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.”
This guy is in for a lot of woe.
So true; I used to love watching the History Channel, now I have no interest at all...
They are very actively working to undermine your faith, and if they can’t do that they’ll work on the next generation...
Maybe he should meditate on what Jesus said about Satan........as Jesus is the ultimate authority on scripture and everything else.....
Wow.
Hell’s minions are getting more and more blatant.
Satan is walking among us, making rude gestures, and we refuse to see him.
"This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English..."
Note the red communist star on the old schmuck's shirt.
Of course one of his chief aims is to convince the sinner that God exists, because otherwise there is little guilt to act upon.
Even if Sheldon Cooper were a real theoretical physicist and this Dr. Kelly were a chemist or geologist or herpetologist, they would have no greater competence or expertise in interpreting the Bible and religious writings than you or I would.
It doesn’t make any more sense after the coffee.
Good eye!
This has been the goal of the pomo movement all along: erase any distinction between good and evil.
Couch this bullshyte in fancy scholastic language and publish it in some dry, unread academic tome and suddenly it becomes authoritative ... something more than a fevered lie.
what a waste of 39 years 51 weeks of this researchers”work” life and for those who support him. If he’d read the bible with an open mind not preconceived thoughts of his own, God would likely knock his socks off and get him spending his work time doing something much greater than he thinks he has been doing.
I think this sounds like a really hoaky attempt to get a special on the discovery channel. This is right inside their wheelhouse.
Follow the money.
There is lots of evidence for only One God in the universe, though absolutely none for the so-called Devil anywhere therein until human beings developed the capability of abstracting “him” from within their own minds.
Because I always trust my spiritual needs to scientists....
...And this professor was able to get “research” funding for this meaningless dreck?
He’s got a backbone here in Virginia! Really good beer! Maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all! LoL!
He says that like it’s a bad thing. Isn’t the elimination of pain the basis on which “ethicists” make all their solemn pronouncements such as abaortion being a good?
herpetologist? A snake scientist. How appropriate
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