Satan's Rap Sheet vs God's

I hope this debate will be mentally stimulating for all involved. (Note: All Bible references are from the King James Version unless otherwise specified. All verses can be easily looked up and translated to other versions at biblegateway. com) GOD Foundations "For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. " - Malachi 3:6 "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. " - 1 Peter 1:15-16 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. " - Matthew 5:48"Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. " - Psalm 86:11 The Christian view of good and evil is based on the nature of God. The Bible declares that God is perfect: he is the ultimate standard for righteousness, goodness, and truth. The Bible also tells us that God does not change. Of course, such stability is necessary in order for us to know how to be righteous. God must be an unchanging standard in order for us to have a consistent example for our own lives. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. " - Psalm 19:7 This understanding of God's character is necessary in order to understand his laws and likes. According to the Bible, his laws and likes are not the arbitrary whims of a tyrant. Instead, they are revelations of a flawless character. He has revealed his character to us through his word, so that we may know him and imitate him. Now we come to the meat of this debate. Ultimately, how do we know if something is a sin? If it is contrary to the character of God. How do we know the character of God? His word. So, can God sin? Divine Immunity I've established that God's character is perfect and unchanging, and necessarily so. It follows that God can not go "out of character", for, if he did so, he would cease to be perfect and unchanging. Therefore, there is no need for "divine immunity", or the idea that God can be infinitely excused because he is God. If God truly is perfect, then all of his actions will align with his revealed character. God will always act predictably within his holy nature. However, if God were to "break character", or do something that contradicts the character he has declared perfect, then he would be, by definition, sinning. As God is omnipotent, he has the ability to do anything, including "break character". So, has God sinned? God's Hate List In R1 I referenced the ten commandments as a test for sin, but for my purposes here I believe I really only need the Proverbs passage: "These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. " - Proverbs 6:16-19 Since God hates the things listed above, we can be certain that they go against his character and are, therefore, sin. So, if we can find any recorded instances of God doing or promoting one of things he claims to hate, we can safely say that we have found an instance of God going "out of character" and, thereby, sinning. Now, I will list and briefly expound on instances that I believe I have found. God Breaks Character A Lying Tongue 1. In 1 Kings 22, the king of Israel, Ahab, asks a group of 400 prophets whether he has God's blessing in going to war. The prophets reply in the affirmative, but the king's friend, Jehoshaphat, has his doubts, so they consult a different prophet, Micaiah. Micaiah eventually gets around to telling them the truth: "And he said, 'Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, "Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? " And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, "I will persuade him. " And the Lord said unto him, "Wherewith? " And he said, "I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. " And he said, "Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. " Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. '" - 1 Kings 22:19-23 (This same story is also told in 2 Chronicles 18) We see in this passage that God first provokes the "host of heaven" to trick Ahab into going to war, and then gives his blessing to a spirit that proposes possessing prophets and making them lie, or, in other words, giving them lying tongues. So, God has instigated, promoted, and set into motion something that he supposedly hates. Sin number one. 2. God tells the prophet Ezekiel that he is angry with the people of Israel for their idolatry. He proceeds to tell Ezekiel how he will punish the idolaters, and says: "And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. " -Ezekiel 14:9 God is so angry, he is willing to deceive prophets so that they speak lies, as we have witnessed him doing before in point 1 above. If provoked, God will apparently go against his own character and mastermind something he hates. Even planning to sin is a sin, as it is in conflict with perfection. Sin number 2. Hands That Shed Innocent Blood We know that God has done quite a bit of killing. The key word here, though, is "innocent". Instead of going into the details of all the different reasons God killed people in order to determine if any were innocent, I will stick with victims that we all can agree are innocent: infant children. Infants do not have the ability or capacity to break one of God's laws, nor to do something from his hate list. Yet, there are multiple instances of God killing, threatening to kill, or commanding the killing of infants: 1. God uses a flood to kill every human on earth except Noah and his family. -Genesis 7:21-232. God kills all the firstborn children in Egypt. -Exodus 12:29-30 3. God threatens to kill newborns. -Hosea 9:15-16 4. God orders the killing of "little children". -Ezekiel 9:4-7 5. God threatens to rob people of their children. -Leviticus 26:22 6. God threatens to make a foreign army mercilessly kill young children. -Isaiah 13:13-18 7. God orders the Israelites to slaughter infants. -1 Samuel 15:2-3 8. The Israelites, with God's blessing, kill "all the inhabitants" of a city. -Joshua 8:18-27 9. The Israelites, with God's blessing, kill everyone in the city of Jericho. -Joshua 6:21 We see from these verses that God has killed infants, orchestrated and blessed the killing of infants, and made death threats against infants, when he supposedly hates hands that shed innocent blood. These instances account for sins 3 through 9. He That Soweth Discord Among Brethren Proverbs was written before Jesus' time on earth, so "brethren" here is not referring to Christians. God seems to mean that he hates anyone who stirs up trouble among literal brothers, or family relations. However, Jesus said this: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. " -Matthew 10:34-36 Whether Jesus was God in the flesh or not, Christians agree that he was God's messenger. Apparently, God sent Jesus to be a sower of discord among brethren, even though he supposedly hates such a person. Sin number 10. That’s enough on God’s side for now. Lets look at Satan. SATAN The Serpent in the Garden (Genesis 3:1-5) It is a popular belief in Christianity that the serpent in this story was possessed by Satan, and that Satan lied to Eve about the fruit. However, I would like to point out that the Bible never makes the statement that the serpent was indeed Satan, nor inhabited by him. In other places, the Bible calls Satan a serpent and deceiver, but never conclusively says that he was the serpent who spoke with Eve. Therefore, the conclusion that this is an instance of Satan sinning is an assumption without solid, Biblical basis. Nevertheless, for the sake of argument, let’s say that the serpent was Satan. Obviously, he didn’t lie about the effects of the fruit on Adam and Eve’s knowledge, but did he lie about their inevitable death? Is it not possible that Satan was simply mistaken? The difference between a lie and a mistake is that the former requires an intent to deceive, while the latter only requires ignorance of the truth. In this story, we are not told the serpent’s intentions, nor what the serpent believed to be true. Later on, Eve accuses the snake of “beguiling” her, and God takes her word for it and punishes the snake, but we never hear the serpent speak for himself. Another interesting point to make is that God’s prediction about Adam and Eve’s death would not have come true had God not taken extra steps to insure that it did. According to Genesis 3:22-24, Adam and Eve could have lived forever had they eaten of the tree of life. Perhaps the serpent knew this, and that is why he scoffed at God’s warning. How was he to know that God would drive Adam and Eve out of the garden and place a guard? No matter which way you look at it, you can not conclusively say that this is an instance of Satan sinning. Well, because I’m running out of space, I’ll leave it at this for now. If necessary, I will build more arguments in the next round. I look forward to my opponent’s arguments and rebuttals. Over to you, Con.