I thought Christianity was monotheistic!

[sage]

The Bible does make mention of Lucifer, the fallen angel, who could disguise himself as an angel of light. But the modern day concept of the devil with horns, hoofs for feet, and a pointy goatee - this figure was a corruption of the pagan god Pan by the catholic church in order to scare people away from their old religion.

[Larry Boy]

It's interesting to note that one of the words for "God" in the original hebrew version of the Bible is a plural ("Elohim", "Eloha" being the singular form). There are also a lot of findings that suggest that many of the Bible stories are based upon earlier Mesopotamian myths, which were polytheistic.

So, the Bible itself is polytheistic yet we are supposed to believe that there is only one God "because the Bible says so"? That doesn't make very much sense to me.

[Jack]

Well Bible isnt manual that one has to follow in order to make his life work.Like other books(though this one is special,agree) its to give examples,explain what is a consequence of what and generally help people who for some reasons are looking for something to lean on.
But to do so for many people it contains mostly metaphores and we need to remember its very old and wenmt through many translations-not allways honest or well done.This is why sometimes people get lost because they take it too literally.
Its a book and very old one- its good to keep it in mind and if one is after iron facts newspaper will do it better.

[quantum physics]

yea i think some people forget that people wrote the book and people lie alot so it isnt historically acurate

[Jack]

Not necesarily lie but its really really old- imagine 2000 yrs old book and additionally translated so many times.
Thats a lot for concepts and ideas.

[DayLight]

Also, take this into consideration -
The Bible was copied thousands of times, before the invention of the printing press. That means that every copy had to be transcribed by hand, and as we all well know, mistakes can be made(Elohim, Eloha, etc.), and a vast majority of people are a bit corrupt. They could have changed the book to fit their needs and wants. Also, when you look at the stories of the Bible against those of earlier pagan myths(especially the NT), the stories are almost identical. Read this article: http://www.freewebs.com/20thcenturygnosis/religion.htm

[rad]

What it comes down to is that the bible was written by men, not some ominescent force in the universe. Many agencies throughout time have used religion to control and manipulate the masses. Think about how many people have killed another man because they were told "god wills it". Thomas Jefferson once mentioned this issue in a letter to one of his friends, he said that it was apparent that many parts of the bible were great and it is evident that they were concieved by a force greater than normal human beings. However he also said that much of "the good book" was obviously written by a much lesser, more corrupt mind...

Just my .02

[Belshazaroth]

The deal with the devil is that he can't beat got, so instead he's after us. The whole lot of Christianity is about a spiritual battle. God wants us to believe in his son Christ, who acts as a savior due to his sacrifice on the cross. Satan's goal is to blind people and detract them from ever knowing and accepting Christ so they can go to hell with Satan for all eternity.

It's just satan saying "If I gotta go to hell, I'll take as many people with me as I can!"

So what is being fought for in this spiritual battles are the souls of humans.
When you break it down this way, it kinda sounds like an all-or-nothing-epic-plot-where-the-whole-world-rests-in-the-balance-and-everything-is-at-stake.
According to the Revalations in the bible, there will be a final epic battle and grand finale. Earthquakes, famines, the works. One last good vs. evil battle at the valley of armageddon.
I won't quote scripture, but that's the gist of what I have read.
After the battle, Satan gets locked up in hell for 1000 years, and earth is restored to a paradise and god reigns supreme. Nice happy ending.

(I've been thinking that maybe this is a plot line that so many movies follow, in one form or another.)

[Datameister]

Yes, Christianity is monotheistic.

If you were working three different jobs at the same time, you would still consider yourself one individual person. Similarly, when God is described as having three components--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--the intended meaning is that these are three different aspects of His being. The first created the entire universe; the second willingly redeemed every human who would accept the gift; the third speaks into the hearts of those who decide to listen. They are all different "jobs" that belong to a single omnipotent God.

Then there's the issue of Satan. One of his great deceptions is the idea that he is God's archrival--an equal but opposite antithesis of the Creator. This isn't so. Lucifer was created by God just as you and I were. This might bring up the problem, Well, why would an all-knowing God create a being that He knew would attempt to put himself before God? That's free will for you. (I know that's a whole other problem that is often brought up.) God created Satan, knowing that this would happen. But what good would it do to create beings that were pre-programmed to worship God? That would be a shallow and useless worship. Anyway, I'm drifting...my point is, Satan is nothing more than one of God's creations who is foolish enough to believe he can supercede his creator. He's not a lesser deity or anything.

Larry Boy, you said that there's evidence that parts of the Bible are based off Mesopotamian myth. To my knowledge, we have no evidence pointing to direct lifting from that mythology. There are some apparent similarities between certain Old Testament stories and the aforementioned mythology, but these don't necessarily point to the Bible's authors borrowing story fragments.

Back on the first page, the topic of church corruption was brought up. It would be unfortunate to reject an entire belief system simply because some of the people that claimed to believe it were corrupt. Yes, terrible things have been done by people who thought they were doing God's will. Does that mean that Satan is an invention of those people? No. If you read the Bible closely, you'll realize that Satan is never used as a device to induce fear. That has been done by certain people in the past, but there is no biblical support for that.

There's also the old dilemma, How could a loving God condemn his creations to eternal pain and suffering just for making a few mistakes? In this case, the problem is that the question makes incorrect assumptions. Hell, in the first place, is not literally a lake of burning brimstone. That's figurative imagery used to describe eternal separation from God. Secondly, the Bible doesn't say that we are sent to hell for our sins--it says that we are sent to hell for rejecting God. The only way we can go to hell is if we decide not to accept the undeserved gift of salvation--the natural consequence is separation from God.

I know this isn't what all of you believe, but I hope I've cleared this up the Christian beliefs a little.

[Shaper]

[XLonewolfX]