Poor Satan, so misunderstood.

Heinrik Well if by suppressive you mean limiting then I agree.However, do sins constitute a breach against rules of God or are they concerned with breaches by one person against another?

Aren't you mistaking two sentences for one and I like ice cream?Is "it has nothing to do with free will" supposed to be a separate idea? If so, please tell us what "it" is and why "it" has nothing to do with free will. Edited by Ringo, : Spellinge.

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“If you had half a brain, wouldn't you have realized after the second time, that it was you, not God?” -- riVeRraT“The endearing controvertist! One needs to become acute in the ploys of his kind.” -- ThreeDogs

Sidelined, if I had to define sin as an action, I would say that it is in breaking any one of the 10 commandments.

Ringo, it was a joke! I wasn't being arrogant. I was surprised by your reaction. Was I not meant to take it personal? Were you just generalizing?

Fair enough. I was just trying to discuss the topic seriously.

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“If you had half a brain, wouldn't you have realized after the second time, that it was you, not God?” -- riVeRraT“The endearing controvertist! One needs to become acute in the ploys of his kind.” -- ThreeDogs

What was the topic again?

That Satan is misunderstood by those who think "he" is a malevolent entity, an enemy of God. As I mentioned, "Satan" is a figure of speech used throughout the Bible to represent the (potential for) evil in all of us. "He" is us.

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“If you had half a brain, wouldn't you have realized after the second time, that it was you, not God?” -- riVeRraT“The endearing controvertist! One needs to become acute in the ploys of his kind.” -- ThreeDogs

I Realize this is a bit back there but i feel i need to address this point. If this were true than you are not human. You are an inanimate object.
A PERSON Ringo didn't type that message, a chair did and you are only naming the chair Ringo. Phrases such as "And there was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon(Satan), and the Dragon fought and his angels." (Revelation 12:7) Cannot be personification because Satan is described here, as in many other places, as an entity. Why would you want to sympathize with your own inclination to sin? Thats like saying hmm...murder is bad, but...its not really that bad, not bad at all, in fact, ill go kill someone right now because its not really THAT bad. Understanding our inclination to sin is not the same as sympathizing with that inclination. Prove it. This would be interesting if it were true. If you can prove this with scripture i would be happy to agree with you. Forgive yourself? You're forgiving yourself for being sinful? I'm sorry i don't quite understand the concept.Edited by Raphael, : No reason given.

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Truth is still Truth, Weather One or a Thousand People believe it.

If I talked about a chair as if it was a person, that would be personification. If I talk about a person, that is not personification. And that's what personification is - talking about a non-person as if it was a person, describing a non-entity as if it was an entity. Why wouldn't you? As I already said, you can't love your neighbour as yourself unless you do love yourself - and you can't love yourself unless you sympathize with yourself. It has nothing to do with whether or not something is "bad". It's about understanding our potential to do bad things. If you don't understand that you're capable of doing bad things, you can't prevent yourself from doing them. If you blame all the bad things that you do on the boogey man, you can't stop yourself from doing them. You can't understand without sympathy and/or empathy. Prove to you there's no monster under your bed? Prove to you there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Prove to you that the Martians aren't stealing your thoughts?You're taking the affirmative side - that there's some spooky entity named "Satan" who causes all the evil in the world. The onus is on you to provide positive evidence. I've made my case on a number of Biblical principles. God is all-powerful and can not have a powerful enemy. We are responsible for our own sins and we will be judged according to our behaviour. If you have problems with my position, be specific. Don't just say, "Nuh uh."I couldn't care less whether or not you agree with me. If you think you can "prove" anything with scripture, such as a spooky satanic entity hiding under your bed, feel free to do so. Too bad.I guess you're doomed to a life of "the Devil made me do it".

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“If you had half a brain, wouldn't you have realized after the second time, that it was you, not God?” -- riVeRraT“The endearing controvertist! One needs to become acute in the ploys of his kind.” -- ThreeDogs

Many thanks.Regards
DL

RingoI like some of your ideas.Regards
DL

GIA, please do not post little, more or less contentless posts. We limit threads to about 300 posts here and you are wasting them.Now I've added a third wasted post to your two.

You are outta here.

Well Ringo I have to say I absolutely agree with you. However, it is a terribly difficult concept for most to understand and accept. Do you think this concept could make a difference if the majority accepted it?