The Evangelical Universalist Forum

GOD loves satan

this thought came to me the other day , that GOD loves satan ! , goodness for at least 6 thousand years now he has been listening to him constantly complain , devise his evil plans and winge about Christians [lol who can blame him for that !] but if GOD is the way traditional Christianity portrays him to be why on earth hasn’t he zapped him by now I know I would have ! :unamused:
why hasn’t GOD annihilated him ? I do believe the word is patience , what is love again ?

if Satan is a real, personal being, and not a personification of human evil, then yes: God loves what He created, and “all things” shall be reconciled…

I believe he is ! but more to the point I believe he will be redeemed right before GOD becomes all in all.

Origen (185-255) believed the same:

The Reconciliation of All things to God (Including the Devil!)

The restoration to unity must not be imagined as a sudden happening. Rather it is to be thought of as gradually effected by stages during the passing of countless ages. Little by little and individually the correction and purification will be accomplished. Some will lead the way and climb to the heights with swifter progress, others following hard upon them; yet others will be far behind. Thus multitudes of individuals and countless orders will advance and reconcile themselves to God, who once were enemies; and so at length the last enemy will be reached. …
De Principiis, III.vi.

Through His Repentance, the Devil Shall Be Destroyed

When it is said that ‘the last enemy shall be destroyed’, it is not to be understood as meaning that his substance, which is God’s creation, perishes, but that his purpose and hostile will perishes; for this does not come from God but from himself. Therefore his destruction means not his ceasing to exist but ceasing to be an enemy and ceasing to be death. Nothing is impossible to omnipotence; there is nothing that cannot be healed by its Maker. De Principiis, 1.vi.1-4

The Remedial Judgments of God

[Isa. I. II … ‘the fire which you have kindled’.] This seems to indicate that the individual sinner kindles the flame of his personal fire and that he is not plunged into some fire kindled by another, … God acts in dealing with sinners as a physician … the fury of his anger is profitable for the purging of souls. Even that penalty which is said to be imposed by way of fire is understood as applied to assist a sinner to health …[cf. Isa. xlvii. 14,15, x. 17, Ixvi. 16; Mal. iii. 3] De Principiis, II.x.4,6

I also believe that it is our carnal nature that is the enemy of God, and not some entity.

Jer 17:"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

Nothing here about satan?

is it not more reasonable to believe that Jesus was dealing with a real entity after 40 days in the wilderness ? or that it is a real entity who bombards GOD with constant complaints ? :smiling_imp: