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Who Is Satan?
- Thread starter Eddi
- Start date
stvdv
Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
Imagination in the mind of some people
Imagination
Ones mind can have a huge power or influence over ones world
Neither
Unreal
This is how I would answer the questions in the OP:
God pulls people one way, Satan the other
In both instances the natural order of reality is suspended
But the thing is, this reality is not supposed to be real, it is supposed to be a place in which one's character is tested
Once you pass it you progress onto the next level
If you don't quite pass it you get another go - reincarnation - try again!
And if you are outright evil then you are annihilated - game over
But he can influence individual humans and humans can fight him off through spiritual warfare
See The Screwtape Letters
He promotes evil but does so for a good cause - to make this reality more of a challenge
Every person's experience of reality is personalised and God and Satan each have plans for every human
It is up to individual humans to decide what they must do in their lives
I believe he is invisible
Life is a test and Satan exists to administer the test by making it more of a challenge for every human being
A being who works for God as God's counterpart and adversary
God pulls people one way, Satan the other
In both instances the natural order of reality is suspended
But the thing is, this reality is not supposed to be real, it is supposed to be a place in which one's character is tested
Once you pass it you progress onto the next level
If you don't quite pass it you get another go - reincarnation - try again!
And if you are outright evil then you are annihilated - game over
Not in the same way that God does
But he can influence individual humans and humans can fight him off through spiritual warfare
See The Screwtape Letters
Neutral
He promotes evil but does so for a good cause - to make this reality more of a challenge
Every person's experience of reality is personalised and God and Satan each have plans for every human
It is up to individual humans to decide what they must do in their lives
He isn't a red man with horns and a pointy tail
I believe he is invisible
A silly invention?
In as much as scripture is more about the history and future of man, there are some things that aren't explicitly delineated, IMU.
What we do know for sure is, as his name declares, he is God's adversary.(defining his name in both the Hebrew as well as the Greek)
It doesn't say exactly "Satan is.... this" but generally it is has been derived that he was an angel, a created being in charge of worship, that wanted to take the throne of God after pride had entered into his heart.
“You said in your heart… ‘I will make myself like the Most High'” (Isaiah 14:13-14).
He was dethroned from his position after his attempt.
It is also said that he can masquerade as "an angel of light" and yet there is no light in him making him the father of lies. The best lie is one that masquerades the best as truth and, thus, it is a fitting description.
IMV, yes and no - depending. His legal authority was given to him by Adam when Adam decided not to follow God. Yet Jesus took back the authority when Jesus made a shew of Satan or, in other words, paraded before the spiritual world that Satan had been defeated.
But God, being true to His word, gave the authority back to mankind as in the beginning.. So, in essence Satan's power and ability is still being delivered to him as mankind again decides to hand over their authority by following this other spiritual being.
However, when the blood of Jesus is applied in ones life, one receives back the spiritual authority. So Satan's power and influence can only be as much as mankind gives him that authority.
So, yes he still influences the world but man has the power to get it back through the blood of Jesus.
He is a thief, a liar, a murderer et al... bad
I'm not sure what the question is.
EtuMalku
Abn Iblis ابن إبليس
Who the Hell is Satan?
Here's my understanding of this "Old Enemy" as the literary scholar Neil Forsyth coined.
Satan has always existed, only under other names and guises, Satan is a powerful and primordial archetype of man's psyche . . . a meme, or what some may now call a "Godform".
This archetype is the reflection of how we perceive ourselves in relation to what we call the "others". Satan is a social and cultural phenomenon as old as the mind of humanity itself. There has always and will always, be essentially two worldviews consisting of oppositions and they are "Us & Them" or "Me" and "the rest of you" . . . etc.
Sumerian and Akkadian tablets concur this worldview from the earliest known writings, the ancient Egyptian word for an Egyptian meant "human", which excluded all who were not Egyptian to be relegated to 'non-human', the Greek word for non-Greeks was "barbaroi" (barbarians). The Jewish Essenes called anyone, not an Essene "ha satan" (the adversary), Zoroastrianism set forth the dualistic "good" (what we believe in) and "evil" (what they believe in).
