Why was the Devil allowed to lie to Eve?

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Greetings everyone,

The question in the title is one I have never exactly heard anyone ask before so I don’t really have any starting place to build upon and get any closer to some understanding of the answer. Have at it in whatever way you like.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
 
For the same reason the devil chose to not follow God and the same reason why humans are allowed to lie or not follow God. God gave him free will.
 
Supercomputer said:
Greetings everyone,

The question in the title is one I have never exactly heard anyone ask before so I don’t really have any starting place to build upon and get any closer to some understanding of the answer. Have at it in whatever way you like.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
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I don’t really think the Devil LIED to Eve, but he did twist the truth.

What did he say?

“And the serpent said to the woman: *No, you shall not die the death.”

That was kind of twisted, because of course Adam and Eve did not die physically, but spiritually.

“For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

That did happen: our first parents learned what evil was very quickly, but the end result was probably not what they were expecting.

That’s why I say the devil didn’t really lie, he just played up to our human faults. Adam and Eve thought that God was keeping something GREAT from them, when really he was keeping something terrible from them.
 
Why was Lucifer allowed to rebel & bring a third of the angels down with him? :confused:
 
Supercomputer said:
Greetings everyone,

The question in the title is one I have never exactly heard anyone ask before so I don’t really have any starting place to build upon and get any closer to some understanding of the answer. Have at it in whatever way you like.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Click to expand...
Because God allowed it, yes? But I think you want to know why God allowed it, also yes?

Because love isn’t love unless it has a reason to love beyond mere gratitude. Adam and Eve were most certainly grateful for their creation, and that of the world they’d been given to be stewards of. But did they love God for who he is? Because he is God? Probably not–not if all it took was a serpent putting a few doubts into their hearts and minds to make them betray their Maker–the Beloved, as he ought to have been to them. That’s my understanding of the temptation of Adam and Eve.

I say both Adam and Eve because once Eve had fallen Adam could have offered himself for her redemption, as I believe he should have done–if he’d have loved God as he ought to have. But we know he didn’t do that, hence they both fell and we suffer the consequences to this day.

Innocence wasn’t enough to protect our first parents from betraying God–they needed to love him with divine love. If they’d have called upon God’s love and help they’d have been all right, but they didn’t, sad to say for all our sakes.

Except, of course, that it gave us our Blessed Redeemer, Christ, who humbled himself by becoming the Second Adam and even accepting death on the cross to redeem us, his brothers in the flesh, praise to be him forever and ever!
 
He could only lie after they knew the essential truth and then they rejected that.

What they knew:

God literally known
God made them and gave them paradise
God said do not eat of the tree
God warned of consequences

The devil THEN said lies to contradict.
They had to deny what truth was already known to listen to satan.
 
In a sense we are all Adam and Eve.
To save us, God gave Mary Divine not Merited Favor not to sin,
to form an Ark for His Son, One and Being with Him.
It is a mystery as to why He did not grant this not Merited Favor
to Adam and Eve to begin with. But it is self evident by faith & reason
together that we have a Completely Compassionate Benevolent God,
that only does things for our best interests.
…
It seems to me that All of Creation was for each of us to seek Him,
know, and love Him through how He revealed Himself to us.
But He does give free will. Obviously, The Blessed Virgin Mary
would have chosen God, even if she did not be given the Grace
to be sinless by the Power of Jesus CHRIST. She is saved by
The Life, Passion, and Resurrection of Jesus just like the righteous
in the Old Testament.
…
We need to always seek Him diligently, remain in His Word,
and love our neighbors as ourselves and His Power will bring
each of us that choose Him to completion, so that we will never
eat the forbidden fruit of disobedience, deciding good and evil apart from Him.
 
Riiight. It’s always the husband’s fault ‘fix the roof, take out the trash, do something about that snake…’ :rotfl:
 
oliver927 said:
For the same reason the devil chose to not follow God and the same reason why humans are allowed to lie or not follow God. God gave him free will.
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But does the devil’s possession of free will necessarily depend upon his ability to tell lie to a human being?
 
“You will not die.”

