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Influences of religion on culture and society
Influences of religion on culture and society
Religion and beliefs and their effects
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I recently read an internet poll about Christian views of God. 46% of those polled believe that God is a God of wrath and judgment. 16 % believed that God hated sinners and was a God of punishment. Out of all those polled only 20% believed that God was a God of Love and that he loved everyone. There were a couple of other categories listed but what opened my eyes wide and gave me a shock was how many Christian believers are in rejection! In essence all but those 20% believe God is a God of rejection, just waiting to reject, judge and punish.
Satan is the prince of this world and Jesus said that the world would hate you if you believed in him because it hated him first. The entire world ideology is based on an underlying sea of rejection in every shape and form. It’s known as the dog eat dog world for a reason. Clever as he is the enemy has planted the seed of rejection within the heart of the body of believers through the lie that God lives to punish for lack of perfection in performance. This is nothing more than his underlying root of rejection. This has bred into the church self righteousness, bigotry, cultism, cessations, wrath, hatred and so many more isms than we want to admit to.
Critical words, condemnation of others, judgmental attitudes towards others in the form of self-righteousness all are forms of Satan’s Kingdom based on rejection. Many groups come together in criticism of other groups and in a group of that nature you have a unity in criticism and judgment. The people of that group are unified and accepting of one another, while condemning those that disagree. They feel justified the more people they convince to stand with them.
According to historical and biblical accounts Jesus went throu...
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...our life will be centered on work. What is your desire in life? If we die to ourselves daily we are able to give up our fleshly desires for the desires of God. So many people don’t understand this concept and they feel it is a destitute walk of sacrifice and are unwilling to take it up. I can assure you that this walk may have the appearance of lack but it is anything but lack. God will meet you at whatever level you wish to reach. If you focus on him first, the rest will follow but if you are tied to the world the potential loss of worldly things will strike fear into your heart and you will fall. If you try to walk with one foot in the world and the other in the kingdom of God you will find yourself in a turmoil racked with questions and chaos. You can have all the good things in this world but you have to first be willing to give all things up to do so.
...powerful; therefore, everything is a result of God allowing it to happen. Yet, how could a loving father allow disease to harm his children. Satan views man as unintelligent to believe the way he does about God. “He equips the Creator with every trait that goes to the making of a fiend, and then arrives at the conclusion that a fiend and a father are the same thing” (347).
Why hast Thou come now to hinder us? For Thou hast come to hinder us, and Thou knowest that... We are working not with Thee but with him [Satan]... We took from him what Thou didst reject with scorn, that last gift he offered Thee, showing Thee all the kingdoms of the earth. We took from him Rome and the sword of Caesar, and proclaimed ourselves sole rulers of the earth... We shall triumph and shall be Caesars, and then we shall plan the universal happiness of
Now the Serpent was the most cunning of the animals that the LORD God had made. The Serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it lest you die’.” But the Serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.” (Genesis 3:1-5) Serpent, Devil, Tempter, , Prince of Darkness, Fallen Angel, the Evil One, Lucifer, Diabolus, all of theses titles refer to the same figure, Satan. The name Satan comes from the Hebrew for adversary. It is theorized that Satan is a symbolic figure for those who opposed the Biblical writers, in the Old Testament the Satan was meaning the other nations, the idol worshipers, and in the New the Pharisees and the Jews who ejected the growing Christian faith from the Jewish community. In the time of the later church, Satan and his works were meaning heretics and such. Anything on the outside that appeared to be a threat became of Satan. It is also a theory that Satan is a real individual, a real spirit, the fallen angel. Some stories hold that selfish pride and lust for power brought about the fall of Lucifer, “the light bearer”. St. Augustine wrote that the Devil was “inflated with pride, he wished to be called God”. The words of the prophet Isaiah illustrate this idea: How you are fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! How are you cut down to the ground, you who mowed down the nations! You said in your heart: ‘I will scale the heavens; above the stars of God I will set up my throne; I will take my seat on the mount of assembly, in the recesses of the North. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will be like the most high.’ Yet down to the nether world you go, into the recesses of Sheol! (Isaiah 14:12-15) St.
Some may reject the Christian gospel because of a cultural taboo to how they was raised. People in some cultures feel if they believe in God that they will be rejected by family and friends. However some will reject the gospel simply because they have committed a sin. Even though you have sinned does not mean you are not loved. It is hard for some to grasp the idea of there being a higher power out there. Some j...
...s Online - Harvard Theological Review - Abstract - The Social History of Satan, the "Intimate Enemy": A Preliminary Sketch. Harvard Theological Review, 1991. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
Typically, when someone thinks of religion, they think about worship of a higher power, compassion for all living things, and a general love of the world. Satanism, while a religion, does not fit these conventions. The faith holds no belief in a higher power, is rather selfish in nature, and paints a bleak picture of the world and its workings. In addition, Satanism has controversy riddled history dating back to the seventeenth century. Due to the religion’s unconventional nature, it is often looked down upon and its principles and values are ridiculed. To better understand a faith like Satanism, it helps to look at it alongside a more familiar and commonly understood religion like Christianity.
