Maybe Satan is also all-powerful, and each time they fight it’s a coin toss. Unstoppable force meets unmovable object.
Assuming that Christianity is even slightly based in fact and that entities like God and Satan actually exist.
But if Satan is all powerful then God is not, as God could not hold power over Satan.
That’s what I’m saying, like there’s a constant battle between two forces of equal (infinite) power. But it’s not constant or continuous, so at times one “wins” over the other in discrete circumstances.
Imagine if you were omnipotent but still needed to consciously invoke your power every time in order to do anything with it. You might lose some of your battles, though that doesn’t really jive with the Christian concept of God’s power.
I am intentionally mythologizing and playing loose with existing canon because this is an unanswerable philosophical question and I am a silly little goose.
My understanding is that God is big on free will, including for the angels. Angel wants to fall and be the lord of darkness? Whatever, go for it.
My own interpretation of God and Satan, which is highly limited by what I learned about the Bible when I was a kid — and thus may be extremely incorrect — is that Satan viewed God’s “requirements” of being “good” to gain eternal life in heaven to be paradoxical to free will. Following God means not making decisions for yourself. So Satan represents the rebel, the true free will, with no regard to God’s plan or will.
But there’s a trick, I think: choose to follow the path of “good.” Don’t follow God’s plan because you have to but because you want to.
This resolves the problem and Satan can go back to being “good.”
I view this all symbolically and as a metaphor for how each of us confront and balance our individuality and selfish interests with harmony and collective good.
