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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nathanael" data-source="post: 337615" data-attributes="member: 5784">Here are some interesting little factoids, drawn from the study of Hebrew and Christian theology, for you to consider...The term Satan is not a name, per se. The actual Hebrew term is Ha-Satan, or 'The Adversary.' This, and other theological points too long to go into, implies that being Satan is an office set up in opposition of God's creation. This would explain why, in the Old Testament, we see the Satan chatting with God, tempting Jesus, plaguing Job with God's permission, etc. It's his job.Furthermore, the concept of Hell as a place that exists to punish. sinners as soon as they die is inaccurate. Hell is used to refer to a place, the lake of fire, that is set aside for the punishment of those not with God. More accurately, it is a time when, after the second defeat of the Satan, the first being after the tribulation in Revelations in which he is chained for a thousand years and the second being after he is loosed after that thousand year imprisonment to mislead the nations one final time, the living and dead are finally judged and the eternal punishment given.So there is no Hell for the devil to reign in at this time. He walks the earth doing his job: creating conflict and opposition to the Lord our God. A celestial QA guy, if you will. According to Revelations, which is essentially a history of the universe from the past into the future, there is a point where Satan rebels against the Lord in a much more substantial way: when the tail of the dragon sweeps 1/3 of the stars from the sky, or, in a more literal sense, when he causes the fall of 1/3 of the heavenly host. When this time is, or if it has happened already, is impossible to know for mortal man, according to the Book itself. So, in the end, I would view Satan as an angel who tempts and twists humanity as his job, and who will eventually become so twisted him/herself (angels, as spirits, have no gender) from the constant state of opposing God's creation that he will someday go insane and try to oppose God himself, leading to his downfall. Those who failed to resist him will then join him as he is thrown into the lake of fire at the end of history.As an interesting side note: did you know that Lucifer is not The Satan? He is the angel of Pride, and though this will lead to his joining the Satan in the fall, he is just another fallen angel. The actual name of Satan, in accordance with Hebrew text, is Sammael. The ironic part of this is that no one will name their child Lucifer, but how many Sammuels do you know? Pretty cunning trick on the part of The Adversary, don't you think? ;-)</blockquote>

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