Are you looking for some clay pigeons? Here is are my favorites...Clay Pigeon
We will study the myths and biblical interpretations about Satan. Christianity has no one concrete answer, but we will do our best to uncover more knowledge of our main adversary.
On Thursday Feb 26th, 7:00am we will meet at Wild Joe's coffee and search Scripture to uncover truths.
February 19, 2009 at 1:28 PM
Wow - you unmasked me Jesse! At 3 p.m. today (Thursday, Feb. 19) there is a show on History International about Satan "The Prince of Darkness."
February 22, 2009 at 8:14 AM
February 22, 2009 at 8:19 AM
Hahaha - love the image! I didn't know you were featuring in a biographical film, David :D
I'm looking forward to this discussion. One question that I'd like to see addressed has already been touched on in some of our previous discussions. In "The Screwtape Letters," C.S. Lewis suggests that Satan is equally pleased by those who give him too much credit and thereby dwell on the demonic realm and by those who ignore or dismiss the reality of evil. As Christians, do we place too much emphasis on Satan ("the devil made me do it"), or do we find ourselves ignoring the devil to our own peril? What are the risks of leaning too far in one direction or the other?
February 22, 2009 at 10:46 AM
Speaking of the devil... I am still alive! I really miss you guys. And Michael, I did get your phone call and will try to call you this week... sorry so far behind in calling you back...
iggy
February 22, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Glad your around Iggy, wanted to see you in Billings this past weekend. Hope things are well.
February 22, 2009 at 1:11 PM
No worries, Iggy! I've been sort of out of the loop these last few weeks myself. I'm just glad to see that you're doing well; hopefully we can hook up this week and kick some ideas around.
-
Michael
February 22, 2009 at 3:19 PM
Jessee! Yeah I got your calls also... keep it up buddy and I will have to change my number!!!!
Really I am sorry Ciana was very ill this weekend so mostly we did nothing. I am just sort of being antisocial and not doing the phone thing for some reason...
But it would have been nice to get together for a bit... since you came all the way to Billings and all!
iggy
February 23, 2009 at 9:32 AM
Well Iggy...it's always great to see you whenever, wherever.
February 23, 2009 at 11:41 AM
Hey Iggy,
Sorry to hear about Ciana; is she doing better? Can we join you in praying for her?
February 23, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Getting back to the topic, what does it mean to call Satan "adversary" or "accuser?" How does this tie into John's vision in Revelation 12?
February 23, 2009 at 3:06 PM
I suggest all my friends at Trail Blazer Ministries visit Don Preston's site: www.eschatology.org
Read the article "The Binding of Satan."
February 23, 2009 at 10:23 PM
Michael, we will explore any term you want...feel free to suggest.
February 24, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Just a general suggestion; we tend to think of "Satan" as a proper noun, even though the Hebrew term is actually not a name, but a description: "ha-satan," or "the adversary." I wonder how this might shape our thinking on the subject of Satan and his role in the Bible?
March 2, 2009 at 2:44 PM
I shall attempt to add something to this conversation although I haven't dwelt too much on this issue. I recently came across a blog called Experimental Theology and found a series of essays on "Satan as a Functional Theodicy."
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2006/12/summing-up-satan-as-functional.html
I haven' had time to read all of the essays yet myself but this may be of particular interest to you all to help jump-start this conversation again. Find out what the author means by using Satan as a Functional Theodicy and then take the ACU Study. I'm curious how everyone scores with this test.
March 4, 2009 at 1:08 PM
It seems nobody else has really posted any material for discussion here but Michael has asked a couple of great questions! I've been reading the blog that I suggested earlier and found a piece that gets to Michael's latest question:
"What evidence do I have that the Satan construct gets inflated?
First, I've noted that many Christians tend to equate Satan with Evil, ontologically speaking. For example, I've suggested that you ask Christians of your acquaintance this question: If Satan didn't exist how would the world be different? A similar kind of question is this: Could the Fall of Adam and Eve happen without there being a Satan? Or: Can sin exist without there being a Satan?
Most of the people I've asked these question tend to claim that the notion of the Fall of Man demands a Satan, demands that Evil preexist the Fall. In short, for sin to exist there must be a choice between Good and Evil. Those choices must preexist, ontologically speaking. Thus, Satan, as Evil, must exist prior to the Fall. No Satan, no Fall, no sin.
Here's the problem with that formulation. How did Satan himself fall? For if sin requires Evil to preexist then Satan needed a Satan. And Satan's Satan needed a Satan. It's a Russian Doll problem.
So, it seems clear, to me at least, that Evil does NOT need to preexist for a Fall to occur. And what that means is this:
You don’t need a Satan in the world for there to be sin.
Let me clarify. I'm not saying there isn't an Adversary. What I am suggesting is that having an Adversary isn’t a necessary condition for sin. Phrased another way, the Adversary may be Evil-as-adjective. But the Adversary isn't Evil-as-noun.
But this reasoning, obvious to me, is news to a lot of believers. Why? Because, tacitly and implicitly, people have tended to think of Satan not as an Adversary but as the ontological embodiment of Evil. They think of Satan as Evil, in ontological terms. And this is a very dualist (e.g., Zoroastrian) way of viewing things."
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2006/12/probability-of-encountering-satan.html
Post a Comment