Sometimes it seems I hear a message several times for a reason. I’ve been hearing one recently that I hate hearing, but maybe there’s a reason. In the Bible it says that God expelled Satan and his followers out of Heaven and they fell to Earth. Some people believe that Earth is really the land of Satan and that God is a cruel God who gives difficult rules and punishes us without mercy while Satan will help us if we only turn toward him. I can’t understand why I keep hearing that anyone would possibly believe this idea.
The first part that really bothers me is the idea that God is a cruel God that punishes. All my life I have known God and all He has ever shown me is acceptance and love. There’s never been one day of my life that God has ever punished me for anything ever. I have been great at feeling guilt and punishing myself, but God didn’t do that, I did. Then, there’s the idea that God is cruel, but I’ve never known that to be true. The stories in the Bible aren’t history, they are for spiritual truth. I can’t point to them and say this is proof of God’s actions. Then, one could say that God is cruel because He allows evil, but as I have said it is the ultimate act of love to give us free will and allow evil to exist instead of making us exist like robots with no free will of our own.
However, the part that really gets to me and makes everything hard to believe is that God isn’t on one side of the spectrum and then Satan is on the other. It isn’t a war between good and evil. God created both good and evil. He created everything. He created the angels and the demons. He created Jesus and Satan. He is the ultimate creator. He transcends the dualities that we impose on existence. He exists beyond good and evil somehow. So, when a Satanist tries to place God in opposition to Satan, it is a fundamental misunderstanding of who God really is for me. He isn’t just what is described in the Torah, the Bible, or the Quran. He isn’t Nirvana or whatever else any religion says God is. God can’t be described by any words or any religion. The only way to really describe Him is to say He is. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is everything and nothing all at the same time. He is the creator of everything. He is exactly what each of us needs Him to be. At all times and all places, He is.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
