Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jko@hila.hut.fi (Jukka Korpela) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Taking God Seriously Message-ID: Date: 25 Oct 89 09:15:53 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland Lines: 18 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article mike@unmvax.cs.unm.edu (Michael I. Bushnell) writes: >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. It is true that Satan is not mentioned very often in the Bible and that several references to Satan are rather obscure. But the most striking and explicit references to Satan are exactly those you didn't mention. Those of Jesus. He speaks, according to the Bible, about Satan clearly as a personal being (with armies of other evil beings under his command). (I do NOT regard this as an argument against Christianity.)