> A1 The Bible presents Yahweh as a supernatural entity.
> A2 The Bible presents Satan as a supernatural entity.
>
> A2 The Bible presents us with Yahweh as having supernatural power
> over ordinary matter.
>
> A3 Ordinary matter can be manipulated by the supernatural power
> of Yahweh.
>
> A4 The Bible presents Satan as having supernatural powers over
> ordinary matter.
>
> A5 Ordinary matter can be manipulated by the supernatural power
> of Satan.
>
> A6 Satan is portrayed as an active antagonist.
>
> A7 Satan is deceitful.
>
> A8 The primary source of our knowledge about God or Satan is
> "The Bible".
>
> A9 "The Bible" consists of many old parchment, vellum and paper
> copies of older documents; all of these are nothing but ordinary matter.
...
> A9 "The Bible" is ordinary matter.
>
> A5 Ordinary matter can be manipulated by the supernatual power of Satan.
>
> C1 "The Bible" can be manipulated by the supernatural power of Satan.
>
> But we know that Satan is and active adversary of God who is
> deceitful, so we can add those adjectives to the description of Satan
> in C1.
>
> "The Bible" can be manipulated by the supernatural power of Satan,
> who is a deceitful active adversary of God.
...
> So having the power, what should an adversary do who can affect the
> communications of his enemy?
Well, it all turns on the amount of power actually possessed by Satan,
doesn't it? If he were actually as powerful as Michael is proposing, it
would presumably be easy for him to appear entirely non-existent, or
perhaps to make God appear entirely non-existent. This doesn't seem
to be the case.
So perhaps he isn't quite so powerful as Michael proposes. We should,
perhaps, have a look at axioms A4 and A5, which say that Satan has
supernatural powers over ordinary matter. (Meaning, I suppose, that
the Bible says that Satan has such powers, since I don't think Michael
believes that Satan even exists.) I'm not sure the Bible does say
that; I certainly don't think it says that he has unlimited power
over ordinary matter.
Michael has some answers to this, which I'd like to discuss. Stuff
between >> ... << is paraphrased rather than quoted.
1. >> Genesis 1:26 and other such passages have God saying "we" where
one would expect "I" if no other gods existed. <<
And monarchs in many societies refer to themselves as "we", and
Margaret Thatcher famously said "We are a grandmother" once. I don't
think this is very strong evidence. You can call this a dodge if
you like, but that won't make it one.
2. >> There are statements in the OT to the effect that Yahweh is
greater than all other gods, or rules over all the gods; this
implies that other gods exist. <<
This is a better argument than the previous one. I think (but
most inerrantists would, I suppose, disagree) that these passages
are most naturally explained by saying that their authors believed
that there were other gods. This doesn't mean that I have to agree
with them.
Leaving aside the possibility of suggestions that perhaps these
passages don't imply that (I dare say there'll be some from the
resident inerrantists; I have no idea how plausible they are),
what is *not* the case is that (as Michael says) "[they] seemed
to be pretty much co-equals".
3. >> Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world when tempting
him. <<
This certainly implies some powers. I don't think it implies much
supernatural power over matter; the ability to induce hallucinations
would do.
4. >> In 2 Thess. 2:9-10 Satan is said to be able to work miracles. <<
It doesn't say that he is able to work arbitrary miracles at
all times. The passage in which those verses are embedded seems
to me to be saying that on the occasion in question *God* will
specifically permit and even encourage all these things. (Look
at verse 6 and verse 11.) This raises some tricky problems, but
not the one you're claiming here.
So I suggest that Michael's case regarding the powers of Satan over
matter is not proven.
-- Gareth McCaughan Dept. of Pure Mathematics & Mathematical Statistics, gjm11@dpmms.cam.ac.uk Cambridge University, England.