In ancient Jewish tradition Satan is simply an angel doing the work that God assigned to Satan to do.
The word Satan means challenger. With the idea of Satan challenging us, or tempting if you will. This description sees Satan as the angel who is the embodiment of man's challenges. This idea of Satan works closely with God as an integral part of Gods plan for us. His job is to make choosing good over evil enough of a challenge so that it becomes clear to us that there can be only one meaningful or logical choice.
Contrast this to Christianity, which sees Satan as God's opponent. In Jewish thought, the idea that there exists anything capable of setting itself up as God's opponent would be considered polytheistic or setting up the devil to be an equally powerful polarity to god or a demigod.
Oddly, proof for The Christian satan/devil mythology is supposedly found in the ancient Jewish texts that were borrowed to create the bible. One can’t help but wonder how Christians came up with such a fantastically different interpretation of Gods assistant Satan in their theology.
Other hints about Satan’s role in human relations can be seen if you look at the name Lucifer. It’s meaning in the original tongue translates as Light bearer or light bringer. Essentially the bringer of enlightenment. The temptations of the Satan idea bring all of us eventually into Gods light. Hardly the Evil entity of Christian mythology.
Love and blessings
don
2006-12-23 02:41:48
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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There is a story in the bible about a rich man. The rich man died, and since he had denied God, God honored his decision and separated himself from the man. This caused the man to suffer. He asked the poor man, who was with God, to send a sign to his living relatives so that they would not have to go through the same experience that he had gone through. God told him that if they did not believe from the previous prophets and miracles, then they would not believe any other sign that he sent.
These relatives could not be made to change their minds about God by a sign, for they were not receptive to the signs that already existed. So, if you are determined to prove that God does not exist, no sign would convince you; you would just explain it away. I have no power to prove God to you, the change must occur in your own heart.
2006-12-22 19:13:55
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answer #2
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answered by Aisatsana 2
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Be patient grasshopper. You will have the proof you seek sooner than you can imagine.
Oh, did you hear the Space Shuttle Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center this evening? Well, that's what somebody said anyway. I doubt it really happened. They said it had been docked with the International Space Station! Ha! Can you believe that? The International Space Station. What a silly idea. People actually believe it exists! Makes ya wonder, huh? NASA expects us to believe in something only a few people claim to have seen. There are only a handful of people who actually "serve" in the program, no one else has even seen what these guys claim to have built and touched. And yet we are asked to believe in something so unimaginable and wonderful. Are you kidding? I'm not buying it. Space Station my foot. How gullible do they think we are? Nope, I'm a whole lot sharper than that! Space Station? Good grief!!!
2006-12-22 19:05:44
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answer #3
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answered by AK 6
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I don't think anything anyone can say anything to prove to you that God or satan exists. Read your bible daily and it will give you all the answers you need. Try reading the book of Romans, and study it closely especially chapter 10. God bless you and have a merry Christmas.
2006-12-22 19:13:12
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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They won't show their faces because you demand them to.but I;m sure Satan will oblige you with some demons.Do you actually think that we crawled out of the ocean,or evolved from that Gieco dude in those commercials.As complex as the human mind and body is don't you think we had to be created.God won't show himself because it is all about faith brother ,faith.
2006-12-22 19:12:05
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answer #5
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answered by one10soldier 6
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Pray if you are truly seeking with your whole heart, ask God to make him self known to you, but if you are doing it falsely God will know your heart so you may not receive an answer they way you are expecting it. If there is one thing I have learned in 30 years of living God has a way of showing you who he is.
2006-12-22 19:12:21
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answer #6
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answered by Alicia S 4
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Well, it is in the Bible and it is an act of faith. It says that believers and those who accept Jesus and repent their sins to God will get everlasting life in Heaven, but all the non-believers will have their place in the lake of fire in eternal hell. Sorry about your bad luck if you choose to stay on the path you are on.
2006-12-22 19:15:39
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answer #7
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answered by Dakota Lynn Takes Gun 6
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I believe that you are an Agnostic. An Agnostic is someone who believes there is not enough proof today to prove if any God existed at one point. Find your faith. Dont let others tell you wait to believe. :)
2006-12-22 19:04:57
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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Why Were
We Created ?
We are in this world because we committed a horrendous crime, and thislife is our chance to redeem ourselves, denounce our crime, and rejoin God's kingdom.
