Satan

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Satan as depicted in a 13th century Bible, although is said to take many forms.
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Satan (a.k.a. The Devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub in Christianity or Iblis or Shayṭān in Islam) is the personification of evil. Modern Christian mythology casts Satan as an angel who defied the will of God. He was cast out of heaven with his followers and was condemned to rule over hell. He is seen as “the father of lies”, the tempter of Adam and Eve, the tormentor of mankind on earth, and the torturer of mankind in hell. In Islam he is usually considered to be a jinn.

But Hell has not always been Satan’s lot. Before modern Christianity condemned him to hell, Satan had a very different mythology associated with him.

"The Devil is merely the idleness of God on that seventh day"

Friedrich Nietzsche

Definitions of Satan[edit]

"Among those books of the Hebrew Scriptures written before 300 BCE, the term 'satan' (root word 's'tn') appears often. The word is derived from the original Hebrew verb 'satan' which means 'to oppose.' The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek was widely used in the early Christian church. They translated 'satan' as 'diaboloc' from which we derive our English term 'devil' and 'diabolic.'"

Religious Tolerance web site

Satan as an adversary[edit]

There are several different definitions when the term 'satan' is used in early writings. One is a person acting as an accuser or enemy. In 1 Samuel 29:4 Bible-icon.png, the Philistines were distrustful of David, fearing that he would be a satan. (translated "adversary" or "someone who will turn against us"). In 2 Samuel 19:22 Bible-icon.png Shime-i apologizes to King David. The King rejects the apology, saying that they should not be a satan to each other (translated "adversary" or "opponent"). In 1 Kings 5:4 Bible-icon.png, King Solomon is talking to Hiram, the King of Tyre. He says that now that there is neither satan nor bad luck to stop him, he can build the Temple. (translated as "adversary", "enemy", or "one who opposes"). And in 1 Kings 11:14 Bible-icon.png, God raised up Hadad the Edomite as a satan against Solomon. (translated as "adversary," or "opponent").

Satan as a divine messenger[edit]

Another use of the Hebrew term translates as a divine messenger sent by God as an adversary. In the story of Balaam in Numbers 22 Bible-icon.png, God appears in a dream, and tells Balaam to go with the princes of Moab to meet Balak. But when Balaam sets out the next morning on his donkey, God is angry with him for his attempt to evade God's wishes, and he sends an angel/messenger to kill Balaam. The donkey sees the angel and takes evasive actions, but the angel is invisible to Balaam, who beats the animal. The donkey asks Balaam why he had beat her three times and Balaam (who doesn't seem to realize that a talking donkey is particularly odd) replies that the donkey has mocked him. The angel then appears and explains that he has come as a satan to kill him. (translated as "one who opposes, "withstand," "adversary")

Satan as a divine councilor[edit]

Another use of the Hebrew term translates as a member of God's council, sort of a chief prosecutor. In 1 Chronicles 21:1 Bible-icon.png, Satan, "a supernatural evil emissary," acting on God's behalf, influences David to hold a census. The census is taken, but God becomes angry for reasons not given in the writings. God then offers David his choice of one of three punishments: a three year famine, three months of fleeing before his enemies' armies, or a plague throughout Israel. David selects the plague and God kills 70 thousand men. There is no mention of the number of women or children, or even if the 70 thousand includes women and children. In 2 Samuel 24 Bible-icon.png, the identical event is described. However, this time, the text states that God influences David to hold the census, yet still becomes angry that it was done and punishes the Israelites with a plague. Some scholars consider the writings in 2 Samuel to be the original account. It is believed that when Samuel was finally edited (circa 560 BCE), the editors thought that all supernatural actions (good and bad) came from God. When Chronicles was written over a century later (circa 400 BCE), the author viewed God as operating indirectly through his helpers.

In Job 1-2 Bible-icon.png, Satan is clearly described as one of the members of the court of heaven. Here, Satan is portrayed as a servant of God whose task it is to dutifully carry out evil deeds at God's instruction. And in Zechariah 3:1-7 Bible-icon.png, Satan is again portrayed as a member of God's council, where he objects to the selection of Joshua as the high priest.

Transformation into the adversary of God[edit]

The Protestant Christian Bible closes the Hebrew Scriptures with the book of Malachi, written circa 397 BCE. The Catholic Bible continues with seven other books called the Apocrypha. They both pick up the story again at the birth of Jesus. This gap of several centuries is commonly called the "intertestamental period." By the end of the "intertestamental period" Satan had taken his place as the ruler of hell and the enemy of God and all mankind.

So what happened between 300 BCE and 33 CE to alter the previous theological ideas?

