Weighing God Against Satan

[DonSinger]

Like 2 sides of the same coin. That's quite possible.


If you seriously think that there are 2 forces of the spiritual world - eg. good and bad - then either

• these 2 personifications (good and evil), are 2 gods, which would rule out that the Abrahamic religions are not technically monotheistic,
• or if there are only one Abrahamic deity in the monotheistic religions, then God = Satan.

Let just concentrate on Christianity for one moment. There are those who believe that the Trinity, is 3 separate personalities: Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. And there are those who believe that the Trinity are just 3 aspects of one single entity.

We have plenty of Christians who believe that Jesus is God, but came to earth in human form, hence Jesus is a simply an incarnation of God or emanation of God.

If that's true, then what prevents people believing that Satan also being an emanation of God?

I've thought about this for some time,a nd i agree withi this. i would even take it to the extreme that all things are an emanation of god. including us. we just dont realize it yet becuase we dont have the knowledge, understanding, or resources to figure it out.

 

[gnostic]

i would even take it to the extreme that all things are an emanation of god. including us. we just dont realize it yet becuase we dont have the knowledge, understanding, or resources to figure it out.

I am not a gnostic, despite what my nick/avatar/alias say, but your 2 statements here, pretty much sum up (meaning very close to) the teaching of Gnosticism.

 

[EtuMalku]

Like 2 sides of the same coin. That's quite possible.

If you seriously think that there are 2 forces of the spiritual world - eg. good and bad - then either

• these 2 personifications (good and evil), are 2 gods, which would rule out that the Abrahamic religions are not technically monotheistic,
• or if there are only one Abrahamic deity in the monotheistic religions, then God = Satan.

Let just concentrate on Christianity for one moment. There are those who believe that the Trinity, is 3 separate personalities: Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. And there are those who believe that the Trinity are just 3 aspects of one single entity.

We have plenty of Christians who believe that Jesus is God, but came to earth in human form, hence Jesus is a simply an incarnation of God or emanation of God.

If that's true, then what prevents people believing that Satan also being an emanation of God?

Interestingly the Gnostics believed Jesus was Lucifer.

Aside from this oddity from the C. Bible:
Isaiah 14:12
New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!

King James Bible
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!


American King James Version
How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!


American Standard Version
How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!


Douay-Rheims Bible
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didst wound the nations?


Darby Bible Translation
How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! Thou art cut down to the ground, that didst prostrate the nations!


English Revised Version
How art thou fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst lay low the nations!


Revelation 22:16
"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."

-from the Gospels of Nag Hammadi: Testimonial Of Truth
"the God whom most Christians worship, the God of the Hebrew Bible, is 'himself' one of the fallen angels . . .

Testimony Of Truth (3:4-5)
. . . it reveals truth only when one reads it in reverse, recognizing that God is actually the villain, and the Serpent (Lucifer) the holy one

Reality of Rulers (Nag Hammadi)
"It is Samael and his fellow 'rulers' of the Darkness (Eph.6:12), not the true God, who formed Adam's physical body, set him to work in Paradise, "to till and cultivate it" then put him to sleep and fashioned his female partner out of his rib.

It is this God that commanded Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, which could open his eyes to the Truth. When Adam & Eve, enlightened by the feminine spiritual principle who appeared to her in the form of the Serpent(read:Lucifer) and deified them.

God threw mankind into great distraction and into a life of toil, so that humankind might be occupied with worldly affairs, and might not have the opportunity of being devoted to the Holy Spirit / Higher-Self / HGA.

 

[DonSinger]

Thats strange....

 

[MountainHumanist]

Who's a better character, who's more admirable? God or Satan or neither, and why?

Depends on who is writing the story.

The evolution of the Satan myth is fascinating. He goes from being an under-colleague of Yahweh (see the Book of Job) to a slightly more antagonistic associate (see Zechariah — The Satan (accuser)). Then he gets jumbled up with Greek and Zoroastrian myths and voilia..you have the current Prince of Darkness motif.

 

[MountainHumanist]

Interestingly the Gnostics believed Jesus was Lucifer.

Aside from this oddity from the C. Bible:
Isaiah 14:12
New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!
.

From what I understand of current biblical scholarship, the whole Lucifer=Satan construction from Isaiah has been shown within context to not be referring to Satan but rather to the King of Tyre.