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.”
Scary isn’t it?
He's not even as much of a scientist as Dr. Frankenstein.
The devil is the father of LIESberals for they lie and twist truth just like their daddy.
BS
Or Mathew 4:1-11, NRSVCE.
Satan is the personification of the worst of evils: that of vanity.
Not just looking in a mirror and calling yourself beautiful, real vanity is very specific. It means comparing yourself to God and claiming god-like powers beyond what you are.
In the philosophy of the Pentateuch, God is the creator of all things. He does this directly, not through agents or representatives, though is not exclusive about the maintenance or manipulation of His creations.
Mankind performs its own function within creation: that of labeling and describing creation with abstracts. But neither angels such as Lucifer, nor mankind, can create anything. Everything we seemingly create is either just maintenance or manipulation or description of what already has been created.
As such, the pretense and assertion that we do create is the oldest of sins. Vanity is also the one sin resulting most consistently in punishment in the Pentateuch. While the assumption is that this punishment is “from Heaven”, it could also be imagined that vanity creates its own punishment without the need for Heavenly intervention.
Philosophers have never been happy with the idea that God is the exclusive creator, because they crave for mankind to be part of the process of creation. Unless mankind can “do” creation, there is little for philosophers themselves to do. So over time, philosophy tends to become atheist.
Did Lucifer exist? Does he still exist as Satan? Good questions. But even if he is no longer, he still performs a very useful role of reminding us of the hazards of vanity. His manifestation is all about vanity, of a very specific kind.
Yeh but devil is not as good a fiddle player as Charlie Daniels. Did professor ever go down to Georgia to interview him?
Amen, you got that right.
I don’t want to be standing next to this drooling half witted demonic creature on Judgement Day.
being a G-d denier has no future in the after life.
but he will get to live forever under the authority of someone he believes is in the Lord’s administration
t
Of course, this is from a professor from UCLA.
Yet God is as of right now being very merciful to us so that we will be given the chance for repentance by having Donald J. Trump elected President.
Next week’s article: Scientists determine exactly how many angels can dance on the head of a pin!
Well what is scary is that professor and likeminded twisters may wind up spending an eternity with their good buddy. The ultimate dumbest decision in all the universe just like devils pride over the Almighty God.
True as with some of his other points.
However it is in the Gospels Mark and Luke that Satan tried to tempt Jesus.
For some reason I feel like this subject has come up before here.
Should have been part of the research.
Seeing all the scientists involved with the global warming hoax, I am less inclined to believe anything a scientist may claim.
Further I’ve learned not to take spiritual advice from atheists who despise my faith. Which is very likely the case here.
He spent 40 years researching Hillary? Well I don’t think she’s good.
Well if he's on the History Channel the culprits are probably Aliens! Ancient Aliens.
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