"A society does not simply discover its others, it fabricates them, by selecting, isolating, and emphasizing as an aspect of another people's life, and making it symbolize their difference" - William Scott Green (Professor of the history of religion - ancient Judaism, biblical studies, and the theory of religion).
So, who/what is this Satan? He simply is who you are not!
Here's my understanding of this "Old Enemy" as the literary scholar Neil Forsyth coined.
Satan has always existed, only under other names and guises, Satan is a powerful and primordial archetype of man's psyche . . . a meme, or what some may now call a "Godform".
This archetype is the reflection of how we perceive ourselves in relation to what we call the "others". Satan is a social and cultural phenomenon as old as the mind of humanity itself. There has always and will always, be essentially two worldviews consisting of oppositions and they are "Us & Them" or "Me" and "the rest of you" . . . etc.
Sumerian and Akkadian tablets concur this worldview from the earliest known writings, the ancient Egyptian word for an Egyptian meant "human", which excluded all who were not Egyptian to be relegated to 'non-human', the Greek word for non-Greeks was "barbaroi" (barbarians). The Jewish Essenes called anyone, not an Essene "ha satan" (the adversary), Zoroastrianism set forth the dualistic "good" (what we believe in) and "evil" (what they believe in).
"A society does not simply discover its others, it fabricates them, by selecting, isolating, and emphasizing as an aspect of another people's life, and making it symbolize their difference" - William Scott Green (Professor of the history of religion - ancient Judaism, biblical studies, and the theory of religion).
So, who/what is this Satan? He simply is who you are not!
A mythical figure representing anthropomorphic evil like those found in ancient religions.
It is interesting the Satan of the Bible is portrayed as a lesser God among many.
It is interesting the Satan of the Bible is portrayed as a lesser God among many.
In Freudian terms, the Id.
Sigmund Freud is famous for being the founder of psychoanalysis and introducing multiple new psychology theories, the most enduring of which was the notion that the human psyche is composed of 3 parts. This theory is commonly depicted as a devil and angel on someone’s shoulder, signifying a bad side and a good side, with the person in the middle to manage the two. This is the premise of Freud’s theory, every person’s psyche consists of an id, ego and superego, and each one contributes to decisions made by the said person.
Id, Ego and Superego – Passion Blog
"Satan" does not exist except as a personification of the darkness in the human ego. Many have a Manichean view, even those who call themselves Christians, where there is a struggle between an individual called satan and an individual called God. I don't hold that belief.
EtuMalku
Abn Iblis ابن إبليس
This doesn't make much sense to me. Our Id is the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human's basic, instinctual drives . . . the reptilian-brain.Freud developed his concept of the super-ego from an earlier combination of the ego ideal and the "special psychical agency which performs the task of seeing that narcissistic satisfaction from the ego ideal is ensured ... what we call our 'conscience'In Freudian terms, the Id.
Sigmund Freud is famous for being the founder of psychoanalysis and introducing multiple new psychology theories, the most enduring of which was the notion that the human psyche is composed of 3 parts. This theory is commonly depicted as a devil and angel on someone’s shoulder, signifying a bad side and a good side, with the person in the middle to manage the two. This is the premise of Freud’s theory, every person’s psyche consists of an id, ego and superego, and each one contributes to decisions made by the said person.
Id, Ego and Superego – Passion Blog
"Ego, in and of itself is the balance between Id (reptilian/animal/instinctual) and Superego (inflated, megalomania, the delusion of grandeur). A balanced, contained Ego is desired. Where the Ego can fail is when it is not Individuated. It then becomes the reflection of our false self and not our True-Self and becomes a projection of our compulsions and our shadows." - Carl JungIn Freudian terms, the Id.
Sigmund Freud is famous for being the founder of psychoanalysis and introducing multiple new psychology theories, the most enduring of which was the notion that the human psyche is composed of 3 parts. This theory is commonly depicted as a devil and angel on someone’s shoulder, signifying a bad side and a good side, with the person in the middle to manage the two. This is the premise of Freud’s theory, every person’s psyche consists of an id, ego and superego, and each one contributes to decisions made by the said person.
Id, Ego and Superego – Passion Blog
I fail to identify any associations with Satan being the evil inclination and an Angel being a virtuous inclination.
