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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Does Satan have free will? | Job 2:6 | Brent Douglass | 4579 | ||
Thanks for a thought-provoking question, Charis. God has sovereign power and enters into the affairs of man whenever He chooses to do so. (See Romans 8:23ff.) He may place a hedge of protection, as he did for all of Job's life. Even at the time when Satan was given freedom to attack Job, God set the limitations. And when it was time for the trial to end, God intervened. Satan goes as far as God permits in his (Satan's) hateful destruction but no farther. God shows, in Job's history, varying degrees of exercising the sovereign power that he has. He can control completely; He sometimes exercises this power and sometimes doesn't. God is active and engaged in the affairs of man. However, it is also noteworthy that neither Satan nor God indicate any perception or suggestion whatsoever that Job's responses are being controlled. Events are controlled and manipulated to reveal his responses (or for Satan to attempt to reveal the responses he erroneously expected); yet Job himself is not controlled. God knew how Job would respond, and Job proved not only his faithfulness but also his final receptivity to God's correction and rebuke. Job 1:10-12 ""Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ""But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.''Then the LORD said to Satan, ""Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.'' So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD. |
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2 | Does Satan have free will? | Job 2:6 | melchizedekau | 4731 | ||
Hi Brent,may i just add and clarify a few points.thanks. satan does have a free will as he goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.Also we all have a hedge about us by God for we are sealed in the Holy Spirit, for our names have been written in the book of life since the foundation of the world.Also the temptations that we endure is not above what we can handle and there is always a way of escape made available to us if we just ask. the Lord has all things under his feet and all things are given to us that pertain to life and Godliness.it is our free will that allows satan to have dominion in and around us. Through the Blood of Jesus and our testimony we overcome.YIC. | ||||||
3 | Does Satan have free will? | Job 2:6 | Brent Douglass | 4856 | ||
Thanks for the clarifications. I think I'm in full agreement to what you have said. Satan must have decision-making ability and can NOT be simply a negative extension of God's will and plan, since God can not tempt, and since God is light with no darkness or evil intent at all. Any implication that Satan does not have a free and independent will would naturally lead to very dangerous and unbiblical doctrines as to the nature of God. My following statement is not in any way meant as disagreement, but simply as additional clarification. There is some difference in Satan's "will" and ours, since the Scriptures seem to indicate that fallen angels are incapable of repentance, whereas fallen people (everyone, as descendants of Adam and Eve after the fall) can respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, confess our sins, repent, believe and be restored to everlasting fellowship with God. There is disagreement among orthodox Christians as to how "free" (or "irresistable") this interaction is, but we all agree that people can do this under the prompting and working of the Holy Spirit. I'll post a question to the list as to what passages advocate this eternal and irrevocable quality of the fallenness of evil angels, but I'm confident that it is Biblical. |
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