SATAN THE DEVIL

Nothing in the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, says Satan as a fallen angel and prince of evil exists.  The serpent who spoke to Eve to tempt her is just a creature made like any animal.  The Satan in Job is an angel of God who tests people's faith. 

 

We are told that the best scheme the Devil ever came up with was to get people to think he does not exist. That is an anti-Jewish stance.  It is also trying to paint atheists as top pawns of the Devil.

 

If the Devil is so powerful and such a good liar it will not matter to him if people believe in him or not.  It will not stop his tricks.  He might need people to think he is wise and well-meaning but to think he does not exist?  Come on!

 

 If you agree that he needs us to think he is not real, then you show how you have more faith in him than in God.  Why is he not concentrating on getting us to think God is not real?  Does he see faith in God as something insidious, that has a dark side?  If fear is the root of evil Satan needs us to mistrust God.  Even if we mistrust and fear Satan he can use that to his own advantage.

 

Anyway, the word diabolical meaning devilish or demonic comes from the Greek word dia-bolos. This in literal terms means to tear apart. Dia-bollein is rip to shreds. It refers in Christian circles to how Satan and his minions are about tearing the truth apart with lies and dividing people against each other.  The irony is Jesus antagonised everybody and even said the mother would be hatefully divided from daughter over him!

 

Before God made the world, Christians say that God created the angels. The angels are pure spirit, beings which have no parts. The angels were tested by God. Those who would pass would be accepted into eternal happiness. Satan and many others failed and rebelled and became evil spirits. They were allegedly flung into the everlasting pains of Hell. There Satan reigns supreme and he will never be free. Satan was the first to be eternally damned. Because he was the most powerful angel and had the highest dignity he is now the king of Hell. It makes no sense to argue that he was the angel in Heaven with the highest rank because Heaven is being one with God and knowing him face to face and gives so much happiness that no one can leave it. The Devil is alleged to have miraculous powers and to be able to entice people to rebel against God and lure them into Hell forever. Jesus in the New Testament claims to cast out demons and destroy the Devil’s reign and he and the apostles warned against the Devil’s temptations. The Lord’s Prayer that Jesus gave goes, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” This is what you read in the Bible.

 

Now the Lord's prayer is a rite and the fundamental Christian rite.  It affirms God as Father, affirms Heaven, that he wants you to have a relationship with him, that he forgives, and that Satan is real.  That Jesus does not word it as,

 

Our Father who are in Heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as in Heaven.  Give us today what we need.  Forgive us our sins as we forgive.  Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil into the arms of your only Son the Messiah.

 

is telling.  It is not linked to his role as saviour from Hell and Satan and sin at all.  Satan is validated and not Jesus!

 

The way Jesus presented Satan as such an important force and person is clearly inviting people so inclined to serve him.  Madame de Montespan was one who resorted to Satan for she felt Jesus would not help her for what she wanted was sinful.  Jesus never calls Satan stupid.  The warnings about him and his power clearly show this is a smart creature.  In exorcisms, demons and Satan come across as stupid.  If they are, then maybe the exorcism doesn't get them out, their stupidity does.  They might think, "I should go out of this person for I am tired of listening to that priest reading rites." What if they are dullards?  You could say Jesus glorified stupid Satan and his minions to get people to consort with them.

 

Jesus said that the wicked will go to eternal fire which is prepared for the Devil and his angels.  Christians say that it is not meant for human beings and if they die in sin they will go there for there is nowhere else to put them.

As an angel, God must have tempted Satan to get him to sin which means that God is bad if he tempts.  James 1:13 in the Bible which claims to be God’s word says that God cannot tempt anybody for has no use for it and forbids sin. God must have made the feelings that lead to temptation. God must have made temptation. If there is a Satan then God is no better. God is a hypocrite for condemning Satan for what he inspired him to do.

It is imagined that Isaiah 14:12-19 speaks of the fall of Lucifer – the angel who became Satan. The Lucifer here is the king of Babylon. The text calls him a man not an angel. It says he will die and not be buried for he destroyed his land. Christians argue that it refers to the Devil because it says he felt he could put his throne above the stars of God and become like God and because he made the world a waste. They argue that this proves he was not a literal man but an angel. That is not necessarily true because the man could have angelic powers. The whole world refers to the whole known world. Rome was said to have ruled the world though literally it did not. It is a mistake to take whole world literally. The king believed he would be a god after his death and become the highest god and be a star in Heaven, the biggest and brightest star. Lots of pagan kings did the same.  The Christian take on it is that it uses a man to tell us things about Satan so it's a two sided lesson.

Ezekiel 28:13-19 speaks of an angel in the Garden of Eden who lost his perfection and was rejected by the Lord. Traditionally, this is taken to be about the Devil. This material is figurative because it is spoken about the king of Tyre. The king is symbolised by the angel.  Again a real fallen angel is used to create the prose about the king.