EtuMalku
Abn Iblis ابن إبليس
I would think that the multitude of Satanists, Vedics, and occultists would strongly disagree with your assessment of Satan as "as a personification of the darkness in the human ego", as do I.
dybmh
דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
Well, there's a big Satan, and a small satan.
The best analogy I can think of is that the big Satan is a reflection of Godliness. The small satan is a reflection of the reflection.
At the beginning of creation, God created and saw it was good. But... there's a problem. The first problem is: how to see the creation events and their outcome? Seeing it means that the creation is occuring seperately and removed from the creator. This leads to a second problem. If the creation events are seperate from their source, how do they remain in existence? The solution to this paradox is the creation of a reflection of God as the creation events occured. This way, the creation events are stillI connected to God, but there is a reflected version of creation occuring at the same time. If the reflection is accutrate, it will not only reflect creation, but will be a reflection of God as well.
This reflection looks exactly like God and creation; it seems to have all of God's attributes including the desire for a nation to call its own; including the desire to be worshipped as God of Gods, King of Kings.
In addition to this, the reflection knows it's a only a reflection. God knows it; therefore the reflection knows it too. From the perspective of the reflection, it seems like it can do everything God can do, knows everything God knows, but it has no freedom, no agency on its own. If God wants a nation, the reflection wants a nation. If God wants to be worshipped, the reflection wants to be worshipped. If God establishes a covenant with humanity; the reflection wants to establish a covenant with humanity. If God creates something from nothing, performs miracles and wonders; the reflection thinks it can do these things as well. And, most importantly, if God is wrathful when people worship other Gods and idols; the reflection becomes wrathful as well.
This is the nature of the big Satan's existence. It exists as a reflection. It desires all that God desires, but when people do what they should, the reflection is ignored in favor of God who is actually creating everything including the reflection itself.
The small satan is also a reflection. It's a reflection of a reflection. If each individual has a spark of godliness, aka a soul, and big Satan reflects everything God does; then when this spark of Godliness was granted, the big Satan reflection also granted a reflection of that spark. This "reflection of a reflection" is the small satan who works internally to misdirect attention away for the actual Godly purpose and instead directs an individual towards a relationship with the big Satan, the reflection.
dybmh
דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
Great minds think alike
You beat me to it...
To add: There are many Satanic like figures in ancient religions and cultures that are believed to justify the reasons evil exists, Today? Well there is no reason to believe in a Satan nor the Satanic figures of ancient cultures.
I know that's true. I state my belief. You state yours. Sometimes people agree.
I was specifically speaking of, as I noted, a 'satan' as the opposite of "God" in the dualistic, Manichean, sense.
But for completeness I do think there are malevolent lower astral entitles. In the Vedic tradition, such beings are called rakshasas and asuras but they are not 'satan': Can rakshasas or asuras be called the Hindu devil? - Devdutt
Do you believe any such mythical things exist?
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
Who is Stan? My neighbor he lives a couple of houses down the street.
2. What is Stan? An aging white guy. Need you ask?
3. Stan? Are you kidding me. He does not even have power over his wife.
4. Stan has his good days and bad days. Though I have seen some pretty intense cases of "Get off of my yard!!!".
5. Hmm. That's a toughie. I think that he works for Boeing if that helps.
1) A role (an Accuser, others who are not spirits have been called Satan in the Scriptures in reference to this role) and commonly the person of the greatest of fallen angels. I'll answer the questions as to the second definition.
2) A fallen angel, a spiritual being who has an intellect and will with no body.
3) Yes, via temptations and dominion over the Fallen. Adam and Eve when they Fell submitted to him.
4) He does evil constantly.
5) The nature of his existence is good, for existence is intrinsically good and anything which exists is intrinsically good. For it says in Scripture: "All things thou [God] lovest, nor holdest any of thy creatures in abhorrence; hate and create thou couldst not, nor does aught abide save at thy will, whose summoning word holds them in being. They are thine, and thou sparest them; all things that live thou lovest, thou, the Master of them all."
EtuMalku
Abn Iblis ابن إبليس
Stan? Do you feel alright?