Is Satan really evil? Keep reading...?

Question

How come the Bible says God is good and Satan is evil where there are many accounts of God commanding things like murder, rape and slavery, and absolutely no accounts of Satan doing anything evil? I'm not trying to offend anyone, I just want to know why we claim over and over that God is good and the devil is bad when their acts in the bible say otherwise.

Mark S, where is it? Give me the scriptures.

Firefly, show me the scripture.

A.R.:
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 "If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."

Deuteronomy 22:23-24"If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife."

chocka69, show me the verses where Satan is doing evil.

Lisampn, that wasn't Satan who tempted Eve. That was a serpent. It never once said that serpent was Satan.

I find it funny that a lot of people are telling me to just know that God is good and Satan is evil, but, really, the stuff God did is ten times more evil than anything Satan did, which is nothing.

DrK please state the scriptures.

Diakonia:
Leviticus 25:44-46 "However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way." God condones slavery.

Deuteronomy 17:12 "Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel."

Answer 1

Its true neither god or the devil is empirical evidence and until proven I wouldn't buy into either. They think if you do not believe in god then there is no reason that you will do good things vs evil. i think that people do good things for internal good rather then anything else. There are many people who are devoting religious believers and kill because they well what ever reason they have.
If you believe in god and it helps than that's great but your right there are too many contradictions out there.

Answer 2

As for the statement you said about rape, God (or the person speaking for God) was hardly commanding it. The passages you gave AR seem to indicate that if a man did rape a woman (in the city where she could cry for help and someone could hear her), there would be consequences. Specifically, a rapist would have to take his victom as his wife. Deuteronomy contains very specific laws for specific situations. If you read the full chapter you would see what I mean. Verses 25 and 26 say "But if the man find the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her; then the man only who lay with her shall die: but to the lady you shall do nothing; there is in the lady no sin worthy of death: for as when a man rises against his neighbor, and kills him, even so is this matter;"

For the original question "Is Satan really evil?" I would say not actually, he seems to be more like a district attorney, showing God (the judge) the bad side of things. This was plainly evident in the book of Job.

Answer 3

Well, I don't know where in the Bible that God commanded murder, rape or slavery. You find that and you let me know. God did command the Israelites to wipe out the pagan nations they were taking over. That was a war time killing to protect Israel from idolatry. God also gave commands on how to handle slaves, but didn't command it. He just didn't forbid it. Nowhere in the Bible does God command rape though.
As far as Satan, he lied to Adam and Eve. He was proud and arrogant and wanted to take over Heaven (which is why he was thrown out in the first place). The Bible says he roams the earth like a lion, seeking to steal, kill and destroy. He also stands, accusing us of our sins today.

Update: I added a verse here that answers both questions. One, Satan = serpent. Two, he deceives the whole world. That is what he does, lies to us to get us to doubt God.

Update 2: Those verse referring to rape are for the protection of the victims. If they are raped, the man should be responsible to take care of the woman. Back then they didn't have Social Security to rely on. The second verse, seems to be talking about the woman being willing, and thus not crying for help. Sounds like a different situation than rape.

Answer 4

We start with the fact that God is the Creator. This is His universe. He sets the rules. He is also the judge who punishes disobedience. The complaints the atheist usually has about God are typically over incidents where the complainer is ignorant of the guilt of the ones killed. See "Molech worship."

Thus, the wars were God's command to execute the convicted criminal. Don't like capital punishment? Tough beans, pal. God does. Every sinner dies. Slavery? God actually mandated laws that tempered the practice which was VERY common then. Rape? Where? Tell me where God "commanded" rape. Or is this something you heard from someone else? Be responsible for your own research.

To your question: "Satan" means adversary. He accuses humans of sin after having given them the idea in the first place. His evil, however, is yours and mine as well: pride.

Answer 5

Might you consider reading a couple of other religious words it looks like this one upsets you?

Siri Guru Granth Sahib,
Bhagavad Gita
Vedas
Koran
many more

Satan was an ANGEL that started a rebellion in Heaven so it is believed. Satan is not talked about a lot in the bible at all so naturally GOD is the one who seems to be the offender

Great shows about Satan or the Devil on the Histry Channel. Try to catch it.

