Jill's comments on Satan.

Mike:  Thanks Jill.  Funny you mention the cannibalism thing.  Not sure if you realised but a big chunk of the church has taken that literally.  The Catholic religion believes in something called "trans-substantiation".  This term means that the bread and wine used in communion is transformed into the actual body and blood of Jesus.  They take the verse you're quoting quite literally.

As for Christ saying those things, well he may not have.  As for Satan, well it does fall in line with the teachings of many other world religions.  They call it dualism.  What the teaching about Satan does is create a reason for the evil that is around us.  The only problem then is you have to find a reason why a good God would create a bad being.

The verses you point out about Jesus' teaching is quite contradictory don't you think?  Don't take revenge and then God says "vengeance is mine".  Love your enemy and then one of God's names id the Lord of armies (hosts) who hates and destroys all his enemies. 

Jill:  Yes  mike..  the “holy” communion ritual practised in the church   is very much you could say   “symbolic cannibalism” … this sort of practise use to repulse me as a child-it was one of the reasons I use to “skip " church  as a kid ..lol  Luckily the church didn’t come up with the  idea  of  snatching  some poor bloke off the street and using his body  as a  substitute for Christs body  , cutting him up into  bit  and draining his blood out the back for their    “holy”  Sunday morning church service…  sorry mike I    sound barbaric  I know-  who knows  they may have even committed such a crime in our past history  that we don't know about -  but  even the “symbolic  form” of the communion ,  the partaking of the bread and wine as a   substitute for Christ’s body     is still very   repulsive to me..

Yes -.  in other  religions,   the word   ‘Satan” falls in line with the word    “maya” –   known as , “the measurer”, dualism ,   principle of relativity, contrast   , polarity ,  oppositional  states , - man in his mortal way of thinking  views the world very much in a state of  illusion  – for example  we have terms such as  “ up  and down ,  left and right  ,   right and wrong, good and evil, etc…but  only when man awakens in soul consciousness  will he let go of  dualism  and contrasts and see that opposites are part of the unified whole  , -  for   there is no separation between God , man  , each other or anything in the universe   for we are all one- there is only God - “oneness”-   for   all in creation is part of   God

   - in reality  we cant measure an infinite universe  with terms such as   ‘up and down” or left and right  (only from a standing point of view)  for  we don’t say the moon is to the right or  the suns  is to the left,    if we were to stand in space , we would view  it all in  a whole new perspective... We view the world through our   physical eyes, but not all appears as it seems -  also   what may appear  as  “right” or “good” ,  to someone - to someone  else it     may appear  as  ‘wrong”  or “bad” . 

    There is no  “evil” in   Gods   creation  (  spiritual  unawareness from lack of understanding the greater reality  -yes    ) but  no one  or nothing   is “ evil”-.. because God is in all that exists     -. to say   humans are  “evil” would be like  calling   God  “evil” …. I really think  the early  church  twisted the teachings in the bible in regards to ‘satan” – inventing some being,  some outside force   as a reason for the   “mistakes”, “sins” of the world..-  saying such  a thing  like “the devil made me do it” is very much   an escape from  the     responsibility of ones   own  thoughts, deeds  and actions  

 – yes!- the bible contradicts itself very much..  which is why we need to not just  believe in everything we read – for anyone can change and corrupt  words in books.. even in the name of God -  , but rather it is wise to   search inside ourselves for answers..

     Thanks mike!…

Mike:  Thanks Jill.  The topic of Satan is much like all the topics we comment on, they are so open to people's own interpretations.  Many modern church leaders set themselves up as new age prophets to fill in the blanks from the Bible.  Many Christians pray directly to Satan to rebuke him.  They also use Satan as an excuse for their own misdeeds, hence the old adage "the devil made me do it".  These people don't take responsibility for their own actions and give themselves escape clauses.

Not sure if the early church twisted or re-created the person of Satan.  The Jewish version of Satan or the "Accuser" had different connotations to the Christian version.

I also find it amusing how the nature religions get passed off as Satanistic cults by Christians.  In their eyes anyone who reveres the natural systems of this world as life giving and sustaining are deemed as Satanistic and evil.  As I see it the God which so many Christians espouse is unworthy of honour and definitely more Satanic than the alleged Satan.  Let's face it if God created Lucifer-Satan then he is the diabolical (diablo - Spanish for the Devil) one.