{"id":343,"date":"2024-03-03T11:39:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T11:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/?p=343"},"modified":"2024-03-22T18:17:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T18:17:27","slug":"does-satan-have-to-get-gods-permission-before-he-can-attack-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/03\/does-satan-have-to-get-gods-permission-before-he-can-attack-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Satan have to get God\u2019s permission before he can attack us?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There is no biblical proof that\u00a0satan <em>always<\/em>\u00a0needs God\u2019s specific permission in order to act against Christians every time he wishes to attack them. We know that Satan needs permission at least sometimes.\u00a0Job 1\u00a0shows that Satan was not able to afflict Job without God\u2019s permission. However, consider Satan\u2019s argument before God: \u201cHave you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land\u201d (Job 1:10). Satan is obviously familiar with who Job is and is aware of Job\u2019s special protection and blessing by God. How could Satan have known of Job\u2019s protection, unless he and\/or his demonic minions had not already tried to work their will against Job? What Satan is really asking is for God to remove Job\u2019s protection; of course, in asking that the protection be removed, Satan is essentially seeking permission to attack Job. Does Satan have to seek such permission\u00a0<em>every<\/em>\u00a0time he attacks us? The Bible does not say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another relevant passage is Luke 22:31- 32). Jesus says, \u201cSimon, Simon, Satan has asked to\u00a0sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.\u201d Clearly in this case Satan had asked God\u2019s permission to test Peter and the other disciples. Jesus tells Peter that He has prayed specifically for him so that Peter\u2019s faith would not fail and so that Peter can strengthen the other disciples when the test was over. The implication is that Peter and the rest\u00a0<em>would<\/em>\u00a0be sifted in whatever way Satan intended. So God allowed the harassing of His disciples, within limits, but He had a higher purpose in mind\u2014the strengthening of them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Job 38:11\u00a0God says that He limits the waves of the sea: \u201cThis far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt.\u201d In the same way, it seems that there are boundaries and rules that Satan must abide by. He can go so far but no farther. As the devil \u201cprowls around like a roaring lion\u201d (1 Peter 5:8), must he stop and ask God\u2019s permission for every step? Or does he only need to ask special permission when he runs into an obstacle to his hatred? There is no real biblical proof either way. Job and Peter were hedged about by the Lord\u2014Satan couldn\u2019t get to them without the Lord\u2019s first removing a measure of His protection. We know that God cares for all of His children, so it is reasonable to assume that God has a measure of protection surrounding each of us. And we know that, ultimately, God controls everything in the universe, including Satan. \u201cIn all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose\u201d (Romans 8:28).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is no biblical proof that\u00a0satan always\u00a0needs God\u2019s specific permission in order to act against Christians every time he wishes to attack them. We know that Satan needs permission at least sometimes.\u00a0Job 1\u00a0shows that Satan was not able to afflict Job without God\u2019s permission. However, consider Satan\u2019s argument before God: \u201cHave you not put a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-western"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions\/629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}