Final Battle
In the final battle at Armeggedon, God will vanquish Satan. Everyone knows this, from the good little Christians to the big bad Devil himself. God told us this through His Holy Words in Revelations, right? So, why does Satan continue to oppose God, if he knows he's eventually going to lose?
I suppose the argument that I grew up believing was that Satan doesn't think he will lose. The Devil actually believes he has a chance of coming out on top in the end, but the Great Deceiver is only deceiving himself. I suppose that's sound enough reasoning, but to me it doesn't jibe.
Satan already lost to God's forces once -- God didn't even deign to fight the Devil. He sent His lacky, Michael the Archangel, to dispense of the nuisance. And it has to be assumed that Satan has access to all the reading material that humans do; he should know just how powerful God really is. Heck, Satan's job before the fall of the angels was the chief angel among the choir that sang God's praises. Satan should know his chances of winning against The Supreme Being are slim to none. And he still thinks he's going to win?
Maybe the outcome isn't as definite as prophecies of the End Times would have us believe. Maybe Satan does have a shot at bringing down the Creator. It would make sense that The Bible would be so resolute in its predictions, though. It's basically just war-time propaganda. What leader would tell his soldiers that there is a chance of them losing the war? Even George W. Bush isn't that dumb.
Maybe, though, Satan does know that he will lose. Maybe that's the point. Just as God's gift to humanity was free will, Satan's gift was giving meaning to that free will. What's the benifit of choosing eternal life if there is no damnation? What's the point of choosing Good if there is no Evil?
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the point you raise in your final paragraph is intriguing and i would be inclined to believe it, in the sense of yin and yang. i would hesitate to say "satan's gift," rather saying "satan's purpose."
ReplyDeletea problem with revelation is that it is atemporal. it was a vision of a future; a future for john that may have already happened, or possibly a future for ourselves that has not yet happened. the evil apparent in today's world makes it seem very unlikely that the devil has been vanquished yet. but the stage has been set. my personal belief concerning christ's three day absence was not that he went to hell and fought the devil, but that he created hell and prepared it for its future purpose.
it's not that the devil doesn't know about his impending loss. the nature of his evil dictates a reaction that he step up his dissemination of his evil throughout the world. the more of it he can claim and destroy, the less there is for a good God to save, thus making him more powerful. it is still a contest to him, even with the knowledge that he will be destroyed. that's pride, that's arrogance, that's true evil, right?