You might read that bible again.

Answer 6

That's a good question.

If you noticed, the bible was written through God by many writers or as these writers claim to be hearing these sayings by God. But if you read carefully into it, the bible verses are written in metaphor.

The original writings too were written in Assyrian, which is Hebrew. People who interpreted it in English may have interpreted the bible incorrectly. The words got tampered with.

If you read Egyptian hieroglyphics. It's a story in it. But know that readers or people who view it, see the meanings differently. In Assyrian, just like Egyptian hieroglyphics, it may say that Satan or whatever his name is, is really a dark adversary. It's a paradox.

Read the Da Vinci code if it helps you.

Also note in the bible, that it did not say anything about Christianity. Jesus Christ did not use the term Christianity and Jesus Christ's adolescence was not even mentioned in the bible.

Many things were cut out. Meaning: The Bible could be a book that is more than three miles long in script. Written in Assyrian. That's chipping away important stories in segment.
That is bad!

Answer 7

The best place to see ow Satan works was when he tempted the Christ is the gospels...


There is God, and anything against God is an adversary, which is what Satan means...
God says we can defend ourselves, but we cannot murder...
David's girl was raped and there was a crime to pay also...
A servant is not a slave, a servant was a way to borrow money, and have a chance to pay it back with servitude, the only slaves were in Africa when they had the Hebrews into slavery for them...

Mar 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

Luk 13:16 And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?

1Cr 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

2Cr 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Read Job and see what Satan did to him for serving God...
God rules the good and the evil, the kind and the unkind, the holy and the unholy...

1Ti 5:15 For some are already turned aside after Satan.

1Th 2:18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.

Answer 8

In many ways you are right, and it would be easy to develop this argument to a point of overwhelming logic.

Fortunately that is not necessary. It would only serve to enflame argument, and it would be over the wrong issues.

The 'fact' of the matter is that all of the acts that your describe are, in any meaningful sense acts of men, men who claim to be acting under the commands of an entity they call 'God'.

As someone has recently pointed out on another question, when people do undesirable stuff and say that the 'Devil' told them too we usually hear a 'Not guilty by way of insanity' plea, and lock the perp up for a good long stretch in a secure mental asylum !

I developed a theory a few years ago that there were altogether too many co-incident factors between the reported attributes of 'Lucifer', and those of Moses. The 'horns'for a start, although by reciprocation I never read anything about Moise having a curly tail !

The bottom line is that for the most part, the 'dirty deeds' are attributable to human beings and human beings alone. There are no embodied 'Entities', either 'Good' or 'Evil', those things are conceptual, and manifest themselves entirely through us, either on the personal level, or in the case of the oddly named ( and conducive to the original premise of your question ) 'Acts of God', by us on a 'Collective' basis.

Answer 9

Satan is really evil. God has the right since he is the creator to do what he wants. Satan became Satan because he wanted what God wanted. And God does not lie nor is there anything unrighteous that he does whereas Satan is a deceiver and tricks people all of the time. God is full of justice, love, and mercy. If you read the bible -you will find out what God is really about and what Satan has done to mislead mankind. So yes Satan is really evil and will blind your eyes (minds eye) from seeing the truth about God.

Answer 10

Genesis 1-3
Job
Mark 4
Luke 10 (Isaiah 14:12-14)
Luke 13:10-16
Luke 22
Acts 26
2 Cor 2:11
2 Thes 2:18
Rev 12
Rev 18-22

Answer 11

in some jewish sects they believe satan to be an angel doing the work of God only when christianity came along did this belief alter into the devil being evil. Satan is the challenger in the christian myth ( I call it a myth because it is not my belief system) he challenges God for the throne of heaven and is casted out with two thirds of his angels. is he evil no. in the myth he is spoken of as the prince of persia with jewels on his wings and a beauty so stunning that he was the second most beautiful creature ( the first being god) but that he was a liar and a thief. he is never charged with anything more then being a liar and a theif.