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when did christians start needing satan?

Posted on: January 3, 2007 - 3:30am
rumpagump
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when did christians start needing satan?

Even though it has lost populatiry in preaching trends, to the point where many christians compleatly forget about satan, a few christians(mostly in my area apparently) are very good and blaming all the bad things on satan, and the good things on god.
I cannot find a place in the old testament where they talk about eternal punishment or where the names and terms now used to discribe the devil where by the jews used also for god. so it seems as though, originally god would put you in a corner that he called hell and kick your ass for a while but then he would let you out, and back into heavan but at some point christians missed haveing more than one god to worship/fear, and added a god of hurting you to the mix.

So do I have a point here or am I missing some thing and compleatly off base, I guess the goal I am headed towards is bringing christians around slowly, you get ride of the devil, and explain that god does the tortureing in hell, then from there knocking the rest of the bible down is pretty easy. I guess I am kinda looking for a game plan on what to explain and when.

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No god, Know Peace

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Posted on: January 3, 2007 - 5:02am #1
Rook_Hawkins
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Several things here: In

Several things here:

  1. In the old testament, especially in early Jewish tradition, there was no afterlife.  Consider the following biblical passages: (From Annihilationism in "Biblical Errancy: A Reference Guide" by Dennis McKinsey)
    • Ps. 6:5, "For in death there is no rememberance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?"
    • Ps. 88:10, "Wilt thou show wonders to the dead?  Shall the dead arise and praise thee?"
    • Ps. 115:17, "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence."
    • Eccles. 3:19-21, "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea they all have one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.  All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.  Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?"
    • Eccles. 9:5, "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more reward: for the memory of them is forgotten."
    • Jer. 51:39, "...I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord."
    • Jer. 51:57, "...and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts."
  2. Also, Satan is a construct of dogmatic interpretation.  Not so much a biblical character.  In fact Satan isn't really big in the Bible, but in the Quran he's a famous character - of course there is also 500 years of Christian dogmatic perversion to be said about these passages.  I suggest picking up a copy of the Satanic Verses, they are the verses in the Quran which discuss the fall of Satan from heaven (ironically not talked about much in the Bible but discribed in detail in the Quran). 
  3. Satan in early Christian Gnostic writing is the God of creation - the demiurge which leads us away from the Gnosis, from the Monad, and Sophia.  There is a lot to get into concerning the perversion of this doctrine.  Suffice it to say that you're looking at a very contradictory character in Christianity, and one which is supposed to playing a vital role.

 Hope this helps.

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