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To: alt.pagan From: "Kevin Jones"Subject: Re: Thelema & Jewish and Christian Anti-Gods Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2004 03:50:23 -0000 "Joshua B" wrote in message news:3262406f.0401011354.1d4d7345@posting.google.com... > Joseph Bearwalker Wilson wrote in message news: ... > > > On Fri, 26 Dec 2003 09:47:07 GMT, 333 wrote: > > > > >50031226 vii om Hail Satan! > > > > > >Joseph Bearwalker Wilson : > > ># Pre-Christian religions don't have a "satan" concept. > > > > > >on the contrary, they employed the concept freely as nouns > > >(cf. Balaam) and as officers (cf. Job). > > > > There are exceptions to every rule ;) > > > > > > > ># They don't need one because both good and evil acts are > > ># attributed to the same god/s. There is a balance there. > > > > > >for a good number of religious this is exactly true. > > >dualists have developed anti-God agents, however, clearly. > > >this applies within Christian *and* pre-Christian trads. > > >for example, the Mazdaists preceded Christianity, and > > >their 'satan concept' was Angra Mainyu/Ahriman. > > > > I'm not familiar with them -- but still think that the concept of a > > being of total and absolute evil, i.e. the common "satan concept" to > > be a rarity except in relatively modern times. > > > > ># ...the whole "satan" concept springs from the time when > > ># people started to think that their god no longer had to > > ># be appeased to keep it from doing bad things to them > > ># because they decided that "all God is Good" and it wasn't > > ># logical to attribute the "evil" things that happen to > > ># the same source they attributed the "good" things that > > ># happen. So to explain the bad things they had to name > > ># another source. > > > > > >JBRussell says as much about Jews, Jehovah, and Satan. > > > > > >blessed beast! > > > > > >333 > > > > - > > Live in harmony, > > > > Joseph Bearwalker Wilson > > An interesting thing about Christianity that can be noted is that evil > is _not_ originated from Satan (or Lucifer), though he is a strong > propagator of Darkness. According to the Christian belief, Lucifer was > created as a being of light, of music... he was the "son of the > morning", the "Daystar", in the Old Testament, until his fall turned > him to the Chief of Darkness (known in the Belief as Prince of > Darkness, or Prince of the Darkness of this World). There existed Evil > before Satan (or his creation.. if there was an angelic "creation"?) > and apart from Satan. The Old Testament speaks of Lucifer by stating: > > "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how > art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For > thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt > my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of > the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the > heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be > brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." Actually that passage doesn't refer to the Devil at all. It refers to a mortal king of Babylon. Further more, the original passage has no mention of hell - it mentions instead sheol - the place of the dead. Later passages connect have this individual involved in mercantile trade between nations. The whole myth of Lucifer is exactly that - a myth. It results from bad translations, plus Origen and Tertullian developing the myth of the devil in the second century AD. It was Tertullian who created the idea that the Devil was originally the foremost angel before his fall - there is no Biblical precedent for this idea. The issue has then been further compounded by Jerome's Vulgate Bible which was the basis for the KJV, and by people cheerfully quoting passages out of context without reading the bits that came next. Now if you look at the Hebrew original, those passages don't contain the name Lucifer (which BTW is a Latin name, not a Hebrew one) and don't refer to the Devil in any way shape or form. To compound matters, Jesus is referred to as Moning Star (Latin: Lucifer) in several passages in the New Testament. Or for good measure, the original Hebrew satan was an angel - any angel (including Gabriel) - who was sent on a mission by Yahweh to prevent a mortal from committing a sin. The satan also acted as a sort of divine DA in the court of God. The Hebrew term satan referred, in short, to a divine office that could be held by any angel, and not any individual spirit. Kevin
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