Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ginosko!aplcen!haven!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: geoff@pmafire.UUCP (Geoff Allen) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Satan (was Re: Feasting With the Bridegroom) Message-ID: Date: 27 Oct 89 06:39:39 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: WINCO Computer Engineering, INEL, Idaho Lines: 73 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article mangoe@cs.umd.edu (Charley Wingate) writes: >However, I am a bit concerned about this seemingly morbid fascination with >seeing Satan in everything. But he *is* in everything. Satan is described as `the god of this age' (II Co. 4:4), he has power over the world (see Luke 4:6), and `prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour' (I Pe. 5:8). It's not a `morbid fascination,' just a commentary on the state of things in this fallen creation. >It's positively medieval, and I'm not being >metaphorical about that either. The evolution of christmas in particular is >fairly obviously due to the worship of the Almighty Dollar. Perhaps we may >see Satan here, in that "the love of money is the root of all evil," but my >point is that the history of modern christmas is adequately explained in the >rational persuit of business, not by some sort of occult influences. It is >sufficient to show the evil of a situation without naming it "Satan's >Influence!" and thus essentially ascribing the situation to unknowable >forces. I don't think that's the claim. Rather, Satan's influence can be seen in the fact that the focus on Christ has essentially gone from Christmas. As Charley pointed out in his article, "The Christmas Song" is supposed to sum up all that Christmas means, yet it makes no mention of Christ or anything `religious.' Many of the most popluar Christmas songs are that way ("Jingle Bells," "Let It Snow," "Winter Wonderland," etc.). This is just what Satan wants. This isn't due to `unknowable forces.' Rather, I think it's a combination of man's fallen condition (which makes us tend to want to avoid God) and Satan's power over the minds of unbelievers (II Cor. 4:4) Satan works subtly (Gen. 3:1) and he appears as an angel of light (II Cor. 11:14). I don't believe Satan has horns and a spiked tail. To Americans, he wears a pinstripe suit and drives a BMW. His goal is to keep us from Jesus, and he'll do whatever he can to accomplish that. `Unknowable forces' and Satanic rituals aren't going to be nearly as effective in doing that as the more subtle things like keeping us all smug and satisfied in our condos. >In this case, the forces are plain and obvious, and while I would >say that they are forces of evil, it is to our advantage to understand them >as purely natural phenomena of ordinary human behavior. Of course they're `plain and obvious.' Does this mean that Satan can't be behind it? Lying is certainly `ordinary human behavior,' yet Jesus described it as being Satanic in origin (see John 8:44). Again, saying that Satan is behind something *doesn't* mean it's mysterious, occultic, or `satanic.' Rather, it means that it is anti-God, since that's what Satan's all about, really. (Before anyone gets worked up, I'm *not* claiming that Christmas is ordained of God. I'm just commenting that, in it's `pure' form Christmas *does* get us to focus on Jesus. And that is something that Satan doesn't want to see.) I'm *not* saying that `the devil made me do it' is a valid excuse for anything. We are all responsible for our own actions. Satan doesn't *make* us turn Christmas into a materialistic holiday any more than he made Adam and Eve fall (Eve's attempted defense notwithstanding). He just nudges us in the direction we're naturally inclined to go. I'd recommend reading _The_Screwtape_Letters_ by C.S.Lewis for some insight into how Satan works. I does require some mental gymnastics to get at the point, since the person doing all the talking is a demon, but it's well worth the reading. -- Geoff Allen \ Since we live by the Spirit, {uunet,bigtex}!pmafire!geoff \ let us keep in step with the Spirit. ucdavis!egg-id!pmafire!geoff \ -- Gal. 5:25 (NIV)