RE: Who was "he" talking to?
January 11, 2017 at 7:51 pm
(This post was last modified: January 11, 2017 at 7:58 pm by Godscreated.)
(January 11, 2017 at 2:17 pm)Stimbo Wrote:(January 11, 2017 at 1:23 am)Godschild Wrote: The Bible gives us more info about Satan than you might realize. The history of other religions. Taking what I know about each subject I can reason out these things, God gave us a mind to use not to waste.
GC
Then perhaps cite all the relevant passages regarding satan specifically.
If I thought you serious I would, however I know you don't care.
GC
(January 11, 2017 at 2:50 pm)Secular Elf Wrote:(January 10, 2017 at 8:14 am)Tonus Wrote: This is one of the things that makes it easy to defend one's own beliefs. Other beliefs that are based on what appear to be the same reasoning are attributed to people being misled by Satan, who can masquerade as an angel of light. But it means that everyone's explanation sounds exactly the same and no one can tell the difference. How can one be sure that it was really god speaking to him, and not the devil?
Good point.
The thing about Satan, as anyone familiar with Judaism, as either a believing Jew, cultural Jew, or as a student of comparative religion can attest, is that Satan is not a person, but a title, "the accuser", and is part of the broader group of angels in Judaic mythology. In other words, Yahweh's right-hand of justice, so-to-speak. It was the Romano-Greek Christians of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages who made Satan into the figure of "The Devil"; the recipe is quite simple: pour in some dualism by making Satan the bad god, throw in the attributes of Hades/Pluto as the ruler of a fiery underworld, add some imagery by taking the horns and hooves of Pan and sticking them on Lucifer, pin a pointed tail and throw in a dash of red dye mixed with some superstition about the originator of tragedy and voila! You got the king of devils and the adversary of Yahweh.
Sounds like what the biblical uneducated would say.
GC
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.