Last night was the culmination of the Kingdom of God series at our church. Thus far we have been taught that the Kingdom of God is any area of our lives or in our communities where God rules. Love, forgiveness, peace, mercy and justice that come from a relationship with God are some of the manifestations of this rule, with a special emphasis on forgiveness. (cus we such a guilt driven people?) Well last night we had an expose on the Kingdom of God versus the Kingdom of darkness. The message from the front was that Jesus came to free Israel and all people from their bondage to the Kingdom of Darkness not the real political kingdoms that reigned at the time of his message. In conclusion the kingdom of God is first a spiritual phenomenon that plays out physically through forgivess and healing. This emphasis lead to a large focus on the role of satan as the leader of the kingdom of darkness. He and his demons war against Jesus and his angels. And now we as people are pulled into this heavenly war.(This is what was preached from the pulpit, it does not reflect my perpsective)

To be honest I felt very frustrated with the message and its emphasis on satan and heavenly war. Part of my frustration being my confusion around the role of satan and demons in our lives and more specifically i)what or who is satan and ii)what/who are demons? iii)The old testament hardly mentions satan and demons but Jesus seemed to speak of them all the time and adressed them as personal beings. Why? iv)Is there a heavenly war going on that we have been pulled into? I have a feeling some of these ideas are very foreign to Jewish undertanding in the first century. So why the language in the NT?

Have these ideas been discussed OST? I know Zach(enarchy)posted an interesting article about the role of satan in the OT but is was very brief and there were no comments on it. Would love to hear some opinions and findings.

Thanks
 Ryan