SATAN’S HELL OR GOD’S?

Pope John Paul I I in July 1999 made an attempt to explain the torture chamber known as hell. He said hell was not a physical place. He said "Hell is not a punishment imposed externally by God, but the condition resulted from an attitude and actions that people adopt in this life." He then said." So eternal damnation is not God’s work, but is actually our own doing."

I must say, I didn’t realise that human beings created hell. I thought is was the work of a Christian God. I must have missed hearing something from the pulpit.

Christian theology credits Satan with amazing power over humans, and his sole purpose is to capture and ensnare our mortal soul so that he can watch us scream and suffer in agony, as we burn eternally in that blazing inferno known as Hell.

If this is true then Satan must be another deity. He is more than just some creep in a red suit and pointed tail with a pitchfork in his hand that the secular world see him as. He is a supernatural entity equal to or greater than God. This must be the case or an all-merciful God would not allow Satan to direct his evil deeds towards us, we that are part of God’s beloved creation especially those who believe in Jesus and are supposedly ‘saved.’

This question of evil has plagued theologians for centuries. Theologians would have to agree that an omniscient (all knowing) God would have known that evil would have to prevail in this world that He was creating. There is no doubt that evil exists, so God must have foreseen it. They must also agree that an omni- benevolent (all-merciful) God would never inflict pain and suffering on His beloved human creation, and finally they would have to agree that an omni- potent (all-powerful) God had the option of creating a world with no evil in it at all.

If Satan is a supernatural power and from a Christian concept that seems to be the case, after all the New testament says he is the "God of this world", and hell is his domain, and he continually tempts all people especially Christians, then this creates a problem. Because Christians claim that Satan exists they have two choices.

1. 1. They must agree that Satan is a deity and because of this they can no longer lay claim to monotheism, it would have to be a minimum two-deity universe.
   2. They can add Satan to their trinity (3 gods in one, you work it out) as a fallen angel, or god of this world, making the already crowded trinity burst at the seams and grow another side to the triangle and make it a four person Godhead.

Jim Lee. 8/8/00

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