#15. Calling Satan, "the enemy."
Jan 15th by Jon
This is one of my personal favorites. At some point in 1996, everyone decided to call satan, “the enemy.” I don’t know how it happened but I have a guess at why it happened. I think it happened because we’re afraid to look weird if we talk about the devil. And it’s a weird thing to do, I agree. In a world governed by logic and science and reason, to associate your life with a pure evil entity that is hellbent on destroying you at any given opportunity is a little freaky. That’s why you rarely hear someone say, “Wow, satan was really attacking me last night.” Instead, we say the enemy because it’s a much safer word. Everyone understands what enemy means, it’s just someone or something that is against you. So instead of feeling weird, we feel OK when we say, “Wow, the enemy was really attacking me last night.” How far will we take the softening of the words we use to describe satan? We’ll see, but I wouldn’t be surprised if given his immense Public Relations magic we eventually call the devil, “the opponent” or maybe even “Mr. red hot pants.”
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Great site!!!
I’m such a geek – I say “the enemies”. I know, weird. But I realized a long time ago that satan (notice, I don’t capitalize his name. Like I said . . . weird) is not omnipresent or omniscient so he probably doesn’t spend much time messing with me. There are bigger fish to fry for him (guys like Bono). So I assumed that one or more lesser demons are there to deal with me. Hence “the enemies”.
Did I mention – great site! Funny!
Christians like BSD?
I am a Christian, and I love little Beasty. I prefer Puffy, though. Or Flaggy.
Red Hot Pants! LOL!!!!
There’s another thing Christians like — spelling a perfectly normal proper noun like ‘Satan’ with a lower case ‘s’. I mean, he’s not the nicest guy in the Universe, but do we have to mangle our language on his account?
"Satan" has been used as a proper noun in English (I'm not entirely sure whether this came from translation convention or common usage, originally.), but this is not necessarily the case in the original languages of the Bible. The Hebrew word (שָׂטָן) comes from a root that means to attack or accuse and means little more than "adversary" in and of itself; it is often used with "ha" (הַ) preceding it, making the full construction "ha-satan" (הַשָׂטָן) or "the adversary" i.e. "the enemy". In fact, the word is used to denote both heavenly and earthly enemies, even when the enemy is, in fact, good (e.g. the "angel of YHWH" in the story of Balaam). I don't believe that this is the case in the Greek as, logically, Greek words would have been used, rather than loan words, to denote enemies that lacked religious significance, although I could very well be mistaken.
With that said, I tend to use "the enemy" more than anything in writing and speech. This comes from a combination of habit and the fact that I'm typically referring to all of the hellish hosts collectively rather than a specific demon; how often is Satan personally oppressing a specific person? As you see, I have no problem with using "Satan" as a proper noun as a standard of reference, but not doing so is far from an aberration.
As for "mangling the language": I would agree that putting "satan" in lowercase when using it as a proper noun is a little odd and grammatically incorrect, but isn't this also the case with the unnecessary capitalization of any common noun, pronoun, etc. that is attributed to God? (I'm not saying that you do this; just throwing out that observation.)
If any of this came off as condescending or nitpicky, I'm sorry. I'm a language fanatic who is majoring in religious studies, so I tend to go overboard when the two subjects intertwine.
It’s like he’s Voldemort or something. “He who must not be named.”
You know, I never thought of it this way, but last week a friend said the devil was attacking him and it sounded weird.
That was hilarious! Perhaps the saying originated from the “Enemy’s Camp” song made popular during the Brownsville Revival Era? I remember singing that song faithfully during Wed. night youth group.
Your blog is so funny! I laughed and laughed
I did actually find in Matthew 13 and 1 Timothy 5 where Satan is called “(an/the) enemy”.
But it is funny how I, too don’t like mentioning Satan around nonbelievers. I feel like I lose an friend instantly or something. Waiting for some tabloid to come to my door.
satan was called 'the adversary/enemy" in the greek, so as Butch says, its actually the correct way to address his name
One time, (and I don’t even know where I heard it), someone said when you say “Satan” it gets his attention and well, I still think about that and that’s why I don’t say it.
Well, I personally think calling Satan ‘the Enemy’ isn’t so much a lack of faith but a larger perspective on things?
To nitpick, technically, I believe Satan probably isn’t really his name, nor was Lucifer his name as an angel.
After all, all it really means is just ‘Accuser’.
And come on, what’s the difference between calling something this evil ‘Accuser’ and ‘Enemy’ anyway?
Anyway, I think calling him ‘the Enemy’ because, seriously, he’s the Enemy. Hitler? Pol Pot? Mao? Saddam? Pfft.Little boys in the sandbox.
This moron is probably the most powerful being after God’s infinite might, and guess what?
The guy hates us and God, and would love nothing better to kill, krush and destroy(heh) us just to piss God off.
So I don’t really see that much of an issue really; in fact, the epithet ‘Enemy’ brings the mind the threat that he can be more than just ‘Satan’, being that the picture of Satan nowadays is just a red little horny devil with a pitchfork. heh.
I call him Stan. Check out my site and you’ll understand.
I think this comes from the Bible: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” I Peter 5:8
So, I was at church last Sunday and a women prayed out for protection for one of the church members and she used “the enemy” in her prayer. Of course I thought of this post and couldn’t help but laugh to myself… and then I felt guilty because it was a serious prayer, but maybe it is just a good thing that we can laugh at “the enemy”.
This happens to me all the time. Next time you take communion, listen to how many people cough after taking the grape juice. Its hard to stand in reverence when laughter is about to explode.
You contrast “logic and science and reason” with the idea of “a pure evil entity,” and say associating your life with this entity is a little freaky. Of course it is freaky. There is no evidence for Satan (with or without a capital S). Logic, science, and reason do not point to any evil entity that actually exists. This is a myth. Satan is an imaginary being. Of course, evil exists, but not Satan. Why would anyone believe anything without credible evidence?
Satan is the personification of humanity, every person sins, and in christianity it is said that if you trully regret them its OK, but theres plenty of people planning their next sins as they are confessing the ones they did before.
so either Satan has already won humanity for him or we are just not supposed to restrict ourselfs to the rules portraid in ancient versions of farietale books.
Could someone answer this question for me?
I thought that the hebrew word for Satan meant "opposer" or "enemy" and thats why Satan is sometimes refered to as the "enemy" in the bible.
Satan has a lot of different names in the bible so I don't think it's a problem not to call him Satan unless you really are trying to soften or hide what you are talking about…
I call him the Devil…. That includes his demons too… Christian Dance
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In the olden days, people thought that you would attract Satan's notice if you said the name. Thus, a myriad of nicknames, like Old Nick, the black gentleman, etc.
and Santa.
One thing we should never do is underestimate our enemy's power or be cavalier about our ability to conquer him. Michael the angel just said, "the Lord rebuke you" and didn't want to attack Lucifer himself. I would not be so cavalier, lest you find yourself eating your words later on.
He was considered the smartest, the most talented of angels, before he turned evil and was cast out. Know your enemy.
this made me laugh too, everyone I know calls the devil "the enemy". I know I have before.