2024 #1
Twitter. There’s a part that’s good. There is a part that is bad, and there is a part that you wouldn’t believe. Twitter, along with other social media platforms can be used for good. But, there are a lot of things you can find on Twitter’s Christian circles that are not that good. Perhaps you have seen comments on social media that are contrary to the Christian worldview. I’d like to take a look at those statements and comments to see if we can give an answer
Has God allowed Satan to roam free without apparent restraint, or, is Satan a rogue who God cannot control? If God cannot control Satan wouldn’t make Satan more powerful than God?
There are two important questions here. I believe it is best to take them one at a time.
Has God allowed Satan to roam free without apparent restraint, or, is Satan a rogue who God cannot control?
John Milton, the seventeenth-century poet and writer, gives Satan the line in Paradise Lost, “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” According to the poet, Satan would rather operate without restraint than be subordinate in God’s presence. Does this mean that Satan has total freedom to operate in the Earthly realm, as the Twitter post implies? Under what restraints, if any, does Satan work in his rebellion against God?
The exchange between God and Satan in the Old Testament book of Job can be instructive here. In Job chapters one and two, God inquires of Satan from where he had come. Satan answered God that he had been roaming over the earth. The questions and Satan’s answer were the same in both chapters, setting up the great dispute over Job’s example and faithfulness. Does this exchange mean that Satan was out of God’s control? In reading the next part of the passage, God put specific and inviolable controls on Satan’s activity concerning Job, saying most notably that Satan could not kill Job. Satan did not object to God’s commands.
In the New Testament, Jesus made a very revealing statement. After the Passover meal, He and the disciples went out toward the Mount of Olives. Simon Peter was about to proclaim his faithfulness to Jesus even if it cost him his life. However, Jesus gave us a glimpse into heavenly deliberations.
“’Simon, Simon, look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat…’” (Luke 22:31, HCSB).
Similarly, as in the account of Job, Satan wanted to shake the faith of Peter. But, it is important to note that Satan had to ask permission before doing so.
Following directions and asking permission in these incidents do not reflect a being who is out of control.
Mark Riser - Apologist 