Tuesday, April 02, 2013

What is Satan Like?

During the Dark Ages the Catholic church presented the idea of Satan and his followers being red with pointy tails, pitchforks and two horns on their heads. They were made to look as scary as possible. Further, they were presented as being there to roast people over a raging fire. Yet what do the Scriptures tell us?

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Revelation 12:7-9

So here we have Satan leading his group of "angels". And we have Michael (an angel of God) leading his group of "angels". So whatever an "angel" looks like both must be the same. Can we imagine that God's angels are red with pitchforks etc.? I don't think so. These angels appeared to servants of God throughout the ages.

Then we have the conversation where Satan appears to Moses after the Lord did _

"Blessed be the name of my God, for his Spirit has not altogether withdrawn from me, or else where is your glory, for it is darkness to me? And I can judge between you and God; for God said to me: Worship God, for him only shall you serve." Moses 1:15

So here we have Moses saying that Satan's glory is darkness instead of light.

Further understanding comes from the following verses _

"And now, when Moses had said these words, Satan cried with a loud voice, and ranted upon the earth, and commanded, saying: I am the Only Begotten, worship me. And it came to pass that Moses began to fear exceedingly; and as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell. Nevertheless, calling upon God, he received strength, and he commanded, saying: Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship, which is the God of glory." Moses 1:19-20

A couple of things stand out here. Firstly I was brought up to believe that Satan was intelligent. But here we have Satan throwing a tantrum and thudding the ground because he can't get his way. But also note that because Moses then began to fear that Satan suddenly had power over him. It wasn't until he called upon God to help him that Satan's power over him ended. So Satan's power over us can only be felt if we turn to lust, anger, hatred, fear, greed and any of those darkside feelings.

Matthew quotes Christ on 3 occasions saying how that wicked church members will be cast into "outer darkness" (Matt 8:12, 22:13, 25:30) in the final judgement. Yet Christ also refers to "hell" as being like a fire that all the wicked must suffer. Alma points out that this is just a way to explain it and that it is only "as" a lake of fire and brimstone; there is no real fire (Alma 12:17).

This helps us understand why Christ refers to people having to suffer a fire and yet be in darkness. It also tosses out the concept of red devils in fire.

So what does Satan look like? He looks like any other spirit. He has two arms and two legs etc. The difference is that although you can see his spirit body's matter, all is darkness around and through him. His thinking is totally distorted and he seeks evil continually. He is miserable but certainly would argue otherwise. His only power is that which comes from your incorrect emotions (as we see from the Moses incident).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I accidentally got on a Satanic Internet site. When first reading the information it appears innocent enough, but getting farther into the site one can feel the darkness. At least I could, and I felt awful. Their logic is not logical at all. I got out fast. I prayed hard to get rid of the bad, creepy feelings I had.
I know a LDS lady who told me about a guy she worked with that made her very uncomfortable to be around. She said he was nice, did his job well, dressed nice, was good looking and all that. But when she was around him she felt awful, dark, her skin crawled, that something was not quite right, no joy. She later found out he was a Satan worshiper. Most of the other non-LDS co-workers did not feel what she did. Obviously it was because she had the Holy Ghost. She avoided him whenever she could. True story!
I have another true story but can not tell it because I experienced it. Satan is real. I can not even imagine what Joseph Smith had to go through when he was taken over by evil after he prayed in the Sacred Grove.
Having experienced evil myself, it really irks me when the Evangelicals say the LDS "feelings" and "knowing" that the LDS doctrine is true and Joseph Smith was a true Prophet called by God, comes from Satan.
JRSG

Doug Towers said...

Anonymous

Thanks for sharing your experience. You shouldn't feel strange about sharing your other experience. It's only if you were sharing it for self-glory that it's best not done. We all can learn from each other.

There are some few things that I don't share because I just feel they are too far out there. But I try to pass on as many as I feel could be accepted.

What you say about evangelicals is true. Yet, unfortunately, I get enough of that from ultraconservative church members who don't wish to accept some things I've been told. Then they tell me it must have been from Satan.

Non-members tell me I'm a brain-washed Mormon, and some members tell me I'm on the verge of apostasy. Mind you they have been saying that for decades.

I find that gratifying to some extent, because it means I must be in the middle of the two extremes.