Posted on 07/27/2017 4:12:15 AM PDT by vannrox
The shock claim comes from a scientist who has spent more than 40 years researching the subject.
According to Henry Ansgar Kelly, a research professor from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), there is actually “no evidence” to sugges the devil should be portrayed as evil.
Instead, Professor Kelly suggests Christians have got it wrong and Satan was actually trying to do good and is on God’s side, but got “overzealous” in his judgements.
He said: "There's little or no evidence in the Bible for most of the characteristics and deeds commonly attributed to Satan.
"A strict reading of the Bible shows Satan to be less like Darth Vader and more and more like an overzealous prosecutor.
"He's not so much the proud and angry figure who turns away from God as he is a Joseph McCarthy or J. Edgar Hoover.
“Satan's basic intention is to uncover wrongdoing and treachery, however overzealous and unscrupulous the means. But he's still part of God's administration."
The professor blames the misrepresentation of the devil at the feet of third century philosopher Origen of Alexandria.
In his best known work, ‘On First Things’, Origen argued that the mention of Lucifer in the Old Testament must refer to Satan, but Professor Kelly says there is no reference to ‘Satan’ or ‘the Devil’ in the Old Testament and followers of Christianity have simply confused the two.
Professor Kelly says "'Lucifer' is Latin for light-bearer”, and Lucifer in the Old Testament is actually a reference to a tyrannical Babylonian king who is “cast to the ground”, which is where the confusion begins.
He said: "Origen says, 'Lucifer is said to have fallen from Heaven. This can't refer to a human being, so it must refer to Satan.'
“Subsequent church fathers found this reasoning persuasive, and so did everyone who followed them."
More confusion comes from the story of Adam and Eve, says Professor Kelly, where once again, people have assumed that the serpent is the Devil.
He said: "Nobody in the Old Testament — or, for that matter, in the New Testament either — ever identifies the serpent of Eden with Satan.
"The serpent is just the smartest animal, and he's motivated by envy after being jilted by Adam for Eve.
"Everyone else has said that by the time Satan gets to the New Testament, he is evil, he's an enemy of God, but that's not so.
"The whole biblical picture of Satan is that of a bad cop to Yaweh's good cop in the Old Testament, and to Jesus' good cop in the New Testament. Throughout, Satan is someone who works for God."
Professor Kelly admitted: "What I'm saying will be scandalous to some people.”
Imagine spending 40 years on this goofiness?
Matthew 4:1-11New King James Version (NKJV)
Satan Tempts Jesus
4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”[a]
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:
‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and,
‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”[b]
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”[c]
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you,[d] Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
My basic take on this: Jesus felt that Satan was an evil tempter who demanded to be worshipped in place of God and that Jesus further felt that Satan should go away. But I guess the Literature professor thinks Jesus wasn’t seeing the situation clearly.
It would drive one to drink.
Stalin was “overzealous” too.
Taqiyya
Apparently it did...
“Imagine spending 40 years on this goofiness?”
Some people will do anything to keep the grant money coming in.
Jim Parsons is a good actor. He knows absolutely No Science. But his ‘Sheldon Cooper’ makes you believe he is a brilliant physicist.
Sounds like the article writers couldn’t tell the difference of this either
Job might have a somewhat different opinion on Satan and his ‘over-zealousness.’
And I doubt Paul thought his ‘thorn in the flesh’ and being ‘buffeted (not overfed) by Satan’ were a good thing from a benevolent being.
Some people are just nuts.
He will have adequate time to readjust his opinion - say a few billion years - and then he’ll come around.
Satan is a bad guy.
Except that the devil will be right there with him in the pit - not leading and controlling the residents, but a resident himself, suffering right along with them.
“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone . . . And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 19:20; 20:10).
What's more shocking is that he spent more than 40 years researching the subject and still got it wrong.
You mentioned yesterday the sword of judgement being in the land - and then this article, plus the “gene editing” article ahead of it.
Folks don’t even know we’re headed for destruction.
My thoughts exactly; I also suspect those grants weren’t funded by serious Christians.
Jesus calls him the father of lies and there is a lake of fire prepared for him. Christ will crush his head and God redeemed and kept Job (wasn’t that Howard Dean’s favorite “New Testament” scripture?) despite Satan being permitted to destroy the man’s worldly wealth.
This prof is cuckoo.
The logical extension is that the serpent is a reference to gay activity toward Adam.
If you believe there is a Satan, you might think that because she exists, she is good.
Well he ignores Jesus taking the the Jewish leadership of his day in John’s Gospel when the Lord does bring up the enemy.
Biblically illiterate imbecile.
Amos 8:11
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD
And he is doing research that was done before.
I read this theory decades ago.
This is driving me now to go for my first cup of joe or coffee.
I like his TV show, too! :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.