the devil, is he all bad?

Religion is essentially a man-made institution which is set up to instruct, guide and bring together people in a community of worship. That is why there are many religions and no one 'true' religion (though many religious people would vehemently contest that!) There is, however, only one God, creator of all things who both is and is in His continuing creation. Different religions have sought to explain both the presence and absence of God. Because we are human, we tend to think in terms of 'human' personalities and in concepts which people can understand. Just as, when explaining advanced scientific concepts to a child, we gloss over some things and use similes ('The sun is a very hot ball of gas, like the gas in that gas fire is hot' is very inaccurate but adequate for a child), religions also give truths in the form of simplified but comprehensible answers to questions. Some have seen fit to describe the various aspects of His presence as separate 'personalities' and the personalisation of evil (or a power that works contrary to the power of creation) is one such way in which theology is made more comprehensible to many people. In fact there is no 'Devil'. All things created by God are of God and in God and He in them. Natural disasters happen naturally and our limited minds are tempted to see them as evil, sometimes, because they cause distress to humans. We, however are only one small part of God's creation, though, I believe, a unique part. We seem to be the only beings which have been given a knowledge of good and evil (or, according to the myth of the Garden of Eden, have, perhaps taken it for ourselves) and as such we have a choice to love God and to act in harmony with His way or to hate the Truth and the Light of God and to act selfishly and contrary to His way. Collectively, this purposeful hate of God as a being who loves His creation, is seen as a being or person whom some think of as the Devil. Because the Devil is not a real entity, then, the Devil is not of God but of man. We humans like satisfactory and meaningful answers to every question, as children do. Sometimes the answers are not the exact truth but they are close enough to the truth to make it somewhat comprehensible. It is wise, as we grow in knowledge and wisdom, to keep asking the same questions and to search for a better comprehension of the true answers.

Definitely he is all bad.Without the devil mankind is free from sin.In the beggining he is Lucifer which means "Angel of light".He is so beautiful and powerful that pride came into his mind,and that was the beggining of his downfall. He is also responsible for the downfall of man because he tease or seduced Eve to break away from the order of God,hence our sin.

The devil, is he all bad, who said it was a he anyway, there are many good and bad, i see a picture of an angel on my right shoulder and a devil on my left each wanting me to do different things, if i chooses to do what the ficticious devil says then does that make me a devil too one of his brood if you like, if i follow the good angel does that make me a little angel, is it a real angel, or is it just my mind and the teachings i was brought up to believe, I mean as a child i was threatened that i would go to hell and burn if i wasnt good surely this day and age it would be classed as mental child abuse, I have since come to the beliefe that hell doesnt exist so therefor neither does satan or the devil as some refer to him tc blessed be

Without one, the other would not exist. If there isn't an opposite to something then it can't exist. Without black, white would not be white. Lucifer was once an angel and he chose to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.

I won't try and improve upon what has already been said as people have made such intelligent responses all ready. I would like to suggest though, that you read "Memnoch the Devil" by Anne Rice. It offers many insights on an alternative view of the Devil that really make you think. "Sympathy for the Devil" to coin a phrase!

Nah, I don't think the devil, if he/she does infact exist, is all bad. I don't think s/he would be "bad" at all. Atleast, not bad in the way I would define bad. According to scripture, s/he was an angel. S/he was "the right hand of God", the most powerful archangel. S/he decided to attempt a revolution. I don't precisely remember why, but s/he started a war with God for control of Heaven. God won, and so Satan (and all those who'd sided with him) were cast into a brand new creation ~ Hell. Hell is simply the absense of God. Since God is considered all that is good, according to the religion, hell is therefore the absense of love, and all those things one would consider "good". It has nothing to do with literal lakes of fire (according to the bible).

Well, I guess you would have to believe in the devil in the first place, which I don't. But for arguments sake, then he would have to have some good in him if he was one of gods creations.

the devil is "all bad" but without bad there is no good. and i dont believe in an omnipotent god or the devil

Hi honey unless i've got this all messed up cos of the pain med the devil actually started off as an angel!

the devil too is gods creation. But when he created it , it was not devil or satan. When god made man he bestowed upon him divine qualities but man was not satisfied he wanted the most precious and the most dangerous quality reasoning, God gave him that too but when man began reasoning he started finding so many things to his likes and dislikes he began creating things he began reasoning what is good and bad. And god had not created any thing bad for he is perfect. The seat of reasoning is the mind and the mind is relative to all the feeling that we get throughout our lives and so the mind is the devil. And since god created the mind too. He is willing to accept us the way we are because we have corrupted the mind and made it filthy and try to blame some devil that does not exist. The devil is our very own minds. It will make you happy, it will make you sad it will judge others it will reason unnecessarily and cause suffering to ones self and to others.

You are wrong. The Devil was not created to be bad. He was an angel in the past. He choose to be bad when he go against God. Bad is not really an existing thing. Bad just mean when God is not present. Is like darkness. Physicaly darkness don't exist. We say than it's dark when there is no light. Light exist an have physical characteristic like waves and substances. Light is material becouse is composed from fotons on one side and wave on the other. You can't define darkness other way then the missing of light. Think in this way about good and bad and you realize the difference.