Why doesn't God stop Satan?

Answer 1

Answer

Actually, He does. Satan is allowed to go only so far with mankind. The book of Job demonstrates this; whatever Satan wants to do to Job is limited by what God permits.

The day will come, though, when Satan will be bound for a thousand years, after which time he'll be released for one final chance. His second major defeat will be his last.

Another Answer:

God created good and bad to test us. If there was no Satan then we would be like angels, always obeying God and following his command. However we are different from angels. We are in fact superioer to them - only if we preserve ourselves from the distractions offered by Satan. We have been programmed by God to know the basic right and wrong. If we look for the right with sincerity, God shows us the way. But we have to believe in Him being the Ultimate authority. Satan on the other hand has no power over us other than the ability to suggest, or whisper in our heart. If we fall for his suggestions, we do so with our own free will.

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Jonab's answer: Yes if God is God then He can stop Satan any time. Why then does God allow Satan to control this suffering earth temporarily? If God is a loving God and if He does have power over Satan then all this suffering on this earth is God's boot camp preparing humanity for eternity. God wants human to understand good and evil and learn to choose good; experience love and hatred and choose love. Think about this - can we really understand the depth of love if we have not understand and experience what hatred and suffering are? - Jonab

To answer this question, we need to understand the issue of sovereignty.

What is sovereignty? It is supremacy of authority.

Because God Almighty is the Creator, he has the right to rule over the earth and all who dwell on it. However, The Bible explains that early in human history, God's sovereignty was challenged. Satan the Devil claimed that God was unduly restrictive, that He had lied to our first parents about what would happen if they ignored God's law and did things their own way, and that it really would be better if they governed themselves apart from God.-Genesis, chapters 2, 3.

If God had destroyed the rebels right away, that would have demonstrated his power, but it would not have settled the issues raised. Instead of destroying the rebels on the spot, God has allowed all intelligent creation to see the outcome of rebellion.

Had Adam and Eve died childless, that would have signaled the failure of God's purpose to fill the earth with their perfect descendants. (Genesis 1:28) And "God is not like men . . . Whatever he promises, he does; he speaks, and it is done."-Numbers 23:19.

Though this has involved suffering, it has also afforded opportunity for us to be born.

In his perfect wisdom, God Almighty decided to allow the rebellion to proceed for a limited time. The rebels would have ample opportunity to experience the effects of independence from God. History would demonstrate beyond doubt mankind's need for divine guidance and the superiority of God's rule over man's or Satan's.

Jer 10:23 states: "I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself,

Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. "

At the same time, God took steps to ensure that his original purpose for the earth would be fulfilled. He promised that a "seed," or "offspring," would come who would 'bruise Satan in the head,' eliminating once and for all his rebellion and its damaging effects.-Genesis 3:15

Furthermore, at great cost to himself, The Creator lovingly made provision that humans who would obey him and exercise faith in the ransom sacrifice of his Son could be freed from sin and its consequences and live in Paradise. If necessary, this could be by means of a resurrection from the dead.

Allowing time for settling the issue has also given God's servants opportunity to demonstrate that they are capable of responding to God's love and proving their integrity to The Almighty God under all circumstances.

The settling of the issue of divine sovereignty, along with the related issue of human integrity, is vital in order for there to be proper respect for law in the universe. Without that, true peace would never be possible.

Answer

God cannot stop Satan. Even if God can stop Satan, He won't. Because God's value of being a god depends on an adversary. If there is no Satan, there will be no need for a god.

As the belief in god/s in the present time wanes, the belief in Satan also diminishes. Only the religious believes in a certain type of Satan, Devil, Lucifer, etc.

Answer

It is really irrelevent wheather you believe in the bible account of where the the world is heading (I happen to believe it) because it will happen anyway and we will all be judged in due course.

answer

Because if there is no Satan (evil), then what's the use of a god?

Thought

Satan is trap in Hell and God has made sure that no one goes there (apart from bad beings) to ensure Satan doesnt come back for revenge.

What I think

God has the power to destroy Satan. And he will. And why wont he destroy him now???????? When Lucifer got too jealous of God that he wanted to be like him, that is when the first sin was born. And because we fell for his scam, sin has entered our world also. If God destroyed Satan, sin would still be here. God will one day destroy all sin. He will burn it like a book so there's no memory of it. But he loves us and doesn't want us to be destroyed with it. That is why he died for us, so we could have the chance to be cleansed from our sins. And that way not distroyed. He is waiting till the most of us as possible repent so he can take us home. Then he will destroy Satan.

The obvious answer is that he can't. If both God and Satan exist, then Satan would have destroyed God and taken his place, in which case Earth would become Hellish in all aspect, or God would have destroyed him in his attempt, in which case there would be no evil and Earth would become Heavenlike and peaceful. Since neither of these has occurred and both God and Satan (are assumed to) still exist, it follows that each has equal power to the other.

Because Satan is a spirit. God can't destroy spirit beings.

What you are asking for is known as Theodicy. What you're getting is a bunch of people's different opinions on the subject which may not be useful to you. I suggest reading about Theodicy and forming your own conclusions as to the answer. There are some very simple and beautiful answers depending on people's understanding of the nature of evil and the level of God's omnipotence. If I may suggest Wikipedia's article on Theodicy as a place to start though countless books have been written on the subject.

ANSWER:

Some of the answer's submitted above are wrong.

Yes; Satan is a spirit but God has the power to destroy ANYTHING. It doesnt matter if it is a spirit. Demons are spirits, but God can also give people the power to cast them out of bodies and destroy them.

