Who Is Satan?     

Who is Satan? Let's look at this question from a logical standpoint. I begin with two statements that I accept as given. First, God/dess created everything that exists - animals, plants, angels and humans. Second,  Humans are different than all of God/dess' other creations - we have free will.

Most mainstream Christians would agree with both of those statements.  Most mainstream Christians, also,  believe that Satan is an angel that rebelled against God/dess and was cast out of heaven.  This is were the logic breaks down for me. If humans are the only creation of God/dess' with free will, then angels do not have free will.  Therefore, how can an angel rebel? The answer is they can't.

So then, maybe our second statement is not correct.  Perhaps, angels do have free will.  If they do, then why was satan cast out of heaven with no method of redemption?  Why would God/dess not give angels the same chance humans have? So, this brings us back to saying that angels do not have free will.  It has been debated whether angels lack the potential for free will, or whether they simply perceive reality so clearly that they have no choices to make - either way, it works out the same.

So then, who is Satan?  I believe in the Jewish view of Satan - or haSatan to be correct.  The word haSatan means "the challenger".  HaSatan is an angel, a servant of God/dess, whose purpose is to challenge us so that we may grow. I do not believe in the devil.  This idea seems too much like having two deities - one god to worship, and one god to fear.

For more information on this topic, please visit the following link:


http://www.geocities.com/~alyza/Jewish/satan.html