What about the devil?

[dhillon]

dear members
i think the real true DEVIL is the MIND.. this is the one that got us separated from the good lord.. mind is the one that kept the soul in a bondage trapped form life after life without earning salvation

 

[Etu Malku]

1) How did we jump from the OT to the NT with a full blown concept of satan/devil, any historical references?

The Word Satan comes from the Persian Shaiten and the Judaic ha-satan, both meaning "adversary".

It was the ancient Judaic sect of the Essenes in particular that began referring to anyone not Essene (other Jewish sects included) as ha-satan (an adversary).

Later the Roman Church would take this idea and personify it into the Dante-ish scapegoat of Mendes, associate Satan with all things Pagan, Feminine, and Not Roman Christian.

 

[Gatekeeper]

dear members
i think the real true DEVIL is the MIND.. this is the one that got us separated from the good lord.. mind is the one that kept the soul in a bondage trapped form life after life without earning salvation

I think I agree. "Satan/Devil" is a metaphor for the part of man that is in opposition to God's will for humanity, the part of man that wishes to rule and control. We are the fallen ones, cast out of Eden/paradise because we yielded to Satan (the adversary) in us. Satan is the part of mankind's nature that is disobedient to love, the part about us that is in opposition to God's will for us as a people.


Even so, I don't think we are evil, but we can be selfish and self serving, which often leads us to act in opposition to our life force. I think all things are inherently good, but much of humanity has drifted apart from God, both in mind and in deed. Many have all but neglected that which gives us life (love). This doesn't make us evil, but rather it makes us distant from God, if only in our minds and because of what we do.

 

[wil]

Yah, ain't no little horny red critter w/ a pointy tail an pitchfork.

Jesus fought the adversary in his days in the wildnerness, those little angel/devil depictions on our shoulder, tempting us...

Yes in our mind, this is all a creation of our mind anywho so why would the devil be not?

Anyone old enough for Flip Wilson and his alter ego Geraldine? "The devil made me do it"

Blame, gotta have blame, it ain't me. Plagues, floods, tis either G!d or the devil....depending on where we wanta place the blame, but surely nimby.