Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mike@unmvax.cs.unm.edu (Michael I. Bushnell) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Taking God Seriously Message-ID: Date: 22 Oct 89 15:17:20 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of No Money, Albuquerque, New Mexico Lines: 36 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Mark Woodhouse brings up the subject of Satan, and explains that the holidays celebrated by the Church are being diverted by this active force. A month ago our church's Church and Society committee had a potluck forum. The invited guests were "experts" on satanism and the occult. Ostensibly going to talk about ritual crime, they instead sounded like people trying to alarm everyone and get us whipped into a furor about something that isn't what people are worried about. It didn't work. But something struck me about their presentation. It seemed that they believed that satanic rituals were really effective. That they *worked*. And now we see this again, in another guise. The doctrine of Satan is not so sure as many think. Genesis refers only to the "snake", and doesn't use any more imagery than that. In fact, part of the story seems to be a primitive myth about why a snake has no legs (in the genre of "How the leopard got its spots"). The passage in Isaiah referred to is nowhere so certain that it refers to the Satan of popular mythology. And Revelation, let us not forget, is figurative language about events current in the 1st-2nd century of the Roman Empire. Of course, I have no doubt what Mark is thinking right now. "How successfully Satan has fooled this man!" Well, let me allay your fears. I believe that God is *more* successful in propogating his will than any Satan. I believe that God's truth wins out over evil's lies. I believe that Satan (if he exists) is *less* powerful than God, *less* successful than God, and that we know God's will far more readily than evil's. -- Michael I. Bushnell \ This above all; to thine own self be true LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE \ And it must follow, as the night the day, mike@unmvax.cs.unm.edu /\ Thou canst not be false to any man. Telephone: +1 505 292 0001 / \ Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!