Sunday, November 17, 2013
The Fallen Angels
During our group projects today Adelae brought
up a great point about archangels and the question of whether they can still
repent and be saved or if that is a salvation only possible for humans in
Milton’s Paradise Lost. I wanted to
know, from a perspective of someone who is not as informed on religion as most,
if you guys think Satan could be saved if he had ever decided to repent? There
are two different sides the way I see it. The first would be that there has to
be a line somewhere that defines the savable from the un-savable. I feel as
though Satan has crossed that line multiple times so he does not deserve to be
saved should he so choose. But then again, God is the almighty and powerful. So
does that mean Satan can be saved since God has the capability to forgive those
that do wrong? And then, do all the other fallen angels like Beelzebub and Mammon
have a chance for redemption when none of them seem particularly interested in
bowing down to God’s grace? I am having a hard time distinguishing from the strength
of God’s capability to forgive, and the certainty of how I feel they should be
forever condemned.
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I am having the same conflict! As someone who is not very religious and does not really remember much of what I learned as a kid, I think I may be an acceptable person to answer your questions. Looking at this in a purely textual sense, I think that Satan can be saved. The religious literature that I have read in my lifetime has always spoken of God as an almighty and forgiving being. I know that Satan has done wrong and so have the angels, but if they repented, I don't see why God could morally say no. Although he is a just god (as seen through Dr. Faustus), if Satan repented sooner rather than later, I think he would be saved. I think the main issue is Satan's pride.
ReplyDeleteI am not Catholic and don’t know much about the ranks of angels and a lot of the dogma that Milton references, but I do know religion feels God is infallible, that He is incapable of making mistakes or being wrong. The fact he decreed Satan and his followers to hell means he felt they belonged there. Once God does something, that’s how it always is. Of course there are a lot of places in the Bible where God has decided one thing and then went back on what he said, but religion asks us to politely disregard this and focus on the bigger picture. So, I feel Satan would be beyond redemption. I also feel redemption is something only offered to man, God's favorite creation. Satan being a fallen angel was made to never act the way he did, so it is almost like Satan is a defective angel that was thrown in the trash.
ReplyDeleteLike the people above me, I really have no solid answer. But I thought it's really interesting that we're asking the question of whether it's too late to repent or when would it be too late, since we asked the same question about Doctor Faustus!
ReplyDeleteI think it depends entirely on the person telling the story as to whether or not Lucifer would be capable of redemption. After all, if Satan is responsible for seeing punishment done on the wicked, wouldn't that make him a good guy?
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