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Apologetics

Spiritual Warfare Forum: Questions

by Catherine Frakas 02 Nov 2002

Questions QUESTION from Simon on November 29, 2002 Hello..
I just have a few questions concerning demonology..
I am agnostic by the way... but still am interested in your teachings.
My first question is, why would God let demons or satan exist anyway? There is no really particular point meantioned in the bible why he does this, there is only the book of Job in which God and Satan have a conversation. If God hates evil so much, why would he allow Satan to exist? Why not just destroy him, save us all a lot of trouble. If he loves us so much, why does he expose us to such dangers, one's that can physically hurt us, damage us meantally, etc.. pointless if you ask me.
My second question relates to exorcism today, if you could prove firstly that a person is demonically possessed to the public/media, then exorcise the demon out of that person - then so many more people would come to the conclusion that spiritual warfare is in fact reality, therefore would have to resort to God as the creator. Why is there no publicity on exorcism?
My third question is, can demons take possession of animals?
My fourth question is, why do guardian angels let demons take possession of children, if they're meant to be GUARDING over them?
My fifth question is, if God created beings that could have sinned? That shows a fault in the creator, no? Why would God even bother to allow to give us choice... if God knows what's going to happen for eternity, and he knew what was going to happen, why would he bother? Why not just create humans that were perfect?
My final question is, a little bit off demonology, but anyway - God stated in Genesis that no human would live past 120 years, after Adam and Eve had sinned, yet this is obviously not the case.. hence the fact that people have lived past 120 years, it's been scientifically proven.
Your questions will be much appreciated..
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on December 19, 2002 Dear Simon:
Thank you for your questions. As a future note, however, when posting a question please place the theme of the question in the subject field -- like a Newspaper headline that gives a title to a story. Thanks.
As to your first question about why allow demons to exist there is most certainly a point to it that is talked about in the Bible.
God has given his angels and us men the ability of free will. He does not want the angels or us to love Him because we are forced. To be forced to love is not love. Rather, He wants us to love Him because we want to. If we don't want to, we don't have to. Lucifer and 1/3 of the angels decided not to.
God does hate evil but destroying satan will NOT save us a lot of trouble. Men can sin and get into all sorts of trouble without any influence of the devil. We can choose trouble or we can choose the glory of God. It is our choice.
In addition, if He did not allow Satan to exist then He could not allow Free Will to exist. For the freedom of choice to be a real free choice we must have the option to choose to live in God's favor or not to.
God allows us to be exposed to dangers because suffering is redemptive. Through suffering we come to understand the true glory of God and begin to realize just how much we are nothing without Him. I would recommend the book, Making Sense Out of Suffering by Peter Kreeft to try to understand this very difficult point.
On your second question we can prove phenomenology that a person is demonically possessed and we see the effects of an exorcism of the person being healed of his affliction.
In addition, there has been exorcisms that have been documented both in writing and on video. There are several books and several T.V. documentaries that depict demonic possession and exorcism. Yet these things have not increased people's belief in the devil.
The Bible itself says that making such prove, even definitive proof, will convince those who do not wish to be convinced.
Publicity on the other hand is not appropriate for the same reasons that a counseling session with a psychiatrist is not open to the public. There are issues of confidentiality with the patient. Also, there is great danger if publicizing exorcisms of exploitation and otherwise glorifying the experience or even encouraging people into the satanism out of a warped sense of curiosity. Others might think to take on themselves the role of exorcist and learn how to do it by watching the programs. This makes as much sense as watching a show on brain surgery and thinking one can now do brain surgery.
I do not speak theoretically here. I have known and seen many people get in big trouble because of curiosity began by reading books or watching shows on exorcism.
On the question of demons taking possession of animals the answer is yes. In fact the bible records such an incident when Jesus cast of the Legion of demons.
On the fourth question guardian angels cannot interfere with the free will of men. They will do what they can do to convince people to not make bad choices, but they cannot force anyone to do anything.
Children can suffer because of adults. This is true in all aspects of life. A child can be abused emotionally, physically, and spirituality. This abuse is caused by the free will of the adults. The free will of adults can also cause children to be demonized. God allows this because He has to allow it if He is to give men free will. Free will cannot be free if it is only 99% free.
However, what man destroys and messes up God can heal and create. The Bible tells us that ALL things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. This verse does not say all things are good, but all things (good and bad) will work together for a eventual good.
For example, the woman whose child was killed by the free will of a drunken driver result in an evil -- the death of the child. But God made lemonade out of that lemon of life. The mother inspired by the memory of her child founded the organization of Mother Against Drunk Driving. That organization has saved thousands and thousands of lives.
Thus the death on one child, while a particular evil, was used for fantastic good -- the saving of 1000s of other children.
The child who died is in a better place than here. He is with God.
On the 5th question, NO... the fact that God created beings that could sin does NOT show fault in the creator. Just the opposite. It shows that our Creator loved us so much as to give us the godly attributes of free will, self-awareness, choice, and the ability for you to ask that question. Animals cannot ask the question you asked.
God DID create humans perfect. But if we are to be more than animals He also created us with a mind that can choose goodness over evil. If is not God's fault that men choose evil. God gives us EVERYTHING we need to choose rightly and goodly. Do not blame God (or the devil) for you own sins.
God bothers because He loves. He create a creature who could love like Him. Love itself is a godly attribute. Animals do not experience genuine love.
How would you like it if God FORCED you to love Him, FORCED you to believe in Him, and FORCED you to serve and worship Him?
God loves you too much to force you. He gives you the choice. The very nature of choice is that we have it or we don't. As the old saying goes, we must accept the bad along with the good.
We cannot truly experience a thinking mind, a freedom of choice, an ability to ask the questions you ask UNLESS God gives us the free will to do so.
But to give us Free Will, God necessarily has to tolerate man freely willing things against His will.
As to you final question, the Bible does NOT say that men will live to 120 or that 120 is the oldest man can ever be. It is talking about a general life expectancy. There can always be exceptions to the rule. An exception to the rule DOES NOT invalidate the rule, it proves it, for living to 125 would not be an exception unless the rule of 120 was the case.

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