The Christian Devil Finally Goes to Christian Hell

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[First posted in 2014, usually timed for Good Friday which you might think should be Bad Friday since it commemorates the Christian Savior’s death . . . but surprise, surprise, it turns out to be Good after all because it was a triumph over Evil, among other ‘good’ victorious accomplishments included in the God-Man’s final words “It is finished” .

As former gungho Christian bible teachers and pastors, Sinaites used to teach that the Devil—-who is as prominent a figure as NT’s 2nd person in the Trinity—thought he won a victory when the human Jesus died on the cross, only to be surprised that it was actually a prelude to what is predicted in the Book of Revelation. So this ‘resurrected article’ is food for thought for our S6K visitors who might still be thinking the same way. We are a ‘take it or leave it’ presenter of challenges to the beliefs we ourselves propagated for the many decades when we were still deluded! So here’s a timely poser for those who are believers . . . in the existence of the Devil, that is.—Admin1]

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This article ends our case against the existence of fallen angels. Please read the previous posts if you haven’t yet done so. To save you the trouble of looking them up at the SITEMAP, here’s a list of 12 articles; we thought 12 is a significant biblical number but this post is the 13th, traditionally ‘unlucky’ — for whom? Well, in this case, the non-existent devil who should be relegated to myth, superstition, and poor hermeneutics.

We started with introducing the figure of ‘ha satan’ in the Tanach. Then we dealt with “prooftexts” justifying the Christian doctrine on evil as caused by ‘demonic forces’; we did this by presenting alternative interpretations consistent with the literary, historical, cultural context of each OT verse under scrutiny.

The single underlying premise in all 10 articles is consistent:

Free will has been given to only one created being,

and that is humankind.

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Since angels cannot make choices, then they cannot possibly disobey their Creator and consequently cannot “fall.” And if so, then there is no hell except in Christian tenets. There is no third force intervening between God and man, thwarting God’s plans and keeping man enslaved. Man from the beginning simply had to choose between God’s Way, or man’s way.

So how does one now deal with the ‘Revelation of Jesus Christ’ as given to the apostle John on the island of Patmos? If there are no demonic forces, what is this apocalyptic book all about?

Of all the books in the New Testament canon, this book has invited non-stop interpretation among bible enthusiasts who, to this day, have not been content with previous scholarship and continue to keep figuring out its mystique! They tie it up with the “Old” Testament book of Daniel to show continuity from the previous revelation but supplanted with newer revelation by Jesus Christ. Please note that in the Hebrew Scriptures, Daniel belongs to the category of Ketuviim (Inspired Writings) and not to Neviim (The Prophets); strangely, the Christian Old Testament places ‘dream-interpreter’ Daniel on the level of God’s mouthpieces, the 4th among the 3 major prophets: Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, instead of with Joseph the Dreamer with whom Daniel belongs.]

Are all of these efforts through the centuries a waste on the part of sincere well-meaning Jesus-worshipping devotees? Need we really answer that? Is it anticlimactic to simply say—the answer has been given as early as article one in our series on: The Devil does not exist?

If nothing else, the Book of Revelation is a fascinating read, with a happy ending that makes you applaud the triumph of good over evil. It presents the end of the reign of terror of a rebellious ring leader named Satan AKA Devil AKA Lucifer who has controlled the earth and humankind. He and his 1/3 evil company finally get thrown to the abyss, the bottomless pit, along with all the evil people and non-believers in Jesus Christ [uh-oh, Sinaites belong to this latter category.]

As for Jesus Christ, his transformation from the helpless sacrificial Paschal Lamb of the Gospels to the Lamb of Final Judgment and Wrath, King of kings and Lord of Lords, is predictable. Of course, how can mere created beings be victorious over their Creator even if he comes down in human guise and appear defeated on earth the first time around, [the “first” at least for the 2nd person of the Trinity although if, as Christian teaching claims, Jesus is YHWH in OT, then this descent as human was the 2nd coming and Christians are actually waiting for the 3rd coming? Hard to keep up!].

It is everything that happens in between that provides the excitement, just like watching fantasy movies like J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy Lord of the Rings where the special effects crew deserve the most credit. If it hasn’t yet been done in these days where film technology has perfected the art of visual possibilities, in 3D no less, it is time to do the book of Revelation where the climax is the final battle at Armageddon, a war of cosmic proportions.

