Oh here ya go....will throw this in for posterity.....


Satan in the Gospels
In the New Testament, Satan emerges as the principle power of evil, although there are still traces of earlier powers of evil such as in the Synoptic gospels, Beelzebub, and in Paul's letters, Beliar (2 Cor 6:15).

In Mark 3:22ff. the Scribes say of Jesus "'He is possessed by Beelzebub,' and 'By the prince of demons he drives out demons.'" Jesus then rebuts the statement by asking "How can Satan drive out Satan?" This rebuttal seems to identify Beelzebub with Satan, however it can be noted that there may be two concepts here with Jesus identifying Satan with the prince of demons and Beelzebub being a separate identity.

Both Matthew 12:24 and Luke 11:15 specify Beelzebub as the prince of demons, however in Jesus' rebuttal, He mentions both Satan and Beelzebub, implying the two are identical terms.

The first reference to Satan is in the temptation of Jesus. Mark says that Jesus was 'tempted of Satan,' while Matthew and Luke say that He was 'tempted of the devil.' (Mk 1:13, Mt 4:1-11, Lk 4:2-13) The terminology used throughout the NT generally consists of identifying Satan with the devil and the evil one. The parable of the sower demonstrates this. Mark 4:15 uses 'Satan,' while Luke 8:12 uses 'the devil,' and Matthew 13:19 uses 'the evil one.' This parable of how Satan comes and 'takes away the word which has been sown in them' (Mk 4:15) is very similar to the parable in the Book of Jubilees where the prince, Mastema (identified with Satan), sent ravens and other birds to devour the seed which had been sown. (11:11ff.)

The Gospels speak of both demons and Satan as being able to possess an individual. An example of an evil spirit taking possession is the case of the woman who had a spirit of infirmity' for eighteen years, which was attributed to her being 'bound' by Satan (Lk 13:11ff.) Here, the condition of the woman is regarded as being caused by demon possession, with Satan as the chief of evil spirits. It is most often portrayed in the Gospels that when a demon takes possession of an individual, it is usually by force and the demonized are not regarded as willful sinners or as excessively wicked people. However, when Satan is said to enter into a person, the possession is not forceful, and the man is held accountable for allowing Satan to influence him. Examples include when Jesus addressed Peter by saying 'Get behind me, Satan.' (Mk 8:33, Mt 16:23) and in Luke 22:3 and John 13:2, which both portray the betrayal of Judas as an effect of Satan entering into Judas.

Also, only a few passages in the Synoptic Gospels mention the final destruction of Satan. Luke 10:18 describes Jesus saying 'I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven.' This may refer to either the original fall of Satan from heaven or it may imply that Jesus believed that the success of His disciples casting out demons could symbolize a complete overthrow of Satan. The most direct allusion in the Gospels is that found in Matthew 25:41 where at the last judgment, Jesus will say to the wicked 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'
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Satan in Acts of the Apostles
In the book of Acts, the terms, 'Satan' and 'the Devil' are used synonymously to portray the chief power of evil. Acts regards Satan as an instigator of falsehood and deceit in the story of Ananias and Sapphira (5:1ff) This agrees with the statement in John which says that the devil tells lies.

"He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character because he is a liar and the father of lies. - John 8:44

Acts also makes reference to Satan as the head of the kingdom of evil. When Paul spoke to king Agrippa, he told the king of how Jesus wanted him to preach to the Gentiles in order "to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God" (26:18)

Hmm, didnt see any mention of paganism or Wicca there but alas, it was an invention of the Hebrews. Might want to point that out to Quickstop....Oh boy and you Christians sure latched onto it in a heartbeat.

who cares!!! i think some of u need to get laid!!!

"The Devil" is in a lot of religions . Just about all of them ,but he goes by different names. As far as anyone can tell, humans have always believed in a "Devil".

The concept of a devil is not found in Wicca. It is however found in Christianity and is indispensable and hopelessly intertwined within its practice and teachings. In other words, intended to frighten the be-jesus out of its followers.

