I’ve been thinking about the whole hell theory, you know, you go to hell if you’ve been bad and evil on earth. Where you are tortured and poked in weird demeaning ways and chopped up and your lips and feet are used for hot dog meat… well anyways, you know the place…
So anyways, why it is suposed to be like that? from my understanding of the whole story it should be the complete opposite. Lucifer(sp?) or The Devil, started out as an angel right? he was the best looking angel in heaven and pretty high up in the ranks. The problem was, he was power hungry and wanted to be just as powerfull as God was. God didn’t like this, so he sent Lucifer and all his pals down to what we now know as “Hell”.
So i’m thinkin Satan doesn’t really like God all that much anymore, after losing all the nice air conditioning and all from heaven. So why would he be doing God any favors? Torturing all the “Bad” people from earth just doesn’t seem to fit the picture. Satan rebelled against God, so anyone else who does the same should be kinda on his side right? So when i end up in Hell for being “bad and evil”, shouldn’t Satan sorta meet me at the door and say somthin like: “Hey there welcome to hell, here’s a welcoming beer, there’s some immoral girls over there if you like and here’s the key to your new room. Enjoy your stay.”
Now this is a theory on a theory of course, but you know, im just kinda wondering…
Your first error is assuming that Satan (Lucifer is not Satan, by the way. In fact, there is no angel nor devil named Lucifer) controls Hell as some sort of middle mangement for God or something. Instead, Satan is imprisoned in Hell as punishment. He doesn’t get much of a say as to what goes on in there and besides being its most well known figure, has no power over Hell at all.
ok, then who the hell is lucifer? Cause when i used to go to church there was all this crap about lucifer. i figured that since he got kicked out, he and satan were one and the same.
Second, was there a hell before satan? and if satan isn’t lucifer then who the heck is he and why is he in hell?
Just for intrest sake, where did you get that info from? And if Satan is simply the most well known resident, does that mean that there are other known residents? like who?
Lucifer is the name used for “The Morning Star”. In Isaiah, the term is used to refer to the King of Babylon, most probably Nebuchadnezzar. The term wasn’t used as a reference to Satan until much later.
And I saw an angel coming down out of Heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him… - Revelation 20:1-3a
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of buring sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. - Revelation 20:10
Well, presumably the third of the Host who allied with Satan to overthrow Heaven.
Well, if you’re believing the Bible to any extent (and there’s no point in talking about ‘factual’ information about the Christian concept of Hell if you’re not going to accept the Bible as the basis), God controls all… including Hell.
At any rate, Hell is a fairly modern concept that the early Christians lifted from the Greeks (notice the use of Gehanna, Abyss, Tartarus, etc used in the New Testament to refer to Hell). The Old Testament makes no mention of Hell (nor of bona fide fallen angels for that matter), though the pseudipigraphical book of Enoch refers to the fallen Grigori angels being imprisoned in a layer of Heaven.
Well, to try and honestly answer the OP, rather than pick nits about names:
It’s a whole carrot and stick thing, you see. The church needs to keep people toeing the line, so they gotta have a carrot, heaven, that’s a reward for clean living, and a stick, hell, that’s a disincentive for ignoring God’s rules.
If hell were a place full of sinners having fun eternally engaging in sin, what kind of disincentive would that be, eh? It would make heaven look downright boring, Philly Cream Cheese spokesbabe or no.
Reminds me of the old joke with the punchline:
Satan: “On Fridays, we have gay sex!”
Then the Catholics ruined the whole effect by inventing the Confession. So they had to perfect Guilt. But they had the Jewish mothers to teach 'em.
From what I remember of the small amount of theology I got when I studied Dante’s Divine Comedy, Hell doesn’t really serve a purpose, as such.
Think of it this way:
According to popular Christian mythology, Satan rebelled against God in the most fundamental, profound way. When he was cast away, he was cast down as far from God as he could go.
So, as you approach Satan, you get progressively farther from God and things become progressively less like Heaven. When people become damned, they progress to the level of Hell that is in degree with their sin and that’s where they stay. Think of it like that experiment in high school chemistry where you shake up liquids of different densities in a container and then watch them precipitate into layers.
I don’t think that mentioning Lucifer was nitpicking. He had the wrong name, I explained why it was wrong – it’s not like I was calling him an idiot Besides, you don’t fight ignorance by skipping the details.
You’ll notice Satan does most of his tempting in the Old Testament. As I said, the OT does not include a concept of Hell or of an imprisoned Satan. In fact, I’ve read quite a few ideas that the OT Satan was not fallen, but rather worked for the Big Guy himself, tempting people on God’s behalf and generally testing their devotion. Job passed, Adam & Eve did not. If you read Job, there’s a description of Satan walking up to God past the assembled angelic armies and having a chat about how righteous Job is. Sounds to me like someone still on the payroll.
Why does it belong there? No one was witnessing (I don’t care what you believe and am only a nominal Catholic myself. However my interest is in angeology, into which the story of Satan fits nicely). The OP was a factual question, “Why does Satan punish people in Hell if he runs the place?” with a factual answer that includes cites: “According to the Christian faith (which I presume he meant in context of), he doesn’t run Hell”. The fact that a question deals with a religion you don’t agree with doesn’t automatically mean people are debating it or witnessing the faith.
For a man who knows so well where threads belong, you seem to be woefully ignorant of where such language and hijacks belong. Did the devil make you click on this thread? Twice?
Play like a nice atheist, and not the hand stabbing type. Let the Opening Poster get his answer.
So they had to perfect Guilt. 
But they had the Jewish mothers to teach 'em.
Besides, you don’t fight ignorance by skipping the details.