These threads always fascinate me... I wish had more time to post something meaningful...
Regardless of the content of the posts, the slightest mention of Satan / The Devil / Lucifer etc always seems to bring out dogma in people.
I thought that I would chip in to say that (as most of you have guessed) I am a Christian - yet I enjoy these threads (and cannot understand why Christians won't entertain the concepts and thoughts within), I have read the "Satanic Bible" (and the follow-up) because I am not forebidden to do so.
To anyone that has read the Satanic Bible, it is clear that many satanists don't even believe in Satan !
I am tending less and less to see the Bible as dogmatic, and more and more to see it as a living metaphor - a parable that was acted out over thousands of years, with the purpose of the stories being handed down so that we can "extract" the underlying meaning. If you like, I am "kicking around" the idea that the Bible is a "morality play", containing both dark and light.
Why be afraid of the darkness ?
What is to fear?
Did Jesus fear the devil ?
If you take the Bible as literal (or even as a parable), isn't the "war" already won? Take a look at the ending of the book...
Ramble over.