is Satan evil?

Question

now think about this, because this is one of a series of questions, the following depending on the answers i get. it may take a some time to get through all of them, so be patient.

Answer 1

I do not believe in Satan.

Answer 2

Not particularly. Evil is in the imagination of an unreasoning mind, that can't spend time looking for a better answer. So they simplify. "This is good." "The rest is bad." And thus get out of spending any serious time and effort to understand anything complicated. (Like math. Matrices are about as evil as anything can get.) Evil can only exist where people aren't willing to make the time or effort to understand and appreciate the true nature of what they see.

To say that Satan is evil is to take an easy out. Really, I'd be more likely to say that Satan has done more to convert Christians than God ever did, so who are they really worshipping? And can he be all that evil, if people believe in God, just to escape him?

Now insane is completely different. And beyond my comprehension, which is as it should be.

Answer 3

An interesting quandry. Not in the Old Testament, certainly - in Numbers 22:22, Job, I Chronicles, Psalms and Zechariah, the term designates a job description (satan = adversary in Heb.).In these cases, the angel(s?) investing this office is (are?) not apostate or fallen, and thus NOT evil. In Job, for example, he presents himself before the Lord in the company of other unnamed "sons of God". There is no question of his being evil, or apostate. The one incident where ha-satan is given as satan (without the efinite article) [I Chron.21] is generally considered to be a scribal oversight.

However, with the emergence of the New Testament, the term appears with a capital 'S' and is characterised by such epithets as "prince of this world" (John 16:11), and "prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). The Nazarene calls Peter 'Satan' when he rebukes him (Luke 4:8).

Medievael writers saw Satan in the guise of the serpent who tempted Eve, but the earlier view was that he acted through the serpent. Pre-Christian Juaism seems to have no notion of Fallen Angels whatsoever.

Only through a misreading of Isiah 14:12 is Satan actually identified with Lucifer.

Several early church fathers (Jerome, Gregory of Nyssa, Origen, Ambrosiaster and others) hold that Satan will be reinstated in his "pristine splendour and original rank". Incidentally, this is also Cabbalistic doctrine. Originally Satan (as ha-satan) was a great angel, chief of the Seraphim and head of the order of virtues...

Please realise that such contradiction is common when one gets under the surface of the B*ble. For example, in Rev. 9 Abbadon/Apollyon is called "the angel of the bottomless pit", but in Rev. 20, he "laid hold on that dragon, that old serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years." And according to the Greater Key of Solomon, Abbadon is "a name of God that Moses invoked to bring down the blighting rain over Egypt."

All angels are (apparently) under God, even when, to all intents and purposes they are performing under the auspices of the Devil. Evil itself is an instrumentality of the Creator, who uses evil for his own divine, if inscrutable ends.This may be inferred from Isiah 45:7, and is also Church doctrine, as is the notion that angels surrendered their free will the moment they were formed.

So, if Satan is just doing what he's told, and has no free will in the matter then he's not evil. Which fits with the idea of him being eventually reinstated to his original rank...

Bernard J. Bamburger's 'Fallen Angels': "The classic expositions of the Jewish faith have implicitly or explicitly rejected the belief in rebel angels and in a Devil who is God's enemy....The Hebrew Bible itself, correctly interpreted, leaves no room for a belief in a world of evil powers arrayed against the goodness of God....Historical Christianity, on the other hand has constantly affirmed the continuing conflict between God and Satan." This doctrine (along with Jewish sectarian ideas of the post-Biblical era) is almost certainly an inheritance from Zoroastrian dualism.

In conclusion, then, i think the problem is more one of Satan being misunnderstood and misinterpreted, rather than of being 'evil'. Satan may well have been God's best creation - he's kept him in business for years...

Answer 4

Satan is merely the chief god of paganism--back in the day, hysterical Catholics seeking converts transormed the Pagan's Horned God (actually a representation of maleness and the earth) into a symbol for evil. Thus emerged the Satan, horns and all. Honestly, the Devil is only a scare tactic--he doesn't actually exist.

Answer 5

Satan like god is something invented by priests to keep people under some sort of control. Dont worry about him he does not exist. However there are quite a few evil people in the world you can worry about them

Answer 6

Only when IT does bad things. I have never been given accurate facts concerning Satans Gender, so it is Politically correct, not to place the pressure of all men with this THING.

So again, my answer is, only when IT does bad things.

Answer 7

Totally.
No Mercy or Compassion Either.
satan is an Angel, NOT a Human Being.

Answer 8

supposidly. satan was supposed to be a bad angel, and god sent him away from heaven.

by the way, i'll have forgotten what i answered for this question and probably won't answer your other ones
sorry :(

Answer 9

This word is pronouced same in Urdu and English.

yes He is evil

Answer 10

Satan became evil when he didn't want to be called Lucifur anymore