quote:
Originally posted by MagiK:
Saying that something is "of" something is like saying it is soley from that something and that is not the case, the "satan" concept predates christianity...so you ow0uld also have to say that christianity is of the babylonian belief system......it just does not convey the proper meaning.
Not precisely.
Demons and 'evil' certainly do predate Christianity. Creatures we now call 'satanic' do as well. HOWEVER, the early Christians, who just happened to be a cult of the Jewish/Hebraic people, borrowed Lucifer from the Old Testament and reassembled him as the Satan we all know and hate today. (The Jewish Lucifer was originally God's chief prosecutor. The word 'saitan' meant 'obstacle'.)
And technically, Christianity *does* include parts of the Babylonian system as well as every other belief system either before the New Testament or after! It is the way in which it mixed them all and approach the idea of salvation through the Christ figure that makes them who they are.