No atheism talk here, just religion and fun stuff. I'm writing a 10-12 page paper comparing norse paganism with christianity and Mesopotamian polytheism.
"satan's" job in the old testament is to be the acuser of man, like a prosecuting attorney. naturally he is talking to god to father (judge) alot, arguing against Jesus (mans advocate)
of course jesus isnt named "jesus" at this point, he is merely the voice of gods compassion and creative intent.
Well, in Christianity, God is the only god, so he is God. while in Polytheistic religions there are multiple gods, therefore they have their own names. Thats why you can't define god universally
"In other words, numbering Israel's army was done because the adversary Satan was tempting David. That is a very important thing to remember because it explains much. The second thing to consider is David's reason for doing this was, "that he may know it." In other words, his own delight or pleasure was what induced him to do this. These are the keys to understanding this sin. God allowed David to be tempted by Satan because Israel had taken their eyes off God as their ruler, fortress and provider. We read in previous chapters how they had begun looking to themselves for strength. Even as they had pressed Samuel for a king that would be just like the nations that were around them, they weren't satisfied. This illustrated that they had forsaken trust in the Lord and forgotten that He alone was their sword and bulwark. And David too momentarily took his eyes off the Lord and looked toward Israel's own ability to provide a host as their strength. By God declaring that Satan provoked this census, we know that David's purpose for numbering the men of war was that he might delight or glory in Israel's own might or resources. Yet this sin was not David's alone, because God Himself informs us that He allowed this numbering because of Israel's sins. Thus it was God who had removed His normal restraint of sin from David, and it was because of the judgment He would upon Israel for their continuing sins of pride and vanity. 2nd Samuel 24:1"
Satan provoked David to give a census of Israel (numberimg). This was considered to have been a sin. David's sin is revealed to be the chronic sin of Israel, which was idolatry, pride and vanity.
deletedabout 10 years
But the problem I have with that is that God is a proper pronoun for a specific being, while god is an actual classification of supernatural entities. So technically, God isn't really a definition of a god, but just a type of god, named God. It's confusing....
The answer that I usually hear is that in order for human beings to understand the goodness of God and come to him, there needs to be an established darkness or evil within the world. I've been grappling with that explanation for a while, but that's the common response.
Smor, that's true. The definition of what "God" is varies and changes over time. That's why whether or not Satan was a "God" depends on your definition, but you can still assume that he isn't the same kind of God that the God of the Bible is
deletedabout 10 years
The thing about it is, one of the definitions of a god in the dictionary is creator of the universe. However, by that definition, in greek mythology, then none of the olympian gods would technically be gods.
Well, the Bible states that he went unwillingly. He was kicked out. If Satan went willingly, he's still not powerful enough to inform the world of that fact. Therefore, it's safe to assume that Satan isn't a God - or at least, not nearly as powerful as the God of the Bible
What if Satan was just the name of God when he was angry....what if he was just bruce banner and hulked out whenever he was angry and called himself satan instead of the hulk
