I haven't the slightest idea where I'm going with this, I'm just thinking any typing. I can suppose that maybe it doesn't matter whose fault it is. I don't normally think God plays the blame game, and as long as we turn to him in the end (whenever that is) that's what he wants.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Who's to blame?
One of the very many interesting parts of The Screwtape Letters is aspect of devils being assigned to each human in order to attempt to steer them away from God. I think Satan and his minions do tempt us and tell us lies, but I don't quite know to what extent. I don't know that it's as much as we would like to believe. As Screwtape alludes to, work like his is not all that difficult. All they have to do is twist a few words and point us in the right direction, and we do a pretty fantastic job of destroying ourselves. So our enemies can tempt and twist words, but are they really to blame for our mistakes and rebellions? Lewis is always talking about how the opposite of running to God is curling up inside ourselves and shutting everything out. So if devils have even some part in our misdirection and turning away from God, then what's our part? Where does Satan's blame, if he has any at all, end, and where does ours start?
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There is alot in this post that I agree with. I think though, I lean towards the side of human blame. It becomes very easy to blame other humans and spirits for our mistakes and I think this is what Lewis talks about in the preface when he states that one of the traps is over believing in this sort of stuff. Yet, in my interpretation of the words of Jesus, there is surprising little talk about Satan's blame. Granted there are some verses: I think about Satan falling out of the sky like lightning and the whore of Babylon.
ReplyDeleteBut most of Christ's teachings talk about alining ourselves with God, and not de-lining ouselves with Satan.
Take for example the famous Matthew 16:22 passage: Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
Two things about his passage I think are fascinating: The Hebrew word "satan" originally wasn't a name. It means adversary, or sometimes tempter. Only with the word "the" infront of it does it take the shape of a proper noun. So, this passage if translalted back to the (possible) orignal Hebrew from the Greek says "Get behind me adversary!"
Second thing is this: What does Jesus acuse Peter of? Having the thoughts of men, not thoughts of Satan. With these two hints in mind, I feel like we need to be way more scared of our own flesh than of Satan. But sometimes I'm dualist to the point of heresy.