How many believe that Satan was once a holy angel of God but sinned?

Question

Do you you reject John 8:44 and accept the lie, that he fell from grace when he got beside himself; war in heaven etc.?

Answer 1

You belong to your father the devil and you willingly carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

This Scripture does not contradict Revelation 12:9:

The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, 9 who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.

Or 2 Peter 2:4:

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus and handed them over to be kept for judgment;

Or 1 John 3:8:

Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.

They work together to give us a larger picture of Satan.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Okay, Satan was created by God and God doesn't create anything without perfection so at first Satan had to be perfect. The beginning in John 8:44 could be refering to the creation of man...The war did take place as it says in Revelation 12:1-18, which gives us a glimpse of Satan and 1/3 of the angels rebellng against God and being banished to Earth.

Answer 3

If you believe that John 8:44 is a lie then how can you know what in the Bible is the truth?

Satan was an angel in Heaven and he fell from grace.

Answer 4

The "Satan" image is varied from the biblical viewpoint. He was originally a Seraphim, the highest choir of angel. the most perfect and intelligent being in god's creation. however, he is seen as being jealous of the gifts that God gave to mankind, such as being created in God's Image. the angels are merely the servants of God, while humanity was to become his children. He is Lucifer, the bringer of Light. The light he brings to humanity is the knowledge of good and evil. He is the Satan, the challenger, who questions God's plan involving Humanity. see him challenge god about the faithfulness of Job. He is also the great Serpant, the great dragon of the book of revelations. fearsome and terrifying. however, he is never mentioned of being anywhere equal to god. He is the opposite of Micheal the Archangel, "he who is like god". that is why Michael and the Dragon fight in revelations, for they are the opposing forces. Michael is the follower of god's plan, and the Dragon is the Satan or challenger to the plan.

If Lucifer was created by god to be a perfect spiritual being, then he must have had perfect knowledge and perfect reasoning. the reason satan was cast out of heaven is that in his perfect reasoning he believed that god was mistaken. Satan can never be redeemed because his reasoning would not leave room for doubts or for satan to find himself wrong. He should always believe what he has chosen to believe to be right, and should never change his beliefs. if he can never admit he is wrong, then he can never be forgiven.

Answer 5

I believe what the bible says happened. You should also. But, we have a free will to beleive what we choose. He fell from grace because he wanted to sit on God's throne. He got selfish and coveted God's seat in heaven. He also took 1/3 of the angels with him. He was the lead musical angel in heaven. He screwed up big time. he didn't get beside himself. He thought he should be God. He still thinks that.

Answer 6

Biblical verse is written in parable. If it's taken too literally, the underlying, and more subtle, message is missed.

The story of Satan symbolized the negative polarity in mankind's nature. The nature of mind is dualistic. That is, all concepts arise in pairs, each defined by the other. (Good/evil, happy/sad, light/dark) This is simply the way the mind functions.

As a result, there is the continual internal as well as external conflict between these polarities. We work towards what we consider good and struggle against what we see as evil.

This is the state and fate of mankind resulting from his nature, and is merely described in story form as the battle between God and Satan, representing our own dualistic perception of good and evil.

God is not a being with human limitations, and so has no need to do battle with anything, and in fact IS the Source and substance of all things. It would not be possible for that which we call God to find itself in opposition to itself. It is mankind that places itself in this conflicted role. That was the message of the parable.

Answer 7

Well.... Satan was once an angel... Lucifer by name... he thought that he was as good as God and rebellion began to well up in his heart.... eventually he was kicked out of Heaven... John 8:44 is referring to all of mans sin nature... Satan is the father of evil, the epitome of sin. This verse refers to the way we are easily tempted... it doesn't contradict the fact that Satan is a fallen angel.

Answer 8

I believe that Satan was once an angel but got jealous of God and challenged his way of doing things. The lie was born in Eden and the rest is a biblical mess.

Answer 9

How many of us actually believe that Satan is real to begin with?

I suppose I would have to believe he was real in order to have some belief about where he originated from.

But - when I was Christian I was taught he feel from heaven.

According to this verse - it says we are of Satan. Does this contridict witht he other verses in the bible that says we are God's children? I don't understand how we could be both. Or if God created us why we would be from Satan.

Answer 10

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