Arbiter

"It's my job. Nothing more. Nothing less."

- An Arbiter responding to why they do this.

An Arbiter, also known as an Arbiter Angel, a Ha-Satan, an Accuser, or a Prosecutor, are angelic beings within the Heavenly court tasked with judging and punishing all by God.

Overview
An Arbiter is tasked with the duty to test humanity's loyalty to God. Specifically, Arbiters judge the morale of these humans through a series of trials and tribulations to see if they are worthy of entering God's kingdom and would put them through a series of harsh and unbearable trials to test their spiritual strength. Only those possessing true spiritual strength in the face of adversity are viewed with respect in the eyes of these angels, as they are the quickest to spot the flaws in mankind.

The main task of an arbiter angel is to pass judgement on the morale of a human. Arbiters have different methods of accomplishing their judgements and it is stated that there are many different ways to judge a human. However, the main structure to judge a human, as enforced by the Ha-Satan who tormented Job, is to place the humans in an extreme condition to draw out the darkness of their hearts and judge them based on their actions. The types of methods to judge a human are given to an arbiter by God Himself and moreover, an arbiter would request special permission from God in order to test these humans.

Description
Despite being angelic entities, arbiters are by no means allies towards mankind but that does not make them enemies towards God. They are indifferent towards the suffering of mortals and instead are intricately focused at the task at hand. Uriel states that arbiters cannot feel emotions the same way as other beings, as they tend to view emotions as a distraction from the rational, as that would hinder their progress of testing the human that they have targeted.

This is likely the reason why they are addressed as "Ha-Satans" in Hebrew scripture which means "accusers" as they act how a prosecutor would in a human trial towards the condemned. While this makes them enemies of man, they are not necessarily evil as a result.

As angels tasked with the judgement of humankind, the Arbiters have come to view the majority of humans as unworthy of God's love, with each genocidal act committed by the species serving as further evidence for this conclusion. Due to their angelic nature, Arbiters have a difficult time understanding why humans succumb to emotional impulses, as they themselves are almost always able to overpower their emotions thanks to their divine intellect.

The most famous of these is the Trials of Job, which took place as part of a bet between god and Satan when they were debating than the nature of the Human Job.

The First Arbiter
In the beginning, the first arbiter and first one to hold the title of "Ha-Satan" was Satanel who was also the prince of the Cherubim choir. He was efficient and unmoving in his task which made him merciless and even sadistic. He was one of God's closest angelic advisers. Satan's job was to tempt man away from God's law which was intended as a means of testing man's righteousness and loyalty to God.

Satan, however, began to judge God's actions upon seeing how the Almighty was handling the workings of creation and consequently rebelled against God alongside Lucifer. Despite having fallen, Satan was allowed to test Jesus Christ, putting him through three trials in order to judge him on whether or not he was truly worthy of being called the Son of God. Another time was when Satan requested that he would test Job.

Notable Arbiters

 * Satan
 * Samael
 * Mastema

Quotes

 * "God's bloodhounds. All the destruction, all the death, all the misery that are done in the name of God - You can be assured that at least one arbiter is involved." - Carl Black.

Trivia

 * It is unknown if the Ha-Satan from the Old Testament, or the Book of Job, is the same as Satan from the New Testament.

Image Sources

 * (Ary Scheffer - The Temptation of Christ (1854).jpg) The Temptation of Christ by Ary Scheffer