Nightline Debate: Does Satan Exist?

[Moochie]

Although the overwhelming majority of us have never subscribed to Judeo Christian-style nonsense, we are - it seems - nevertheless going backwards (for examples: see the skies and waterways etc of China, India and Africa)

That is the conundrum. Instead of some of us living in McMansions, we could, perhaps, all be living in modest housing with sewerage and electricity. The promise of such would convince many not to have a litter of kids, I think. As always, I could be wrong.


M.

 

[Moochie]

Well, if we could convince people that the earth was not given to us by a god and that there really is no Rapture, we might actually make progress.

Amen to that.


M.

 

[dafydd]

Well the fact is the ex hooker is an ex hooker. Something made her want to change and I say it is Jesus.

He did the same for me. I was on my way to my second divorce until the Lord intervened and now with his help my marriage has been reborn. This is a totol God thing as I could not do this on my own strength.

You guys can be a skeptical as you like but I say Satan does exist and he has worked long and hard to destroy people and take them to hell. It's real you guys, Wake UP!

Wake up lol.That is rich coming from someone who is in a coma of ignorance.

 

[dafydd]

Kathy,I know a man who got off heroin when the Hare Krishnas scooped him up.He is still a baldy and he blesses Krishna for curing him.Does Krishna exist?

 

[kurious_kathy]

Why do you avoid discussing the fact that people report life changing experiences that involve other religions? What about someone who gives up a life of crime and drug abuse and dedicates himself to the betterment of his family and community because of the influence of Islam in his life? You say "I was on a path to self destruction but I changed, so Jesus must be real". What about the people who say the same thing about other religions?

Okay so you have a point, whatever a person puts their faith in will affect their life, but there is still only one truth that will save a mans soul!

Jesus is the only way to the Father and to be truly free from the other lies of this world (including other false religions) I know it sounds a bit close minded to some I'm sure but it is still the very truth of God!!

Jesus died to save mankind from their sins, and all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved!!! Listen to pastor Mark again on this nightline video, he speaks the truth.

 

[Paulhoff]

That is a pretty poor so-called god that has only one way to it.

So, there is only one way into your house, poor design.

Paul

 

[thaiboxerken]

Okay so you have a point, whatever a person puts their faith in will affect their life, but there is still only one truth that will save a mans soul!

Jesus is the only way to the Father and to be truly free from the other lies of this world (including other false religions) I know it sounds a bit close minded to some I'm sure but it is still the very truth of God!!

Jesus died to save mankind from their sins, and all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved!!! Listen to pastor Mark again on this nightline video, he speaks the truth.

WRONG!! I am the only way to be saved! I am god, but you may call me Master. Bow before me or be forever damned to refereeing curling events!

 

[Foster Zygote]

Okay so you have a point, whatever a person puts their faith in will affect their life,...

So you admit that "Christianity changed my life" is not evidence that Christianity is true.

...but there is still only one truth that will save a mans soul!

And, of course, because you were raised in a culture in which Christianity was familiar to you, that one truth is Christianity. But if you were raised in a culture in which Hinduism or Islam were what you were familiar with you would be claiming that Hinduism or Islam was the one truth.

Jesus is the only way to the Father and to be truly free from the other lies of this world (including other false religions) I know it sounds a bit close minded to some I'm sure but it is still the very truth of God!!

It is closed-minded. Please imagine that you were born in India where you were raised among Hindus. You know next to nothing about other religions, but all the positive role models you know are Hindu. All the messages of love and hope and kindness you know come from Hindu teachings. In this hypothetical situation, Christianity is as alien to you as Hinduism is to you in your real life. Do you deserve eternal damnation?

Jesus died to save mankind from their sins, and all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved!!! Listen to pastor Mark again on this nightline video, he speaks the truth.

Why should I accept your message any more than I should accept the messages of dozens of other religions that promise happiness if I'll only follow their one true truth?

 

[kurious_kathy]

Concerning the Mark of the Beast, which people of Hal Lindsey's ilk have been equating to everything from VISA cards to bar codes, the last time I checked (just yesterday, in fact) I could still get groceries with cash. So far, there is absolutely no substance to the assertions that any government is going to forcibly insert silicon chips under our skin or stamp bar codes on our foreheads..