Once again, I hate to be a stikler for the details but...

The devil already has ur soul! I know cause im the LORD!!!

Hmmmm I think that is the most profound thing written today.......and maybe they can use my stripper pole...

Satan?

a christian concept?

Job 1:6. (written around 1520 BC!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD (JHWH), and Satan' came also among them.

verse 7. And the LORD, (JHWH), said unto Satan, Whence comest thou?
Then Satan answered the LORD (JHWH), and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

details are above Krimsa.

Feral just posted it was of Jewish origin originally and I made the comment that you Christians latched onto it full throttle.

Quickstop

not true.

krimsa, you said specifically that it is christian based and derived.

I highlighted your statement to that effect two posts ago.

you lie a lot.

no truth in you.

none.

very untrustworthy and argumentative, young lady.

try sticking to the truth or your opinions, but don't lie and then deny it when you are caught.

It won't help you in other causes by continuing this way, dear.

Perhaps or perhaps not He/She goes by different names. Usually a trickster/temptress of some kind. Or an inventor. For example,The Greeks called him Prometheus.

krimsa

The concept of a devil is not found in Wicca. It is however found in Christianity and is indispensable and hopelessly intertwined within its practice and teachings. In other words, intended to frighten the be-jesus out of its followers.

Debbie

Wrong again


Judaism
Christianity
Islam
Zoroastrianism
Bahá'í Faith
Neopaganism
New Age movement
Satanism

Similar concepts in other religions

Hinduism
Buddhism
Ancient Egypt
The Devil in world folklore

And oh lets go ahead and add this while were add it...just in case more questions might come up...so we can put this one to rest also.


That is going to be my mission.....just answering the questions so we can be done with all this nonesense



Judaism

In Judaism there is no concept of a devil like in mainstream Christianity or Islam. In Hebrew, the biblical word ha-satan (שָׂטָן) means "the adversary"[2] or the obstacle, or even "the prosecutor" (recognizing that God is viewed as the ultimate Judge).

In the book of Job (Iyov), ha-satan is the title, not the proper name, of an angel submitted to God; he is the divine court's chief prosecutor. In Judaism ha-satan does not make evil, rather points out to God the evil inclinations and actions of humankind. In essence ha-satan has no power unless humans do evil things. After God points out Job's piety, ha-satan asks for permission to test the faith of Job. The righteous man is afflicted with loss of family, property, and later, health, but he still stays faithful to God. At the conclusion of this book God appears as a whirlwind, explaining to all that divine justice is inscrutable. In the epilogue Job's possessions are restored and he has a second family to "replace" the one that died.

In the Torah, ha-satan is mentioned several times. The main time is during the incident of the golden calf. As the source of people's evil inclination, or yetser harah, he is responsible for the Israelites building the golden calf while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Torah from God. In the book of 1 Chronicles 21:1, ha-satan incites David to an unlawful census.

In fact, the Book of Isaiah, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Deuteronomy all have passages in which God is credited for exercising sovereign control over both good and evil.

Christianity

In mainstream Christianity the Devil is also known as Satan and sometimes as Lucifer, although most scholars recognize the reference in Isaiah 14:12 to Lucifer, or the Morning Star, to be a reference to the Babylonian king (see, for example, the entries in Nave's Topical Bible, the Holman Bible Dictionary and the Adam Clarke Commentary). Some consider the Devil to be an angel who rebelled against God and has consequently been condemned to the Lake of Fire. He is described as hating all humanity, or more accurately creation, opposing God, spreading lies and wreaking havoc on the souls of mankind. Other Christians consider the devil in the Bible to refer figuratively to human sin and temptation and to any human system in opposition to God. In the Bible, the devil is identified with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, the dragon in the Book of Revelation (e.g. Rev. 12:9), and the tempter of the Gospels (e.g. Mat. 4:1).

