Luscifer - Good or Bad?

[Katie Kool-eyes]

Neither, he doesn't exist

[Stoic Hero]

There's a difference between the Prodigal Son story and the Lucifer story. Well, many differences, really.

The son was not evil, for one. He did not lie, deceive, or let his pride destroy his entire relationship with his family. He was lost and misguided, but certainly not evil. That's why, when he finally realized that he had been vain and had lost everything he once loved, he dropped everything and decided he would go apologize to his father and request to become one of his slaves in order to live with him again. In this way, the son showed both remorse (he felt bad for throwing away his inheritance) and repentance (he was going back to his father as a slave, not to demand his father take him back). When he arrived, the son was shocked because his father welcomed him back with open arms, forgiving everything and even celebrating his return by slaughtering their fattest calf. This story is meant to represent our relationship with God. We screw up. We spend all our inheritance on foolish, petty, and finite things. It's when we finally take a step back and realize our errors and meet God with repentance that he forgives us and lifts us up. God is always willing to forgive and forget our sins. The only requirement is that we actually want to be forgiven, and that starts with the realization that you do, in fact, sin, and that you're sorry for your sins.

Lucifer, or Satan, on the other hand, is too proud to repent. He despises God, he thinks himself above God, and so he would never give God the chance to forgive him. I would be willing to stake everything that if Satan went to God, truly apologized, and honestly wanted to be forgiven, God would have no problem doing so. But that will never happen, due to Satan's pride. Everything he does, from now until the end, is against God and everyone who serves him. He is the greatest enemy.

His goal before Jesus was born was to prevent the birth of Jesus. He tried to taint the royal blood by convincing other angels to impregnate human women, which led to the monsters of inhuman size like Goliath, the Philistine champion from the David and Goliath story, who was 6 1/2 cubits, or just shy of 10 feet. He would also try to kill all children around Jesus' age through King Herod in what was known as the "Massacre of the Innocents."

He obviously failed, and now his plan is different. Since Jesus already accomplished what he set out to do, Satan's new goal is to prevent as many people from reuniting with God as possible.

Once again, he's an enemy. Not to mention an angel/demon, so he's not human and definitely not someone you should think about getting in contact with or forgiving or anything like that.

[Subtle-sounds]

while katies post shows a multitude of deep thinking and wonderful reasoning i have to agree. Being Atheist i have to consider what christians and jews and so on dont see day to day. Im not going to tell you god doesnt exist thats for you to decide for yourself. But lets say for a minute that im christian and god really does exist, he is not what the bible portrays, You can blame it on free will if you want but GOD is NOT omnicient, omnipotent or forgiving. God made nature first, it is the part of the world that would be most akin to him his strength being its best at the beginning of creation. We all know that nature is a very destructive force and while it can be beautiful will remain dangerous at all times. that means that god is harsh and unforgiving, perhaps being shown the purity of his destructive tendencies made him think more when it came to subsequent creations like animals and men.

Who is to say what was really going on? NOONE because the only people who could tell you with certainty that heaven exists are dead people and i havent found a way to communicate with the deceased. The main problem that i see is that god predates writing of all forms, therefor how can anyone truly write gods words? he hasnt existed on this plain of existence since the beginning. So like i said God isnt what the bible says, and thats if you disbelieve the truth of him not existing anyway.

[The Fool]

Lucifer is not the same Satan, but I assume you're talking about the Devil... I think the Quran explains this ancient story better than the Bible. In the Quran, it's said that God created 3 main great races:

1. The Angels. They were created with air and have no free will. An angel can't rebel against God if God doesn't order it to do so.
2. The Jinn. They were created with fire and have free will, therefore they can choose to obey God or not (be good or bad if you will).
3. The Humans. They where created with earth and have free will too, and be good or bad also.

The story tells that when God created the first human, Adam, He ordered every other being to bow before what He considered His best creation. Iblis, the leader of the Jinn, refused to bow, along with other Jinns, for he considered himself and his race superior to that of humans, since he was created from fire, and not with earth/clay.

He couldn't stand the treatment the human race was receiving, and from this disagreement the tensions in Heaven began, and Iblis arrogance and stubbornness made God angry enough to punish him and cast him to Hell. Iblis asked God to be merciful with him, and God agreed to punish him later, after the Judgement Day, and sent Iblis (now called Shaytan/Satan) to Earth to test humans, that way Iblis can prove if humans are superior or not.

The Islamic depiction of this story is more complete. It show us that Iblis is the enemy of the human race, not of God, like how the Bible portrays him (which would be a suicidal position).

So yeah, Satan is a bad guy!

[Carmen Sandiego]

Shu, let me just start out by saying I am ashamed of you. His name is "Lucifer." There is no "S" in his name... Well... in his changed name "Satan" there is... That, however, is not the point. The point is, I am truly disgusted by your misspelling of the name of the Lord of Temptation, The Prince of Darkness, The Devil Himself, and so-on and so-forth. I expected a little more from a higher-up, but it looks like I was wrong.

Anyway... Lucifer... Lets talk about what I remember about him... His name had to do something with "Light." He renounced his God given name after trying to be better than God and then being kicked out of Heaven... This is what I remember being told. I'm not sure how much of it is 100% accurate.

I believe there are things that science cannot even explain. I believe there is a being greater than all of us. I also believe there are angels and fallen angels. Proof? Not physically. But then again, there are instances of miracles that science cant explain that are documented, but are discredited by the non-believers who only want to bring forth things that CAN be explained.