Cohoon/Gary Debate on Satan

 
 
 Proposition:
The Scriptures teach all power is from God and believing in a 
powerful fallen angel named "Satan" is having another god beside 
God.

AFFIRM: James Gary
DENY: Bobby Cohoon

From my first affirmative to this third and last denial I have 
maintained:
1.  Only God is eternal-"Before the mountaines were broughtforth, 
or euer thou hadst formed the earth and the world: euen from 
euerlasting to euerlasting thou art God" (Psalm 90:1 KJV 1611) 

2.  God Created all Things-"For by him were all things created 
that are in heauen  and that are in earth, visible and inuisible, 
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
powers: all things were created by him, and for him" (Colossians 
1:16)

3.  God can create only good-"for there is no iniquitie with the 
Lord our God" (2 Chron. 19:7)

4.  The existence of Satan-I beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
heauen. (Luke 10:18)

5.  Satan was a spiritual being- Then ENTRED SATAN INTO Iudas 
surnamed Iscariot (Luke 23:3) [emphasis added by me]

6.  Satan fell from the righteous state he was created-Thou wast 
perfect in thy wayes from the day that thou wast created, till 
iniquitie was found in thee. (Ezekiel 28:15)

7.  Satan introduced unrighteousness into the perfect world that 
God had created.  By doing so he became the epitome of all that 
is evil. (Genesis 3)

Brother James Gary agrees with these points up to point number 
two and possible point three. 

In discussing the book of Job, Brother Gary believes that God 
inflicted all the calamities on Job and denies the existence of 
Satan.

Yet, scripture tells us from Job chapter one verse seven to verse 
twelve of a conversation between God and Satan. If there is no 
Satan, why would scriptures record a conversation of God with a 
non existent entity? Job 1:7 "And the Lord said vnto Satan, 
Whence commest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and sayde, 
From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking vp and downe 
in it." If man believes in God, then this verse in Job shows the 
reality of Satan. God obviously believed there was an entity 
known as Satan. If the antagonist in Job were in reality God as 
Brother James says, why would we have this conversation of God 
and a no-existent Satan? The fact is this conversation is 
recorded because Satan is real. 

In another of his comments on this passage, brother James suggest 
that God gives Satan the power he uses on Job. But, is that what 
the Bible teaches us? Satan can't touch Job because God has a 
hedge of protection around him: "Hast not thou made an hedge 
about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on 
euery side?" (Job 1:10).  God simply lifts the hedge of 
protection from around Job and then tells Satan, "Behold, all 
that hee hath is in thy power, onely vpon himselfe put not foorth 
thine hand" (Job 1:12). God indicates that the power is Satan's; 
God has simply lifted his hedge of protection.  Brother James 
gave to explanations for Satan in the book of Job: God gave Satan 
the power, and or God was in fact the adversary. Scriptures show 
that the adversary is Satan, and he acted on his own power, God 
simply allowed it.

Moving to the New Testament, among the scriptures that I used to 
prove my case of Satan being a real entity was Matthew 4: the 
Temptation of Jesus by Satan. Matthew 4:1 states the reason Jesus 
was led to the wilderness: "Then was Iesus led vp of the Spirit 
into the wildernesse, to bee tempted of the deuill." The devil, 
Satan, was a real entity here to Jesus. Brother James would have 
you believe that Jesus was tempted by his own flesh, a sort of 
soul searching as done by Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown. But, 
had that been the case would Matthew have recorded it wrong? 
Could Matthew not have just as easily recorded Jesus struggling 
with his flesh?

Later in his earthly ministry Jesus said, "I beheld Satan as 
lightning fall from heauen" (Luke 10:18). How could Jesus have 
seen his own flesh falling as lightening?

When dealing with those possessed by demons, the demons spoke to 
Christ saying, " If thou cast vs out, suffer vs to goe away into 
the herd of swine" (Matthew 8:31). Jesus response is in verse 32: 
"And he said vnto them, Goe."
Verse 32 continues "And when they were come out, they went into 
the herd of swine: and behold, the whole herd of swine ranne 
violently downe a steepe place into the Sea, and perished in the 
waters." Brother James says that the men that were possessed 
attacked the heard, yet the scriptures say "they went INTO the 
heard." I asked you, could a man enter into another man? No, but 
a spiritual being could, Just as Satan entered INTO Judas (Luke 
23:3). 

I will admit that God uses "evil" as a means to His end, the 
prophecy of Habakkuk is an example of God using the "ungodly" for 
His purpose, but God doesn't create the evil. The evil we face 
today is no more than the influence of a spiritual being that was 
created in a state of righteousness as God can create nothing but 
good; this being feel from that state of righteousness and became 
the epitome of evil: Satan, a real entity to God the Father, God 
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 

Brother James would have you believe that Satan is no more than 
your own flesh, or God creating evil for you. That is not what I 
hope I have proven to you through God's word.

In Him,
Bobby Cohoon