Islam

In Islam the Devil is referred to as Iblis (Arabic: Shaitan, a word referring to evil devil-like beings). According to the Qur'an, God created Iblis out of "smokeless fire" (along with all of the other jinn) and created man out of clay. The primary characteristic of the Devil, besides hubris, is that he has no power other than the power to cast evil suggestions into the heart of men and women.

According to Muslim theology, Iblis was expelled from the grace of God when he disobeyed God by choosing not to pay homage to Adam, the father of all mankind. He claimed to be superior to Adam, on the grounds that man was created of earth unlike himself. As for the angels, they prostrated before Adam to show their homage and obedience to God. However, Iblis, adamant in his view that man is inferior, and unlike angels was given the ability to choose, made a choice of not obeying God. This caused him to be expelled by God, a fact that Iblis blamed on humanity. Initially, the Devil was successful in deceiving Adam, but once his intentions became clear, Adam and Eve repented to God and were freed from their misdeeds and forgiven. God gave them a strong warning about Iblis and the fires of Hell and asked them and their children (humankind) to stay away from the deceptions of their senses caused by the Devil.

According to the verses of the Qur’an, the Devil's mission until the Qiyamah or Resurrection Day (yaum-ul-qiyama) is to deceive Adam's children (mankind). After that, he will be put into the fires of Hell along with those whom he has deceived. The Devil is also referred to as one of the jinns, as they are all created from the smokeless fire. The Qur'an does not depict Iblis as the enemy of God, as God is supreme over all his creations and Iblis is just one of his creations. Iblis's single enemy is humanity. He intends to discourage humans from obeying God. Thus, humankind is warned to struggle (jihad) against the mischiefs of the Satan and temptations he puts them in. The ones who succeed in this are rewarded with Paradise (jannath ul firdaus), attainable only by righteous conduct.

Zoroastrianism

In the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian Avesta, believed to have been composed by Zoroaster himself, the poet does not mention a manifest adversary. Ahura Mazda's Creation is "truth", asha. The "lie" (druj) is manifest only as decay or chaos, not an entity.

Later, in Zurvanism (Zurvanite Zoroastrianism), Ahura Mazda and the principle of evil, Angra Mainyu, are the "twin" offspring of Zurvan, 'Time'. No trace of Zurvanism exists after the 10th century.

Today, the Parsis of India largely accept the 19th century interpretation that Angra Mainyu is the 'Destructive Emanation' of Ahura Mazda. Instead of struggling against Mazda himself, Angra Mainyu battles Spenta Mainyu, Mazda's 'Creative Emanation.'

Bahá'í Faith Please pay close attention to the own desires part....this applies to all.....giggle

In the Bahá'í Faith there is no existence of a malevolent superhuman entity such as the devil.[3] Human beings are seen to have free will, and thus are seen to be able to either turn towards God and develop spiritual qualities, or instead be immersed in their own desires and thus commit wrongs; if people are immersed in their own desires, the Bahá'í writings sometimes use a metaphorical usage of satanic to describe their actions.[3] The writings of Bahá'í Faith also state that the devil is also a metaphor for the "insistent self" or "lower self" which is a self-serving inclination within each individual. This tendency is often referred to in the Bahá'í writings as "the Evil One". Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith wrote:

"Watch over yourselves, for the Evil One is lying in wait, ready to entrap you. Gird yourselves against his wicked devices, and, led by the light of the name of the All-Seeing God, make your escape from the darkness that surroundeth you."[4]

`Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'u'lláh's son wrote:

"This lower nature in man is symbolized as Satan - the evil ego within us, not an evil personality outside."[5]

Shoghi Effendi, the head of the religion from 1921–1957 wrote:

"Regarding your question relative to the condition of those people who are described in the Gospel as being possessed of devils; this should be interpreted figuratively; devil or Satan is symbolic of evil and dark forces yielding to temptation."[6]

Neopaganism

Christian tradition has frequently identified pagan religions and witchcraft with the influence of Satan. In the Middle Ages, the Church accused alleged witches of consorting and conspiring with Satan. Several modern conservative Christian writers, such as Jack Chick and James Dobson, have depicted today's neopagan and witchcraft religions as explicitly Satanic.

