You just died on that hill. You did what the author warned to avoid about "a Spirit". God is not part of the spectrum of spirits. You have a cartoonish idea of God.
Cartoonish idea of God? That's a strange accusation, and more cryptic concepts withotu explanation here.
As far as 'spectrum of spirits go', God is unique. He is uncreated. The Father is dependent on no one for His existence. He is eternal. The hosts of heaven, whether obedient or those who have rebelled, are created beings. There are other beings out there, like humans, too. We exist also. That is not a threat to God's existence and my saying that is not a 'cartoonish idea of God' either.
There is only one God. Angels are messengers of God. Some have name some don't. The rest are wooden things, as worthy for personhood as a log of wood in the fire or ideas that reside in the vernacular shaping the conduct of men.
Some of the pagans in the first century offered incense to Caesar as to a god. Christians in the city that did this who refused were severely persecuted. When some of the Caesar's would die, someone would claim to see a new star, indicating he took his place among the deities. Ancient Egyptians considered their Pharoah to be divine. Incas considered the Inca to be divine also. There are men who are worshipped as gods. Why is it so strange to think that spirits are also worshipped by deceived nations as gods.
There is only one true God, ontologically. There are other beings referred to as 'elohim' in scripture, though most references refer to Yahweh. The author of Hebrews, following the LXX, quotes a verse that calls elohim angels rendered 'Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels. In Psalm 82:1, God judges among the gods.
In Deuteronomy 32:8, it says that the nations were divided according to the number of the angels (in the LXX), possibly according to the number of the sons of God. Masoretic text says 'sons of Israel.' Verse 17 speaks of them (presumably Jeshurun-- Israel) sacrificing to devils, not ideas, devils, actually Sheddim, which some render as territorial spirits. There are demonic entities behind
The devil is everywhere but nowhere. Jesus spoke of satan as he would have spoken of sin.
Your comments seem to be those of someone who has not studied the Bible. Maybe you just take such a weird modern allegorical modernist approach to it-- which totally ignores historical context and the worldview of the original authors and readers. You could read just a bit of Old Testament scholarship. Have you ever encountered any scholar who did not think that Jews in Old Testament times or Christians in the first century did not believe that there were spirits. If you wanted to be intellectually honest with yourself, you could admit that it is too contrary to your worldview to accept what the various passages say on the subject.
Also, if you accept existence of angels, and obviously there are humans who are sinful and rebellious, why would it be outside the realm of possibility for you that there are angels that could have sinned. The book of Job says that even with His angels doth He find fault. In the book of Daniel, an angel brings a response to Daniel's prayer, but the prince of Persia resists him and he has to get help from the archangel Michael. You can imagine all these things are ideas-- but that is not what the passage says.
If you want to listen to some padcasts by an OT scholar who focuses somewhat on ancient understanding of demons, spirits, and whatever types of spirits that were worshipped as God's, you could look my Michael Heiser, who has also written books on the subject. Here is one video podcast:
My worldview does not include God and satan in cahoots. I am fine with it. As for the examples to convince, it would be fruitless.
Your worldview does not really allow for the existence of Satan, so that would be a good place to start. How do you explain the two accounts of the census? If you take Job as an allegory, then it still teaches lessons about God and Satan (or the particular satan/prosecutor/opposition) in that story. Read the story of Micaiah about the spirit who suggested to God that he be a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab's prophets to deceiving him into going to Raboth Gilead.
God is still God, even if certain spiritual beings are in rebellion to God in some respects, He is still God, and they may have to conform in some ways. Nebuchadnezzer, a human who worshipped other gods, still had to accomplish God's purposes, even if he didn't quite realize it much of the time.
Do you disagree that God also used men like Pharoah, Nebuchadnezzer and Cyrus to accomplish his plans? He even calls Nebuchadnezzer his servant. Was Pharoah in the Exodus account a righteous man? But God told Moses that He would harden his heart. It accomplished God's purposes.
I will limit my association. The onus is on you to do your own research.
You have not researched the issue, or have not done so without the materialistic filter, so you do not understand. You also have not explained how any of the references to Satan or the Devil could fit with your 'idea' understanding of it or responded to the problems with specific passages that I pointed out. The passages I mentioned clearly do not tell the story you wish them to tell.
Other spirits people worship as gods. Some of them may be 'elohim' in one of the senses the word is used in the OT, but certain not Yahweh.
Logs for the fire. It is not I, who place God (a Spirit) in the spectrum of the spirits (both good and evil). I am saying God created the angelic host. Is my refusal to compare the Creator with the spiritual creation causing you disphoria? You are
misrepresenting what was said.
My point originally was that spirit does not equal idea. The idea that 'Satan' refers to an idea is such a ridiculous interpretation I did not know that you did not exactly equal the two ideas. We moved past that. We both agree that God is spirit. I didn't think the rendering of the KJV 'a spirit' was so horrific, but we have moved past that.
I have pointed out the blasphemous dimension. Saying God sends evil spirits as his minions, is as disgusting as it comes. To me, it is not acceptable. To you, you have tripled down.
Some things in the Bible are tough to understand. But it doesn't make sense to claim it is all inspired then not accept what itsays. I didn't say 'God sends evil spirits as his minions.' Your comment, here, seems to me to be a bit cartoonish. Now the prophet Micaiah told of a vision where God accepted a spirit's plan to be a lying spirit. It is very clear from scripture that God makes use of evil men, and entities, and works things together for God. Paul says God works all things together for good for them that love Him Who are the called according to His purposes.
What about suffering? Again, as I pointed out, Jesus was crucified by lawless men. If you read Matthew, false witnesses testified against Him. In Acts 2 we see that the Jews crucified Him by lawless hands. Do you see no evil in that? Before betraying Jesus, we read that Satan entered into Judas. Jesus also called Judas a devil in John 6. But did God work through it, yes or no? Was there no sin involved in the crucifixion of Jesus? Isaiah 53 predicted the crucifixion. It says it pleased God to bruise him.
Hebrews 2:10 says,
For it became him, for whom
are all things, and by whom
are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Through Jesus suffering all this suffering he brought sons to glory. Consider how many people's sins, and evil the working of Satan, was involved in that.
Paul says if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. What kind of suffering do Christians face, do early Christians face? Peter gives the example of slaves being beaten either for wrongdoing or for righteousness' sake. Being beaten for righteousness' sake is commendable before God.
I Peter 4:19 says,
"Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls
to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator."
If God uses wicked men's wicked actions and turns them around for his purposes, why not wicked angels? If the rulers of this world had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. The word translated 'rulers' there does refer to spiritual entities elsewhere in scirpture.
Is the pacifier wagging the tongue?
Shakka when the walls fell!
1 Thess 2:18 the generalissimo of evil hinders Paul. Romans 1:13, Romans 15:22 he is just hindered without satan. You knowing the mind of satan , why is he hindering arbitrarily? Are the thessalonian Christians different from the roman Christians? Where is it written?
Huh? This is really a non-point. Paul does not mention whether Satan hindered him in Romans 1:13 or Romans 15:22. Somehow, he was able to know Satan was involved in the incident in I Thessalonians 2:18.
