In the previous post I shared a bit of what I saw to be the difference in the Work of God and God's Work. As a reminder here is the short list:
- Healing (Work of God) ---- Resurrecting (God's Work)
- Guiding (Work of God) ---- Influencing (God's Work)
- Sustaining (Work of God) ---- Abiding with (God's Work)
- Reconciling (Work of God) ---- Transforming (God's Work)
In a couple of emails I was asked if I could identify the role of Satan in all this. Regardless if you believe in a literal being or not, I think everyone agrees there is evil in the world. Christians personify God as a way to talk about God but Christians also know that God is beyond the personifications made. For instance God is not male or female but we talk about God being so in order to express something about the nature of God and humans. Likewise, many Christians personify evil in the character of Satan. Christians also know that evil is not limited to the personifications expressed. For instance, Satan is not a half man/goat hybrid with a pitchfork.
Taking the above list of the work of God and the Church, I added the work of Satan:
- Healing (Work of God) ---- Resurrecting (God's Work) ---- Hurting (Satan's Work)
- Guiding (Work of God) ---- Influencing (God's Work) ---- Dictating (Satan's Work)
- Sustaining (Work of God) ---- Abiding with (God's Work) ---- Abandoning (Satan's Work)
- Reconciling (Work of God) ---- Transforming (God's Work) ---- Dividing (Satan's Work)
In some ways, the distinctions of these different "works" can also be seen in the difference in symbolic, parabolic and diabolic.