Did Satan think he was about to win?

[Wootah]

When Jesus was on the cross did Satan think he had won?

[Wootah]

This thought came about when reading about the cross as a pagan symbol. I think Satan was really enjoying killing Jesus by putting Him on his symbol cross.

So another question is: Was or is the cross a Satanic symbol?

I dont agree with cgg BUT this link discusses some of what I am thinking.

https://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseactio ... -Relic.htm

[jgh7]

I honestly don't have a clue what Satan was thinking. At some point he must have thought he could win. But Jesus was meant to go to the cross, so I don't know how Satan could think he had won when Jesus was fulfilling what He set out to do.

I do think that now Satan knows he has lost and is trying to bring as many down with him as he can. He knows his time is short.

Revelation 12:12
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.

[Tcg]

This thought came about when reading about the cross as a pagan symbol.

Pagans believe in gods other than the God of the Bible.

I think Satan was really enjoying killing Jesus by putting Him on his symbol cross.

Pagans don't accept the Abrahamic approach to reality and therefore don't accept the idea of Satan.

So another question is: Was or is the cross a Satanic symbol?

According to many, Romans crucified using a pole, not a cross. If this is true, Satan would have no special affinity to the cross figure given there was no connection between it and Jesus' death.



Tcg

[Tcg]

I do think that now Satan knows he has lost and is trying to bring as many down with him as he can. He knows his time is short.

Why would Satan think he has lost? Jesus' return is almost 2,000 years overdue. Apparently, Satan has all the time in the world... perhaps even more.



Tcg

[bjs]

This thought came about when reading about the cross as a pagan symbol. I think Satan was really enjoying killing Jesus by putting Him on his symbol cross.

So another question is: Was or is the cross a Satanic symbol?

I dont agree with cgg BUT this link discusses some of what I am thinking.

https://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseactio ... -Relic.htm

You are right to disagree with cgg. It is misleading. In order to make its point appear valid it quotes the 1910 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, claiming that cross was a common pre-Christian religious symbol.

Currently the Encyclopedia Britannica actually says: “Cross forms were used as symbols, religious or otherwise, long before the Christian Era, but it is not always clear whether they were simply marks of identification or possession or were significant for belief and worship. Two pre-Christian cross forms have had some vogue in Christian usage. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol of life—the ankh, a tau cross surmounted by a loop and known as crux ansata—was adopted and extensively used on Coptic Christian monuments. The swastika, called crux gammata, composed of four Greek capitals of the letter gamma, is marked on many early Christian tombs as a veiled symbol of the cross.�
https://www.britannica.com/topic/cross-religious-symbol

If we consider any shape that is vaguely cross-like, such as the ankh, to be a cross then there have been a variety of pre-Christians uses of the cross. If we limit ourselves to the actual cross shape, then I am not aware of any religious use of the cross prior to Christianity. In nations under the control of the Roman Empire there is little question that the cross had only one pre-Christian meaning: It was the sign of a horrific death at the hands of an oppressive government.

[Wootah]

[Replying to post 6 by bjs]

Of course but in Jesus death he conquered death.

Up until that point the cross was a symbol of evil. I can't help but think Satan thought he had won when Jesus breathed his last.

[bjs]

[Replying to post 6 by bjs]

Of course but in Jesus death he conquered death.

Indeed! Christianity has completely transformed the symbol of the cross, so much so that we occasionally need to remind ourselves what it originally meant so that we do not miss out on the depth of meaning that the cross has for us today.

Up until that point the cross was a symbol of evil. I can't help but think Satan thought he had won when Jesus breathed his last.

Perhaps. If you have not read C.S. Lewis's book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I encourage you to read it. The book plays with that very idea, that Satan (symbolized by the White Witch) thought he had won until Jesus (the Lion) showed up alive and victorious.

[ttruscott]

When Jesus was on the cross did Satan think he had won?

Preamble:
It is my contention that GOD only made claims to deity without proof so that no one would be coerced by the proof to choose not to rebel against HIM if that is what they most desired. Their free will decison to accept HIS claims, which included a marriage proposal, or to reject them as false, was imperative to the end result of a real marriage filled with true love without any coercion.

Such a free will decison had to be made with a full disclosure of what YHWH considered to be the natural and legal results of the various options. Thus Satan et al would know that if YHWH were ever to prove HE was GOD, if they held to their decison to reject HIM as a false GOD and liar driven to seduce worship from others, then they would end in hell.

But so committed were they to putting their faith in their decison to reject and hate HIM that they scorned the methodology of those who became HIS sinful elect who first bowed to HIS deity and only after thus becoming safe from hell, rebelled against HIS call for judgement and followed the Satanic in idolatry.

So committed were the Satanic followers that even knowing their liability to hell they chose to proceed, claiming a life in what they considered (and hoped) to be a non-existent hell to be far better than any heavenly marriage with such a liar and self aggrandizing megalomaniac.

Well, I think Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. clearly tells us that seeing the creation of the physical universe, the "things that were made" which they saw, Job 38:7, they got their proof and have known since then that they were indeed doomed...

My answer:
All they can hope for since seeing that proof was to postpone the inevitable end as long as possible by keeping the sinful elect addicted to evil as implied in Matt 13:27 The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28 ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

So the servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

29 ‘NO,’ HE SAID, ‘IF YOU PULL THE WEEDS NOW, YOU MIGHT UPROOT THE WHEAT WITH THEM. 30 LET BOTH GROW TOGETHER UNTIL THE HARVEST. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’�

The only maturity that saves anyone from judgement is a maturity in holiness, ie, being in one accord with GOD and HIS plans. These sinful elect have to have their eyes opened to their idolatry of the evil ones, repent of all their sins and choose to never sin again, ie, they must become heaven ready. By living GODly and holy lives they can even SPEED UP, HASTEN, the day of judgement, 2Peter 3:11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness 12 as you anticipate and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be dissolved by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.

Satan's work is to postpone the judgement as long as possible by keeping the sinful elect in their sins. He is doomed, condemned already for his unbelief, Jn 3:18; he knows he is doomed and he knows the death of Christ sealed his doom as it freed the sinful elect from the legal consequences of their sin, sealing his fate.

[brianbbs67]

Or the Adversary is just that. An Adversary set by God to test us? He is noted in God's assembly in Job and in the Talmud a few times. Did he get a poor job assignment or is he really working against us?(which he apparently was supposed to do)


Either way, I reject him. No good can come of that. No sympathy for Ha'Satan here. Sorry Mick Jager.