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<DIV><FONT color=#ff8040>Satan exists because of free will. God didn't
want a<BR>bunch of robots. He wants people that WANT to love him,<BR>not
have to.<BR> <BR>- JP</FONT><BR> </DIV>
<DIV>The second two sentences are irrefutable from any Christian perspective I
know, except possibly for strict Calvinist predestination, and probably
irrefutable from any Jewish perspective too. C.S. Lewis made this point over and
over in <EM>The Screwtape Letters, </EM>somewhat to the disgust of Screwtape
himself. I think some branches of Islam might say that God wants to
discipline people to be good, rather than be loved by people, but I have only
read a small portion of the Qu'ran, and haven't had lengthy discussions on that
point with people who are Muslim.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The first sentence is a stretch. Of course sin by definition exists because
of misuse of free will, or more accurately, it IS the misuse of free will. If
Satan exists BECAUSE OF free will, then Satan was <EM>called into existence</EM>
by acts of human beings. That is an interesting possibility to consider.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Classical Christian teaching is more like, free will was misused
<EM>because of </EM>temptation, although there is no good reason to assume that
"the serpent" listed as the first tempter is the same as "Satan" introduced in
the Book of Job as a kind of odd-ball servant of God, who pointed out weaknesses
in the faithful service on which God relied, and tested humans to see how deep
their faith really was.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Satan, if there is such a being, almost had to be created originally by
God. That remains one of the great conundrums of Christian theology. As far as I
know, it is not such a big deal for Jews, because Jewish teaching doesn't place
nearly as much emphasis on any role of Satan in the first place.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Siarlys</DIV></BODY></HTML>