S S EIGHT:
First a little background, I was born and raised a JW and after years of not being able to get satisfactory answers to my questions and observing the society waffle back and forth on numerous issues as it was convenient for them I opted out and decided to become “non-religious”. However we all have the “need” you mentioned so after some years and through a series of circumstances I decided to see for myself if what the society had taught us about Christendom was true. I found that on many issues it was not and on some issues it was, however, the church I attended came much closer to filling my “spiritual need” than the society ever had. I was a jealous “Christian” for over 12 years even becoming a lay pastor in my church, roughly the equivalent of a ministerial servant, taught Sunday school and participated in many church activities. But, there were still too many unanswered questions and most of them were like the ones you raise here. Specifically, why aren’t prayers answered, and I firmly believe they aren’t, at least not in my about 40 years of praying, both as a JW and a Christian, none of mine ever were. I also begin to have questions like yours about why and how a “good and loving” god could allow the bad things we see around us every day. I remember being told one time that we Christians give satan too much credit. But after giving it much thought my response to that was, “his presence is obvious everywhere I look, but no matter how hard I look I don’t see Jehovah or God or Christ or the Almighty or whatever your preference is anywhere…. except it’s pretty obvious that some great being or power created everything. Evolution just doesn’t add up or make sense to me. Thus my conundrum, something must be responsible for our being here, but it doesn’t seem to be the god of the bible, too many contradictions in what we’ve been taught and what we see reality to be. So, I continued to ponder this and I have come up with a theory that works for me, it goes like this:
The creature we know as Satan is actually the creator and therefore god. However he is not the good and loving god of the bible. That god only exists as a figment of the creator’s imagination, a fabrication or tool to use to play with us. Unlike the god of the bible, he created us merely for his amusement, and to amuse himself he created this fictitious Jehovah to use to toy with us. When he created us he also built in our need for this god to exist and he takes great pleasure in giving us a need that can never be filled since its fulfillment is a figment of his imagination. That would mean that he is also the author of the bible as that is just another tool in his tool box of human torture. So is the concept of faith. Think about, with every legitimate question that is raised that “they” can’t answer, eventually the answer comes back to, “you just have to believe or have faith.” I also believe that he tips his hand in the bible, knowing that most people won’t catch it. I refer to 2Cor. 11:13-15 where he admits that he turns himself into an angle of light. There’s another interesting scripture that I believe satan put in the bible as a clue, Matt. 7:22-23. If we look at that scripture we notice that these people sincerely believe they have done god’s will and even performed miracles thru the power of the HS. How could this be true? Simple if you apply my theory. If satan is god he certainly has the power to send his unholy spirit to perform miracles. Since there is no Jesus or the Father who is in heaven then there will be no end time judgment, so it’s all just a tease and a lie from satan. Having accepted this theory and applying it regularly to the things I see happening in the world I believe I’m on the right track with this. Now no one has to agree with me, I’m not asking you to, I’m just sharing my thoughts and observations. If you don’t agree, and I’m sure many of you won’t, please don’t try to debate me. It’s not a matter for debate because it’s my opinion, my theory and as such it’s neither right nor wrong. I’m not asking anyone to accept or adopt it, therefore no debate is necessary. I’ve begun the process of combing thru my years of bible training and revisiting scriptures to see what other clues I can find. I am also now asking the next question which is; “does the bible hold clues as to what satan’s end time plans are?” I have no idea at this point, and I’m in no hurry to find the answer as it’s taken me my whole life to get this far, but it is a question I’m pondering.
I’ve also often wondered why there are so many religions and again my theory answers that question.
I remember the very first question that started me down this path almost 50 years ago. Every Monday night my parents studied with me out of the original Paradise book, the orange one. When we got to the lesson on satan rebelling and being thrown out of heaven, being the smart and inquisitive lad that I was, I asked my dad this very simple question, “If God is almighty, instead of kicking satan out of heaven, why didn’t he just destroy him right then and there?” As I said, it’s been almost 50 years since I first asked that question and I have yet to get a satisfactory answer. Here was my reason for the question, God should have the power to destroy satan before he has a chance to screw things up, God is supposed to be omniscient so he knew what would happen if he sat by and let satan do his thing. How is that the action of a just and loving God? And when you bring up the topic of omniscience one has to ask the question, how is it the god didn’t know ahead of time what satan was going to do and what Adam and Eve, etc would do? The more questions you ask, there are more questions that follow. However, with my theory, all of the questions can be answered, at least to my satisfaction.
Anyway, just a bunch of thoughts and a theory from a guy who’s spent the last 50 or so years trying to find answers.