Satan Is Not Omnipotent: A Philosophical Arguments of an Evangelist & Theologian (1)
Introduction:
Do not give Satan more power than he possesses!
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Satan is the accuser or traducer of brethren (Rev. 12:10), yet most people accuse Satan as the cause of all their unrighteousness and sins as if he is omnipotent. Still, the reality is that Satan is not omnipotent, omnipresence, or omniscient. This book sets out to clarify some of the misconceptions about Satan, Demon, or Devil. The names Satan, Demon, or Evil are identical and interchangeable words in usage.
According to James Hastings,[i], the word Devil came into English from Greek directly or through its Latin transliteration. Hastings said its original meaning was that of the accuser or traducer of men and soon came to denote the supreme spirit of evil, the personal tempter of man and enemy of God. Satan is Hebrew and means’ adversary’. The Theists believe in the Omnipotence of God, but what about Satan? Omnipotence is the property of being all-powerful; it is one of the traditional divine attributes in Western conceptions of God. Can Satan claim Omnipotence? The answer is definitely” NO.”
This book’s focus is the definitive and critical answer to the question because Satan is Not Omnipotent. Satan brings confusion and misconceptions. He makes people believe there are demons everywhere, thus amplifying demonic activities unnecessarily. Alternatively, he makes some believers think there are no demons anywhere. Thus he causes believers to disbelieve and discountenance demonic activities or disbelieve in a real and personal devil. Each of the above is a ploy of the Devil to turn the attention of God’s children away from spiritual warfare and keep them unguarded and unprotected.
The word of God warns in 1 Peter 5: 8,9 to be sober and vigilant at all times. Satan is not Almighty Being, and he cannot be in all places simultaneously. Satan is not All-Knowing, so he cannot know all things. God is The Almighty, All-Knowing, and Omnipotent Being. God is to be feared and not Satan. Matt. 28: 18, “Then Jesus came near and said to them (Disciples), All authority has been given to ‘Me’ in heaven and on earth.” It is important to note that absolute authority was given to Jesus by the Father – (1 Co 15: 27-28). God is the only Omnipotent Being.
Philosophers have attempted to state and sacrifice conditions for Omnipotence in the Analytic Philosophy of Religion. Many Philosophers proposed analyses that are evaluated by several criteria. The Notion of Omnipotence, to be discussed, cover nine sub-topics:
- The Self-Consistency of Omnipotence,
- The Stone Paradox,
- Voluntarism,
- Act Theories,
- Result Theories,
- Omnipotence and Time,
- Omnipotence and Necessary Moral Perfection,
- Omnipotence and Human Freedom, and
- Omnipotence and the Problem of Evil.
To understand that Satan is not omnipotent, we need to understand God’s Omnipotence and the notion of Omnipotence.
[i] James Hastings, Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, Peabody, MA.: Hendrickson Publishers Inc. 2001
Images & Description of Satan:
Descriptions of Satan:
Didron described a most drastic picture of Satan, which is found in the missal of Poitiers,[1] as follows:
He is chained to the mouth of hell as a dog to its kennel and yet wields his trident scepter as the monarch of the place he guards. In one, Cerberus and Pluto are a Cerberus of Christian art, a demon more hideous and filled with energy than Pagan art has offered. Satan’s image figures the various aspects of infernal sin by its many faces, having a face on the breast and the head, a face on each shoulder, and a face at each hip. How many more are behind? With long ears like those of a hound and thick short horns of a bull, his legs and arms are covered with scales and seem to issue from the mouths of the faces at his joints. He has a lion’s head with tusks and hands like the claws of a bear. His body, open at the waist, reveals a nest of serpents darting forth and hissing. In this monster, we find all the elements of a dragon, leviathan, lion, fox, viper, bear, bull, and wild boar. It is a compound of each evil quality in these animals, embodied in a human form.” [2]
Dante describes the three-faced Satan in these lines: Oh, what a sight! How passing strange it seemed when I did spy. Upon his head three faces: one in front Of hue vermilion, the other two with this midway each shoulder joined and at the crest; The right ‘twixt wan and yellow seemed; the left; To look on, such as come from whence the old Nile; Stoops to the lowlands. Under each shot forth, Two mighty wings, enormous as became A bird so vast. No plumes had them, but they were in texture like a bat, and these He flapped in the air, which he issued still from him. Three winds wherewith Cocytus to its depth was frozen. At six eyes, he wept: the tears. A down three chins distilled with bloody foam. At every mouth his teeth a sinner champed, Bruised as with ponderous engine; so that three were in this guise tormented.” [3]
Lucifer is credited with being everywhere! From Dungeon keeper to World of Warcraft, he plays you like a pawn. He whispers to you through The Rolling Stones and Kiss. Should we listen to his words or shut our ears? Is he misunderstood and deserving of our sympathy, or does he want to watch the World burn?
The Devil is in the details, and thankfully we have Plato, Kant, and Robert Arp to help us work them out – Wayne Yuen, editor of The Walking Dead and Philosophy: Zombie Apocalypse Now:[4] Satan appears at first sight repulsive by human description. But the more we study the personality of the Devil, the more fascinating it becomes.
Moreover, Satan’s actual personality may not likely be repulsive because all things God created are good. And before becoming evil, he was an Archangel Lucifer serving the Almighty God. Then he disobeyed God and was thrown out of ‘Paradise.’ At the beginning of existence, the Evil One embodies everything unpleasant, wrong, evil, and immoral. He is incarnate in hatred, destruction, and annihilation, and as such, he is the adversary of existence, of the Creator, of God.
The Devil is the rebel of the cosmos, the independent in a tyrant’s empire, the opposition to uniformity, and the dissonance in universal harmony. The exception to the rule, the particular in the universal, the unforeseen chance that breaks the law; he is the individualizing tendency. Devil is the craving for originality, which bodily upsets the ordinances of God that enforce a definite kind of conduct; he overturns the monotony that would permeate the cosmic spheres if every atom in unconscious righteousness and with pious obedience slavishly followed a generally prescribed course
- [1] Egyptian Devil reproduced from Montfaucon has a human head from which project the heads of six animals, one of an ox, one of a bird, and four others, apparently those of serpents
- [2] Didron, Iconography II., 118.
- [3] Hell. Canto xxxiv.
- [4] Preview of The Devil and The Philosophy: The Nature of His Game, the Nook Book (ebook) version, by Robert Arp (editor), Open Court Publishing Company
