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To: humblegunner
I guess in the days of pre-trib rapturism we could expect to see something like this, though the Bible is fairly quiet on the subject of Satan (47 references, 11 in the book of Job and 7 in the book of Revelation). Although he is described as being involved in some specific temptations, as someone trying to screw over believers, as an accuser, as an enemy, as a roaring lion, as the one who leads the whole world astray, there is nothing that gives details of a vast demonic bureaucracy, its organizational hierarchy, or its plan of action other than what's seen in the apocalyptic imagery in Revelation. Satan and demons are mentioned in scripture but there is almost nothing that could be described as demonology or that details the relation of one to the other.

There are popular images such as the dichotomy* in which Satan rules over Hell in the same way that God rules over Heaven, humans being torn this or that way (you know, the little devil on one shoulder, the angel on the other), or the one where God is the source of all good and Satan is the source of all evil, but those seem more Zoroastrian in concept, AhuraMazda fighting against Ahriman. The general message of the Bible, though, with respect to Satan, sin, and evil, is that man is capable of, and responsible for, sin and evil all on his own (see James's description of the origin of sin and temptation).

I can see how folks could look at the few instances where Satan is mentioned, try to categorize his activity or his personality in each, then create an organizational structure positing how these are manifested and are responsible for all the woes of the world, how many and what kind of cohorts he would need to do it, then describe all the various world conflicts and daily problems in terms of that imagined structure and workforce, and then believe that all that was actually describing something real rather than being a projection of a fantasy developed from limited, fragmentary descriptions.

I think C.S. Lewis had it right in The Screwtape Letters when he said, "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."

I think the book, Satan and His Plan of Evil, (and others like it) is an example of that latter error.

*People are naturally given to creating dichotomies. An example of this was when my three year old brother had done something he shouldn't have done and my mother said, "Think of how sad that makes Jesus" and he replied, "Yes, but think of how happy it makes the devil." Out of the mouths of babes!
18 posted on 01/02/2012 8:35:34 AM PST by aruanan
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To: Cronos; MarkBsnr

Ping for #18.


21 posted on 01/02/2012 6:19:51 PM PST by aruanan
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To: aruanan
I suppose that Eph. 2:2 means very little to you, then.

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:".

22 posted on 01/02/2012 6:28:55 PM PST by smvoice (Better Buck up, Buttercup. The wailing and gnashing is for an eternity..)
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