Biblical description of Satan

Greetings all -While reading an article on D & D, the writer posted a verse that he alleges describes satan. The verse is Ezekiel 28: 13-17:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, carnelian, topaz, and jasper, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald; and wrought in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared.
14 With an anointed guardian cherub I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.
16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. In verses 1 and 2, the writer of Ezekiel states that this announcement was for the Prince of Tyre AND that the prince is a man:
1 The word of the LORD came to me:
2 "Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD: "Because your heart is proud, and you have said, 'I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,' yet you are but a man, and no god, though you consider yourself as wise as a god-- According to those that are much more knowledgeable, are these verses describing satan (whom we have been told is a god), or a man? Edited avatar to improve appearance. --AdminThis message has been edited by Admin, 05-20-2004 11:33 AM

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

Actually, the whole book of Ezekiel is one long story. If you look at Ezekiel 2 it is clear that GOD is sending a message to People, not some Demon, Satan or demi-god. The rest simply follows.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

It did seem that the people that claim it is about a description of the devil, were trying to squeeze him into it.
Anyone out there that believes it says otherwise?
Just curious...

the biblical description of satan is much simpler and more confined (and a lot less scary) than most christians think.satan, really hasatan, THE satan, means "opponent." the implication is one who tests men for the will of god, not an opponent of god. satan is described in job as being among the ben-elohyim, the sons of god. different verses use god and his angels interchangeably, and satan is no exception.the "lucifer" passage is equally mistaken. isaiah is directing that verse at the hebrews, to raise a taunt against... nebuchadnezzar. the hebrew used is "heylel" which means "bringer of light" if i recall, and then describes him as "son of the morning." in translation, this came to mean the morning star, or venus half the year. the latin for that is "lucifer"if you believe the magi story in the gospels, jesus is being placed as the babylonian king... lucifer. he even calls himself the morning star in revelation 22. this bothers christians somehow, who are used to thinking in dualistic terms, god and anti-god.i am currently trying to track down the fallen angel, ruler of hell, battle of the heavens story. there's a VAGUE reference in one of the gospels. the earliest i can find the story is paradise lost apart from that. it also occurs in the book of moses in the pearl of great price, but where joseph smith got it from is clearly arguable.does anyone know the real origin of the story?

Well, how silly. Jesus spoke much about the enemy and how he (Jesus), came to cast out satan.It doesn't bother me at all though. It's like the YEC's - they don't bother me either. Fact is, we can all read our bible without invoking conspiracy theories or addages.Ofcourse, I don't associate satan as that red guy with horns. It's clear in the Gospel that he is a spiritual enemy who attempts to tempt Christ, and can appear as an Angel of light. A lot of people think it silly to talk of satan because they think of the silly and popularized "devil" with red skin. I've had a lot of people walk away from debate because they think I am talking about the regular mythical chap we see in movies.

Most Biblical fundies ascribe this to Satan, but I'm not at all convinced about that. In fact I'm more inclined to believe it's a higher echelon fallen angel, but can't be certain.There's only one chapter in the entire Bible, I'm aware of, that names Satan with a description and that's Revelation chapter 12 where he is described as a red seven headed dragon with ten horns. I'm not sure though whether that is a literal description of him or whether it's literal. I don't think there's really a definitive answer to your question in the Bible.

Very poetic Revelation though isn't it? I mean, you could say Jesus is described as the lamb of God and so, must really be an actual lamb??

True, except that the lamb is not described as is the dragon. Interestingly, the beast which comes to control the world in Revelation 13 is described similar to the description of Satan in chapter 12, with seven heads and ten horns. The earthly beast is definitely figural as the interpretation of the descriptive beast, his horns and heads are given in Revelation 17.

What about when satan tried to tempt Christ? Do you think he would have appeared as this dragon or in a "man" or "angel" form?Maybe satan is only ugly in hell. Maybe he is punished and hence given an "unGodly" image, contrary to that of God/man/angels?

Satan will most certainly not be ugly.Evil very seldom is ugly.And Satan is an Angel, not just a minor one either.One of the great threats about evil is that it seldom seems to be bad in anyway. That was the whole point about the temptation in the wilderness. There was nothing ugly, only gratification of your secret wishes.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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True, except that the lamb is not described as is the dragon. Interestingly, the beast which comes to control the world in Revelation 13 is described similar to the description of Satan in chapter 12, with seven heads and ten horns. The earthly beast is definitely figural as the interpretation of the descriptive beast, his horns and heads are given in Revelation 17.

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yes, and this is related the behemoth and leviathan in job 40 and 41, also a figurative description of satan. it is meant, like the rest of revelation, to be allegory. it is trying to show the "true nature" not the physical appearences.

Behemoth seems to fit that of a dinasaur rather because he would not boast about Satan to Job about his creation and power. But of course evolutionary indoctrination stops many of you even considering it may have been a dinasaur while humans were still alive.

No, it's actually the evidence and reason than stops us.I imagine you consider yourself absolutely unfettered by the bounds of evidence and reason, however.

What evidence? All you have are dead bones?. Highly dubious the bones could tell you their exact age, time of existence, time of extinction, what they looked like, what killed them, male or female, how did they live & act etc. Facts do not speak for themselves. Their read in the light of a presupposition. (Everything must have evolved over billions of yrs etc). Oh but we found it in a certain layer therefore they must be 80millions yrs old. Now thats great science!.