Few neopagan reconstructionist traditions recognize Satan or the Devil outright. However, many neopagan groups worship some sort of Horned God, for example as a consort of the Great Goddess in Wicca. These gods usually reflect mythological figures such as Cernunnos or Pan, and any similarity they may have to the Christian Devil seems to date back only to the 19th century, when a Christian reaction to Pan's growing importance in literature and art resulted in his image being translated to that of the Devil.[7]

New Age movement

Participants in the New Age movement have widely varied views about Satan, the Devil, and so forth. In some forms of Esoteric Christianity Satan remains as a being of evil, or at least a metaphor for sin and materialism, but the most widespread tendency is to deny his existence altogether. Lucifer, on the other hand, in the original Roman sense of "light-bringer", occasionally appears in the literature of certain groups as a metaphorical figure quite distinct from Satan, and without any implications of evil. For example, Theosophy founder Madame Blavatsky named her journal Lucifer since she intended it to be a "bringer of light". Many New Age schools of thought follow a nondualistic philosophy that does not recognize a primal force for evil. Even when a dualistic model is followed, this is more often akin to the Chinese system of yin and yang, in which good and evil are explicitly not a complementary duality. Schools of thought that do stress a spiritual war between good and evil or light and darkness include the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, Agni Yoga, and the Church Universal and Triumphant.

Satanism

Some religions worship the Devil. This can be in a polytheistic sense where "God", Satan, and others are all deities with Satan as the preferred patron; or it can be from a more monotheistic viewpoint, where God is regarded as a true god, but is nevertheless defied.

Some variants deny the existence of God and the Devil altogether, but still call themselves Satanists, such as Anton LaVey's Church Of Satan which sees Satan as a representation of the primal and natural state of mankind.

Similar concepts in other religions

Hinduism

In contrast to Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism, Hinduism does not recognize any central evil force or entity such as the Devil opposing God. Hinduism does recognize that different beings (e.g., asuras) and entities can perform evil acts, under the temporary dominance of the guna of tamas, and cause wordly sufferings. The Rajasic and Tamasic Gunas of Maya are considered especially close to the Abrahamic concept , the hellish parts of the Ultimate Delusion called "Prakriti". An embodiment of this is the concept of Advaita (non-dualism) where there is no good or evil but simply different levels of realization.

On the other hand in Hinduism, which provides plenty of room for counterpoint, there is also the notion of dvaita (dualism) where there is interplay between good and evil tendencies.[8] A prominent asura is Rahu whose characteristics are similar to those of the Devil. However, Hindus, and Vaishnavites in particular, believe that an avatar of Vishnu incarnates to defeat evil when evil reaches its greatest strength. The concept of Guna and Karma also explain evil to a degree, rather than the influence of a devil.

To be more specific, Hindu philosophy defines that the only existing thing (Truth) is the Almighty God. So, all the asuric tendencies are inferior and mostly exist as illusions in the mind. Asuras are also different people in whom bad motivations and intentions (tamas) have temporarily outweighed the good ones (Sattva). Different beings like siddha, gandharva, yaksha etc. are considered beings unlike mankind, and in some ways superior to men.

In Ayyavazhi, officially an offshoot of Hinduism prominent in Tamil Nadu (a southern state in India with Dravidian heritage), followers, unlike most other branches of Hinduism, believes in a Satan-like figure, Kroni. Kroni, according to Ayyavazhi is the primordial manifestation of evil and manifests in various forms of evil, i.e., Ravana, Duryodhana, etc., in different ages or yugas. In response to such manifestation of evil, believers, in Ayya-Vazhi religion believe that God, as Vishnu manifests in His avatars such as Rama and Krishna to defeat evil. Eventually, the Ekam with the spirit (the spirit taken by Narayana only for incarnating in the world) of Narayana incarnates in the world as Ayya Vaikundar to destroy the final manifestaion of Kroni, Kaliyan.

