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I have to agree with you, Madeline, on this. We cause alot of our own confusion, by not seeking the Lord first, making wrong choices, or only thinking about what we want. True, Satan is evil and an instigator. But I think we need to be careful of always blaming Satan for our sin instead of taking resposibility for the choices we make. If we are saved, we have the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us, but we have to listen to Him. Too often we do things our own way, and then after we get in trouble, seek God's help. (I include myself here, I've been guilty of this too many times.) If we would seek God first in everything we would have less confusion in our lives.

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Jesus does say that Satan is the father of lies (Jn.8:44), and it is also true that Adam and Eve would doubtless not have fallen into sin without the devil's interference. However, it is hard to make the argument that the devil, who is a creature and neither omniscient nor omnipresent, is responsible for all sin and evil, for everything everyone has every done against God and His truth. As any history book will show, human beings are quite capable of creating their own confusion, trouble, sin and evil apart from the devil, and in the majority of instances these things come to be purely from mankind's own sinful motivations. Not that the devil is uninvolved or disinterested. He attempts to manipulate human history on the large scale and the small for his own nefarious purposes. I think the problem here may be in the way we are relating the two words, sin and evil. When we say "evil" in English, we have a specific concept in mind. In the Old Testament, however, the word ra' means "bad" - anything bad is evil; anything evil is bad. Sin, on the other hand, is a very distinct category of human behavior. So whilst it is certainly true that Satan is the origin of rebellion against God in the universe, the father of lies, and the originator of "evil strategic thinking", to make him responsible for everything is to let human beings "off the hook" for the free will sin and evil they commit (and the Bible is ample proof that of this there is a monumental amount). During the Millennium, the world will be a place of perfect peace ruled by the perfect King without the devil around to stir things up, but there will still be a need for divine law and order:

Isaiah 65:20 - There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old (i.e., from divine capital punishment); but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

After Satan is released at the Millennium's end (Rev.20:7-10), it will take him no time at all to organize a massive rebellion against the direct rule of the perfect Ruler in perfect conditions (cf. Ps.2), and he will apparently do so without his legions of fallen angels. This would be absolutely impossible if there were not many evil hearts ready and able to respond to the devil's evil lead.

Love,
Madeline

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Yourself. :smile Sometimes we fall into the very pit that we ourselves dug. :smile

'

I think this is true. Don' t you think that it can come when we allow ourselves to look at the circumstances instead of the facts? That's not Satan's doing.

Right now, my house is utter confusion. There is too much going on while we pack/purge. I have boxes everywhere because I've run out of places to put them. That chaos/confusion is not from Satan. It's of our own making. :bonK:
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'

I think this is true. Don' t you think that it can come when we allow ourselves to look at the circumstances instead of the facts? That's not Satan's doing.

Right now, my house is utter confusion. There is too much going on while we pack/purge. I have boxes everywhere because I've run out of places to put them. That chaos/confusion is not from Satan. It's of our own making. :bonk:


Hey - that sure sounds familiar! We're moving tomorrow - eeeeeek! I should be packing!
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