Dualism/God Needed Satan
D&C 29:39; “And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet—”
Acts 17:25; “Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.”
James 1:13; “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.”
Revelation 4:11; “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
God is sovereign and doesn’t need anything or anyone. The meaning of sovereign is self-governed, autonomous, absolute, independent, efficacious…
Why would God who is righteous, perfect and sinless need Satan who is everything God is not? If God created all things wouldn’t He be able to create the way things are run?
Furthermore, His word tells us that He doesn’t tempt man so why would He put Adam into a no-win situation causing him (Adam) to fail? That’s the description of a malevolent god, not a kind, forbearing and loving God that is reality.
[…] Dualism/God Needed Satan – D&C 29:39 (Mormon Dilemma 709) […]
I’m not seeing anything above that shows that God needs Satan or anything else for that matter. The scriptures above suggest that finite individuals need Satan to have free will in duality.
From a nonduality perspective, God is everything and nothing; God can’t tempt Man because Man is illusory. God would be tempting God.
I understand this is a big paradox -A Cosmic Joke, it seems.
But all of Duality, everything that can be experienced by someone who thinks they’re a somebody appears to be in a Dilemma 🙂