I’d be interested in your feedback here or on the On Faith blog in particular.

Karen
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Good, Evil and Moral Agency

Some say Satan is a figment of man’s imagination, conjured up to explain away everything nasty, for which a kind God can’t possibly be responsible.

Others, with a glance back to medieval Christianity or forward to the next forgettable Hollywood horror flick, imagine Satan as a fire-breathing, horned genie – a sort of perennial caricature who slips quite effortlessly between roles as diverse as Omen and Ghost Busters.

But what did Jesus Christ teach? Jesus spoke from personal experience when he told his disciples, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” Indeed, he did witness that event. Two passages in the Bible – in Isaiah and Revelations – describe “a war in heaven” before humanity ever came to earth, the result of which was Satan’s defeat. More about that story and where Satan fits in the grand scheme of things can be found here.

The name of Lucifer – by which Satan was formerly known – is Hebrew for “Son of the Morning,” and that name alone tells us that Lucifer held high rank or status among the countless hosts of spirits created by God before human history began. He is, in reality, a fallen angel who, with those spirits who followed him, is determined to disrupt and destroy God’s plan for the advancement of humanity.

Biblical references have become blurred, distorted or lost their meaning over the centuries. Parts of them have come down to us in Christian mythology and can be found even in Islam (with significant variations). John Milton, the 17th century English poet, incorporates the fall of Satan story in Paradise Lost, for instance, along with a generous amount of embellishment.

Satan’s efforts to persuade us toward evil are real and they are personal. Satan is the antithesis of Jesus Christ. He is unalterably opposed to every attribute of goodness that Christ stands for. He embodies all that is evil, false and immoral. But the crucial point is that he can’t force us to make wrong choices. Unlike Flip Wilson, we can’t say, “The Devil made me do it.” Each of us has the moral agency to choose between right and wrong. That agency is central to our Father in Heaven’s plan, because our learning and advancement couldn’t happen without the human experience of making choices in mortality.

I don’t believe in the concept of “original sin.” Men and women are accountable for their own mistakes, not the mistakes of others. What we see today in many of the human failings that surround us are simply the consequences of poor individual choices. We all make them to some degree. Tragically, sometimes the choices people make have consequences far beyond the guilty party. It might be an innocent life cut short by an act of terrorism, a family broken from an adulterous relationship – or loss of life savings because of greed on Wall Street. In the end, much about the state of the world comes down to our moral choices between good and evil.

My Brief Comment on the Site:
Thanks for this clear response, Mike. Amazing that this is even a question now, when once it was so patently obvious that the dichotomy between good and evil is real, pervasive, and reaches from before the foundation of the world.

Satan’s sophistry in mitigating and eliminating a belief in his reality, is ironic and insidious.

I add my personal witness that he is real, is the fallen one described in the New Testament, and that yet his power is limited. His bounds are set, and we can also set bounds on his influence through our own personal positive moral choices.
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John the Revelator capsuled that powerful struggle in heaven, the outcome of which has such an impact on all of humanity:

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

“And prevailed not; …

“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, … which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, … for the accuser of our brethren is cast down. …

“… Woe to the inhabiters of the earth … ! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” (Rev. 12:7–10, 12.)

There is an eternal struggle with evil forces. John the Revelator has warned us, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth … !” He is speaking to all of us. He says, Be on guard; beware.
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We have hope through the Savior of overcoming the opposition which Satan’s efforts allow and which daily life affords, but to ignore his reality is to dive into life’s sometimes clear, sometimes shark-infested waters with no protection.

Karen