Satanism


The article below is from www.truthvanguard.com. The author of the blog is a ex-satanist and is now a shameless practicing Christian. His articles/essays are mainly on theology, philosophy, apologetics, church history and politics.

"Satanism could become the major religion of the 21st century." -Anton Svandor LaVey
I might just as well tell you right now that Satan’s supposedly nonexistence has been proposed by atheists at large just recently in the general public, while Satanism, on the other hand, is not a recent invention or the idea has been introduced to the public during 21st century. The origin of Devil-Worship pre-dates Judeo-Christianity and can be traced all the way back to the greatest empires such as ancient Babylon and Egypt.
Most modern articles or ideas about Satan or Satanism are mostly derived from the Christian Holy Scriptures.
You can read the history of Satan in the Old Testament Bible espescially in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-19. Let us continue shall we?

To say that Satanism is not a religion is tantamount to saying that Jainism isn’t. A religion doesn’t have to be “organized” in order for it to be valid as a ”religion.” Satanism as such is a religion whether one adopts atheistic or theistic Satanism. In short, it takes a leap of faith to be a devout Satanist! The question, “What is Satanism?” is not easy to answer without broad-brushing all devout Satan-worshippers.

Besides, there is a plethora of philosophies, ideologies among Satanists that contradicts with each other. So, there is much confusions and discrepancies among Satanists themselves. This is not surprising, after all, isn’t the Devil the author of confusion and the father of lies (John 8:44)?

In addition, readers must be warned that Satanists doesn’t have to wear pentagram or other occultic pendants. A Satanist doesn’t have to wear black clothes nor does he/she has to look alike Marilyn Manson and headbang to a Norwegian “Black Metal” music
.
In fact, a Devil-worshipper can be among us, he can be your avarage computer nerd, she can be your own sister, a family member and he can even be your honest politician or a well-to-do neighbour. In short, don’t be fooled by mere appearances.

Satanism and Its Beliefs
Confusions exists among Satanists but I’m not about to confuse anyone about Satanism so what I have done in order to avoid generalizisations is to separate between the two camps of Satanism: ”naturalistic Satanism” and “theistic Satanism.”

Atheistic Satanism
We will start examining the naturalistic or atheistic Satanism and then proceeds to theistic Satanism. During my Satanist years I came to a conclusions that Satan or the devil (as the scriptures denotes of him) existed rather than just a mere symbol or force of the nature.

However, I denied the personification of Satan after a while, especially after reading Anton LaVey’s infamous book. His Satanism made a lot more sense, to me, then, since I did not believe in the existence of a god, and so I thought.

Again, naturalistic satanism denies personifying satan and argues that satan is not an individual or a person as depicted by the Christian Bible, but rather as symbol or metaphor and should not be taken literaly, this is what the founder of Church of Satan and author of The Satanic Bible, Anton Svandor LaVey teaches. LaVey has also been accused of plagiarism but whether or not this accusation has merit his philosophy does resimble mainly with thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Ayn Rand and Alister “The Beast” Crowley. We can summarize his Satanism as follows.

LaVeyan Satanism emphazises and encourages most of all hedonism, solipsism, self-dependence instead of having a reliance of a transcendent being. For those who follow LaVey’s philosophy, just as Satan rebelled against God in Christianity, satanism as such, is understood as a symbol for rebillion (nothing new!). Also, for LaVeyan followers, Satanism means to be anti-conformity to, cultural norms, and traditional religious creeds. As a member, in any church, or in any social clubs etc, there are rules or regulations which a member has to agree or obey. The Church of Satan is no exception when it comes to having some kind of rules such as the nine Satanic statements.
The Nine Satanic Statements
1. Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence!
2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates!
5. Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the other cheek!
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic vampires!
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development”, has become the most vicious animal of all!
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
9. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!

Theistic Satanism
LaVeyan philosophy and satanism is attractive to those who oppose Christian orthodoxy and to those who denies the very existence of God. But, there are those who believes that God does exist and so does Satan. Unlike, atheistic Satanism, who denies the existence of God and Satan, theistic Satanism or traditional Satanist affirms both yet they prefer worshipping the Adversary or Satan as a deity.
In an essay I read on the net, “So, What’s Theistic Satanism,” describes its sole beliefs (I doubt that this website represents the views of ALL theistic Satanists) about who and what Satan is;
Theistic Satanism is the belief in or experience of Satan as an entity. This is a general term for Satanists that know and experience Satan as a god. This is also known as Spiritual Satanism. Spiritual Satanism describes the spiritual belief in, or experience of, Satan as a spiritual force. Also, Theistic Satanism may be a form of polytheism for some, by those who choose to include other gods or demons in their religious worship.
Some Spiritual Satanists may accept Satan as creator of the Earth, or even as creator of the Universe, as the energy of the abyss or void and the force of nothingness or destruction, as a god that represents the all, or as a representative of the inner divine power of the self. Still, others claim that Satan is a father god, who watches over his kin, acting as a beneficent god to help those that seek Satanic divinity. Some accept Satan as a guiding force for the destiny and fate of humankind. These are just some of the varieties of beliefs of spiritual Satanists. [source]
According to theistic Satanism, as quoted above, (i) Satan is an entity or a god, and (ii) spiritual Satanism can be describe as polytheistic belief system, (iii) and that Satan, instead of the biblical God, as we read him in the Bible, is the sole creator of the earth and even the entire material universe; (iv) theist Satanist sees Satan as the father god, (v) also, others sees him as the sole guiding force for the destiny and fate in this life.

If you are knowledgeable in Christian theology and the Bible itself, one can’t help but admire the creativity and feel sad at the above assertions. Satan, instead of God, is credited for just about everything! Is this surprising? Hardly! The apostle Paul tells us that Satan or Lucifer is transformed into an Angel of Light (2 Cor. 11:14)!

Satan is not pleased to be in second place in human’s worship. He is not satisfied being just a mere mini-god of this world (2 Cor.4:4) but, want to be GOD himself (Isa. 14:14). However, the same Satan who wants to be treated and worshipped as God was rebuked by Christ in the wilderness, and told him to ONLY worship God (Matt 4:10)!

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