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01-09-2003, 02:33 PM | #1 |
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Satan and Hell
Well first of all, i've been reading through some of the old testament and i was wondering what chapters referred to Satan and his fall from heaven?
Next I wanted to address the concept of Hell. If Satan (from what I am told, have read, heard) went against God and heaven and created (or inhabited?) hell, why would he want to torture all of the people in the mortal world for being sinners? I thought he wanted people to sin and fall away from god, shouldn't he then reward them? Or does Satan strike some deal with God so that all of the sinners go to hell and he punishes them? |
01-09-2003, 03:03 PM | #2 |
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As to your first question: There is no mention of satan's "fall" in the old testament, the most you'll find in the bible is a very obscure reference in revelations. You also might be interested to look here: http://www.outreachjudaism.org/satan.html
As to your second question: According to the Christian theologians, it is God, not satan who created Hell. He did so as a punishment for the outcast angles. Also, satan does not do any torturing, he and the sinners will both be tormented together. |
01-09-2003, 03:13 PM | #3 |
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There is no real reference to Satan rebelling in the Old Testament. In the OT Satan is "The Accusser" and basically is employed by God to test mankind. In JOB he even obeys God's directions in testing Job.
The passage mainly referring to a "Rebellion" is Isiah 14, which makes no mention of Satan but somebody called Lucifer(Literally, Day Star) who is apparentally a Babylonian king who declares himself to be God, but then gets deposed. Also Ezekiel refers to the King of Tyre in similar terms. Day Star might have been a name for a Caananite deity(The alternate name for Yahweh, "El" was also a Caananite deity). Anyhow, the concept of Satan being rebellious does not happen until the NT. We are told that apparentally he rebelled, got evicted from Heaven by God's loyal angel Micheal. Apparentally God created Hell as some sort of punishment chamber for Satan and his pals, and also apparentally sinful man. The apparent concept of Hell and rebellious angels, and Satan as a bad guy as oppossed to a servant, has its probable roots in Zoroastaranism, a monotheistic faith of sorts which the Jews apparentally had contact with after being rescued by the Persian empire. The concept of a Messiah and a second coming also figure into Zoroastaranism. Zoroastaranism, along with Greek and Egyptian concepts, helped to give birth to Christianity's theology. |
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