Did the idea of Satan evolve over time?

Question

I am sick and tired of atheists saying that there was an evolution to the Devil when nothing could be further from the case. While it may be true that Jews don't currently believe in the Devil like we do, they once did believe in the same type of Satan that opposed the Lord like the kind that we Christians believe and there is plenty of evidence for that.

What happened was the Jewish religion fell apart a few hundred years before Christ which is why there are not any books of the Old Testament that take place right before the birth of Christ. This explains the gap.

There is NO evolution in the history of Satan.

What do you think?

Answer 1

Well aren't you so lucky you know everything. You'll go to your Heaven and be bored as Hell (no pun intended) while the rest of us sinners will be enjoying the hereafter with our Athiest/Agnostic friends and family.

Liesel.

Answer 2

Im a firm faith man. However, Satan the word and the being have evolved over time in several different ways. Ahriman was the name close to the first name given for satan, by a civilization. It had the head of a lion and the body of a serpent. Also the name differs depending on who is naming him. Ahriman, Beelzebub, the Devil, the enemy, Baal, etc these are all satan. The name is in never ending evolution, perhaps soon he will get a new name that defines him better for our age, Maybe money? Also the idea of him evolves, he is an angel after all, then a fallen angel, gains power in revelation to eventually try to challenge God, he will fail, but he does evolve. He runs this world until God takes it back from him. He has more power here now than he will. So in many ways he does evolve. If by evolve you mean to change form, or to adapt to different situations.

Answer 3

I am sorry to tell you this, but it is true. In ancient hebrew writings, there was no satan. There was however Samael, who was an archangel sent by God to test the faith of people. The concept of hell was never even a part of judeo belief until several hundred years AD. It developed into the early 1100's where hell the the devil became a scare tactic to force people back to the church. Durring period where plagues stuck Europe, many people strayed away from the chruch, and the devil was a way to scare them back to it. The word Satan comes from a hebrew term ha-satan which means adversary. The name Lucifer was not an angel or a devil until after the council of nicea in 365, originally he was an Etruscan deity who was vilified by the council to bring the country folk of italy at the time into the christian church under Constantine. Sorry to tell you this but they were right, this is very well documented and historical information you can look up anywhere.

Answer 4

I thought you were asking a question.
Satan did evolve into the horned red guy in flames. He was this beautiful smartassed angel, but God obviously kept him close, as in Job. You could argue that Satan helped God show Jesus' determination in the desert, too, but let that go.

If you buy Revelation(if you are Evangelical, I assume you do) then there's this whole rigged conflict set up with humanity in the middle.

The horned red guy was the pagan Fertility god that the early church was trying to discredit to get Christian converts"You can put up the tree of Wotan at Solstice, and your rabbit fertility idols in the spring, but your Horned God is really Satan" The Christians convinced people that the shamans and medicine women were all "witches".

The bottom line is, if God created Satan, is Satan not an aspect of God? If God is ultimately powerful,what's the point of all this drama, besides making Tim Le Hay a fortune?

Answer 5

No, Satan actually was a cherub angel created by Jehovah God to watch over the earth as all angel have different duties in the heavens. Satan got his name by what he did. Satan means to rebel, or rebel. The first time we hear about Satan was in the garden of Eden where he convinced Adam and Eve that God was lieing to them if they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and bad. Which pludged mankind into sin and death. But right away God made a way out for mankind at Gen 3:14,15. You will have to do a study on both seeds to understand what God was proposing for the future of Satan and mankind.

God also shows us what a beautiful angel Satan is as he discribes him at Ezekiel 28:13,14,15. not like what mankind has him pictured as. No wonder so many angels followed him and also they were thrown down to the vicinity of the earth never to return but eventually be distroyed after the war of armegeddon
If you would like more information I would be glade to send you some.

Sincerely yours,
Fred M. Hunter

Answer 6

I think you have no idea what you are talking about. There is a clear evolution seen in the bible regarding Satan. He starts off as an advocate who works for god (see Job, the oldest book in the bible), and ends up being the most horrific monster in existence. Sorry but the OT Satan and NT Satan are not the same one, just as the OT god and the NT god are not the same one.

Answer 7

There is absolutely evolution of satan, even to the point of a kind of speciation. As an example, I'm given to understand that the Kurds believe that satan eventually repented and redeemed himself before god and returned to his former place in heaven. They hold him up as the ultimate example of redemption.

Answer 8

Sense I am not aware of what others think of satan I am just saying this.... satan did start out as the most beautiful angel of them all, he was Gods head angel, then he started to believe he could be as God, with Gods power and all, then he got kicked out of heaven with 1/3 of the angels, he became the god of this world, clearly stated in Bible, and he does get more angry and determinded as time goes on because he knows his time is short to reign here on earth..... *Shrug*....... God bless

Answer 9

Of course satan evolved. Evolution is evil, just like satan.

Answer 10

i think that the idea of Satan is what is evolving, not so much as the Devil Himself. Just as people's ideas of God change, so does their take on the Devil.