Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire There's a difference in Divine Providence and Coincidence.

if satan was here before god (and not sayin' he was), is he going to willfully turn over this urth to the control of god's assault troops, until the troops are prepared and ready to accept the responsibility? so far, it's in doubt?

i mean, if god's troops can't affect an improved outcome, why allow them to try & fail?

He may not need us,as if he couldn't do anything without us but God's goals are not without us. God chooses to use us and allow us free will choices to either take his advice or not. God's ultimate will is done,but that does not mean in any way that everything that is done is his will.

Funny how when everything fits a narrative, it's God's work and when it don't, it's Satan's.

USA was God's work, except for the slave, killing people etc part. Funny stuff

Read your Bible more carefully SH....

The phrase “god of this world” (or “god of this age”) indicates that Satan is the major influence on the ideals, opinions, goals, hopes and views of the majority of people. His influence also encompasses the world’s philosophies, education, and commerce. The thoughts, ideas, speculations and false religions of the world are under his control and have sprung from his lies and deceptions.

Satan is also called the "prince of the power of the air" in Ephesians 2:2. He is the "ruler of this world" in John 12:31. These titles and many more signify Satan’s capabilities. To say, for example, that Satan is the "prince of the power of the air" is to signify that in some way he rules over the world and the people in it.

This is not to say that he rules the world completely; God is still sovereign. But it does mean that God, in His infinite wisdom, has allowed Satan to operate in this world within the boundaries God has set for him. When the Bible says Satan has power over the world, we must remember that God has given him domain over unbelievers only. Believers are no longer under the rule of Satan (Colossians 1:13). Unbelievers, on the other hand, are caught "in the snare of the devil" (2 Timothy 2:26), lie in the "power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19), and are in bondage to Satan (Ephesians 2:2).

So, when the Bible says that Satan is the "god of this world," it is not saying that he has ultimate authority. It is conveying the idea that Satan rules over the unbelieving world in a specific way. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, the unbeliever follows Satan's agenda: "The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." Satan's scheme includes promoting false philosophies in the world—philosophies that blind the unbeliever to the truth of the Gospel. Satan’s philosophies are the fortresses in which people are imprisoned, and they must be set free by Christ.

The answer is that Satan—the god of this world—has tempted mankind to follow his pride instead. Satan sets the agenda, the unbelieving world follows, and mankind continues to be deceived. It is no wonder that Scripture calls Satan a liar (John 8:44).

JG, I would agree with all you have said but I would like to clarify as to the way I see it according to scripture.
When you say God allows Satan to operate in this world,I would say that is absolutely true,but only to the degree that we allow Satan to operate in this world. God gave the world to man and man submitted to Satan's will,rather than God's. God will not override man's will and force his will on man. Whenever man decides to follow God's advice,he is there to enforce our authority on his behalf.

Remember Jesus saying that what we bind on earth will be bound in Heaven and what we allow on earth will be allowed in Heaven? He was basically saying that it's our choice and Heaven will allow what we will allow or not allow what we decide not to allow. It's that way because God gave the earth to us for a period of time,and it's ours to decide what to do with it until that time is up. We have read in Revelations what happens when that time is up.

Agreed RH. We send ourselves to hell, God doesn't . Good post.

Thanks for the link......

Independent support of modern scholarship that indicates 1) Braddock's catastrophic defeat was mostly at the hands of French-allied Indians and 2) that Indians were the first to bring rifles in any numbers to the Frontier.

The evidence indicates that the German gunsmiths in Pennsylvania began making the distinctively American long and slender relatively smallbore rifles to meet the preference of the Indians some time in the 1740s. The form seems to have been aesthetically inspired rather than functional but a gun which got twice as many balls per pound of lead, used less powder, and precisely delivered that ball on the target made an enormous amount of sense back in the boonies far from one's base of supply.

The downsides were rifles were expensive and slower to load but the fur and deerskin trade generated an enormous amount of trading power and Indian warfare most often consisted of a single volley followed by a charge from ambush. Rifles made effective sniping weapons too as the British found when they went against the Cherokees a few years after the Monongahela, that becoming the second time Redcoats were shot to pieces by longrifles.

In the South the Indian riflery tradition persisted until at least the Second Seminole War in the 1830's, when General Edmund P Gaines reported that at the style of Withlacootchie the Seminole riflemen were scoring hits on his men at ranges in excess of 400 yards, the longest fatal shots ever recorded from round ball flintlock rifles. General Gaines himself lost several teeth in that battle from a ball fired by one of those Indian snipers. A pity Gaines ain't better remembered in pop history, he was a genuine hero, esteemed even by his enemies on the battlefield, and played a major role in our American history through the first three decades of the 19th century.

As for the Monogahela and its aftermath, everything was going France's way in that war until the Indian forces, assembled from all over the Midwest hinterlands, picked up smallpox during their fights with and raids on the colonies and carried that affliction back home. Through a series of catastrophic epidemics these French allies disappeared practically overnight.

Birdwatcher

We lost less than 5000 men during the entire Revolutionary War, so the odds of Washington's survival being change are pretty good.

All people being sinners and unworthy of God would indicate everyone, not just a majority.



The mere fact Satan undeniably influences your life , makes you one of those troubled and 'conflicted' people
you talk of....Such flawed duality exists in all christians.

God knows you are part and parcel of 'the willing spirit but weak flesh' human race.
God also knows you require his grace just as much as every other pathetic helpless human.

God doesn't have goals. Just like God doesn't try. He plans and executes His plan.

It sure looks like you are the one who made a mistake. The God of this world is the God Who created it. Nowhere in the Passage (2 Corinthians 4) where "God of this world" or "God of this age" refers to Satan. God is the One Who blinds men's minds and hearts.

Consider Mark 4:10-12
"As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, 'To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.'”

Romans 9:14-18
"What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.' So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires."

well, there it is, spelled out in a few words.

lot's of different seminaries that teach differing theology, just like there's lot's of laymen who walk amongst us who believe different things, although devoutly.

i woulld go so far out on a limb as to suggest that god has absolutely no need for us humans, but here we are.

A plan without a goal is a plan without purpose. In other words, you described a god with no purpose.

Another in support of God being the One who blinds the minds of unbelievers is
2Thesalonians 2:11-12
"For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness."

How do you define "truth"?

Honesty?
Accuracy?
Conformity?
That which exists?

You got that right. The good is God's work. The bad is Satan's work. And, God did indeed mean it to be funny.

So why doesn't God just smite Satan and end all the bad stuff?

I think it might have to do with that free will thing.

Everyone has a choice.

the whole thingy is beginning to get stretched out, pretty long & thin, or so it would seem. the YHWH/Jesus thingy has been going on for 2000 years or more; the Allah/Mohammed thingy has been going on for 1500 years. that's a long time to work out the details that everyone can agree to. but, it doesn't appear we're even close. and then there's the pesky buddhists & hindu's. such a strain on the cosmology that people attempt to project in good faith.

and add in the demons. and yet the sun of God continues to "rise" everyday. in the past, the pagans were concerned the sun was going to fall below the horizon around dec 21, and not be able to re-appear. they'd be lost in darkness forever. what a natural fear to have by ancients who had no concept of the modern cosmology of the universe.

That's a good question,and he eventually will. From my studies it has to do with him giving control to man . God would be unjust to take that authority back until the end of the time allotted for man,even though man gives his authority away to Satan.

Another aspect is that man has to have the choice of evil,otherwise the choice of good has no meaning. God doesn't want robots without choices. He wants children who choose to love him. Without the possibility of hate,love has no meaning at all.