Kroni, the spirit of Kali Yuga is said to be omnipresent in this age and that is one of the reasons why followers of Ayya Vazhi, like most Hindus, believe that the current yuga, Kali Yuga is so degraded.

Buddhism

A devil-like figure in Buddhism is Mara. He is a tempter, who also tempted Gautama Buddha by trying to seduce him with the vision of beautiful women who, in various legends, are often said to be Mara's daughters. Mara personifies unskillfulness, the "death" of the spiritual life. He tries to distract humans from practicing the spiritual life by making the mundane alluring or the negative seem positive. Another interpretation of Mara is that he is the desires that are present in ones own mind preventing the person from seeing the truth. So in a sense Mara is not an independent being but a part of one's own being that has to be defeated. In daily life of the Buddha the role of devil has been given to Devadatta.

Ancient Egypt

In the Ausarian drama we find that Ausar (Greek: Osiris) is chopped into 13 pieces by Set. Auset (Isis) collects all of his pieces save his phallus. Horus, son of Ausar and Auset sets out to avenge the death and dismemberment of his father by confronting Set. Horus is victorious over Set and Ausar, being brought back from the dead becomes lord of the underworld. It is this drama that gives us the cosmic conflict between good and evil, evil being embodied by Set. This is not to say that Set was always seen as an evil character in Ancient Egyptian theology. There are many times in Ancient Egyptian history where conflicts between different "houses" lead to the depreciation of one god relative to another.

As in most polytheistic faiths, the characters involved differentiate themselves from the Western tradition of a devil in that all the gods are closely related. In this case, numerous historic texts suggest that Set is the Uncle or Brother of Horus and in the "defeat" of Set, we see another separation from the norm in the devouring/assimilation of Set into Horus with the result of Horus having depictions of both the falcon head and the (unknown animal) head of Set. This (like Buddhism) represents a dissolution of dichotomy.

Other names for the Devil


666 or 616, the Number of the Beast
Angra Mainyu, Ahriman: "malign spirit", "unholy spirit"
Antichrist, the coming of the Devil to the mortal world in Christianity
Der Leibhaftige (German): "He Himself"[citation needed]
Diabolus, Diavolus (Greek): "downward flowing"
Iblis, the devil in Islam
Lord of the underworld / Lord of Hell / Lord of this World
Lucifer / The Morning Star (Greek and Roman): bringer of light, illuminator; often believed to be Satan's name before he fell (the Planet Venus)

Prince of Darkness / Air
Satan / The Adversary, Accuser, Prosecutor
The ancient/old/crooked/coiling) Serpent
Shaitan, an Arabic name for Satan
Kölski (Iceland)[citation needed]
Voland (medieval France)



So hmmmmmm with all this different cultures and religions believing in satan......does he exsist.....




YOU DECIDE

I just posted the comment made by Quickstop asking that I should somehow be held accountable for the concept of a "devil". I informed her there was no devil found within the teachings of Wicca. You NOW as a Christian adhere to the notion of Satan. It is found within your teachings. It is not found within Wicca. You as Christians accept Jesus Christ as the son of god. A JEWISH man.

Why do u care so much about that??? Dont u have other things to worry about???

please read above this one.............and decide for yourself and let others do the same......

wiccan rede (motto/creed): "An' it harm none, Do what thou will."
satanic creed: "Do what thou will shall be the whole of the law"

It is the same thing. Do what you feel like doing.

Im was not sure who he was directing that comment to exactly seeing as you jumped on him the other day for merely mentioning a movie on thread....

That’s not the same thing...The rede implies do what you want if you hurt no one, nor yourself. I guess that might be a foreign concept to a fundie?