First of all, I am somewhat confused about what is going on. Not in the story, that is fairly comprehendible. I'm confused as to why we ended up reading this. By no means am I saying this is a bad thing to read or anything like that, but it just does not seem (at least to me) to go with the other books we have read. It seems to be in a completely different ballpark, honestly. So, now that that is out of the way, what really stuck out to me in this reading is actually a phrase. It is probably taken out of the context of the book, but I believe it fits perfectly with today's world.
On page nine, the line that practically took me off guard reads, "...a time in which the devil had finally lot his reputation." I thought this was very interesting because I think that it is a problem today. The first thing I would like to say is this, I think we as Christians give Satan way too much credit. I think we take that blame off of ourselves. What I mean by that is this, oftentimes I hear "Satan has this hold on me..." or "Satan tempted me to do this today.." r things of this nature. I am not saying that Satan does not tempt or anything along those lines. What I am saying is that even though he has an army of demons with him, he is not omnipresent. He does not make every single person sin and I don't think his demons always do either. Can they? Absolutely I think they can but they don't have to. I believe we make the conscious choice to sin every time we do so, and I think that constantly blaming that on Satan is not taking responsibility for one's own actions. Now that that is out of the way, this might sound hypocritical... but I still believe the loss of Satan's reputation today is a big deal.
If Satan lost his reputation as the one who was banished from Heaven and whose sole purpose was to distract or take from the kingdom of God, then how much damage could he do? How much damage is he doing in the world today? No, I am not talking about this virus or the economic struggles. I'm talking about all the crap that comes with post-modernism and political correctness. I understand that people struggle, and I am not bashing their struggles. What I am bashing is the inability to call someone a male or female in a public place because it "offends them". Seriously? Come on man... this is crazy. That is just one small example, but it is kind of a big deal. Not only this, but Christians and Christian organizations are being (I am only talking about in America) scolded for not abiding by these 'rules'? The example I can think of is the wedding cake that the Christian bakery refused to bake for a gay couple because it went against their morals and religion and then got sued for it. It's ridiculous. To close all of this, because it is rather long and I apologize for that, I just think that there is a place between over-crediting Satan (not taking responsibility) and not even knowing who he is anymore (post-modernism/political correctness). We should never forget who he is and what he is capable of; however, we should also never forget that he will not triumph, that he has already been defeated and his day is coming.
I commented on Logans and Ezra's posts.
On page nine, the line that practically took me off guard reads, "...a time in which the devil had finally lot his reputation." I thought this was very interesting because I think that it is a problem today. The first thing I would like to say is this, I think we as Christians give Satan way too much credit. I think we take that blame off of ourselves. What I mean by that is this, oftentimes I hear "Satan has this hold on me..." or "Satan tempted me to do this today.." r things of this nature. I am not saying that Satan does not tempt or anything along those lines. What I am saying is that even though he has an army of demons with him, he is not omnipresent. He does not make every single person sin and I don't think his demons always do either. Can they? Absolutely I think they can but they don't have to. I believe we make the conscious choice to sin every time we do so, and I think that constantly blaming that on Satan is not taking responsibility for one's own actions. Now that that is out of the way, this might sound hypocritical... but I still believe the loss of Satan's reputation today is a big deal.
If Satan lost his reputation as the one who was banished from Heaven and whose sole purpose was to distract or take from the kingdom of God, then how much damage could he do? How much damage is he doing in the world today? No, I am not talking about this virus or the economic struggles. I'm talking about all the crap that comes with post-modernism and political correctness. I understand that people struggle, and I am not bashing their struggles. What I am bashing is the inability to call someone a male or female in a public place because it "offends them". Seriously? Come on man... this is crazy. That is just one small example, but it is kind of a big deal. Not only this, but Christians and Christian organizations are being (I am only talking about in America) scolded for not abiding by these 'rules'? The example I can think of is the wedding cake that the Christian bakery refused to bake for a gay couple because it went against their morals and religion and then got sued for it. It's ridiculous. To close all of this, because it is rather long and I apologize for that, I just think that there is a place between over-crediting Satan (not taking responsibility) and not even knowing who he is anymore (post-modernism/political correctness). We should never forget who he is and what he is capable of; however, we should also never forget that he will not triumph, that he has already been defeated and his day is coming.
I commented on Logans and Ezra's posts.
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