Surely they did die both a spiritual AND physical death. They’d have lived forever, but eating that forbidden fruit suffered them a spiritual death as well as a mortal/physical death. (Cast out of the garden and returned to dust)
 
Supercomputer said:
Greetings everyone,

The question in the title is one I have never exactly heard anyone ask before so I don’t really have any starting place to build upon and get any closer to some understanding of the answer. Have at it in whatever way you like.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Click to expand...
God gave them warning beforehand. They disobeyed.
 
Supercomputer said:
But does the devil’s possession of free will necessarily depend upon his ability to tell lie to a human being?
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No, but it tells us about his character–that of a fallen angel in rebellion against his Maker. OTOH, it is not in God’s nature to tell lies, but he too has free will, which he apparently has given to all sentient beings.
 
Because he is the devil, and that’s what devils do; they lie.

Eve ate the fruit because she did as she was told like a good, er, bad girl. She and Adam both got what they deserved. Heads will roll, of course, if this sort of thing continues, or so thought the snake.

Maybe the snake wasn’t the devil, maybe he was just a snake, and the devil just used him as a puppet. Not all snakes are bad.
 
Nigel7 said:
“You will not die.”

Surely they did die both a spiritual AND physical death. They’d have lived forever, but eating that forbidden fruit suffered them a spiritual death as well as a mortal/physical death. (Cast out of the garden and returned to dust)
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But if they’d have lived forever, would *we *be here? Or would we never have existed because I don’t think the earth could have supported the billions and billions of immortal humans.
 
on_the_hill said:
But if they’d have lived forever, would *we *be here? Or would we never have existed because I don’t think the earth could have supported the billions and billions of immortal humans.
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God must have had that option figured out…although He knew it wouldn’t be a problem, since He saw the future.
 
oliver927 said:
For the same reason the devil chose to not follow God and the same reason why humans are allowed to lie or not follow God. God gave him free will.
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Yes, but for instances where angels interact with humans, God must allow this to happen, so the question is, why would God ‘allow’ the entity who tried to overthrow his throne, so much influence on humans?

It just does not make sense…satan literally tried to take over Gods position by force, and convinced 1/3 of the other angels to follow him…they were thrown out of heaven we were told, but then God continues to grant or ‘allow’ them special abilities…? Cmon…LOL
 
mikekle said:
Yes, but for instances where angels interact with humans, God must allow this to happen, so the question is, why would God ‘allow’ the entity who tried to overthrow his throne, so much influence on humans?

It just does not make sense…satan literally tried to take over Gods position by force, and convinced 1/3 of the other angels to follow him…they were thrown out of heaven we were told, but then God continues to grant or ‘allow’ them special abilities…? Cmon…LOL
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God is only being fair…but you’ll have to ask Him when you see Him. 😃
 
mikekle said:
Yes, but for instances where angels interact with humans, God must allow this to happen, so the question is, why would God ‘allow’ the entity who tried to overthrow his throne, so much influence on humans?

It just does not make sense…satan literally tried to take over Gods position by force, and convinced 1/3 of the other angels to follow him…they were thrown out of heaven we were told, but then God continues to grant or ‘allow’ them special abilities…? Cmon…LOL
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You may not have read the whole thread. I addressed this question in post #6: forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=14142708&postcount=6.

The angels too had their moment of testing and a third of them fell, as you cited. Apparently, God tests his sentient beings to elicit from them their love, loyalty, and devotion. Simply being created by God in perfection is no guarantee of God being loved by us or the angels. He gave us and the angels free will. The fallen angels and we are paying the price for our lack of love and trust in him–for apart from God, who is life itself, there can only be eternal death–separation from him.
 
mikekle said:
Yes, but for instances where angels interact with humans, God must allow this to happen, so the question is, why would God ‘allow’ the entity who tried to overthrow his throne, so much influence on humans?

It just does not make sense…satan literally tried to take over Gods position by force, and convinced 1/3 of the other angels to follow him…they were thrown out of heaven we were told, but then God continues to grant or ‘allow’ them special abilities…? Cmon…LOL
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The evil ones are on a leash. They cannot tempt us beyond our strength. They cannot force us to sin. When we resist temptation we become stronger. The Lord uses them! We have everything we need to win the warfare, prayer, Mass, Eucharist, sacrament of reconciliation, etc. Jesus has purchased for us the means to be sanctified…we have no excuse.
 
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