During the last three centuries before Christ's birth, the portrayal of Satan in Judaism changes. From the middle of the 5th century BCE until 53 BC and even later, the Jews picked up a number of concepts from the official religion of Babylon called Zoroastrianism: specifically, the concept of angels, of Satan (Angra Manyu aka Ahriman, the God of Evil) and of the immortality of the soul. Of the three main divisions of Judaism (Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees) in the 1st century BCE, the Essenes seems to have focused the most on Satan. The Zoroastrian/Persian good vs. evil dualism concept appears in Jewish writing: God, formerly the source of good and evil, becomes wholly good; and Satan as profoundly evil. History is suddenly viewed as a battle between them. No longer was Satan simply God's prosecuting attorney, helper, or lackey. Satan, and his demons, suddenly become humanity's greatest enemies.

In the Apocryphal texts, the Book of Tobias mentions the demon Asmodeus and the angel Raphael, betraying the Persian influence. In the Book of Enoch, the word “Satan” occurs in both singular and plural forms and, in Ecclesiasticus, he is identified with the subtle serpent of Genesis. Finally, the Book of Secrets of Enoch describes his rebellion against God and consequent expulsion from heaven. Note that none of these texts are part of the officially recognized Hebrew Scriptures. They are very late additions to Hebrew theology, with dates of writing ranging from 200 BCE to about 100 CE. Ironically, one of the reasons that the Protestants use for their rejection of these texts within the bible is that neither Jesus nor his followers quotes directly from them, yet the entire context of an all-evil opponent of God who falls from service and resides over Hell is taken from these late period stories.

Clearly, Jesus and his followers were familiar with these texts in the early part of the first century C.E. Mythology had completed Satan's transformation from the loyal servant of God to his most significant adversary.

Some modern Christians have rejected the idea of Satan, while some others have taken the Satan concept to the extremes of their imaginations, blaming him for everything from rock and roll music to homosexuality.

Why did God create Satan?[edit]

If God created everything, then God created Satan. This raises the problem of evil. Some apologists argue that Satan was created to enable development of humans but that does not explain why did not create humans already in their improved state.

"Finally, why did God let Satan into the Garden knowing what would happen? Because it was His will to do so. Just as it is our will to see how our children will respond to situations knowing that they will fail, we do so because that is what it means to grow, to learn, to exercise one's free will, and to take responsibility for our actions. [1]"

Another theodicy is to claim that God created Satan with free will. However, this is a red herring because God could have simply not created any angels - problem solved.

"God did not create Lucifer as evil but allowed the potential for sin. [2]"

Why does God allow Satan to continue to exist?[edit]

A further question is why does God allow Satan to continue to exist. This also raises the problem of evil. If God cannot destroy Satan because of free will, he could cast him into the lake of fire right now - which is supposedly the plan in the long run (Revelation 20:10 Bible-icon.png). [3] Some apologists argue that God will be more glorified if he allows Satan to exist, which is not an omnibenevolent attitude.

"he knows that when we walk in and out of those temptations [caused by Satan], struggling both with the physical and moral effects that they bring, more of God's glory will shine in that battle than if he took Satan out yesterday. [3]"
"Perhaps He allows it to show that evil and wrongdoing do not provide the key to the ultimate meaning of life which man so desperately desires. Or perhaps He allows it to spiritually build a Christian’s wisdom and knowledge drawing him or her closer to God and away from Satan. [4]"

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis argues that God does not end the world because he is giving people a last chance to choose his side.

"But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. [...] God is holding back to give us that chance."

This seems odd since the longer God waits, the more people get sent to Hell. No good God would do that. Related problems include the problem of non-God objects and if God can create Heaven, why bother creating the Earth (or Hell) at all?

Also, after the apocalypse, most of these apologetics collapse since there would be no people left to choose between God and Satan. Therefore Hell cannot contain Satan or demons after a certain finite time.

Satan's rebellion is not plausible[edit]

The logic for Satan's rebelling is not properly explained. Satan presumably knew God was all powerful and all knowing. Why is the point in contesting against a being like that? The story does not make any sense. All apologists can do is wildly speculate.

"does Satan not know that God is omnipotent? How dumb could Satan be to think that he could possibly win out against the omnipotent Creator, the Creator of everything including even himself? [5]"
"Perhaps part of the explanation is that pride, the worst and most evil of all sins, has blinded Satan to reality. [4]"

Polytheism[edit]

Main Article: Polytheism in Christianity

Some Christians believe that Satan literally exists; the belief is more prevalent in fundamentalist denominations. The belief in powerful supernatural spirits that can act independently of each other is effectively polytheism. However, most Christians claim to be monotheists.

Satan's ineffective methods[edit]

It is said that Satan causes temptation, pain and suffering these are the tools he uses to undermine God's plan. However, this is implausible because he has much better options available.

"For example, why doesn't Satan shoot intense pain through every human on Earth until they confess their allegiance to him? I know that Christians say God acts as a "hidden God" because He wants to see if we will freely choose Him. But it seems unlikely that Satan, a pure evil being, would have any such motivation. So why doesn't Satan just come on down and kill everybody or do whatever evil he feels like? [5]"

If God would not allow that, it seems inconsistent that he would allow Satans surreptitious methods.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. [1]
  2. [2]
  3. 3.0 3.1 [3]
  4. 4.0 4.1 [4]
  5. 5.0 5.1 [5]

External links[edit]