[GCFL-discuss] Let there be Satan...

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

Lance, with all due respect to what you have been taught, and those who
were your teachers, the Bible says very little about angels, and the Old
Testament seldom even uses the term, explaining almost nothing when it is
used. Christians are taught many things that do not appear in the Bible.
Some of it is derived from Biblical references. I mean, there is
something that could mean what later Christians decided it does mean, but
it could have meant many other things too. Some of it is simply filled
into gaps in what the Bible does say, again, possibly true, but not
authoritatively established.

I think it started with Greek philosophers among the early gentile
converts, who had to EXPLAIN everything. (The trinity, for example, is
not in the Bible, but the Greeks had to explain WHY Christians were to
baptize in the name of father, son and holy ghost. The truth is, we don't
know why, we just know that Jesus said to do it. Jesus never explained
what the relation of the Son to the Father, or the Holy Spirit to either
one, really was. I have occasionally toyed with Jesus's question "Why do
you call me good? There is none good but God" as direct refuatation of
the Trinity. But I don't know, anymore than the Nicene Council knew.) One
thing the Jewish rabbis had right was, and still is, that they have no
theology. They do not claim or pretend to be able to explain the nature
or character of God. That is simply beyond human ability.

The notion that Satan is a fallen angel is derived, and I mean derived,
not revealed, from a very obscure passage in the Old Testament about
"Lucifer, Son of the Morning." It is not at all clear from the original
that this was an angel, or has anything to do with the separately named
Satan, who is never identified as an angel either. 

It could all be true, but it is not clear and plain Biblical revelation.
As C.S. Lewis remarked in the introduction to The Screwtape Letters, the
existence of fallen angels who try to tempt humans "is one of my
opinions. My religion would not be in ruins if this opinion were shown to
be false. Till that happens -- and proofs of a negative are hard to come
by -- I shall retain it." Personally, I take the opposite approach. I see
little reason to believe in devils, or fallen angels, or Satan as the
arch-enemy of God, but my religion would not be in ruins if it turned out
to be true. I don't believe much about angels either. When the Bible says
one appeared and said certain words, I accept that as true. What the
angel was, what its nature and origins and capabilities are, I have no
idea.

Siarlys
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