The Devil's Trick?

[POI]

1. If the Devil's objective is to deceive/coerce/trick/persuade humans away from God, and furthermore, has above human abilities; HOW do we know Jesus was not actually Satan in disguise?.?.?.?

2. Does God somewhat remove his freewill, so he cannot ultimately deceive millions into worshiping a false god? (i.e.) What we know as Christianity today.

3. If God does restrict what the devil can do, then why still allow what the devil can do to humans?

Maybe professed Christians have a one way ticket to hell, which makes the devil's job easier. 2/5's of the world's population worship a false god, which breaks the first commandment. The devil's work is already done for him. And almost another 2/6's are also done, in the way of believing in Muhammad. And so on....

[1213]

1. If the Devil's objective is to deceive/coerce/trick/persuade humans away from God, and furthermore, has above human abilities; HOW do we know Jesus was not actually Satan in disguise?.?.?.?

By that the definition of Satan does not fit to him. Unless of course you define the words in your own way, not as said in the Bible.

[William]

It seems to me that having Satan as part of ones theology, the idea introduced problems re any god, for no god is above suspicion given the powers Christianity [in particular] have bestowed upon this mythological image.

[POI]

1. If the Devil's objective is to deceive/coerce/trick/persuade humans away from God, and furthermore, has above human abilities; HOW do we know Jesus was not actually Satan in disguise?.?.?.?

By that the definition of Satan does not fit to him. Unless of course you define the words in your own way, not as said in the Bible.

Well, would you agree the devil wants as many to go to hell, as possible?

[OnceConvinced]

1. If the Devil's objective is to deceive/coerce/trick/persuade humans away from God, and furthermore, has above human abilities; HOW do we know Jesus was not actually Satan in disguise?.?.?.?

There is no way of knowing.

If the one true God is some other God (eg Allah), then the Devil has done a marvelous job of luring people away from him and he'd be smart enough to masquerade as someone good to do it. If he can lure people into a false religion (say Christianity), then it doesn't matter how good or holy Christians are. They're going to burn in Islamic Hell and that's what the devil wants.

2. Does God somewhat remove his freewill, so he cannot ultimately deceive millions into worshiping a false god? (i.e.) What we know as Christianity today.

For all we know this world could be a gigantic chess board and God is playing a game of chess. He wants a worthy opponent, so he creates Satan to be that opponent. Satan does his worst while God entertains himself, competing compete against him, following a certain set of rules he instigated from the beginning. (like not proving his existence to those who need proof)

Maybe professed Christians have a one way ticket to hell, which makes the devil's job easier. 2/5's of the world's population worship a false god, which breaks the first commandment. The devil's work is already done for him. And almost another 2/6's are also done, in the way of believing in Muhammad. And so on....

Exactly! Just because Jesus may have appeared to be godly, holy guy, doesn't mean he was. Satan would be smart enough to come up with a great counterfeit, if his main goal is to lure people away from worshiping a real god.

[William]

[Replying to OnceConvinced in post #5]

Satan would be smart enough to come up with a great counterfeit, if his main goal is to lure people away from worshiping a real god.

Likewise, if a real god is that which does not require being worshiped, then the counterfeits could be seen for what they are. Then you only need 2 opposing gods who both require being worshiped, and "shazam!" - the confused get down to worshiping either/or, depending on their culture and understanding of 'good' and 'evil' - a concept which is also used to enhance the illusion -

This would of course amount to the same entity wearing both costumes and seen by humans to being two different entities.

- a bit like how having two seemingly opposing political parties allow for the belief in democracy and freedom to vote as being equal to having choices.

[bluegreenearth]

1. If the Devil's objective is to deceive/coerce/trick/persuade humans away from God, and furthermore, has above human abilities; HOW do we know Jesus was not actually Satan in disguise?.?.?.?

By that the definition of Satan does not fit to him. Unless of course you define the words in your own way, not as said in the Bible.

In the described scenario, wouldn't the Bible be the word of Satan masquerading as the word of God?

[Miles]

1. If the Devil's objective is to deceive/coerce/trick/persuade humans away from God, and furthermore, has above human abilities; HOW do we know Jesus was not actually Satan in disguise?.?.?.?

