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The name Lucifer, which is usually identified with Satan, means “Bearer of Light” or “Morning Star” and refers to the Devil’s former splendor as the greatest of the angels.
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I first got the concept of the Devil from the Jesuit priests. Those guys were in charge of my Elementary and Middle school education and of part of my High School education too. I first got the concept of God from them as well. In the Biblical theology that they taught me those two concepts are inseparable. God is the Good guy up in heaven and the Devil is the bad guy down in hell. Sort of like a good cop-bad cop situation. They play a different game, but they’re both out to get you.
According to the Jesuits, there’s an ongoing battle for the hearts and souls of humanity between those two guys. They keep trying to outwit each other in their effort to kick each other out of our minds. Jesus Christ, for example, the hero of the Bible and reportedly one of God’s greatest Ambassadors, went around exorcising Devils from people and throwing them into pigs, which then went ahead and threw themselves off cliffs.
But who is the God of the Bible? Well, the God of the Bible is a personal one, an individual or entity who resides somewhere up in heaven, way beyond our sight, watching our every thought and deed. But as powerful as this God seems to be to millions of people, to me he often looked like a needy guy who couldn’t live without everybody’s attention. He may often be willing to grant you some boons, but only if you prostrated yourself before him and begged him. Ultimately, I thought the God of the Bible was a corrupt guy who could be bribed with offerings like good thoughts, good actions, alms, etc.
He also seemed to be a super egomaniac guy with a humongous inferiority complex who wouldn’t tolerate the slightest
insinuation on his name. For example, if you were to say that God is a nincompoop (for the love of God, don’t say it!), you would run the risk of having him cast the greatest calamities on you for the rest of your life.
Can you picture this? A guy with a power so great that he can create an entire Universe with all the diversity of life and things that exist in it, a guy capable of creating complex beings such as we humans are, could he be as insecure and paranoid as to be constantly wiretapping our thoughts and conversations so that he could vent his rage and resentment on his offenders and ultimately send them to a Guantanamo-like Hades?
What kind of God would that be?
But, anyway, I’m not here to talk about the God of the Jesuits alone, but about him AND his arch-rival the Devil, formerly known as Morning Star. First of all, as we all know, the creator of that horned, spear-tailed red creature is not an evil foreign force hiding in the bowels of the Universe, but our good ol’ friend God himself. The God of the Bible created the Devil. Can you imagine this? The Jesuits always told me that their God was the good guy in all of this, but if that is so, why did he create a super-evil dude like Satan?
