A recent thread about the book of Revolations made me question how many
actually review history outside the Christian Bible. Please let me
inspire you with something that may change the way you view good and
evil forever.

About 5,000 years ago, according to our best records, a fairly new
religion was beginning to appear in a new format, the written word.
Believers having experienced the most amazing of miracles began to write
them for all to see, to learn from, to support their new found faith.
This religion was the earliest of the Hebrew or Jewish religions
worshiping one God. There are several stories relating to a specific
angel, the most popular one, still told today, was about a man who
wanted to go to town. In spite of various warning signs, he packed his
donkey and set out. This can be a lengthy story so I’ll take the
liberty of making it short. An angel was trying to warn the man not to
go to town. When the man ignored all the warning signs, the angel
stopped the donkey. It was the donkey speaking for the angel who
finally explained to the man that an angel was sent by God to stop the
man from going to town. This became a common type of story with
the same angel standing for God even against man’s own will. In the
language of that time there was a word, the definition was “OBSTICAL or
PROTAGONIST” the word was SATIN.

So this word became equated with the name of an angel who was a
protagonist to God and often an obstacle to man. At a later date in
another distant language when the teachings of this religion were
translated, the word that had the same meaning was devil.

This was the word that the disciple, Paul, used as he began his journey
into his evangelical role. He used it in accordance with its definition
“OBSTICLE” to refer to those of the Roman Empire who had power and
control. Also at that time, a group of soldiers, that we might call a
platoon was called a legion. Hence the devil(s) sent out legions
against the uprising of a newly forming cult.

It was not until the formation of the Catholic Church the words satin,
devil, and legion held the status of a proper pronoun. Of course, in
order to utilize the words in the nature that seems common today, new
stories had to be created, such as the fall from grace of an angel named
Satin.

There are those who find it miraculous that the Christian religion has
stood for some two thousand years. I find it miraculous that a single
story could have stood for some 5000 years with a single group of
people, while another group could take one word from that story and in
less than 1,000 years transform that word even to the point of creating
a whole new religion, “Satanism”. What else from this 2000-year-old
religion have we redefined or due to some new form of abstract thought
have we misread, misinterpreted or just plain ignored??????

Signed
“The Devil made me do it”

Interesting post! I'm one of those whack-o's that beleive that Satan,
the hebrew name for "Obstacle" like you point out, is really a plain old
servant in the court of God.

I mean, how could "God" have any "rivals"? How could there be a "power
struggle" in heaven? That would, by definition, say that God wasnt "all
powerful".

Secondly, God created Satan to serve a purpose. Satan's "job" is the
Prosecutor. As the book of Job explains, his task is to record all the
mis-deeds of ppl and present them on Judgement Day. As the book of Job
clearly points out, Satan is powerless, and must ask for every
permission explicitly from God. They get along pretty well. God's enemy?
Not in the bible I read.

So, if Satan serves a purpose then where does it put the theology that
most christians claim? In the trash. Satan holds no power over man - Man
is responsible, and man alone, is accountable for his actions. Man is
God's greatest creation, and the most powerful of creation. Man can
create life, and destroy life. Satan cant even touch Job without
explicit permission from God.

-Mike

Mike: Awesome!

Mike, I believe the "power" that Satan holds over man is the fact that
man was given free will. So, while I do agree with you that Satan, for
all intents and purposes, is powerless over people, they do have the
choice to allow Satan to control their lives, just as they have the
choice to allow God to control their lives.

But because of the temptations and other traits we as human beings face,
we are, in a sense, "powerless" over Satan -- and some a lot more than
others.

Ultimately, though, barring psychopathic disorders, I believe most of us
have a sense of right and wrong and are capable of making the right
choices. Many simply choose not to - for various personal reasons.

So much for "Paradise Lost" and the flight from heaven and fall to hell.
Milton would be particularly upset to read this.

YOu know that Satan was supposed to be the first son of God before
jesus. But, satan saw the beauty of women that god created and decided
to have relationship with the women of earth. Thus, where the term
Nephilims came from Half-God and half_human.

It's the evil that is part of our fleshly nature, the principalities of
air and spirit that we war against. Evil is a true an tangible force, I
assure you. MorningStar doesn't do what God tells him to, though he is
powerless unless God gives him freedom to act.

