I wouldn't be so sure. Given the corruption and variations of biblical texts, the first thing the devil would want to do, I imagine, is make a believer break away from the Church tradition and make him believe various man-made versions of the Bible with nothing else to compare it to.
I would think that would only be true if tradition was superior to scripture and the Holy Spirit does not lead us. If that was true then I suppose anything could be possible concerning demons.
Wouldn't ha-satan want first to change the theology and split the Church? Seems like a brutally effective plan. Divide and conquer. It seem the devil is not aiming at disbelief but at creating a parallel and competing belief to make it a more effective and credible opposition.
That all sounds possible. But for some reason it does serve God's purpose for there to be many Christians out there with profound theological differences. Perhaps it stirs each of our searches for greater understanding.
Okay, but unlike science there are core beliefs that are a "must" in no uncertain terms.
Absolutely, there must be some parameters that define a Christian or else everyone and no one would be one.
You know, I'll bet I have asked at least a couple of dozen times how those in the sola scriptura crowd can so blithely cast aside Holy Tradition when it is an historical fact that the canon of the NT was established by bishops deciding what was in and what was out using Holy Tradition as the gold standard, the measuring tool of "orthodox" Christianity. What you read in the NT (lousy English translations aside) is there because bishops of The Church, the guys who believed in, for example, the Real Presence, said those scriptures were in accord with "what The Church always and everywhere believed", Holy Tradition. The ones that didn't make the cut were not entirely in accord with "what The Church always and everywhere believed".
As for the HS protecting you from the Evil One, well, I certainly hope so! Every time I am convinced that the HS is surely guiding me, however, I remind myself of the hundreds and hundreds of writings of the Desert Fathers about monks whose lives revolved around the scriptures, real people who came to spiritual destruction because they failed to discern that a demon was guiding them rather than the HS. Why has the danger from demonic influence apparently fallen away for Protestants over the past 500 years when for all the billion and a half members of The Church, it is a constant struggle to overcome the wiles of the demons to this day?
FK, I sincerely want to understand, even if I likely won't accept, why you folks believe that you individually can unerringly interpret scripture (corrupted texts notwithstanding), free from the influence of Holy Tradition and safe from demons posing as the HS? How is it that Western Christianity is riven with hundreds of interpretations of the same passages in scripture? Do you really believe that "...for some reason it does serve God's purpose for there to be many Christians out there with profound theological differences. Is there any passage in scripture where confusion in the faith is applauded? Contrary-wise what about John 17:20-23? How does a veritable babel of theological opinion advance fulfillment of Christ's prayer?
But despite this "leading" people fail, so that is not a true statement.
But for some reason it does serve God's purpose for there to be many Christians out there with profound theological differences. Perhaps it stirs each of our searches for greater understanding.
Ah, and the circle is complete! If we can't explain the "bad" with the devil, we can always say it is God's hidden purpose!
Absolutely, there must be some parameters that define a Christian or else everyone and no one would be one
And those must be a priori axiomatically presumed. It's simple, FK: if we unquestionably presume pink unicorns exit on Jupiter, we can build a whole story based on them. It's called fiction!