Critiquing LDS Understanding of the Two Goats in Lev. 16

Re: http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/...scapegoat.html

John,

Jesus created Lucifer so Abraham 3:27 must be false. I thought in Mormonism Satan was not given a body to come to earth, so this would not stand to reason, "And afterward Satan is cast out of heaven, down to the earth where presumably no man had yet dwelt."

Isn't it always the way of Satan to say "not to require even mentioning." Satan can't take the sins of the world upon himself.

Salvation is not by works nor self-strength so you don't need to wait to the end of the 1000 years to know who is saved. We can known now once saved always saved. John 17.3 says we can have eternal life now, a relationship with Jesus.

The reason Satan is released for a short while at the end of the millennium is to show 1) man still had yet some hidden sin; 2) Satan will never repent; 3) God's good pleasure to then cast Satan into Hell.

When you mention there is a battle with those who worship Satan whether they will finally end up in Hell or Telestial, that reeks of salvation by works.

At this point I have to believe that the scapegoat is Jesus. A scapegoat is blamed for what is not his fault. I see clearly the sins upon Him are taken away but can also easily return if a Christian does not appropriate God's full salvation; not to say he can lose eternal life, but battles will lie ahead.

You said, "Raphael was the angel who binds Satan", but it is Jesus that holds the key, King of King and Lord of Lords.

How can Satan be a scapegoat when Satan is responsible for sin? I don't think "the devil made me do it" is a valid scapegoat; I am not going to hinge my understanding on this phrase. A scapegoat should be construed as a good person, not a bad one so it has to be Jesus. It really only makes sense if Jesus is both goats. If you rely on Matt. 25.31ff then all goats are bad and Jesus is bad too, but of course that is not true. Incidentally, the goats in Matt. 25.31ff are not talking about individuals but goat nations and sheep nations.

This explains why the book of Enoch was excluded from 66 books of the Bible. So there would not be 67 books. 66 is the number because 6 is the number of Satan and the number of man because man follows Satan's ways. The 66 books are God's redemptive design to separate this union.

The purpose of sending the scapegoat into the wilderness is to remove sin from our presence. As long as we are in our bodies of flesh and blood we are still susceptible to sin and selfishness. So the scapegoat doesn't go off the cliff. If Satan is the scapegoat he is not in Hell yet nor in the pit, for the millennium hasn't started yet. Satan doesn't fit for the scapegoat. He wanders the wilderness and sometimes, not always, comes back, so in spiritual warfare we must always be on guard.

I must, therefore, side with Christianity, and not LDS.

Sending Satan into the wilderness is not like the bottomless pit. Throwing Satan off a cliff is like Hell. But since this scene is not in the Bible it can be disregarded. We wouldn't want to determine based on a coin flip whom to follow Jesus or Satan. Lots people make the mistake of associating the non-Biblical cliff scene of the scapegoat with Judas or the swine or Barabbas with the scapegoat, but Barabbas is neither Jesus nor a valid scapegoat.

Rev. 13.11 doesn't say there are two goats. It says there is one like a lamb with two horns representing mischievousness (Rev. 16.13) and the other "give breath to it" (13.15).