As the story goes, Satan begins as the highest angel in Heaven, God’s right hand man. Although so much is expected of him, doubt fills Satan’s mind and he desires more power and equality with God (9). Obviously, this is where his demise began. Satan half fulfills this desire when he becomes the ruler of Hell, but he has various other dreams and wishes for his life. As he views the Garden of Eden, Satan reflects on his journeys, and comes to the realization that he could have continued to be God’s prized being, like Job, and may have had the possibility of being a part of Paradise (86). He longs for this, but drives it out of his mind since “to do aught good never” will be his task (13). It makes him mad with jealousy and fuels his malevolent plots to destroy
..., this self-justification and rationalization is a way of him saying, I am justified, which is an innate human quality. This representation is very different from what most people are used to seeing, which results in the reader relating to him and viewing him as victim because we identify with him. The humanizing aspect of Satan in the poem to have an initial reaction and say I am wronged in this situation is identical with our innate reaction to similar incidents. Even though we are different than Satan in many ways, we usually do not take accountability when we are expected to. Thus, we sympathize with Satan in this poem because we also rely on self-justification to avoid taking blame for our wrong doings and accept that we are sometimes wrong. Hence, since we understand his situation due to the way it mirrors our human nature, we consider Satan to be a victim.
Satan is an allegorical representation of God the Father. Both Satan and God are seen as Father figures; God as the Father of all that is virtuous, and Satan as the Father of all that is wicked. Just as God is the King of heaven, Satan claims himself King of Hell. God is the originator of Goodness, as Satan is the originator of Evilness. All in all, Satan is a perverse representation of God.
We all question our beliefs, whether it be religious, or just simply how evolution has evolved. And in the book Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst, she takes you through her beliefs and journey of finding and meeting God. All throughout this book she helps us understand that rejection is going to be our biggest enemy. Rejection is going to be there when you're trying to move closer to God, rejection is going to follow you all through life, rejection is going to be in all of your relationships, rejection is going to ruin opportunities and rejection is going to make you feel less than, left out and lonely. But all you can do is thrive to live loved. She also explains that rejection is just going to get you where you are supposed to be and that it’s
Ask anyone to draw Satan and you 'll get a red snake-like figure with horns and a pitchfork. Satan, as introduced in the Hebrew bible is an unworthy adversary of God. His longing to be like God is quickly recognized and dealt with. God banishes him from Heaven and sends him to Hell. That 's the last we see of him until he talks with God about his faithful servant Job. In each interaction we see Satan in, we get only a glimpse of who he really is. Satan 's motive is not developed and we assume he does evil simply because he is evil
Focusing in on the commitments that I have made will place order and hierarchy in my life so that God may work in it as He pleases. I want to fully commit my life and vocation to God so that His glory may be seen in every aspect. Since the most important thing to God is building His kingdom by constantly bringing home His children, I plan to order my life in such a way that allows me to be a blessing to others. To live a sacrificed life means giving up things that this world labels as riches. Living for others and with others is the way lived His life and Jesus knew that He was modeling it for the generations to come. We cannot do life or ministry alone as we do not and are not able to possess all of the spiritual grace gifts. This sacrificed life indeed requires a disciplined life and a genuine commitment to fulfil God’s will in our
He has the faults and doubts associated with humanity rather than being a character of pure evil who operates in a dichotomic black and white world. In Paradise Lost, Satan is envious, prideful, angry, rebellious, argumentative, and manipulative. He envies the son of God’s position and with clever argumentation convinces others to follow him in a rebellion against God. He manipulates others to get what he wants, such as when he convinces Eve to eat the fruit or when he lets Belzebuth present what is his own plan to convince the other dwellers of Hell to follow it. Despite all those traits, Satan is seen as having glimpses of remorse throughout the story, even doubts as to his own behaviour. He thinks about repenting more than once and it is those doubts that raise the question of Satan’s humanity. After all, a creature of pure evil would never show hesitancy, and even less remorse. After seeing the sun for the first time after being cast out of Heaven, Satan has a moment of self-awareness in which he acknowledges that he created his own misery, which leads him to think about repenting (Russell, chap.12, p.55). He does reject the idea quickly, but it’s those little moments of self-reflection that make Milton’s Satan the intricate character that he is. The idea of remorse is
to do, we will never experience true joy and peace. Our calling is what God has planned
From the very moment that Satan is introduced he presents this unwavering passion to defeat his all-mighty creator. Satan says in book one, “By force, hath overcome but half his foe. (1:648-649). Here, Satan states in his second speech that they have not lost the battle of Heaven vs. Hell completely. God was stronger than they expected but they were going to overcome their first loss and win the next one. Not...