Satan as an actuall snake or a Metaphore?

[steve7150]

just a quick question- if Satan merely possessed a reptile of some sort (i tend to think the serpent wasnt a snake) then why did god curse the serpent? Jesus never cursed those who had been possessed by an evil spirit.


A good point TK which suggests to me the snake is a metaphor and not a possessed. God said the snake would eat the dust of the ground which may be us, since we were made from the dust of the ground.
Maybe this means Satan can not have any power without possessing a physical body preferably a human body (dust of the ground).

[anochria]

I note that no one has mentioned the problem that arises considering the fossil record. We have evidence of snakes without legs dating back to well before the advent of man.

I'm assuming some of you must doubt the dominant theories on the age of the earth/ fossil record? I for one do hold to an "old earth" position.

I tend to agree with Steve that satan may have possessed a snake. But I note that the passage doesn't say that the snake "lost it's legs" it just says that the creature will crawl in the dust. There doesn't have to have been a change to it's body. It's just that now, the snake's original nature (crawling) is associated with it's role in the fall of man.

[TK]

anochria wrote:

I'm assuming some of you must doubt the dominant theories on the age of the earth/ fossil record? I for one do hold to an "old earth" position.

i am pretty sure i hold to an old earth view, but i am certainly not dogmatic about it. the main problem i have, i guess, is that while i realize geology, astronomy and paleontology are inexact sciences, but are they THAT inexact? (i.e. millions or billions of years vs. thousands).

TK

[mikew]

anochria wrote:

i am pretty sure i hold to an old earth view, but i am certainly not dogmatic about it. the main problem i have, i guess, is that while i realize geology, astronomy and paleontology are inexact sciences, but are they THAT inexact? (i.e. millions or billions of years vs. thousands).

They may be half right.

I kind of entertain some of the questions about time, chronology and the speed of light at the ldolphin.org website: http://www.ldolphin.org/barrychron.html

So there may be a truth about appearance of the universe, but there may be trouble with their assumptions. The inhabiting of the earth may be inaccord with Young-Earth concepts but showing old age signs to the physicist.

Maybe the Big Bang actually did happen. Yet the true physics of the Big Bang may not be in conflict with the Young Earth concepts.

Now about that serpent...
Maybe Satan actually was a dragon or sea monster, maybe there was just one of these creatures. I'm just thinking how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.