Evil by any other name

First let me preface this post by saying I am not an expert nor properly educated in this matter. I am just a being who was blessed with the ability to connect dots and make decisions based on what I see. I am not saying that I am correct in my assumptions nor am I advising you to believe anything I say. I just ask that you read what I have to say and consider that mainstream society has been basing fact off of opinion much longer than I have and I am just trying to share in the right to do so.

Thank you,
~DK

Lucifer in "Paradise Lost" by John Milton

Darkness creeps in and my name you call,
Satan, Lblis, Lucifer, no matter I answer to all.
Sin is my weapon and desire my tool,
I corrupt all, King, Knight, jester or fool.
So beware tired soul for I’ll strike when I can,
I’ll poison the mind of child, woman or man.
But like the boogeyman or monsters under the bed,
The only place that I hide is in the back of your head.

Let me introduce you to the Satan that most of us know.  For the most part all of the popular religions have the same view on the “Prince of Darkness”*.  He was cast down from Heaven for actions that stemmed from his jealousy towards Adam. As the story goes the Angels were created by God to be perfect beings, capable of nothing but love and devotion towards God. Lucifer was among the “Lords” of the angels and considered by many to be his “right hand man”. God, in his all-knowing state decided that a being who does not have the choice or free will to love but instead the order to do so creates a feeling of emptiness.

Enter Adam.  God creates man. Man has the choice to love God and in turn God loves him back. God is pleased with his new creation so much that he favors man over the Angels, much to the chagrin of Lucifer. Now the order of affairs is different for every religion but what seems to be the most common belief is  that Lucifer convinced Eve to pick an “apple” from the “Tree of Knowledge” and feed it to Adam.** After this Adam and Eve are sent from Paradise and the Garden of Eden to roam Earth. A council is set up in Heaven made up of the Angels with God presiding over it. Lucifer was the Accuser or prosecutor of man. He was charged with proving that man was inferior to Angles. As the story goes he tried many times to win God’s favor but failed each time. Lucifer started an uprising and was eventually defeated and banished to Hell. Now this is where my belief strays from the mainstream. I can accept the “history” thus far but when the subject of Hell comes into play I have another theory.

The bible defines Hell as “a place devoid of God” or “The eternal absence of God”. Now it also says that in death we are to be buried with our heads facing east to await the return of Christ***. So lets say that The Revelation occurs and every believer is taken to join God in his Kingdom. Who is left? The nonbelievers or “heathens”. So now we have Earth and it’s people but God is gone. We have no one left to spread the Word or share in their faith. So we have a world without God. We have Hell. Now a lot of stories say that Satan can not enter our world because of a boundary enforced by God. If that is true why is he called “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and “the prince of this world” (John 12:31 and 14:30) So my theory is this, that if all of the followers of God are gone then earth becomes Hell. We are left on this desolate rock without the one thing that God can guarantee. Hope. The belief in God revolves around hope that we will be saved. So where does that leave Satan? In every man or woman who ever doubts the existence of God because it destroys our hope that there is something else after life.

So in a nutshell I don’t believe in an actual Satan. I think Satan is much like Santa Claus in the fact that we always have to have a face to go along with our actions. We can’t just say “I want to buy you a present’ or “If you are bad I won’t buy you anything.” Santa Claus is used just as much to instill fear into children as love. Why else would there be a naughty or nice list? Satan is the face of our sin. He is our “scapegoat”. He is the opposition of God that manifests himself in every one of us.

If I may make a suggestion, if you are looking for answers about Satan, make the call yourself. I can recommend reading “Paradise Lost” by John Milton. It is an excellent story that depicts Satan very well.

I will close by saying that if you are searching for answers follow one simple rule.

“Be guided by man but never lead by him.”
~DK

Footnotes

*My personal favorite of the names given to Satan. If he is the “Prince of Darkness” who is the King? I only know one being more powerful.

**I just wanted to add that I do not believe in the “Tree of Knowledge” as an actual tree but instead the exploration of sexuality.

***An out of date practice. Christ was thought to rise with the sun when He returned.