Satan

Satan

Christians have come to understand that the Devil is the author of lies and a promoter of evil. Satan goes by many names; he is the original enemy of God who rebelled against him, causing God to cast Satan into hell. Satan is believed to be the one responsible to all the deception that exists in the world. To most believers of God, Satan is the reason sin exists, and that Satan will do whatever he can to have people commit as many sins as possible. Many also believe that Lucifer is the author of evil; his chief desire is to receive the worship that belongs to God. Lucifer also tests men's faith, hoping that men will stray away from God's grace. Throughout history there have been many depictions of Satan, such as looking like an angle or a goat-like creature with horns and a pitchfork. The depiction of Satan also differs throughout religions, as well as different background stories. Satan has been depicted has being beautiful as well as being ugly or disfigured. Dante's depiction of Lucifer has differed from what many believe is the true form of Satan.

The traditional view of Satan probably came about during the Middle Ages (Heaster). The difficulty faced by mainstream Christians in dealing with the idea of the Devil is reflected in how Christian writing and art has depicted Satan (Heaster). In Medieval Europe, the images of Satan and hell became all the more terrifying in Christian literature and art, this was due largely in part to the image of Satan being used whenever there was a famine or plague (Heaster). Research has shown that a mixture of pagan ideas of the Devil occurred in European Christianity (Heaster). As time progressed further, the Devil came to be spoken of not as much as a physical being but as a less well defined, ghostly being (Heaster). What led to the reference of the Devil as being ghostly was the contribution to the development of doctrine of the Devil and primeval rebellion