Why does Satan think he can win?

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distracted said:
Satan does win all the time…

haven’t read all posts… but he apparently wins more often than not because most people, according to the saints, either go to Hell or long, excrutiatingly painful stays in Purgatory… when they die.

some saints say that very few people go to Heaven (via Purgatory or otherwise)…

and with all that i have seen… i don’t have a hard time beliving that…
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It certainly seems that way, doesn’t it? One way Satan seems to work is to trick people out of their salvation by convincing them that he isn’t even real. After all, you can’t fight an enemy that doesn’t exist. I’ve heard that he also makes people feel as though their prayers are futile and that God is either uninterested or nonexistent. He isn’t called the “Father of Lies” for nothing, I suppose. He’s had a long time to observe and practice. 😦
 
I do not know how Satan thinks nor do I want to. I have never read the Screwtape letters and if it disturbs you then better off not reading it. Satan could tempt you or deceive you to believe that you could be better than God. But God is greater than Satan. The serpent in the Garden of Evil tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree as he said that they would be like God, knowing good and evil. I do not think this is true. It may be that they would know evil by eating the fruit however we cannot know both. Christ told us to be innocent of what is evil and knowledgeable of what is good.
 
budgie2 said:
I do not know how Satan thinks nor do I want to. I have never read the Screwtape letters and if it disturbs you then better off not reading it. Satan could tempt you or deceive you to believe that you could be better than God. But God is greater than Satan. The serpent in the Garden of Evil tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree as he said that they would be like God, knowing good and evil. I do not think this is true. It may be that they would know evil by eating the fruit however we cannot know both. Christ told us to be innocent of what is evil and knowledgeable of what is good.
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Your post put me in mind of something I read recently by Pope Benedict XVI: He said that the knowledge of good and evil meant that Adam and Eve would now decide for themselves what was good and what was evil. IOW, they would no longer have God’s words to guide them, so they would be lost, trying to figure it all out for themselves. It was a part of the deception Satan wished us to live under, and why he still works to drag us down with him. It’s why God gave the Law to Moses–so we would have his word to guide us, once again.

The Screwtape Letters are very good. They’re a good way to look at ourselves to see what sins and tendencies to sin we are hiding from ourselves. And that’s always a good thing to do–with the understanding that we need not despair on account of sin and our tendencies to sin because God forgives us and gives us the graces to live holy lives. Lewis was quite insightful. I highly recommend the STL every time the subject comes up.
 
At this point I don’t think it’s about him thinking that he can win rather than how many he can take down with him.
 
JJ59 said:
Hi everyone.

I was reading “The Screwtape Letters” (excellent book), and I started thinking: Why does Satan think he can win against God?

I mean, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you’ll lose against the God of the Universe, who can do literally anything at the snap of his fingers. Satan must be aware that the Apocalypse says he will be thrown into the “Lake of Fire”. So why on earth does he keep trying?

Thanks and God Bless.
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***Lets look at it from the backside.

What does Satan have to lose? Besides he is wining many battles its onlt the war that he loses.; ***
 
Satan obviously suffers from irrational pride. Any mind full of Arrogance and Pride and Hatred does not act rationally as we understand it. I mean Adolph Hitler believed right until the last moment that he actually could win and destroy all the Allies and their overwhelming forces on the bloody streets of Berlin in April 1945. A True Believer in Falsehood. No amount of evidence could convince Hitler otherwise. Hitler is just a microcosm of what an evil, hateful mind can convince itself of and pursue its goal with wishful thinking until the bitter end. An evil mind can even think it knows better how the world and humans function than the Creator Himself.

Barring that, of course it’s true he wants to take as many souls down into Hell as he possibly can perhaps believing (Satan surely has no idea of the Love God has for us) that even God might relent and wash His hands of us if Satan can convince God that he rules our souls as evidenced by all the Sin in the world. For some reason, our salvation has become part and parcel of the cosmic battle started by Satan; and his sick mind might just convince him he can beat St. Mike this time, or take more souls with him. Satan unlike God cannot read the Future I believe and he is stuck with going on what he has accomplished in the past.

We in some mysterious way appear to be tied up in that cosmic battle upstairs and its outcome.

Well, this is all very hypothetical in any event. God Bless.
 
distracted said:
Mary is supposed to have appeared to someone & told the person that Nowadays, most people go to Purgatory… Mabye that’s because Jesus’ Church has been spread to the whole world… whether Prot or Catholic… There may be other reasons… but in any case, i know that it is not easy getting into Heaven… and Purg is only Hell that comes to an end, basically… Who wants that :eek:?

but Jesus did say that the way to Heaven was narrow and there are few who find it… (st Mt 7:20 / st Mk 13:24)

i don’t know if that Marian apparition aforementioned is recognized by the Church or not… so i don’t automatically trust it. St Leonard seems to teach that very, very few people get into heaven… or evne Purg… but he lived in the 1100s… I don’t know… 🤷

have to trust God… but i DO know from experience that there is an overabundance of evil in this world and it will NOT go unpunished… forever…

I’m paying dearly for my past sins (though He helps me expiate and does a good job… Real Presence :heaven: ) and God is no respecter of persons…
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but Jesus did say that the way to Heaven was narrow and there are few who find it…

Narrow is the gate/path/direction that leads to salvation, that’s not saying few will find it, it’s saying that it’s easy to fall off of it, that it takes dedication and adherence to simply being obediant to the Lord rather then being led astray with the ways of the world. I’m sure we all have been led astray with the world we live in being so pronounced within it’s logic. Yet our lord holds a much greater logic and this not only covers this world, it covers the world beyond, that the world itself’s logic is confined to strictly to this world and not the one beyond.

Along your past sins, you are paying dearly now because God has not written you off and would rather not have them seperating you from him sooner rather then later, kind of like a parent that awaits for their childrens embrace when it comes down to it. We see too often people doing unspeakable things that seem to go unpunnished, yet in the end their fate is complete and total ruin for eternity, this is far, far worse then anything they could throw at you. You should pitty these people when it comes down to it, I would shudder to think if God turned his back on you within this life, but I suppose if you turn your back on him too much from the get go, from your very core and refused even his even most remote gesture, that can be a possibility I imagine. The reality of it all though, I can’t imagine the Lord ever turning back anyone that came to him directly on any level, afterall, God is Love!
 
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