Dear Theophilus, 

In our last letter we left off with the mention of a figure who has shadowed man's existence over eons. I have delayed our discussion of him because it is so easy to sensationalize this topic and lose sight of more important matters, but it is time that we spent some time considering this character because he plays no small role in human history.

The meaning of the term Satan is, adversary, and he fulfils the role of adversary to God and to man. We fall into two main temptations with respect to this character: to underestimate his role and to overestimate it. Both are deadly and it takes much discernment and wisdom to walk the narrow middle path.

The role of Satan is somewhat ambiguous and what we find in the early development of our faith is that he is somewhat of an innocuous character. In the book of Job we read that he is present at the court of God accusing Job of being a phoney believer who has faith in God only because God protects and rewards Job. Here Satan plays the role of prosecutor whose role is to see beyond the sham of false belief.

However, with the progress of history, the role of Satan crystallizes into a somewhat more sinister and more dangerous and more evil figure. This conclusion came as a result of man's experiences and mythically (this does not mean that it is false but that it goes beyond the limits of mere rational description) we hear of a great conflict, before man came onto the scene, between good and evil angels. As a result of this, a rift occurred in the heavenly realm and man is involved in this rift as a participant in the war between good and evil. I know what you are saying at this point. I can see you rolling your eyes as if to say enough of these fairy tale descriptions and myths. This is not history and mere conjecture. Fair enough; your complaint is heard (even if you are only thinking it) and permit me to follow it up.

If you were to look at great literature you would discern a strand which explores man's experience of this world and this strand, time and again, underlines the fact that no matter how much we may try, we fall short and things go wrong. Somehow this whole existence of ours and even the universe are doomed. I need only remind you of the Second Law of Thermodynamics which states and proves that the universe will eventually run down into a meaningless disordered, inert substance. The question arises: what is the point of existence? Is it all to end in a futile dead end?

There are several answers possible. The first one has already been mentioned. It is all meaningless with no point, a chance occurrence resulting in what we call life which will disappear into nothingness. This may seem an obvious answer to some but there are serious problems with this position. If there is no meaning then how can we derive 'meaning' in the sense that we explain the universe as meaningless? It is like proving that there can be no proofs, a self-contradictory position. Moreover, in spite of all the seeming meaninglessness, we cannot deny, because we experience it, the existence of some meaning. I, personally, find the position that there is no meaning in existence, untenable. There is a meaning, but this meaning has been twisted and distorted to some extent. And if this has happened and is happening, then there must be some agent carrying this out, an agent with intention and purpose, and this agent we call Satan. Moreover, the spiritual experience of countless people, over many centuries, also attests to the existence of some malevolent power which works contrary to creation, trying to undo it.

We must consider Satan when discussing spirituality because we will encounter Satan, but, and this is very important, this encounter will be very subtle and difficult to discern. Satan has been called the 'ape of God' because he mimics God, but with a twist that send things in the wrong direction. Adam is promised that he will be like God, but Satan omits to mention that this is something destined for the future and not something present now. This omission of the time factor results in undue pride and rebellion and leads man into destruction. Thus something which is good and true is offered under a distorted picture which results in evil and not good.

It is interesting that throughout history, the worst crimes are never offered starkly but hidden under some cover of good. Stalin justified his murder of millions of Ukrainians and others as a cleansing process which would speed up the arrival of a communist utopia. There are many echoes of this kind of behavior throughout man's long and bloody history.

Satan is very subtle, and we cannot withstand him on our own because we will be fooled and this points out the need for community, for the presence of many minds to reach a consensus in that this consensus corrects our often mistaken individual conception of reality and assessment of the state of what is confronting us. This community is called the Church, and we must continually keep in mind that we can never have a strictly individual spiritual life without becoming derailed into illusion and delusion.

It may be unpopular, and archaic, but we must realize that when we set out on the path to spiritual growth, we will be involved, for lack of a better term, in a war, in a struggle. It will not all be smooth sailing and in fact, if we do not encounter difficulties, then this should serve as a warning signal that something is not right.

I don't want to dwell on the topic of Satan too long because it is easy to fall into caricatures of this fallen angel. Common pictures of Satan as having horns or a red cape and other popular pictures are just that - mere pictures. We cannot imagine what this malevolent creature looks like and this is not important. What is important is that we are conscious of his existence and his activity. Our focus of attention should not be on Satan but on God. Satan's eventual destiny is again, not a concern for us but that is left to be decided between God and Satan.

Suffice it to say, and this I cannot overstate, the activity of Satan is very difficult to discern. One of the clearest and most impressive examples of this is the temptation to moralize on our part. We are called on to obey the commandments and to live an upright life but it is exactly in this sphere, that if we think we succeed, we stand before the grave danger of pride. We become proud of our 'righteousness' and forget that it is God who helped us stay away from sinning. But, we forget this, think that we have accomplished everything on our own, and go even further by criticising others. Thus, a good thing is distorted and Satan uses it for his own goals.

There is another part to this that we must beware and be on our guard. We must avoid the temptation of blaming everything on Satan. If we err and we sin, we may feel tempted to blame Satan. I didn't do this or that; it was Satan who caused it. This is, of course, an erroneous generalization which is extreme and forgets the existence of our free will. Accept complete responsibility for your actions because, at the bottom of it, we are responsible creatures.

The realization that we have free will is an important one and we must learn to respect the free will of others and to respect their decisions, whether we agree with them or not. We may choose to die for our views but we cannot and should not force others to die because we find their views are not compatible with ours. There is no room for religious intolerance and the reason why I raise this point at all is due to the fact that there are many examples in history which show a disrespect for human freedom. It is when we are most assured that we are right that we stand closest to Satan. It was when Satan was sure he was right in his dispute with God that he found himself most distant from God.

I know that you will react the way most of us do when we read stories about saints and their struggles with demons and the powers of darkness. This all seems so incredulous to us and we write it off as the views of those who had not been enlightened by modern knowledge in areas such as psychiatry, psychology and other studies of man. We write things off as if there are no non-material entities who can affect man in his life's journey. I understand why some people have these views, and I have some sympathy with them. I think some writers simply go too far in ascribing everything to evil powers. It almost seems that Satan and his horde rule everything. This, of course is an exaggeration. It is still God who has the final say. But, don't permit the language that is used, to dissuade you from the important message that underlies it. There are certain phenomena that are due to mental illness or aberration. However, there are cases where something else is operating and what the ancient writers are trying to do is describe these experiences of theirs in the vocabulary available to them. When faced with a locomotive engine, they may have spoken of it as a smoking, noisy dragon. This is an unsatisfactory statement, and their language may be unacceptable to us but this is not to deny the experience gone through. If we simply ignore this experience, then we stand to lose important insights into human life.

But, enough of this. You have been warned and in the next letter, let us go on to more constructive matters,

Sincerely,

Bar-Abbas