POST # 21 – 26 March 2009
To begin with the Bible indicates that God created the angels (about 165 million – Rev.5:11 & Rev.12:4 ) prior to the physical earth and universe (Job 38:4-7).
I shall refer to a rather clear and concise article, “Is The Spirit World Real”, that addresses the dark side of the spirit world at this LINK .
The article includes an introduction which points out the relevance of the spirit world to the lives of youth today. Other headings include:
* Who are Satan and the demons?
* Avoid contact with evil spirits.
* How Satan deceives us.
* How to resist satanic influences.
You might like to check out my Posts # 1, 2 and 3 . This Link will take you to May 2008 (Archives) and Post # 4, from where you can click through the OLDER ENTRY signs to Post #1.
A shorter version of how things got started is in my page Time Line of Creation.
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On 26 March 2009, the video of a lively debate was put online by
ABC Nightline Faceoff – “Is Satan Real?” – Click Here .
It consists of 10 video segments of 7-10 min each.
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There is a wide ranging discussion about Satan and his involvement with people (or not) at www.StPixels.com where I responded to a comment quoted in part below.
“To me it is explained and understood far better in terms of natural phenomena in God’s creation, and the effects of God allowing us freedom from his direct control.”
I agree. God has put in place a myriad of interacting/interdependent living systems in earth’s environment that started out in perfect balance, such as when Adam and Eve were in the Garden; and everything was set in motion to work quite automatically. ‘Everything was beautiful in its own way’.
When Adam and Eve took to themselves a mixture of good and evil into their thinking, good intentions became accompanied by negative side effects. A matter of cause and effect. God has decided, in my opinion, to basically let us have free reign over everything (actually stewardship) except to promote his plan of salvation. I would say that Jesus’ casting out demons was primarily to give credence to his claim to be the Son of God. Jesus said his disciples would do similar things, – possibly to show faith in Jesus as the resurrected Son of God and promote the gospel of salvation.
Our omnipresent God is involved in observing everything that goes on here below and will have something to say about it in the resurrection/judgment, after he distills out the knowledge of evil from the mixture of knowledge that we have concocted.
I think the one liner in today’s (March 31, 2009) “Our Daily Bread” devotional pretty well sums it up. “When we know that God’s hand is in everything, we can leave everything in God’s hand.”
This doesn’t mean we take no responsibility for our actions, or back away from life in apathy; but put our lives, our cares and our concerns into God’s hands in prayer.
