“I totally reject the idea prevalent among some Christians that Satan is an anti-G-d who is at war with the Creator and a threat to Him. That flies in the face of monotheism imho. But the Islamic idea about the afterlife for mujaahidiin being one big [orgy] are beyond the pale.”
I agree. Satan is no anti-God. There is only one God, the Creator. Satan is a created being, or at the very least formed from a created being. Perhaps a perverted form of something once good.
Jesus described Satan as a murderer and liar “from the beginning” which I take to be a reference to the 6-day creation and forming of the world and living things. But Jesus also said that Satan “abode not in the truth” which I take to mean that he at least knew the truth and was not created evil. Evil was a choice for Satan.
We see in the Hebrew scriptures that Satan did not really want to discuss Job with God, and he could not harm Job because God protected him. So Satan was only able to attack Job by first getting permission from God. This makes it clear that Satan has not the slightest amount of power against God.
I’ve always wondered about the strange idea of paradise for Muslims. Seems like they are describing something that would be hell for women at least. Not much different from how they make their societies in the present, never mind the afterlife.
I thought the Bible made it clear that Angels did not have free will. That free will was unique to mankind.
Then Satan and his Angel pals were created for the purpose of being a antagonistic force.
It’s clear that God wanted to test humanities free will, why else would he tell them to not eat from the tree of knowledge? That wouldn’t be a good enough test, so he had to make something that would tempt them. They failed. But why test it if you knew the outcome? There are a lot of plot holes.
I’m not saying I don’t believe, but I do have questions. Lots of them.
Well, this is a slippery slope. If we discuss religion too much, we will descend into eternal flaming.
Let’s stick with politics. It’s banal, even though it’s important, but people can agree on more aspects of it than theology, and disagree less vociferously about it than the Big Questions raised in theological inquiry.