **

 

[po18guy]

I like everything you wrote here. If your really honest and humble with yourself it really makes you contemplate how one arrives sometimes repeating old sins.

Saint Paul said; (“why is it I do that which I most hate”)

Romans Chapter 7: 14-28

The devil is a coward, and flees when resisted. Even in the rare cases of possession, the host does not resist. The very nature of possession ensures that no resistance will be encountered.

The great Saint Teresa of Avila was reportedly awakened one evening. She opened her eyes to see the absolutely horrid visage of the devil right next to her bed. She looked at him and said “Oh, its just you” and went back to sleep! May we all have such faith.

 

[centurionguard]

The devil is a coward, and flees when resisted. Even in the rare cases of possession, the host does not resist. The very nature of possession ensures that no resistance will be encountered.

The great Saint Teresa of Avila was reportedly awakened one evening. She opened her eyes to see the absolutely horrid visage of the devil right next to her bed. She looked at him and said “Oh, its just you” and went back to sleep! May we all have such faith.

I love Saint Theresa of Avila.
I remember in one of her books where she relates walking on a muddy path to see a friend and before getting there she falls face first in the mud.

She got up and began praying and talking to God infuriated that she fell and she said to God (“Jesus”) "and you wonder why you have so few friends. She was beautifully human and Saintly

No doubt I might as well had said the same. lol.

 

[FrCorey]

Probully everything. don’t forget, he was once a angel.
When God sent him out of heaven, do you think all his angel powers were taken away?

 

[MarcoPolo]

One of the best books and spiritual classics I’ve ever read about Satan is by Tan books

tanbooks.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/18/

I read that one!

 

[fons_vitae]

Since Satan isn’t omniscient, wouldn’t he merely know a great deal about us, rather than everything? I just make this analogy from St. Peter’s description of the devil “prowling around” (I Pet. 5:8), as Satan can’t be omnipresent either.

 

[BluesPicker]

Satan was created as all angels with infused knowledge. From the time of his creation he knew everything that he needed to find salvation and to function as God would have Willed him to do. If you what to know about what demons and angels know about people in general and not just you I suggest you listen to sermons 7 through 8 on the following web page link in Spritual Theology and all of Spiritual Warfare.

       [sensustraditionis.org/multimedia.html](http://www.sensustraditionis.org/multimedia.html) 

        These sermons were written and preached by  Fr. Chad Ripperger who is a Catholic exorcist who  has a dotorate degree in  theology and  has taken the new courses that the Vatican has provided to train priests.   The sermons are really interesting and present an orthrodox Roman Catholic view point on this important matter.

BP