Satan

Satan (?????? Standard Hebrew Satan, Latin Sátanas, Tiberian Hebrew ????n; Aramaic ???????? ?i?nâ: both words mean "Adversary; accuser") is an angel, demon, or minor god in many religions. Satan plays various roles in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha and the New Testament. In the Hebrew Bible, Satan is an angel that God uses to test man for various reasons usually dealing with his level of piety (i.e. the test in the Book of Job). In the Apocrypha and New Testament, Satan is portrayed as an evil, rebellious demon who is the enemy of God and mankind. These two ideals are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Satan is a real person. Satan was created a perfect spirit creature, but that he became "Satan the Devil" when he acted on his desire to turn Adam and Eve away from worship of Jehovah to himself. The name he carried previously is not mentioned in the Bible.

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By use of the serpent in the Garden of Eden Satan seduced Eve by implying that God's rulership was selfish and unjust. "Is it really so that God said YOU must not eat from every tree of the garden?" Eve's reply was that only one tree had been prohibited from their use on penalty of death. Satan challenged this: "YOU positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of YOUR eating from it YOUR eyes are bound to be opened and YOU are bound to be like God, Knowing good and bad." So, Satan's approach was a dual deception: First, that God was withholding good from them and second that he was lying in the process.

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Eve, having succumbed to this deception, along with Adam, who allowed himself to become complicit in the matter, rejected their Creator and chose Satan as their 'god'. The Bible shows that the majority of their offspring followed them in this course. (e.g. The Flood)

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Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Satan is still the god of this world, citing references at 2 Cor.4:4; 1 John 5:19; -.

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