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Okay here is how it is from the Greek Orthodox religion.
Satan used to be an Archangel who had the name Aeosforos (this is how it is pronounced in Greek). Being an Archangel he had millions of angels under his command to do God's Bidding. Apparently back in that time all angels and Archangels had a free will which allowed them to do what they wished.
Aeosforos, seeing the huge numbers of his army and the power he held, thought, why should only God rule over everything. He decided that he shall also become a god in his own right and of course he would have his army of angels with him.
God, seeing the plans of Aeosforos to rebel against him, threw him out of the heavens along with all who decided to follow him and cast him in eternal damnation. Aeosforos' angelic form then began to change into a hideous form and the same happened to his followers. Thus the fallen angels (or devils if you will) were born. The angels in heaven then lost their free will and were only able to think pure and serve God and therefore were not able to ever go against him in any way.
The devils, knowing that there would never be any salvation for them from hell decided to steal from God the most holy of things possible for themselves. This being the Holy Spirit which is given to Christians upon Christianing. The holy spirit is regarded as a part of God and by pulling the Christians away from God, those spirits, instead of going back to God, would also be damned in hell forever. Of course the devil has no use for them but it is just another part of God that will serve in eternal damnation along with him.
So, if you like to see it the this way, the devil is not doing Gods work but plainly pushing people away from God so they can no longer return to him. After all God wishes all souls to return to him and him alone.
Okay so why doesn't he stop this then you may ask? Because he has also given us a free will. When he made the first man and woman, God fobid them to sin. They of course did and he cast them down to Earth. Of course they made the same mistake Aeosforos did and there was no salvation for them either so when they died they went to limbo (if I may call it that since I have no English interpretation for it)
It was only since Jesus came to Earth just over 2000 years ago that he declared people shall be saved and be sent to heaven if they worshipped him. Thus we have a second chance where the devil has none. We are allowed eternal life for a mere lifetime of worshipping or eternal hell for disregarding him. So, since we can be saved and our souls shall return to God, the devil tries to stop this as much as he can. After all if he cannot be saved, none of us shall either if he can help it.
This is how it is written for us Greek Orthodox. I know many of you might say it is probably rubbish and spending a whole lifetime of woshipping is crap because we shall all go to heaven anyway but if what I have said is wrong then the only thing wasted is one lifetime and eternal life will await on the other side. But if what I have said is right, then imagine how much can be lost just for waisting a short lifetime neglecting God.
To all of you who have read this, I thank you for listening [img]smile.gif[/img]
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