We cannot pay much attention to the talk about the Devil in the Book of Revelation for it is full of characters who are nothing but symbols. In the chapter about the Devil being thrown out of Heaven, a woman appears who gives birth to a child that he in the form of a dragon wants to eat! A flood comes out of its mouth to get her!  But the claim that the Devil goes to the lake of fire to be destroyed asserts he is real.

Romans 16 says that the God of peace will bruise Satan under our feet shortly. God told Eve that her offspring would do this to the snake.  Some say, "We cannot take Paul’s declaration as proof that he believed in a personal Satan and that Satan was the snake in Genesis for he is talking symbolically. God would not literally bruise Satan under our feet. It is an expression for our triumph over evil symbolised by the Serpent or represented by it."  Rubbish.  We spiritually bruise Satan under our feet.

1 John 3 says that all sinners belong to the Devil, who sinned from the start probably meaning the start of the human race when the Serpent became a sinner. Or it could mean before.  John may think Satan possessed a Serpent or appeared as one.  Some say, "The Devil here is the serpent and not necessarily a supernatural Devil.  The serpent no longer exists but we can still belong to him. The serpent was a sinner. Whoever sins is the child of the snake in a spiritual sense." So we belong to the dead serpent!  That would be odd. While it might be true that John meant that it makes more sense if he thought the Devil was still alive.  He speaks of the Devil not the serpent so it is a bigger thing than that.  And who says you belong to something that starts off sin in the world.  It is only asking you to sin not trying to buy you.  It makes sense if you see sin as a pact with a real Devil who is engaging with you know and trying to own you.

Jesus said that whoever lies belongs to the father of lies, the Devil, who was a murderer from the beginning (John 8).  Some say,  "A supernatural Devil would not approve of all lies so all lies are not from him. The father of lies is the lying snake who talked Eve into sin and its penalty: death."  Again the Devil might be in the snake but he is more than the snake.  And he WILL approve of all lies.  Just thinking some lies are impractical for his plan is not the same thing as disapproval.

 

Deuteronomy 32:39 says that only God can take life. This is supposed to prove that when the Bible called Satan a murderer there can’t be a personal Devil. This is too stupid an argument to bother answering. The same goes for the insistence that Exodus 4:11 proves that only God makes people dumb and blind and so there can’t be any demons to do it. If we can do it so can demons and God gives us and them the power to do it so God does it in a sense.

James says that if you resist the Devil he will flee for he is a coward. But this is silly given the fact that Christianity says we are biased towards sin. Perhaps we are to believe he flees when we put up resistance to his wiles and then he tries something different? That’s the strangest kind of fleeing I’ve ever heard of. And why is it that some people can have to struggle with one temptation for a very long time and others get peace quicker? Because the Devil does not exist though the Bible thinks he does for if what James says were true he would be not that hard to get rid of. If Satan is a coward why does he do evil knowing God will get him for it? 

Some say that the demons of the New Testament were just forces and not personal beings because Jesus rebuked the fever that Peter’s mother had and told the wind to be still. But some healers did that and did not believe that what they spoke to could hear them. It was a magic rite. Also, it was obvious that Jesus did not think the fever and the wind could understand him but it is not so obvious with the demons so they could be personal beings.
 

The Bible and Jesus paint a terrible picture of Jesus and they invite you do go along with it.  They are to watch out for this monster that goes about like a roaring lion to see who he can devour as the New Testament says.  M Scott Peck pointed out that witnessing and studying evil will do something to your soul.  Some kind of damage sets in.  Evil infects those who behold it.   I would say that if the evil is imagined or you think you see it the same thing will happen.  The evil you see in others is too much about the evil in you.  That would apply to Satan most of all.  Surely Jesus and his followers see that?  Do they not care?  Evil depends on lie and deception and that is one reason why it can have a surprising effect on the witness.  That aside it seems to appeal to the bad side of the person.  It corrupts and threatens further corruption.

 

You need reasons for regarding something or someone as evil.  Otherwise the idea explains nothing and is no use.  To say that if you look at evil you recognise it means you could be seeing what you want to see meaning you are wishing the evil was there in some sense.   And another could look and decide it is not evil or even good or undetermined. All our relations to others says something about us for a lot of how we see others is really from how we see ourselves.  Psychology would be clear that you project the evil that is in you or that you think is there to Satan.  Though you say God is justified in letting the world be such a mess for he has a good plan this may be projecting too.  The trait where we try to excuse or feel okay about evil is too strong.  If God is indeed right it does not mean that that is why we affirm his ways as right.  These doctrines can be used to corrupt people.  It is understandable why nobody will tell you about how it damaged them!  You never fully know that until they get the power and the chance to unleash it.

 

We conclude that Jesus taught a literal Satan.  For us to judge a being we don't actually know as full of evil inside says more about us than him.  The doctrine that Satan is real and powerful is bad for the psychologically disturbed.  And the vulnerable.