What if Satan reformed?

Maybe its because we no longer would have anything to blame our weaknesses on! Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

I had to look that term up, Archer! I found this site at Wiki which explained a bit about Unitarian Universalism. They would tend to give Satan a break, I think!The fundamentalists, on the other hand, can't give a break to Satan because Satan by definition represents the choice of disobedience.Were Satan to totally reform, the entire choice of disobedience reverts back to the individual and that is a scary choice to possess.For a fundamentalist, at any rate.

Come to chat and discuss this with me. (314am Denver time)For one thing, if there was no villain, people would actually have a chance to be fully responsible for their own actions again...with no fear of deception.God would not need to take the bullet for us anymore since there would be nobody shooting at us.Relationship with God would still be very important, but Im not sure how He would expect us to relate to Him any differently than He expects now.

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“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way” --C.S.Lewis

Well, if Satan was putting Holy thoughts in peoples heads, he still would be competing with the Boss.Either that or he would be part of the Angels Local #777.

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"All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."--C.S.Lewis
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“The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”--General Omar Bradley
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"The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog." -GK Chesterson

Have you ever heard of the belief known as Dualism? The Catholic Encyclopedia describes the definitions which distinguish dualism from Christianity. Then, when the Christian philosophies were established, we had: Personally,while I see a world of good and evil, I personally ascribe to the belief that God is sovereign and is good. Thus, Good trumps Evil. (In my Belief)

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"All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."--C.S.Lewis
* * * * * * * * * *
“The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”--General Omar Bradley
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog." -GK Chesterson

Thus, it is not a matter of asking "what if Satan reformed"....as it is asking whether we ourselves will reform and quit trying to figure the universe out for ourselves while paying no homage to a Supreme Being.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

We really dont know for sure, but base much of our speculation on scripture.Scripture refers to Satan as "the lawless one" and says that there is no truth in him. And thats what I like about philosophy and speculation....it is creative or imaginative thinking unhindered by dogmatic theology.I dont think that humans are capable of being as good as Jesus, since Jesus knew no sin, whereas we do. I also dont think that we can be as bad as satan, since we are capable of telling the truth. God may forgive satan, but i dont see satan changing his stripes. If he did, there is hope for all of us, but without Gods help.Evil would disappear, IMHODiscernment comes through discipline, prayer, and fasting.I trust that God would find a way for the memo to be delivered.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

Even if He accepts Satans apology, He still has to deal with all of the unbelievers who assume they need no God and who think that human intellect is destined to be the penultimate object of worship.Then again, maybe God will simply zap Himself out of existence and let us try and run the universe from our dust speck.

Humanity has arguably not learned how to be at peace and be humble. Wars are as old as human history, as are murders, rapes, child molestations, and greed of various sorts.Humans arguably need God.In addition, as per topic, Satan may voluntarily "reform" only if he sees his potential subjects reform themselves. In thousands of years of human history, we apparently have not learned much of anything.Edited by Phat, : added

This was such a good discussion! I have not thought out these beliefs in awhile, so by discussing them maybe I can learn a thing or two.

The word "reform" is similar to the concept of repenting, or being born again. If satan reformed, the only "enemy" that would be left would be ourselves.

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To me, the concept of freethinking implies that an individual never wants to admit that any "other" is right and that by reserving the right to ask endless questions and avoid committing to any final answer or truth, they in effect become their own authority. The way that I was taught to understand it all, we are never meant to know perfection unless we surrender to it and let it have us.

Keywords: on their ownGod created programs that had a free will. I still believe that God never created evil directly. He created/allowed it metaphorically and evil became an actuality when free-willed creatures, and Lucifer chose it. Lucifer/Satan became unable to "unchoose"....which gets us back to what this topic is all about.What if Satan could choose to reform?As an additional thought, why is it that humans, who already have the capability to reform, occasionally and persistently refuse such an option?Edited by Phat, : broken linkEdited by Phat, : fixed link

Yes, this would go in line with the belief that trying to do ones best every day is all that we can do. The other side would maintain that the very best we humans can do never measures up and that since we can never be 100% we need to trust the One (Gods Son) who legend has it never sinned.Even if we assume that trusting in Jesus and allowing the communion of such a relationship to exist is the way to go, I think it is wise to try and do our best and embrace the reality of personal responsibility. Agreed. Faith without works is dead.In order to discuss the possible idea of satan reforming, we must shine the spotlight on ourselves, since satan is not around to grant an interview. In essence, we are the stereotypical satans and jesus's. You mentioned before that we each have in us both good and evil. One or the other is in control at any given moment. To reform implies that we consciously allow the inner jesus to manifest more often and the inner satan to sit down and shut up. I find that I cant even want to be like jesus, however. I would never give away everything(or even nearly everything) to help the poor. I find it hard to love the unlovely. (I can love the lovely just fine, though it often becomes lust and desire rather than selfish giving of myself with no hope of a reward) My point is that in my own personal life, the inner satan seems not to want to give up all control and reform. He would be doing the same thing that Jesus does...although it could be argued that Jesus never forces influence on anyone. Some would say that Jesus or the Holy Spirit will give you an impartation of Holy thoughts and will give you strength. Others would deny such a belief.

OK I will.

quote:

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The term was originally popularized by Anthony Collins (1676-1729), a confidant of John Locke who wrote many pamphlets and books attacking traditional religion. He even belonged to a group called The Freethinkers which published a journal entitled The Free-Thinker.

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Collins used the term as essentially a synonym for anyone who opposes organized religion and wrote his most famous book, The Discourse of Free Thinking (1713) to explain why he felt that way. He went beyond describing freethinking as desirable and declared it to be a moral obligation:

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Because he who thinks freely does his best toward being right, and consequently does all that God, who can require nothing more of any Man than that he should do his best, can require of him.

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As should be obvious, Collins did not equate freethinking with atheism he retained his membership in the Anglican church. It wasn’t belief in a god which attracted his ire, but instead people who simply take the Opinions they have imbib’d form their Grandmothers, Mothers or Priests.
  —About.com

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I like that last part. Maybe I was a bit too hasty vilifying freethinking.

The point is that faith requires abandonment of logic and reason, to a degree. My original observation was that this(freethinking) is a default rebellion towards a potential, if unprovable or verifiable authority. My source disagreed, however, explaining that freethinking and faith can coexist.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

If Satan reformed,

1. Would God forgive?
2. Would evil disappear?
3. How would you discern spirits if they all said the same thing?
4. How would you get the memo?

1) God would forgive, and all of humanity would begin to learn a valuable lesson.
2)Evil would still potentially exist, but only for those who chose to actualize it. Humans would still be responsible for themselves.
3) They would all become like Casper, the friendly ghost. no more scary ones.4) The memo is hypothetical. Does'nt God *talk* to us anyway?