It's all laid out in Isaiah

ARE YOU PEOPLE QUESTIONING THE EXISTANCE OF SATAN, NOT SATIN. AND YES
SATIN EXIST AND IM A HUGE FAN, SOME NICE SHIRTS ARE MADE OUT OF SATIN.
SATAN ON THE OTHER HAND EXISTS. GOD, CREATED AN ANGEL. ACTUALLY BESIDES
MICHEAL, SATAN OR LUCIFER THE MORNING STAR WAS THE MOST POWERFUL. SEE HE
WAS THE ONLY ANGEL WITH EMOTIONS, BECAUSE ALL ANGELS ARE DIFFERENT AND
OF DIFFERENT FORMS. HE BECAME JEALOUS OF GODS POWER, SO HE PROVOKED A
BUNCH OF ANGELS TO REBEL AGAINST GOD, SO THERE WAS A HUGE WAR AND SATAN
WAS FLUNG TO EARTH BY GOD. HE WAS THE SERPENT, AND BECAUSE OF HIM
SERPENTS LOST THERE LEGS, AND THATS A FACT SNAKES HAD LEGS, CUT ONE OPEN
YOU'LL SEE LITTLE NUBS. SATAN, IS THE MASTER LIAR SO WITHIN OUR FREE
WILL HE WILL OFFER US EARTHLY TREASURES, BUT KNOWS WHERE IT WILL GET US,
AND GOD LETS IT HAPPEN, BUT KNOWS WHATS GONNA HAPPEN ALONG. GOD, WILL
DESTROY SATAN MUCH AS CHRIST CRUSHED THE SERPENTS HEAD. DON'T DOUBT HIS
EVIL, BECAUSE THAT ONLY MAKES HIM MORE POWERFUL.

OH AND IF WE'RE GONNA ARGUE SUCH A COLLEGIATE TOPIC, PLEASE LETS LEARN
TO SPELL.

Dean, if your beliefs hold forgiveness dear, then perhaps you need
another lesson. Or maybe just an apology - sorry for the spelling
errors, it would be considered most gracious of you to pardon them in
the future.

While were talking about ol' Lucifer, did you guys know that he was the
worship leader in heaven?

No I didn't know that. Where does that information come from? Please
don't say the bible unless you offer chapter and verse.
Thanks!

EZEKIAL 28 AROUND THE 12TH TO 16TH VRS........CORRECTION 13 AND 14

Thanks Wheez, I'll check it out.

I'm enjoying this topic. I believe that Satin is the one that we use as
a 'scape goat' for our own immoral actions.

thats certainly convienent, but actually the choice is and has always
been ours to make.
the way to heaven is narrow and straight, the road to damnation is
wide. its in the book,,, somewhere. The whole point the bible is making
is that we were given free will to decide what path to take. obviously,
we usually get it wrong. I would reccomend actually reading the bible
instead of revisionist history.

damn that sounded harsh.

Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to actually read for ourselves the
oldest of all biblical codex in their original language, and be able to
understand the vocabulary "totally" in context with reference to the
times they were written. But we can not. We can only look at
translations, we can only depend on what how translaters determine what
words of today, properly fill in when no other appropriate word can be
found. We can only depend on historians to tell what the context of
those words mean in refernce to the times they were written. And
unfortunatly, there seem to be differing opinions.

THE CLOSEST WE HAVE IS THE GREEK AND HEBREW TEXTS, which of course have
been translated into english. also theres the KJV, 1611 EDITION. WAS
TRANSLATED DIRECTLY FROM the afore mentioned texts.

i have been down this translation road. I have found little earthshaking
revelations. one difference is that in thiou shalt not kill, a better
translation seems to be Murder. The biggest one ive found is that in the
bible, the translation for hell comes from the word sheol. sheol seems
to mean grave.
our present undrestanding, which most churches embrace of a firey hell
came from a book, Dantes inferno, which was written way back, im guessin
in the 1400s.
one issue i have with the churches is that they preach the pre trib
rapture. when questioned though, there seems to be no scriptures
whatsoever concerning this doctrine.

Oh, If we could only understand, figure out God, useing human logic.
lol.
God is Love; God is Spirit; God is Almighty. God has all knowledge and
God is everywhere.We cannot see how Love could create evil, allow evil
things to happen to 'good people'.
I certainly don't understand it, but according to His Holy Word it is
true...read Isaiah 45:7, St. John 1:1-5, and I believe it.
How can I believe something that I don't understand?...because there is
a lot in the Book that I can understand. I can understand God, Love in
the form of Jesus his Son dieing to pay the wages of my sin. WE can't
See God because we can't see spirit. I can understand "for God so loved
the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believes in
him should not perish but have everlastng life", John:3-16.
I,ll not understand the 'whys', I'll not see God as long as I reside in
this temple of flesh, but when I become 'spirit' then I will understand
much.