Why does satan get pinned as the bad guy?

Question

but if you look in the Old Testament(which most christians dismiss as irrelevant) Satan only did as Jehova ordered him to do?

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

It is true that Satan appears to have been given a bit of a raw deal. In the Bible he is described as the advocate or adversary. Even God and Satan made a bet where Job was concerned. He is the tempter and the advocate, but he does not outright lie nor does he actually DO anything so it does make one think. Does he in fact have a purpose and is he more than merely a fallen angel as some believe. I do not take sides in the matter, I merely offer this answer to a rather interesting question.

BTW, yummygood, you should be aware that God DID in fact make Judas betray Jesus, it was a necessary component of fulfilling the plan of Christs resurrection. To deny this is deny Gods' plan.

And to Gnosis, God did not order Satan to tempt, that is true, but He did not stop him either, which is also food for thought.

Answer 3

Job is in the old testament is it not? Read Job 1 (have you reconsidered my servant job)
Next...
Christians follow the new testament, because they follow Jesus, sure the old testament is the base, but the messiah is the direct messenger of God, so what he says, goes, and his hand selected men.
He is pinned as the bad guy, because the New Testament says so, it is the next part of the bible, its like a story, someone can be a straight A student at the beginning of a movie, and at the end turn out to be a drug f**ked serial killer.

Answer 4

If it wasn't for him, we'd all still be free of sin, and living in Paradise.

By the way, who told you most Christians dismiss the Old Testament as irrelevant? You've gotten some bad information there fella.

Answer 5

Satan, like us, has free will.
He wants to tempt humans because he wants us to not have a relationship with God nor God with us.

After the fall, man developed (or was cursed with) a sinful nature - a natural inclination towards sin. When we overcome sin, that brings us all the more closer to God than we even were in the beginning. If we didn't have the fall, Jesus would have never come down and died for us allowing us to be able to have such a close relationship with God. - God takes something that has become bad, and makes it evenbetter than it was to begin with.

Now, as for Satan doing God's bidding, Satan has no power over God. If God wanted to wipe him out of existance, he could. But, God allows Satan to have dominion over hell and allows him to tempt mankind - and Satan knows this full well. It is not so much God "telling" Satan to go do it, rather than saying "fine, go do it." Because, God knows that when man overcomes temptation, the relationship between man and God becomes even greater and there is much rejoicing in Heaven.

Anyway, Satan gets pinned as the bad guy because he IS the bad guy. Angels have it a lot differently than we do. When we sin, it is through a LOT of ignorance on our part. We do not understand, fully, who God is and God is willing to forgive us - we have multiple chances at redemption. The angels, on the other hand, DO know fully who God is from the beginning. One rejection of God from them and it is a million times worse than any of our sins combined. Satan, and the other demons, were angels who rejected God, therefore, God punished them. God is only Good and can only be Good. Anything that rejects Goodness is Evil. Satan rejected God, who is pure Good, so that makes Satan pure Evil.

Answer 6

Every story needs an antagonist (in western lit.) The bible is the best selling book in history, without an antagonist of Satan's caliber the people who believe this book to be fact would have to start questioning their own goodness or badness instead of being able to pin it on a scapegoat (Satan), He is necessary for this religions social purposes.

Answer 7

I can think of 2 things right now. 1: When he was an angel in heaven, he kept on asking God if he could sit in his throne. God refused to let him sit in his throne because only God can sit in that throne, the Creator, the Almighty we're talking about here. Finally, after a considerable amount of times asking, Satan got sent to makehis own kingdom where he and his minions can take all the bad people that die. 2:He tempts us to brek the commandments and do bad things. That voice in your head that tells you to cuss is Satan.But the other voice is the one you should listen to because that's God.

Answer 8

Satan,Is a master of deception.He lies,cheats and steals.He plans a strategy and is willing to invest long periods of time in working his plan....The reason Satan hates and fears the Word of God so much is because it is light, and he can only exist in darkness.That's why we must learn and use the Word of God- because it is a spiritual weapon

Answer 9

Satan is the deceiver and destroyer. Satan chose to turn against God because HE wanted to be like God. God did not order Satan to sin and be lost forever. May peace be upon you.

Answer 10

What exactly do you mean by this? God did not order satan to tempt Adam and Eve .