I have read George MacDonald’s Lilith, it’s very odd - but I didn’t know he was a Universalist (or indeed that the doctrine of universalism was this idea of unversal salvation - how interesting).

Funny I thought.

We might even go so far as to consider Satan as the “house player” in a casino, or “playing against the computer” in a video game.

Sounds like the gnostic strain of thought that the Demiurge is actually there to force us to evolve, through trial and error, through victories and defeat. One cannot defeat the computer without many hard-earned lives of trial and error (a reason for reincarnation, no?).

Anyway, the role of Satan as prosecuting attorney would be to point out every one of your faults and hold you as strictly to the letter of the law as possible.

Well, one cannot learn and strive for “perfection” without having your mistakes pointed out to you to learn from. Also, if Satan (or Demiurge) represents the Prosecutor, one could also say that perhaps he represents the Archons, the “law”, and the 2nd stage of Kohlberg’s Moral development. Here, Satan serves for you to learn and understand the law, and forces you to submit to it, hence the need to submit to the “Authority” or the Archons.

Continuing the connections with Kohlberg’s Morality phases, Christ would then be a catalyst, a defensive “catapult”, if you will, that shows and leads the way into the 3rd stage of morality, showing you not what IS the law, but WHAT the meaning behind the laws are, and thus allowing you to trancend the law (on your way to “God”). Thus, “only through me, can one gain salvation” could be interpreted as only through Christ, or Christ consciousness, can one transcend the “law”, and come to understand why the laws exist, and to thus create your own laws to govern your life.

Extending this metaphor into Plato’s Cave allegory, Jesus serves as the mentor to lead one out of the cave, beyond the black and white confines of Satan’s (Demiurge’s) morality, and into the vast, and very ambiguous real world. If one completes the journey and becomes the full philosopher as Plato ascribed to, then one could be liken to attaining the wisdom and morality necessary to become a judge, hence one becomes enlightened and in tune with “God”, or finds true equilibrium.

Maybe we could move into the heresy of heresies as well and suggest that Satan and Jesus are the same thing wearing a different mask based on the courage with which you come to them.

I agree with this as well because Christ and Satan are merely two sides of the same coin of an archetype within us. They appear to fight when you flip the coin, but they merely serve as a tool for understanding, and ultimately transcending towards (or out of, if you’re a fan of Ken Wilbur) self-actualization and moral development (the “rare” 2nd part of stage 3 - Post-Conventional Morality - in Kohlberg’s model).

When Saturn is treated as the “uninvited god,” - we fail to give him honor and expression in our lives. Saturn, then (as is true with all the planets), shows us his harsher face… Saturn, then, reflects a Shadow aspect of the Psyche who loves to point out our many, manifold weaknesses and sins. Saturn becomes our angry father eating up all our potential and creativity. We internally experience Saturn as an angry, judgmental parent who’s only more than glad to “eat our lunch” by pointing out and reminding us of all our many flaws and shortcomings.

Saturn becomes that nastier side of Santa Claus who only rewards those children who can display superlative, perfect behavior - and so he leaves us a “sorry old miserable lump of coal” in our Christmas stocking, because we’ve been very, very bad this year.

http://www.thezodiac.com/Hushcont.htm

1 John 2:1-2

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

In a similar vein, some people say that the devil is more like a lieutenant of god than anything else. He tempts people on god’s behalf and then punishes them if they screw up.

The practical upshot being that he has the power to grant boons, whether for good or for evil. What you do with them is up to you, but whichever you choose you still have to pay the karmic consequences.

IN the OT (where el diablo is not so important) God says “I create darkness and I create light; I create good evil and I create good.” That would include the devil along with humanity, the earth and everything else.

In fact, if you are a panentheist, then the devil is a part of god and inside of god just as we all are.