I just linked this video on another thread but I wanted to b sure to share it with you too as you had made this statement reguarding the mark of the beast. This Pastor is sharing info on the RFID being related to the mark. Check this out http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7886083780458588815

 

[slingblade]

I can't wait for mine! But I really can't make up my mind...hand or forehead? I mean, look at that debacle with that girl and all those tattooed stars on her face. No thanks.
And it might be harder for me to get a job with the MARK OF THE BEAST on my forehead.

But if I get it on my hand, I'll have to take my gloves off in the winter every single time I want to buy and sell. That could get to be a real pain. And it's certainly going to clash with my slave bracelet jewelry.

I just don't know. But I am sure it's gonna rock, either way! Bring it on!

 

[TimCallahan]

I just linked this video on another thread but I wanted to b sure to share it with you too as you had made this statement reguarding the mark of the beast. This Pastor is sharing info on the RFID being related to the mark. Check this out http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7886083780458588815

Let me see if I understand this raving jack-ass correctly: Because pets have chips inserted under their skin, it means that people are going to be coerced into doing the same. Following the "logic" of this argument, we could argue that once the technology of branding cattle was perfected, people would authomatically be branded as well.

The people who were seemingly enthusiastic about such chips were older folks who seemed to feel they might be protected from the ill effects of "senior moments." However, I can assure you that, although I'm 65, I have no desire for such a chip. Of course, it's a long way from people volunteering for such a chip and such a chip being cumpulsary. Such a chip, by the way, could probably be wiped clean by the wearer passing through the field of an elctromagnet. In fact, haveing an MRI might well disable it.

As to Revelation "predicting" such a technology, this is pure clap-trap. What Revelation actually predicted, in its first verse, was that what it predicted would SOON TAKE PLACE, not that it would happen 2,000 years in the future. Only by excessive rationalization and liberal amounts of special pleading can Revelation be seen as anything other than a failed prophecy.

In point of fact, not even the religious commentators who prey on the paranoia of their credulous followers really believe any of this. For example, years ago when I was monitoring our local fundamentalist radio station, KKLA, their programs would commonly feature one author or another who would say with great certainty that the world was shorty due to enter the Tribulation (the 7 yr. rule of the Beast). Then they would go to a commercial. These were often for such things as degree completion programs, low interest college tuition loans, and living trusts to help your heirs avoid probate. All these long-term programs were advertised, yet there wasn't a single add for real estate suitable for compounds in rural Idaho.

I suggest that, rather than worrying about when the world will end - your world will end on the day you die - you deal with real life. Remember: "Sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof."

 

[kurious_kathy]

I suggest that, rather than worrying about when the world will end - your world will end on the day you die - you deal with real life. Remember: "Sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof."

Yes Tim I deal with reality too and everyday there are struggles, but God is here with me no matter what's going on in my life or around the world. He is the only one who gives me peace that surpasses all understanding. Satan on the other hand is always trying to mess things up so I give God my battles as he is the only one who can win them for me.

As for death, yes I am more likely to die than to see the rapture but who knows? The only thing I do know for sure is when I leave this life I am on to the next and I look forward to a new life in my redeemed body someday which the Lord has promised me. It's hard to fathom what it will actually be like, but I know without a doubt the best is yet to come!

P.S. As for the OP... Satan does indeed exist but God is the one who has defeated the enemy of our souls for us!

 

[Paulhoff]

Yes Tim I deal with reality too and everyday there are struggles, but God is here with me no matter what's going on in my life or around the world. He is the only one who gives me peace that surpasses all understanding.

No, not even close KK, not even close to understanding, way way way off the mark.

Paul

 

[TimCallahan]

Yes Tim I deal with reality too and everyday there are struggles, but God is here with me no matter what's going on in my life or around the world. He is the only one who gives me peace that surpasses all understanding. Satan on the other hand is always trying to mess things up so I give God my battles as he is the only one who can win them for me.

I'm not saying this to be mean, but frankly Kathy, with all your descriptions of Satanic attacks and the like, you don't sound like someone at peace, certainly not the "peace that surpasses all understanding." Rather, you live in a world where you see Satan constantly tormenting or attmpting to torment you.

Several years ago, at a party, I heard a woman tell how Satan tried to stop her from going to work that day, but God strngthened her. The reality was probably more like this: She woke up feeling down and considered calling in sick that day, but instead did the responsible thing and went to work. Of course, there's a lot more drama involved if God and Satan are doing battle over whether you will or will not tie your shoes.

 

[joobz]

Yes Tim I deal with reality too and everyday there are struggles, but God is here with me no matter what's going on in my life or around the world.

I'm glad you have something to give you solace.

