Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin
Say what you mean and mean what you say.  |
According to the PhD thesis which I quoted before, it seems that the early church personified sin as Satan, and Augustine separated the two, so Lee is technically more correct, if we consider the early church's understand as more authoritative (just as we take their understanding of the Canon and the Trinity as authoritative).
I also believe that it is better to consider sin as Satan, then we can see the true nature of it, as not a dormant temptation living in us that we can choose to ignore or pay attention to, but as a living person with intent that we must battle and overcome. The enemy which Christians face is not "sin within and Satan without", it is ALL Satan - Satan within, Satan without. Judas Iscariot could easily have justified his sin as "it was the sin in me which caused me to betray Christ, not Satan", when Scripture clearly says satan entered him.