In an effort to stimulate discussion and because of a few recent posts about good and evil, I thought a discussion of Satan and his role might be an interesting topic.
I recently saw a program about angels on the History channel. During a portion of this program they discussed the angel Satan, and that there is a great deal of disparity between the original Judaic writings on Satan and current Christian thought. After this program, my curiosity aroused, (and because of another personal reason) I did a little more research into this topic.
The point was that Satan, as he was originally described, was not an adversary of God but that he was, with Gods knowledge and intent, an adversary of man. A chance for us to choose between good and evil, right and wrong, a testament to free will and the opportunity to grow. Now this is something which I have always, at least since I was about 7, suspected was true. It never really made sense to me that if God was actually omnipotent, and the angels were created by and beholden to God (without free will), how Satan could be his enemy. And simply reading Job tells us he directed Satan by laying down the rules for Job’s temptation.
Now since I don’t know a whole lot about Judaism, I did some research on this subject. (I will post a couple of these links on Resources for anyone interested.) Satan is our temptations, our lessons to overcome. He’s not a fallen angel but an angel with a nasty job, one necessary for our growth.
This then naturally led me to Islam, what did they believe? That Satan is neither an agent of God or a fallen angel (maybe, this was contradicted in a couple of places). Satan was a jinn which, while suffering a delayed punishment for failing to prostrate before Adam, uses his free will to suggest evil to man. They believe that Satan doesn’t actually create evil, but suggests it to man to turn him away from Gods path. This includes putting thoughts into man’s head (thus the Satanic verses).
Now, I’m just going to stay with these three major religions, as to get into the different pagan religions (and how Christianity used these to change the image of Satan and vilify pagan deities) would take even longer. But the idea of a tempter, through various means, is a common thread throughout many different belief systems.
What do I believe? Well, although I am still in the process of digesting all of this information, I tend to agree with Judaic thought on this. But I would like to hear other opinions, and the reasons behind them.
Blessings, light, and understanding,
DesertWolf
