Except Yahweh was the Judge, Jury, Prosecutor, and Executioner.... doesn't sound like a fair trail to me. Do you honestly think Yahweh would rule in favor of his enemy? The only thing proven in that kangaroo-court is that Yahweh is dishonest.
No, in fact, that's not how it was. This was an argument before his peers. If anything, the decision was by vote and majority consensus.
God stayed away from that process of the judging just as he will do on Judgment Day. He sets some basic guidelines, but the judging will be done by others. In fact, the judging will be a lot by COMPARISON. That's the purpose of bringing everybody back and comparing notes. That's why those at Sodom and Gomorrah will be compared with those in Jesus' day who rejected him. We can anticipate the basics, that is that the Jews had the advantage of knowing God's word more directly and understanding who the Christ was, whereas those in Sodom didn't know this. The inference is that is some in Sodom had the advantage of the Jews of Jesus' day they would have embraced the messiah instead of rejecting him. Thus it is said that some from Sodom would fair better on Judgment Day than would those who rejected Jesus, knowing what they were doing. It wasn't ignorance or peer pressure or any of those things. So 1,440,000 righteous judges, many of whom would have gone through some of the experiences of everyone being judged would decide. If someone is a drug addict, then a former drug addict might be chosen as his judge, since obviously he would be more understanding, etc.
In the case of Satan's trial, where some of his issues might have gone other way, such as the greater temptations of being beautiful* has some merit, there was absolutely no excuse or justification for inducing mankind to sin and thus incur death, and since Adam potentially was father to billions, that is seen as essentially killing those billions of people. WHAT EXCUSE? You don't decide to take someone else's life away because you're personally having a bad hair day! So he was condemned on that single thing absolutely. That's what actually happened, that's what condemned him. So Jehovah, while agreeing with that verdict, of course, wasn't sitting there deciding to judge Satan in this case.
So what YOU have to do now to empathize with Satan, is to present a logical and sane reason why it was appropriate for Satan to include mankind in his protest by lying to them and telling them "they would not die." And in so doing, knowing he could potentially kill billions of future generations in one fell swoop. The Bible calls Satan a "manslayer from the beginning", meaning he hated man from the time he was created.
Same with Cain and Able. You have to give a reason why Cain's actions in killing his brother out of his own jealousy was honorably justified and he should get a medal for doing so.
You know, the Germans had very good reasons for killing all those people in death camps too. They needed "lebensraum" ('living space") for the Master Race.
Satan didn't like competition of mankind whom he considered inferior to angels and decided to get rid of that competition by killing them off. Well, that was just found to be "unacceptable" and assured the death penalty. There were shouts to have Satan put to death, even some who would die themselves rather than have this travesty continue, so Satan and his followers were promptly kicked out of heaven after that.
So ultimately, that's the only real issue. It's as if any other argument could go either way or had some merit, but there was no merit to include others with his own misery. The dignified thing would have been to stand his ground and on his principles and died with dignity, instead the true Satan was shown forth, that he was a callous evil and corrupted individual so robbed of any love or compassion that he found equisite joy in murdering mankind. Of course, Satan fell into that trap that proved he was a murderous biache, but had had a backup plan! Seems like there was a way to save all those Satan had murdered so in the end the only ones who actually die are basically those who would have chosen death or been killed by Jehovah anyway, not qualifying to eat from the tree of life. But all that will be worked out on JUDGMENT DAY.
Note on being beautiful: Satan was exquisitely beautiful. Beautiful people do have a different life than say someone not so beautiful. It's like being rich. They are treated with deference. Fact is, beautiful women or people do have a different life, sometimes that improves it and sometimes not. But in the case of a justification, I could see a loose argument that there is more temptation involved if you're beautiful. Take a gay situation for example. You have two young men who are gay, trying to remain celibate but the pressure is just too much. So both give up and go to a gay bar. One of them is handsome and beautiful, so lots of men come by and buy him a drink and ask him for a dance, eventually asking him to go home with them. The man asking him is rich with a nice car, seems sincere and kindly and even wants a relationship. How can he resist?
The over guy though, is crippled. Not much, but a noticeable limp and he has to use a cane to get around. Plus he's not really that attractive and he's a bit overweight. A nice person for sure, great sense of humor and everything, but simply not someone you'd normally want to have sex with. But he has the same desire as the beautiful guy. He had given up his resolve the same way. But, of course, there was little temptation to act on once he got to the bar. As a result, he went home with his virginity intact. The difference totally being based upon personal beauty. So it could be argued that the temperations are greater for someone beautiful than for someone not so beautiful.
Of course, sometimes this can backfire. Many times extremely beautiful girls end up getting abused, often by their fathers who can't resist such beauty. So I feel sorry for beautiful women sometimes because they do have a different kind of life to deal with. Now some take to it and relish in it, while others sometimes feel isolated because they know the average man can't see past her beauty. Point being, though, someone who is more ordinary wouldn't have those temptations. A beautiful woman might have a rich man who is worldly wanting to marry her and give her the dream life she has always wished for. She has to make that hard choice to say no if she wants to stay in the congregation. Another girl not so beautiful doesn't have to make that hard choice because no one is offering.
So Satan thinks, somewhere down the road, that GOD is responsible for the envitable corruption because he made Satan so beautiful. God says that is not his intent but Satan created himself. But whose to judge? Obviously I'll side with God, but others might think Satan has some basis for the misuse or abuse of his personal beauty. But that was not the issue upon which Satan ended up getting condemned to death. That's because there is no argument that personal beauty had anything to do with becoming a murderer of mankind. So there's just no excuse.
Even so, think about the time and trouble for splitting hairs on all these issues? Satan may be a clear-cut case for execution, but what about the other angels who want to rebel against God? God made them FREE MORAL AGENTS, right? Does that mean everybody who doesn't agree with God would die? Is that really free moral agency? It's a big mess. But there is an easy solution to that big mess. Answer? Just KILL EVERYBODY. Put everybody to death. Make everybody "pass through the fire". That way, there is no need for argument.
God made the angels mortal, even though free moral agents, so he set a limit on their lifespan, but did so across the board, that is, regardless of the moral choices made, everybody would die at one point in their lives, that included Jesus Christ himself. But what that effected is no need for debate on all this split-hair issues regarding whether God was being judgmental or not. Then after everybody's death, God could choose, if he wanted, to rise up and resurrect any of those who had died back to life. Only, for some reason, he would never quite get around to those complainers. But that works out, because they wouldn't have been happy anyway, right? RIGHT!
So ultimately, God doesn't really care about what those wicked angels or those who hate him have to say and their opinions about him, because it's only temporary. They will die of "old age" and that will be the end of them and their opinions. Period.
And in fact, that is kind of the atmosphere that was in Heaven between Jehovah and Satan when he was still allowed up there. God basically has said, "Okay, fine, whatever. I'm not going to get involved in a tit for that. I've decided that I'm going to terminate all angel life up in heaven because I'm not happy and this isn't working out for me. This isn't what I had planned. I'll do this after the millennium. In the meantime, do your thing Satan, whatever..." So God let's Satan make challenges to him and takes him up on some bets, like he did with Job and Satan's claim that he was only worshipping him because of the wealth God gave him, etc. They are adversaries but they are like in competition to see who will rebel against God and who will remain faithful. God is allowing this competition during a prescribed time, but by the end of the 7th Creative Day, the Satanic nightmare will be over and he will be no more. The only people or angels who will be alive at the beginning of the 8th Creative Day will be those who actually like and love this God, YHWH. Those who find fault with him, will not be forced to worship him; they will be dead.
"Lucifer" will become synonymous with "Insignificance"...
JC
