For some reason I've been wondering about this lately. I've read the Bible end to end many years ago, and I can't recall how many people Satan personally struck down. Was there any? I'm not talking about twisted reasonings and long term implications. I mean personally pointed his finger and zapped the life out of someone.
How many people did Satan kill in the Bible?
by Stan Conroy 37 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Elsewhere
I don't know the exact number, but it is a small fraction compared to Jehover.
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IP_SEC
Stan, as best I can remember the answer is a big fat goose egg
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plmkrzy
The way I understand it, satan doesn't have the power to actually kill anyone...only god can give someone or something the ability to kill. He left the bad guy out. He can only trick us into killing ourselves.
So, why would god give everythig except satan that power/ability?
killing is a luxury I spose.
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free2beme
I know that if he did, it was like 1 to 1,000,000 compared to how many Jehovah struck down. When it comes to killing the innocent people, that is something God leads the way on.
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peacefulpete
Its good to remember that the modern concept of Satan as enemy of God is not found in many places in the Bible. Late Judaism adopted the idea after contact with Zoroastrianism which solved some of the theological issues with having an all wise and powerful god who permits evil, but even then the idea wasn't fully integrated into Jewish thinking for many years. So simply said the reason Satan isn't depicted as killing people is because he didn't exist yet in Jewish theology. Even in later material most often the "Accusor" or "Adversary" was the name of an entity assigned by God the role similar to the prosecutor in a demented court of law. Guilty till proven innocent. In the book of Job we see this figure doing his job by testing and maligning the character of Job with God's approval and supervision. The Adversary there has been given power over God's usual weapons, the wind and 'fire of God' from heaven. If we were to impose our modern idea of the Devil on the book of Job we could say that it is an example of Satan killing people.
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peacefulpete
As a side thought, the story in Exodus of the Egyptian priests being able to create living gnats, flies and frogs in imitation of Moses reveals the fact that the author of the story accepted the powers of other gods as real. Again modern readers who would dismiss this polytheistic idea give the Devil character this power, inadvertantly granting him the powers of God.
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blondie
Actually, many JWs would say the whole human race since he deceived Eve and then Adam followed her course and passed on sin and death to all their offspring.
They could also say that Satan is the god of this world and responsible for all the unnatural deaths, through murder and war.
Blondie
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heathen
There was JOBs kids that died because of satans attacks . The bible is not real specific as to what went on before noahs flood so I can imagine there was some at that time since it was full of violence .
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free2beme
Job's kids died because God let them die. That is like saying Hitler did not kill the Jews, because he let others do it and did not personally do it himself.