He is the only one who gives me peace that surpasses all understanding. Satan on the other hand is always trying to mess things up so I give God my battles as he is the only one who can win them for me.

Now I'm not so glad. You just anthropomorphized good and bad, and absolved yourself of responsibility for the events in your life. That's a rejection of being an adult.

As for death, yes I am more likely to die than to see the rapture but who knows? The only thing I do know for sure is when I leave this life I am on to the next and I look forward to a new life in my redeemed body someday which the Lord has promised me. It's hard to fathom what it will actually be like, but I know without a doubt the best is yet to come!

You live life like it's not worth living. That's not a story of hope but of dispair.

P.S. As for the OP... Satan does indeed exist but God is the one who has defeated the enemy of our souls for us!

The bad guy will get you, but the good guy will protect you. All the while, you sit as a spectator in your own life.....

 

[Ralph]

No, not even close KK, not even close to understanding, way way way off the mark.

Paul

Take a quick spin through Rapture Ready sometime.

You won't find as many sad & depressed individuals on a terminal cancer forum.

Marital problems-drug & alcoholism-sleep disorders-severe depression to the point of contemplating suicide------and whole lot of people who are just living every moment of their day wishing the rapture would come.

Not to be closer to jesus or to bask in gods glory.....but just because they are so depressed & miserable in their own lives.

I'll agree--if that's "peace"--it truly is beyond my understanding.

 

[billydkid]

This is beyond belief! It seems like a parody. Are they seriously discussing on Nightline whether or not Satan exists??? Good God in heaven. And we are different from those backward, superstitious Muslims how???

 

[Sun Countess]

In response to:

He is the only one who gives me peace that surpasses all understanding. Satan on the other hand is always trying to mess things up so I give God my battles as he is the only one who can win them for me.

joobz wrote:

Now I'm not so glad. You just anthropomorphized good and bad, and absolved yourself of responsibility for the events in your life. That's a rejection of being an adult.

So very true. I agree with all that you and Tim Callahan said. She absolves herself of responsibility for being an adult, but is also denying herself the credit for any good decisions she may happen to make.


I get the sense that Kathy lives a pretty sad life, and feels special thinking that there are supernatural forces fighting for her very soul, and interested in the most mundane activities of her day as they do battle over her.

 

[TimCallahan]

Okay, Kathy, here's your chance to prove us all wrong. Consider these questions:

1) Are you involved in a long term relationship with another human being that fulfills at least some of your emotional needs? If you're married, do you trust your spouse, and is your relationship with him serene and reasonably free of conflict?

2) Are you in a fulfilling or at least absorbing career? Or do find serenity in your work?

3) Do you wake up most days with a feeling of dread or a sense of futility and insignificance?

4) Do you believe you are under attack, either by people at your workplace, or by supernatural forces?

I'm no shrink, and these questions are certainly not from any official psychological text. However, it seems to me that positive answers to the first two and negative answers to the last two would indicate someone with a reasonably joyful life. Negative answers to the first two and positeve answers to the last two would indicate the reverse.

 

[kurious_kathy]

So you admit that "Christianity changed my life" is not evidence that Christianity is true.


And, of course, because you were raised in a culture in which Christianity was familiar to you, that one truth is Christianity. But if you were raised in a culture in which Hinduism or Islam were what you were familiar with you would be claiming that Hinduism or Islam was the one truth.


It is closed-minded. Please imagine that you were born in India where you were raised among Hindus. You know next to nothing about other religions, but all the positive role models you know are Hindu. All the messages of love and hope and kindness you know come from Hindu teachings. In this hypothetical situation, Christianity is as alien to you as Hinduism is to you in your real life. Do you deserve eternal damnation?


Why should I accept your message any more than I should accept the messages of dozens of other religions that promise happiness if I'll only follow their one true truth?

Jesus himself said, "narrow is the way and few who find it."

And just because I am an American girl does not mean I was raised to be a Christian as my parents did not raise me to walk in the ways of the Lord. Jesus found me later in life and he is the one who saves those who are capable of hearing his voice, so even if I was in another part of the world and raised in another religion, He would have found me and pulled me out of what ever I was raised to believe. Jesus is the one who saves and changes us once we come to accept him as Lord of our life and it truly is a supernatural phenomenon that I assure you is very real!

The only way you will ever know is to accept Christ! I am not the one who can convince anyone but if you were to start agreeing with God and admitting your need for him I believe you would come to know what I am sharing is true. Jesus loves you!!