Is Satan a friend of God? An employee?

[midniterider]

Satan was kicked out of heaven by God. If we don't believe in Jesus we supposedly go to Hell and suffer under Satan. Why would Satan light us on fire? What's his motivation? Seems to me like he would rather piss off God by NOT doing anything God commands. Maybe instead Satan will party with us and we'll all have a big laugh. I mean, what would God do then? Send us to Super Hell?

[florduh]

Yeah, we don't have a clearly thought out and logically executed myth with Christianity. It's a hodgepodge of earlier stories cobbled together by some writers who didn't attend the staff meeting before penning their wisdom for the rest of us.

[Moonobserver]

12 hours ago, midniterider said:

Satan was kicked out of heaven by God. If we don't believe in Jesus we supposedly go to Hell and suffer under Satan. Why would Satan light us on fire? What's his motivation? Seems to me like he would rather piss off God by NOT doing anything God commands. Maybe instead Satan will party with us and we'll all have a big laugh. I mean, what would God do then? Send us to Super Hell?

You have to remember that the Christian concept of Satan, influenced by Zoroastrian dualism, is nothing like the Jewish concept. Jews regard Satan as a kind of cosmic personal trainer whose function is to place obstacles in people's way to help them build up their spiritual fortitude.

 

As an aside, I once saw a cartoon depicting a demon dressed up as an angel with white robe, halo and harp. The caption read, "Satan's rebellious teenage son".

[TheRedneckProfessor]

Satan and god were on good enough terms that god felt comfortable making a bet with Satan over Job's entire life (up to, but not including, death).  And Satan felt comfortable enough taking that bet.  That's pretty damn chummy, if you ask me.

[mwc]

     Satan doesn't light us on fire.  That's just stupid.  We light ourselves on fire.  We choose to be on fire.  It's free will in action.  Now that makes perfect sense.

 

          mwc