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To: RightWhale
"I don't buy the idea of a Demiurge, but then, I don't buy the idea of the Devil, which I think is related."

I don't see the Devil as being related, because it's in the older books, the serpent decieving Eve is captured in the work of Moses, Satan's role as accuser is captured by Job, thought to be the oldest book in the Bible, the war in heaven is captured by Isaiah, that some would be raised to everlasting life and others to everlasting contempt is captured by the prophet Daniel.

So it seems to me that the concepts are well developed by the ancient Jewish prophets so that by the time Jesus and the apostles elaborate on anything, there is really little room for influence from the Greeks.

I actually kind of view this as the reverse. I view Satan's role as one of continual deception of man. I don't know how much Satan knew or when he knew it, but certainly Satan was familiar with the works of the prophets and probably understood it much better than most. Consequently, Satan is in a pretty good position to create heresies and competing world views. Sometimes even before the thing Satan's trying to discredit occurs.

The idea of a virgin birth became mirrored, yet degraded, in other religions. There were a number of false messiahs. It's really amazing that God was still able to make Jesus stand out so clearly when so many others had tried to claim the title. Things like tongues which occurred at pentacost were mirrored in false religions.

If you study the cults today, you start noticing similarities. One thing that kind of stood out to me is that Jesus is often demoted to non-deity, or just prophet, while Satan is often promoted from a creation to Jesus' brother. It's almost as though Satan's ego can't resist promoting himself instead of just tearing down Jesus.

166 posted on 04/18/2005 11:17:35 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: DannyTN

That's what the name, Python, means, 'deceiver.' It's something inside us.


176 posted on 04/19/2005 8:32:10 AM PDT by RightWhale (50 trillion sovereign cells working together in relative harmony)
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