Heck, what if the the whole shebang; the devil, the god of Abraham, Jesus, and the Bible, was contrived by a vicious uberdeity as entertainment, whose human suffering delights him to no end and helps stave off the incredible boredom that comes with eternal existence?

To put a personal point to it, why bother creating humans at all if it wasn't for personal amusement? After all, the Bible gives no better reason or creating us than for creating anything else.

Genesis 1:1, 9, 11, 20, 24-27
1 God created the sky and the earth. At first,

9 Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered together so that the dry land will appear.” And it happened.

11 Then God said, “Let the earth grow grass, plants that make grain, and fruit trees. The fruit trees will make fruit with seeds in it. And each plant will make its own kind of seed. Let these plants grow on the earth.” And it happened.

20 Then God said, “Let the water be filled with many living things, and let there be birds to fly in the air over the earth.”

24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce many kinds of living things. Let there be many different kinds of animals. Let there be large animals and small crawling animals of every kind. And let all these animals produce more animals.” And all these things happened.

25 So God made every kind of animal. He made the wild animals, the tame animals, and all the small crawling things. And God saw that this was good.

26 Then God said, “Now let’s make humans who will be like us. They will rule over all the fish in the sea and the birds in the air. They will rule over all the large animals and all the little things that crawl on the earth.”

27 So God created humans in his own image. He created them to be like himself. He created them male and female.”

OR in

Genesis 2:6-9
6 So water came up from the earth and spread over the ground. 7 Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and made a man. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nose, and the man became a living thing. 8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in the East, in a place named Eden. He put the man he made in that garden. 9 Then the Lord God caused all the beautiful trees that were good for food to grow in the garden. In the middle of the garden, he put the tree of life and the tree that gives knowledge about good and evil.

Little different than listing the elements of some Hasbro board game such as Clue, Risk, or Monopoly.




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[bluegreenearth]

1. If the Devil's objective is to deceive/coerce/trick/persuade humans away from God, and furthermore, has above human abilities; HOW do we know Jesus was not actually Satan in disguise?.?.?.?

Heck, what if the the whole shebang; the devil, the god of Abraham, Jesus, and the Bible, was contrived by a vicious uberdeity as entertainment, whose human suffering delights him to no end and helps stave off the incredible boredom that comes with eternal existence?

To put a personal point to it, why bother creating humans at all if it wasn't for personal amusement? After all, the Bible gives no better reason or creating us than for creating anything else.

Genesis 1:1, 9, 11, 20, 24-27
1 God created the sky and the earth. At first,

9 Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered together so that the dry land will appear.” And it happened.

11 Then God said, “Let the earth grow grass, plants that make grain, and fruit trees. The fruit trees will make fruit with seeds in it. And each plant will make its own kind of seed. Let these plants grow on the earth.” And it happened.

20 Then God said, “Let the water be filled with many living things, and let there be birds to fly in the air over the earth.”

24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce many kinds of living things. Let there be many different kinds of animals. Let there be large animals and small crawling animals of every kind. And let all these animals produce more animals.” And all these things happened.

25 So God made every kind of animal. He made the wild animals, the tame animals, and all the small crawling things. And God saw that this was good.

26 Then God said, “Now let’s make humans who will be like us. They will rule over all the fish in the sea and the birds in the air. They will rule over all the large animals and all the little things that crawl on the earth.”

27 So God created humans in his own image. He created them to be like himself. He created them male and female.”

Little different than creating the elements of some Hasbro board game such as Clue, Risk, or Monopoly.




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It is my understanding that a logical argument could be made that any deity who may have created a universe to appear as though a god was not necessarily required as the cause of the universe would most likely reward the sentient inhabitants of this universe who were intellectually honest enough to acknowledge their inability to know what may have been the cause of the universe. Furthermore, this deity would most likely punish the sentient inhabitants of its universe who were arrogant enough to believe that they had personal relationship with a deity who created the universe.

[Miles]

It is my understanding that a logical argument could be made that any deity who may have created a universe to appear as though a god was not necessarily required as the cause of the universe would most likely reward the sentient inhabitants of this universe who were intellectually honest enough to acknowledge their inability to know what may have been the cause of the universe. Furthermore, this deity would most likely punish the sentient inhabitants of its universe who were arrogant enough to believe that they had personal relationship with a deity who created the universe.

I await my reward and the punishment of the arrogant. Failing that, there is no such deity.


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