"Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info 06/23/06 01:17 PM To "'Dragaera List'" <dragaera at dragaera.info> cc Subject To Reign in Hell (TRiH minor spoilers) >>I would contend that even without Abdiel's shenanigans, this philosophical >>difference would have eventually caused a war between Yaweh and Satan >>anyway. > >We'll never know, of course, but I think part of the point of the story (and >the poignancy of the conclusion) is that Yahweh and Satan could have settled >their differences amicably if not for Abdiels "shenanigans". There's a point >in the story where Satan is discussing things with Lucifer, if I remember >correctly. Lucifer says something like "So, your job is to instruct and >inspire, and kick people in the butt if they need it." and Satan says >(paraphrase) "You make it sound better than Yahweh did. He sounded like he >wanted me to be a spy and a tattletale." At this point Satan and Beelzebub >resolve to talk to Yahweh about their misgivings and then things happen and >the snowball starts rolling shortly thereafter. >Without Abdiel's interference, Satan and Yahweh would eventually have >discussed things over lunch and either sorted things out or Satan would have >regretfully declined the job. Even when he disagreed with Yahweh, Satan >didn't foment open rebellion. The role of leader was more or less thrust >upon him as things went from bad to worse. Rather like many real-life >revolutions, I imagine. Possibly true in the specifics, I was thinking somewhat longer term. Given the nature of the "Plan", it was going to be necessary for Yaweh to force the other angels to participate. Satan, while vassiclating about whether or not this was right for much of the book, finally comes down on the side of "We have no right to force them to do this." Thus, Satan's ideology was directly opposed to Yaweh's plan (for which Yaweh was willing to sacrifice everything, including his integrity). I don't think Abdiel's actions (or lack thereof) would have changed Satan's mind on this key decision. The only authority Yaweh could draw upon to justify forcing the other angels (whether or not Satan helped him or opposed him) was to claim that being first made him better than all the other angels. The inevitable result of this claim was the war between Yaweh and the non-cooperative angels. Perhaps Satan would have actually stayed on the sidelines during this conflict, but I cannot see him siding with Yaweh in forcing the other angels to accept Yaweh as supreme ruler of heaven (which, ultimately, was the sticking point that kept them from reconciling their differences). Abdiel certainly accelerated things, but even on the most amicable of terms, the only way in which Satan and Yaweh would not be drawn into ideological conflict here was if all the angels in heaven were unanimous (or very nearly so, anyway) in their support of the plan. Which was, of course, never the case. Majikjon