I am a hindu and all my knowledge of christianity is from hollywood 
movies. please answer these basic questions.

1. when and how was devil created. i am ready to believe that god exists 
forever( even before beginning) but devil??
1a. if god created devil, for what purpose? was it to lead humans astray 
and when we sin god ( or jesus) could bring back and our faith in god be 
stronger?

2 are god and devil equal in power or influence? if yes, how does good 
triumphs over evil everytime. if no , why doesn't god crush devil 
forever.

3. is everybody in the holy trinity equal, or is the father supereme?

some of these questions may seem ridiculuous or even appearing to make 
fun of, to christians. i have taken the liberty of asking them here 
'cause from what i have seen grexers don't take offence easily.

8 responses total.

Theories differ, but let me see if I can shed some light:

1. The Devil (aka Satan) began existence as Lucifer Morningstar- one of 
God's beloved Angels. Lucifer, unfortunately, decided to rebel against 
God. Therefore he fell, and was condemned to Hell (as it's prime 
administrator).

1a. Again differing theories. One has it that the purpose of Satan is 
to punish the wrong doers. God gave mankind free will, which includes 
the ability to choose to do wrong. A theory I 'like' is that the devil 
punishers wrong-doers for a length of time- then once they have been 
punished they go to heaven.

2. Since God created Lucifer he's the stronger. Around the European 
Medieaval times Satan's power was 'enhanced' by the priests. This has 
had many effects and leads up to today where he is thought to be God's 
equal in power. God could crush Satan, but it may not suit His 
purposes. Who else could 'reign in Hell' as it were? Hell is a 
punishment, even for it's administrator- none of the other angels (that 
we know of) would deserve scuh a punishment.

3. In theory- the trinity is 3-in-1, and thus all equally divine. I'm a 
little skeptical on that score, but the general idea is that they're 
all equal and all part of one divinity just separate aspects. That may 
be a better way of thinking about it, one whole with three faces. I'm a 
little unclear on this one.

Does this help at all?

Glad to see the questions, keep on talking! :) Although, we try to be 
nice (some of us) but there are grexers who will take offense at 
everything! ;)

Well, I've never been Christian, but let's see what I can do here.
There's an historical perspective on all this, too.

In the Jewish belief (predicessor of Christianity), there was an angel, loyal
to god, who stood at His left hand. His job was to tempt people (such as Job),
so they could *choose* to be good, and grow stronger through the testing.

The Zoroastrians were perhaps the first to have a dualistic image of deity-
they had a "god of good" and a "god of evil", who competed for followers and
for control of the world.

A lot of the images of the devil come from earlier peoples or episodes; it
may be the Hell as a burning pit is based on Gehena, which is in turn either
the Jewish place of punishment, or the midden heap outside of Jerusalem (or
both?) The devil as having goat's feet may come from Pan- the goat-footed god
of the forest, who brought both abandonment and joy, and "panic" fear. His
followers would have grand, liscentious drunken revels. They were also said
to have torn apart the king when he snuck in to see what they were up to. 

As to your question number two; there are some beliefs in which the devil
seems to be stronger- people are inherently evil, the world is falling apart,
etc. So that it's god's task to try and redeem us from the evil and bring us
to a higher reality. The Gnostics believed a variant on that, although for
some of them, our world was actually *created* by the devil, and therefore
is inherently flawed. For most Gnostics, humanity is redeemed by Sophia, the
spirit (more or less feminine) of Wisdom, while the prime creator sits outside
the problem and watches to see the outcome.
However, a much more common belief would the that, in the long run, God is
the more powerful, being without limit and all-encompassing. But in the short
run, there seems to be a very common belief that the Devil is always lurking,
to cause trouble and lead people to his domain, which makes him *seem* more
powerful, or at least more present, than god.

Re; trinity- what Anne said. It's a Mystery; 3 who are 1 who are both separate
and whole. Either that, or God the Father is the Jewish god, perhaps based
on an earlier Sky/Storm god. Jesus would be a later addition, amalgamated
with the earlier like Thor gets added to Odin's family once Odin's Germanic
people had conquered the earlier Norse. I think that also happens in Indian
myth, but I can't remember who came first. Certainly, the Aryan gods and
practices got joined to the Vedic ones. Well, anyway, the "Holy Spirit" might
be a hold over from earlier Goddess worship, or represent the Earth. In modern
imagery, I think it's closer to the Gnostic Sophia. And there has long been
a struggle over the role of Mary; if she's the mother of god, is she a god?
That she's mortal is part of the Mystery-- draws the divine closer to
humanity. But there seems to be a deep need for divine feminine, since the
veneration of Mary has always been so strong.

