answer me this
here is a series of questions i often think about: should i pray for satan's soul? if the bible tells me that i should love my enemies, then shouldn't i love satan? in church sometimes we pray for "evil" people like osama bin laden, saddam hussein, and the likes so why don't we pray for satan? if satan is so evil, then why wouldn't we pray for a change in his heart? some people tell me that satan is beyond hope, but then isn't that saying that God isn't all powerful? don't you think that God wants Satan to change? Has God's love for Satan changed? -SN
posted by SN at 11:03 AM
6 Comments:
Hey Sara, it's Aubrey from 2nd Heyns :) Intriguing questions. By the way, I really appreciate your blog.
The existence of evil in the world is a part of God's plan for our world's redemption. We are being refined and prepared through our suffering for existence with God in glory. If Satan were to surrender to God, what would be the reason for Christ?
"Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved; that the mere 'kindness' which tolerates anything except suffering in its object is, in that respect at the opposite pole from Love." (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain)
Hyper-Calvinist views like the one postulated by "streetwise" make me sweat under my scalp a little bit. I'm not sure I can digest the idea of a God who would ordain atrociously evil events for our benefit.
During last year's South Asian tsunami, a father had to decide which of his four boys he was going to hang on to when the waves hit. He grabbed one of his sons, and watched the other three get washed away to their deaths.
Could you tell him that the death of his three sons was somehow for his ultimate benefit? Did the death of his three sons somehow "refine" and "prepare" him for a rendevous with God? These are difficult questions to answer.
Even more difficult is this one: Would he even want to meet such a God?
I think he'd be more likely to get in line behind Ivan Karamazov.
Okay, okay. Perhaps I didn't express my view accurately here. I don't believe that God wills suffering on his creation. I wouldn't think of speaking to that South Asian father and saying of his three lost sons, "this was God's will." That's ridiculous.
God doesn't knowingly nod in our mourning or anguish. Rather he enters into our sorrow with us through the presence of Jesus.
But is that the end? No. God can bring about life through death, as he showed us through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Does God "ordain evil"? No. But does he switch it around and turn it upside-down for our benefit? Yes he does. Sometimes in our lives he gives us the grace to see this. Sometimes we can't.
sometimes i wonder if we give too much power to satan. yes, it was he who tempted but it was we who bit. we make our own decisions. "the devil made me do it." that's a lie. i think we'd still need God even if Satan were to say that prayer we all learned in high school. -SN
**by the way.......AUBREY!! How are you? GEESH!!
I'm doing very well, thanks for asking. The last time I saw you you were a maestra in Tegucigalpa, eating lunch in the mall. My how you've grown...
I think it's a very powerful thought. And maybe that's the end we're all waiting and hoping for, eh? No one ever said Satan can die. So what other option is left if there's to be some sort of Almighty Conclusion to this spiritual saga? I think it'd be just the kind of thing God could do to blow our human minds. And, lest we forget, it's no small thing that he forgave *us* in the first place. We try to reflect the image of God, but how often do we reflect that other image?
Post a Comment
<< Home