It all began a few billion years ago when "a feud arose in the Heavenly Society" (38:69). One of the high-ranking creatures, Satan, entertained supercilious thoughts that his God-given powers qualified him to be a god besides God. He thus challenged God's absolute authority. Not only was Satan's idea blasphemous, it was wrong - only God, and no one else, possesses the qualifications and ability to be a god. Consequent to Satan's blasphemy, a division occurred in the Heavenly Society, and all constituents of God's kingdom became classified into four categories:
1. Angels: Creatures who upheld God's absolute authority.
2. Animals: Creatures who rebelled but then accepted God's invitation to repent.
3. Jinns: Creatures who agreed with Satan; that he is capable of being a "god."
4. Humans: Creatures who did not make up their minds; they failed to
make a firm stand with God's absolute authority.
http://www.submission.org/suras/app7.html
*20:115 When Satan challenged God's absolute authority (38:69), you and I did not make a firm stand against Satan. God is giving us
a chance, on this earth, to redeem ourselves by denouncing Satan and upholding God's absolute authority
http://www.submission.org/suras/sura20.htm
2006-12-22 19:11:12
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answer #9
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answered by A2Z 4
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Here u go!!
agine a book written by more than forty authors, each with different levels of education, social position, and age. Then imagine that these authors used three different languages to write this book. Assume that at the time they wrote it, some of them were in a situation of war, some were at peace, some were imprisoned, some were living in splendor, others in poverty. In addition, imagine that the authors of this book lived at different times during a 1,500 year time span. What do you suppose the result of this writing would be?
The Bible was written under these conditions. Its contents describe hundreds of controversial topics and are of a variety of literary types, yet there is a unity in the writing that binds it together: the theme of God's redemption of man. The Bible is philosophically consistent. The conditions of its writing and the resulting unity of the text speak of a supernatural direction, the Holy Spirit, directing chosen men who authored the Bible. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. -- 2 Timothy 3:16.
The Bible is also unique in its content. The Bible's perspective of the universe, man's existence and man's origin is described from an external observation point outside of the created dimension, which is unique in religious works. John 1:3, Colossians 1:16-17 and Hebrews 7:3 speak of God being above time and space. Job 26:7 speaks of God suspending the earth in space: "he suspends the earth over nothing", something that until modern times required an external viewpoint to comprehend. The Bible alone among religious works clearly states that time had a beginning. In Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
Prophecies described in the Bible were accurately fulfilled centuries later. No other religious writings have such accuracy of prophecy fulfilled. Scientific facts in the Bible are accurate far beyond human knowledge of science at the time they were written. Scientific facts in other religious writings are no where near as accurate. The Bible is historically accurate as well. Archaeological discoveries substantiate Bible accounts.
Unmatched Fulfillment of Prophecies
The Bible stands alone among literature. Prophecies written hundreds of years before an event have been fulfilled with 100% accuracy. There are approximately 2500 prophecies in the Bible, 2000 of which already have been completely fulfilled -- the remaining 500 speak of future events.
The chance of any one man fulfilling just eight prophecies has been calculated by Peter W. Stoner in Science Speaks at 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 -- yet 60 major Old Testament prophecies, having 270 ramifications were fulfilled by the life of Jesus. An example of the precisely fulfilled prophecies include the place of His birth, Bethlehem (prophesied in Micah 5:2, fulfilled in Luke 2:4-7); that He would be born of a virgin (prophesied in Isaiah 4:17, fulfilled in Luke 1:26-31); that He would be despised and rejected by Jews (prophesied in Isaiah 53:3, fulfilled in John 1:1, Luke 23:18); that He would be betrayed by a friend (Judas) for thirty pieces of silver cast on the floor of the Temple and used to buy a potter's field (prophesied in Zechariah 11:11-13, fulfilled in Matthew 27:3-10).
Fulfilled prophecy extends to the present day -- consider the people of Israel. In Genesis 12:2,3 and 13:13-15, God promised Abraham a great nation, a great name and a land that will belong to his descendants forever and through Abraham, that all families of the earth will be blessed. At the time, Abraham was 75 years old and his wife was barren. The prophecy was fulfilled when Abraham was 90 years old (Genesis 21:2) when his wife Sarah miraculously bore him a son. Over the next several hundred years, the nation promised to Abraham appeared (Exodus 1:7).
Later, through Moses (Deut. 28-33), God warned Israel that He will use other nations to remove them from their land if they are unfaithful to Him. He predicted that they would eventually be scattered across the whole earth and would find no rest. He also promised to bring them back to their land. Israel was unfaithful. King Nebuchadnezzar took people captive to Babylon, then burned the city and the Temple. God then allowed the Israelites to return to the land (Ezra 1). Later, in AD 70, Titus the Roman also destroyed the city of Jerusalem, scattering the people. In AD 1948, Israel became a nation and the people began to return to their homeland. They have since survived several conflicts. We think of the United States as having a long history, yet it has been in existence for only 200 years. Israel has been a people for more than 4,000 years.
2 Peter 1:20-21 describes how Bible prophecy can be so accurate: "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
Being a Hebrew prophet in ancient times was a serious and unenviable position. The prophet was purporting to speak for God and the penalty for any error was death. "But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death." -- Deut. 18:20. Prophets had to be 100% accurate. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 gives a test to determine whether the prophet is speaking for God: "You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?" If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously."
2006-12-22 19:11:17
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answer #10
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answered by ? 4
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