I was thinking something else about triune gods and goddesses in other
pantheons, but it fell out my other ear. Sorry.

Also, there is a theory that the story of Jesus was established during Roman
times, in a form which was reasonably acceptable and familiar to Romans. The
god who dies, is reborn and taken up to heaven is a lot like the story of
Mithras, for example.

so is lucifer forever condemned to death or he will serve his period and 
become an angel once again? what happens to hell then?
I really like the jewish belief. 

the gnostic belief which kami mentioned reminds of some discussion of 
"the matrix' I heard somewhere!

one thing though, kami. since god gave us the free will and some of us 
are tempted and not so strong to follow the god, why redeem us afterall? 
won't we spoil the good lot also. why not let those rot in heaven 
forever. since if we are ultimately redeemed, why bother not to sin?
I find being saved by jesus a very strong strain in christianity. 


some more questions:

what are these different types of churches that I see in the faith 
column on the net? like pentacostal, calvery adventist etc. which is 
followed by majority of christians and what are the main issues which 
cause differences. ( da vinci code introduced me to many new ideas)

kami, you mention things I have never ever heard before!!

You ask "if we are ultimately redeemed..." Well, if I understood correctly,
most branches of Christianity believe that only the good folks get a good
afterlife, and the ones who misbehave, *and don't repent*, get to suffer after
death. So the ones who screw up too badly, don't get to go "spoil" heaven.
Other branches of Christianity seem to have believed that people are
predestined for heaven or hell, and that their behavior in this life is more
likely to show than to cause their destination. I don't know if there are any
current sects who hold that belief. It seems pretty counterproductive to me.

Come on folks, aren't there any current or former Christians who can answer
questions about different denominations? I really only know what I've heard
in Anthropology or Sociology classes. <sigh>
Anway, I guess the primary division between Christian denominations is between
the Catholics (and maybe Eastern Orthodox?) who believe that, in the communion
which is their core "mystery", the wine and wafer are *truly* transformed into
the blood and body of their god, so that they become one at a cellular level.
The other, protestant sects, believe that it is a symbolic transformation.
Beyond that, the Catholics have a very formal ritual, very psychologically
effective because of its drama. They also have a complex hierarchy,
culminating in the Pope who is the primary mediator of god's will to the
Catholic people. Their clergy is celibate, to focus their whole energy on
spiritual connectedness. And it is believed that people get closer to heaven
by the good they do in the world, and by confessing their sins and repenting
for them. The protestants came about when the Catholic church has something
of a monopoly of spiritual power in Europe, and had become rather secular and
corrupt. So the protestants were "protesting" the abuses of the Catholic
hierarchy. They began to read the bible themselves, not just have it read and
explained to them. They believed that the only way into heaven was by faith,
so all the donations to the church or helping widows and orphans in the world
would not buy them a seat in heaven. Martin Luther (hence "Lutherans") posted
a list of 95 complaints about the Catholic church. I'm afraid I don't know
what they all were. But the result is that most protestants are more plain
in their dress and in their church services. The Calvinists (don't remember
Mr. Calvin's other name) were really popular in Scotland. A very harsh sect,
I think they might have believed in predestination. They sure didn't much like
dancing or playfulness. 
I'm going to stop there, and see if anyone else knows more about some of the
other sects and their beliefs.
there were some differences of opinion large enough to result in wars or the
attentions of the inquisitions. At this modern juncture, that's hard to
believe, but I guess that those in power were afraid of losing it, and those
who distrusted the folks with power wanted to create change, and everyone
thought they had the One Great Truth. <sigh> THey're all wrong about
that...<g>

It is almost as I had expected. each clinging to his faith and trying to 
increase the number of followers of his/her own faith.

The idea with Martin Luther (hello, raised Lutheran. ;) ) was to reform 
the Church- not to create his own sect. That apparently came later.

The Calvanists, as far as I know do believe in predestination, and are 
against fun. ;)

One of the other main differences with Protestantism and Catholism is 
the method of reaching God. Catholics were told (basically) that they 
needed a priest to be an intermediary. Protestants are much more of the 
idea that they can talk directly to God and don't need anyone to play 
middle man.

As for the rest of the denominations- I really don't know what makes 
them all different- only perhaps in their interpretation of the Bible. 
Or which aspects of the Bible to focus on.

Do the Destinists believe in procrastination? ;-)

Another feature of Protestantism is rejection of the "cult" of the Virgin Mary
and statues of Jesus and Mary.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that last bit... but I guess you're right. 
Protestants revere her as mother of God- but they wouldn't really think 
of praying to her for aid.

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