My auntie told me in her dream she was somewhere and a HUGE demon appeared behind her and she said the demon was massive and it had the hat of aladin and out of its mouth were things like fire and lightening etc. She called Jesus and by doing that she just said 'Jesus' the demon begged her to stop and soon he vanished. So nort only God himself can destroy these evil spirits, God can USE people to do it.

The devil is REAL and he is NOT trapped in Hell. He walks this earth, trying to cause problems.

GOD WILL RETURN TO EARTH; AND THAT DAY THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS WILL BE DESTROYED IN THE NAME OF JESUS. AMEN.

:">:">BELIEF:

God has the power to destroy Satan, but he chooses not to. He gave humans the right to have a free conscious and choose what they want to believe in. On one side you have Satan, which represents sin, evil, and hate. And on God's side you have goodness, charity, and happiness. God lets you choose what kind of person you wish to be, if there was no Satan then people would be on a one track mind only leading to happiness-sounds nice. BUT you must choose the road you take. God keeps Satin alive for the purpose of having a choice, good, or evil. It all depends on which way you take. If you truly have a good soul, you will find your way to him.

If God is God then He must be in control. Man can have all the freedom to do good or evil but God can accomplish His plan without interfering with man's freewill. Man out of his own freewill had chosen to crucified Jesus but God in His sovreignty was able to accomplished His plan to die for man's sin.

New Answer:

Reading the entire bible is probably not going to get you far, first of all, because the bible itself says that you must be spiritually discerned (Regenerated/Truly Christian) to understand fully what God reveals to His people; however, you could read it and draw a conclusion. Now just drawing your own conclusion puts you at risk if "miss interpretation" and then not understanding who God really is. Coming from an apparent Christian upbringing, I grew up believing I had it all figured out and in fact my answer would have been like the opinion of the message just above this one ("BELIEF"). Actually reading the bible, understanding who God is, really helps understand why God doesn't simply destroy Satan.

Its funny, people want God to destroy Satan for his heinousness yet never look at the horribleness of their own sin and hatred toward God (demonstrated by your own sin). What should God do with you?

God is God no matter who exists, including Satan. In fact, God doesn't need people, angels or anything to be glorified any more then he already is by Himself. If God wasn't infinite, he wouldn't be God and therefore require worshipers to glorify him. God chose because God chose to reveal Himself to his creation. Part of the revelation of God is knowing who God is. Satan (Lucifer), plays his part in God's divine plan. Sinful and depraved men, Satan and anything else under God (which is everything) cannot act outside of God's will.

Why an antagonist (which is Sin, Satan happens to be a bringer or first sinner). He hates God because he wants to be God. Man hates God in the same way. Man can't come to God because they hate him. Its a fact, even seekers hate God because although they know there is a God, they don't submit to him.

God wants to reveal himself to his creatures. He doesn't need to but its what God has indicated that he wants to do. So tell me, without sin and everything else that comes with it how would angels, the devil or men know Gods mercy, grace, justice, wrath etc ? Having a full picture of the attributes of God is revealed in a backdrop of Sin.

God is loving, yes, but he is also Just and in his Justice made known his mercy and grace by the sacrifice of his only begotten son to bring on Himself the sin of his people and die under the wrath of God for us. God is just by punishing

Jesus under an eternal wrath for our sin and therefore we are justified before a holy God. Jesus suffered our eternal punishment and with that also rose from the dead. Only God can suffer the eternal wrath of God and come out of it alive. This way we may live and that we may see the richness of His grace and mercy and love.

The devil will be destroyed in an everlasting destruction because God will put on him the justice and due punishment along with every other person who, in their hatred for God, continues to willfully sin.

Answer/New Theory

Here's an interpretation to consider, which I found to be very plausible. The angels were God's first creation and they were around for his creation of earth and of man. God loved his new creations, Adam and Eve, and asked the angels to obey him, to love his creation as he did, and to humbly serve man.

This, Lucifer would not do. He defied God because he refused to humble himself and serve what he felt were inferior beings, what he saw as God's latest project, his newest "pets".

Like a petulant child, he felt rejected by his father, that man was new "baby" in house who was getting all the attention, his father's favorite. He rebelled, and convinced many angels to join him by making them fear they were going to be replaced by man. And in their fear and lack of faith, they fought and God cast them out.

When Lucifer was cast down to earth, he was furious. Instead of taking responsibility for rebelling and begging God's forgiveness, he saw God's casting out as the proof he was being pushed aside. Immediately, he set about trying to destroy God's new favorite, man. He slithered right into the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve and succeeded. He is continually trying to hurt God by turning man to evil. And by leading us astray, he is trying to show God that his love for us is woefully missplaced. He is trying to convince God that we really are the lowly creatures Lucifer thinks we are, and we are unworthy of his love.

Lucifer is so jealous of us, he hates us, and delights when he can trick us into rejecting God. It hurts his father, proves his point, and gives him the added pleasure of taking his anger and hatred out on those of us who end up in hell.

God send Jesus down to earth as the way to combat Lucifer's chaos on earth. Before then, there was no angelic ambassador that walked with us on earth to cut through the lies that Lucifer was spreading. God knew we needed a concrete example here on earth to show us how to come to him. Before then, we were unsure of the true path to God. We were making animal sacrifices, taking on the traditions of other cultures and religions, many inspired by Lucifer himself.

But there will come a day when God's patience with this errant child will run out, and he will be cast out forever for the suffering he has caused. It's taking so long because he does still love this creation and it pains him that he will have to do this.

Another View:

2/2/12 The answer is rather simple and not as complex as people make it. Free will. We have all have a choice. Not all of us will take the same path. The road to God is narrow and filled with obstacles.