Q&A with Durrell Watkins (from Sunshine Cathedral's weekly newsletter)
Question: God is
perfect. The angels are perfect. Satan was perfect. If heaven was perfect along
with Satan how did Satan sin? Why did God allow sin to be known in heaven?
Answer: The
first time we see “the satan” (i.e., the accuser) is in the Book of Job. In
that story, “the satan” has full access to the heavenly council and is
apparently simply doing his (or her) job as an accuser (sort of a prosecutor).
It isn’t until much later (and probably as a result of Persian influence) “the
satan” becomes “Satan”…the cosmic boogie man who is the cause of all mischief,
suffering, and evil.
In the first century, it was
commonly believed that difficulties and diseases were caused by evil spirits,
and so “Satan” not only came to be thought of as the personification of evil,
but as a leader or driving force of supernatural evil entities. Satan as a sort
of Lord or Potentate of an afterlife prison called “Hell” is an even later
development most vividly depicted in the literature and art of the middle ages
and the Renaissance (e.g., Michelangelo’s Last Judgment and Dante’s Divine
Comedy).
The story of Satan misbehaving in
heaven and getting cast out isn’t really told in any one place in scripture. To
form that story, one has to piece together unconnected texts: Luke10.18
(quoting Isaiah14.12, with some license…Isaiah is calling a political ruler
“Lucifer”/Morning Star, the planet Venus), 2 Peter 2.4 (referring to angels
being chained in “Tartarus”…a term borrowed from Greek mythology), Jude 6
(speaking of angels who did not keep to their proper domain, probably referring
to the story in Genesis 6 where angels were said to have seduced humans), and
Revelation 12.7-12 (a battle between angels and a dragon, the dragon probably
representing Roman imperial power). By taking these disconnected texts and
combining them together (and assuming that Lucifer, Satan, and the dragon are
all the same character), the story of Satan as a fallen angel emerged. It is a
story that developed over time, and one that I do not take literally.
Now, “Satan” is a convenient way
of blaming the appearance of evil in our world on “someone.” But let’s also
look at the rest of the Satan myth… “in the end” we are told, Satan is finally
defeated by the forces of righteousness. What the story illustrates is that
evil is not ultimately real. Evil is the absence of or the opposition to Good;
but God, the Good, is omnipresent and so for God to be omnipresent means that
there is nothing “real” that can ultimately oppose God/Good. A Course in
Miracles states, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists;
herein lies the peace of God.” Nothing can ultimately threaten or oppose what
is truly Good. The appearance of evil must eventually give way to the Truth,
just as darkness must be expelled the moment a candle is lit. Satan, as a
literary figure representing evil, is only a temporary appearance, or illusion,
which ultimately must be banished by the light of Truth, which is that
God is omnipresent and God is All Good. Good is what is true, what is real, and
what must ultimately be experienced.
(originally
printed in Sunshine Cathedral's The Sun Burst in June 2010)
