will the real satan please stand up?

Challenge is good. It can be a tough thing,especially when it pushes against an entire way of seeing and believing you may have had most of your life. Pam over at *how goed messed up my religion* has developed quite a provocative discussion on hell and itd amazing how there has been way more light shared than heat. A related theme that i have been jostling with for awhile is satan the devil horned one ole scratch. Just who is this character anyway???

Isaiah 14:12 is one of the key verses where lucifer, which is supposed to be one of the names for satan, is mentioned. Lucifer in hebrew and greek means *bright morning star* or *lightbearer* This verse is often used to delineate how satan fell and his downfall as a fallen angel. Look at the contezt though. It is referring to the king of Babylon and the actions they were taking against Israel and Judah. Babylon had a religious system that involved astrological symbolism and so the language Isaiah uses makes sense in pertaining to them. No where in Scripture will you find an actual depiction of satan and all the angels who rebelled against God being cast out of heaven. Tradition becomes a very powerful thing especially when it goes along as just accepted.

The word satan means adversary. If you look up all its uses in Scripture you will discover that God was called an adversary when He rebuked david or the isrealites for their sin or resistance to Him. The sinful nature we inherited after Adam willfully ate from the tree of good and evil and sought to be like God is satan or Gods adversary. John Anderson who has a radio and internet show called the voice of reason has written a book called *satan an authorized autobiographt* where he details the biblical basis for satan being our adversarial nature against God as opposed to a supernatural angelic being very thoroughly. I wanted to give a bare bones description here to generate discussion and thought. I hope any who come and read don't just dismiss this as heresy. I can supply anyone with a toll free number where you can reach John Anderson and question him yourself he enjoyes hearing from people. A lot is being stirred lately, The Reformation that began under Martin Luther was not what Luther intended. He was a faithful monk in the Roman Catholic Church and had hoped to rein in abuses and problems he saw being committed within the Church. Obviously God had other plans.

The winds of revival and reform are strongly blowing once again, God is always a few steps ahead and challenges us in ways we were not expectiong. Keep it going Almighty God. I find it very powerful how He uses the blogosphere to work His will in and through us by people, who are the mystery *Christ in you* the hope and glory. Amen.