Samiya Illias
discusses religion, especially Islam, at various online forums and blogs.
57w ago
al-Baqarah 2:30 And when said your Lord to the angels, "Indeed, I (am) going to place in the earth a vicegerent, they said, "Will You place in it (one) who will spread corruption in it and will shed [the] blood[s], while we, [we] glorify (You) with Your praises and we sanctify [to] He said, "Indeed, [I] know what not you know."
al-Kahf 18:50 - al-Kahf 18:51 And when We said to the Angels, "Prostrate to Adam," so they prostrated except Iblis. (He) was of the jinn, and he rebelled against the Command (of) his Lord. Will you then take him and his offspring (as) protectors other than Me, while they (are) to you enemies? Wretched for the wrongdoers (is) the exchange. Not I made them witness the creation (of) the heavens and the earth and not the creation (of) themselves and not I Am the One to take the misleaders (as) helper(s).
As per my understanding of the Qur’an, there were misleaders from the Jinn race, prior to the refusal of Iblis to submit to the command of God.
Iblis, the devil, was probably also already a misleader, and was exposed publicly when ordered to prostrate/submit to Adam.
Please read Satan's Enmity: Origin & Objective
Trudi Hauxwell
MA Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London (2008)
58w ago
The concept of a devil or king of hell didn’t exist in Christianity prior to the early medieval period and has never existed in Judaism.
In the Old Testament - or Jewish Torah - all souls regardless of whether they had been good or bad went to Sheol, the dwelling place of the dead.
Satan, who is most often associated with the serpent in the Garden of Eden and the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was never the ruler of a place called Hell, because Hell didn’t exist.
The story of Lucifer, which the medieval church latched on to is mentioned in only one passage at the end of the Old Testament and it’s long association with a fallen angel is an inaccurate one. The story was a metaphor for the fate of the King of Babylon.
Lucifer and Satan didn’t really become associated with the ruler of a place called Hell until Dante wrote The Divine Comedy. Almost everything we think we know about Hell, Lucifer, Satan and the devil comes from Dante, not the Bible.
Mark Werner
Long-time atheist, skeptic, and Humanist.
57w ago
As Trudi says.
The evolution of the concept of “The Devil” is very interesting from the standpoint of mythology and church policy.
The entity that pops up in the Old Testament and in current translations is referred to as “Satan” was in fact called “The Tempter” in older editions, and this entity was obviously a minion of God.
This is the entity that engaged in the little bet with God about Job, and who tempted Jesus in the desert.
Over centuries, this became conflated with much later ideas of “the Devil” which was strongly identified with various Pagan gods and then (again as Trudi mentions) with fictional representations of Devil/Satan by various authors.
It’s no secret that the medieval representation of the Devil as a horned, hooved, being looked a lot like the Pagan god, Pan…..
Milan Woodson
Minister since 1989 and experiences with good & bad angels
56w ago
The angel now known as the Devil was a perfect, good and beautiful angel. The Bible may indicate that he was promoted in rank up to being a cherub, an angelic position higher than the lowest or beginning rank of messenger. On top of this he may have been the first and only angel to have been assigned to watch over Adam and Eve. He was not even a highest ranking angel but cherubs are considered as guardian angels. His beauty and the fact that he was chosen for this unique assignment went to his head and his developed ego caused him to sin against God. Since then he has been called Satan and the Devil. Power and position can go to the head if one allows it. Apparently that goes for both humans and angels, both of whom have free will.
Cory Kent
Worked with, and friend of, the Angels for many years!
57w ago
The devil is a word from mankind. Not the name of Lucifer or Satan, or anyone else. Devil is just a palindrome from the word lived. That’s where it came from. There was no other fallen Angel before Lucifer, and even when Lucifer fell out of Heaven, he wasn’t the one called devil. The devil is the conscious energy of all the sinister evil force, fallen angels and everyone that uses their free will to hurt some other part of Life. Devil = Do evil.
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