Is there a cosmic battle between good and evil?

The cosmic battle between good and evil comes from the New Testament, but it is not the only concept out there. The Old Testament talks about a god who creates both good and evil. Satan in the Old Testament is an angel of Yahweh. Satan's job is to tempt and test humanity at Yahweh's will. Satan according to the Old Testament is an adversary of man, not god. In Gnosticism it is a cosmic crisis, not so much a battle. The crisis was set in motion by the creation of Yahweh, seen as a false creator god. The true God never meant for any of this to happen, but because of his great compassion he saves us from our enslavement to Yahweh.

orchidmg you did a great job! Beautifully written and easy to comprehend. I would keep her as a reference if she allowed.

1. Yes, we have free.

2. It could be foreordained. God knew us before we were conceived.

3. I've never seen a scripture in the Bible where it says Angels do not have free will. I do see where Lucifer was cast out of Heaven with 1/3 of the Angels followed him so there seems to be some type of decision making there.

4. Applies to #3

5. Absolutely there is a battle, the one for our Souls. The time is nearing not for the world to end, but for the 7 years of tribulation and for the anti-christ to reign. When Israel became a nation that generation shall not pass until they see the coming of the Lord. That was in 1948 so how long is a generation? We don't know the time or date, but we are given clues such as the above. God said no one will take her away after becoming a nation. The time of the Lord is near when you see these things happen. Earthquakes in diverse places (that's already happened), pestilance (lots of those ex. Aids, bird flu, I could go on and on) wars and rumors of war

(Extremely apparent). We have so many signs.

It's easy to find questions concerning the Bible, but if your main objective if to find out if He is real just ask him into your heart. No harm can be done and then you can make your own decision. I wish you well!

The Bible is a guide

Good question. How long had the angel been around God? Millions of years? Maybe He gave some angels free will. Maybe He allowed all angels to have free will, back then. Maybe we're the only ones outside of heaven that was given free will.

But we could wonder about all sorts of stuff, like where did God come from? If God created the universe then who or what created Him?

Oh I believe that there is a war between heaven and hell. And I believe we are the prize.

I just believe that He is who He is.

I wonder. I recently heard someone suggest that we collectively make up God. If that were the case, then the cosmic battle between good and evil could merely be a steering mechanism.

I mean, if we collectively made up God, then we exist (and so does this planet and galaxy) through sheer force of our own collective wills. The direction of the world would then sort of hinge upon a majority rule, perhaps, that can lead us toward peace and prosperity or discord and disaster - both equally fascinating and worthy of study, don't you think? I believe that we attract into our lives that which we dwell upon in our hearts and in our minds, and so this line of thinking sounds very interesting to me.

Peace!

God created angels first and they have free-will like humans. That's why Lucifer, the first angel that God created, was able to turn against God and other angels choose to follow Lucifer to hell. God created hell after Lucifer challenged God. Hell came into exist for Lucifer (Satan) and the other angels (demons) to live because God doesn't allow evil in Heaven.

Lucifer didn't NEED God's consent to disobey Him. Just like us humans don't ask God for permission to sin. We know what is good and what is bad. We make daily chooses. We use our free-will to make our daily chooses. With the 10 Commandments, stories from the Bible, Jesus' teachings, Jesus' parables we know what God says we are to do to gain entrance into Heaven and we are can do to gain entrance into hell. It's completely up to us to make the decision of where we want to be for eternity. We live our lives, we face Christ who is the judge, the jury is the angels and saints, and Christ makes the final decision of where our soul remains forever.

God is omnipotent, having unlimited authority. Satan's powers are limited and he knows that. That's why he is so pissed at God and tries 24/7 to get as many souls as he can to turn away from God. Satan doesn't care if you end up in hell with him, he just doesn't want you in Heaven with God. Satan's powers are limited because he is only an angel that had a beginning and was given a free-will. He can sin and choose to do so. I am doing a study on the 7 deadly sins and Satan has committed all 7 of them. And He uses those sins to tempt us to turn away from God. But because Satan can sin, he is limited. God can't sin, He is perfect, He is pure love, He is the Almighty, His power is unlimited. Unlimited to time and space and to even our knowledge and imagination. He is ineffable.

There is no cosmic battle between Heaven and hell because Heaven (God) doesn't have to battle. Good will always prevail. Read the Book of Revelations. Satan knows the scriptures. He is aware that Jesus will lock him up for 1000 yrs while He reigns on earth with the righteous ones. Then Jesus will free him and take the righteous with Him to Heaven forever. Satan will live in hell with the damned souls forever. Even though there will be souls in hell, Satan loses. Jesus already won. He died and rose and resurrected. God has no reason to fight because He already has won. It's that Satan will try to get as many of us as he can until the final days.

We have no idea what God has planned for forever. Can He destroy angels? Can He destroy Satan? Does He want to? What would the point be anyways?

God I love people like you who think about this kinda of stuff. I think god planned it all out because before god created earth and man he needed to creat a negitive for mankind or else they truly wouldn't be given free will because their only influence would be god.

well it wouldnt be much of a battle.

God made satan and is probably stronger.

Which begs the question, why was there a battle in heaven?

Why didnt god wiggle his finger and cast out the rebels?

More importantly how come the books that describe these events left out of the mainstream canon of the bible?

Could they be considered too fictitious even for the fundamentalists?

sounds like too many fantasy movies