The Narrow Path Ministries

I'm sure I'll eventually be reading Viola's new book (his ministry sends me emails all the time telling me to do so, since I bought like 10 copies of Pagan Christianity). But I won't have time anytime soon (I just started 2 master's courses, one on wesleyan theology and one on faith & culture, both ...

Sean's question (A good one) is very similar, of course, to my original question (With some variations in terms of the age in which we will live vs. the age in which satan originated). I think the case is a good one. Free will alone, in the presence of God, will not produce sin.

The passage says who it's about. It's a judgment on the king of babylon (14:4). 'Lucifer' seems to just be a term for an exalted position 'o morning star'. We have no real biblical grounds for associating lucifer with satan. The context speaks of human actions. What's more, the passage itself says i...

Mattrose, I have trouble with your theory. I look at the nature of God revealed in the doctrine of the trinity to explain the existence of satan. God being 100% complete and 100% without need (e.g. a third party as a tester). If God is 100% complete and without need then why did He create? I believ...

One related topic that has plagued me over the years is how we can be certain that we won't "fall" ourselves in eternity (and what would happen to us if we did). I am reassured by the fact that the tempter is destroyed and without a tempter, Adam & Eve wouldn't have fallen, but if Satan was "free" ...

Matt (& Steve?), To be honest, I am having a hard time seeing how there is any significant difference between your hypothesis and the traditional position. Hey Troy :) I never purposed for my theory to be ENTIRELY different from the traditional view. My goal was not to come up with something that w...

Steve said... Matt's theory sounds plausible, though we have to work with an almost total absence of biblical data. It makes sense, and, I suppose, cannot be disproved. I'm of the opinion that both the traditional AND non-traditional views of the origin of satan work with an almost total absence of ...

When God commanded that a lying spirit be sent to Ahab so he'd venture toward his death, was He wrong to do so? When God commanded the Israelites to annihilate various people groups, was He wrong to do so? I have always been under the impression that God is, indeed, allowed to take back the lives th...

Yes, it is, in that sense, a big reversal. Of course, Satan was an 'influence' at the original fall in my theory too. And he's an 'influence' in lots of subsequent sins. So it's more like "Satan influenced man to become corrupt AND man influenced Satan to become corrupt." Perhaps it's a both/and ins...

I don't think I even embrace it! I am more speculating than affirming. I think it's a definite possibility. But I'm not really aware of anyone teaching this other than as a possibility. Of course, I've not heard many teachers teach on the subject of the origin of satan at all.