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Just imagine how film could so well present the creative imagery associated with Satan: the star that fell from heaven, Wormwood; the “serpent of old” in Eden now developed into a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems.

IMQT3 R4OM XV

There are so many unsavory mysterious characters introduced that interpreters have associated with some religious figures over the centuries—“beast from the sea”, “beast from the earth with two horns like a lamb but spoke like a dragon”; “woman riding a scarlet beast with blasphemous names, the harlot, Babylon”, “Armageddon”, “bottomless pit”, “abyss” . . . the stuff of apocalyptic literature with its terrifying images intended to scare the devil out of any reader or spectator.

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That said . . . perhaps the best consequence from reading this book: it scares the devil out of us. Quit blaming that non-existent evil creature and fearing him; simply get him out of your belief system and focus more on your responsibility to choose good over evil, to give in to the “I” in the Creator’s Image and not to the “I” in the Idol that is in “I, me, myself”.

Then start over: point the finger this time at—- SELF, for we are ultimately responsible for our individual choices, being the only created being granted free will. Then listen to the original empowering message of the Torah and the other books in the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures that opens you up to the teachings and wisdom imparted by the Sinai Revelator.

Fear YHWH and Him alone. YHWH is the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega. There is only ONE Throne. He has never shared His Throne with two other divine entities created by man-made religion.

No created fallen angels can frustrate His plans because there are none and hypothetically —even if there were, the fight would still be uneven and already decided who the winner would be: the Creator over the creature, right?

And unless He sends the adversary, ha satan, to execute His orders to test humankind, this angel-messenger like all other angels, simply does His bidding. Really, how could 1/3 of created angels with no free will join one angel who has no free will . . . how could any of them make a choice to rebel if they have no free will?

Finally, ah, yes, the Tree of Life resurfaces in this last book, one more credit due the author for the divine reminder: choose life!

We already have knowledge of evil from observing how a world without the knowledge of God’s Way operates. We have tasted of the tree of knowledge of good and evil just by living through this world and making choices out of ignorance or outright violation of commandments we do know.

The other Tree in the garden of Eden was within reach of Adam and Eve, as it is within our reach.

That Tree of Life, as we have written in another article, is the Torah, instructions and teaching for all humankind, given on Sinai by YHWH who revealed Himself and His Name.

UPDATE 2015:

A reader wondered about the title of this post; why refer to the devil as “Christian” – isn’t that a contradiction?

Not if you think of it this way: the devil is prominent only in the Christian New Testament and its version of the Hebrew Scriptures retitled ‘Old’ Testament. Hence, the Devil is “Christian” because the foundational scriptures [TNK, the Hebrew Scriptures] do not promote belief in the existence of such a being; besides, only the New Testament teaches the existence of eternal hell fire, the supposed destination of the Christian Devil and his heirarchy of demonic spirits, including all non-believers in Jesus Christ. (Matthew 10:28/13:40,42/25:46; Mark 9:43; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Jude 1:7; Revelation 20:13-14, etc.).

In Ephesians 1:19b-23, Paul says,

“He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens – far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put everything under his feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.“ (HCSB).*

In Ephesians 6:10-13, Paul again refers to spiritual powers:

“Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand” (HCSB).*

Here’s a conundrum: The Christian Devil believes in Jesus Christ . . . and supposedly used by the Trinitarian Godhead to execute Plan B, the New Testament in progressive revelation. Shouldn’t he be given a hearing, a second chance?

Well, I used to believe and therefore teach: devils cannot repent, only humans can; based on what? At that time, I had not thought that only man was given the gift of free will; so if angels cannot repent because they have no free will, then neither can they sin to begin with! In fact, a young writer once wrote a play about a devil who repents and receives salvation. Ignorant and intolerant Christian that I was at the time, I corrected him saying: there is no salvation for devils, it is provided only for humans. Why? Because! But why? Because!!! Then since he was persistent, I decided to add — devils belong to different created being-categories; angels are pure spirits while humans are body and soul and made in the image of the Creator. Of course that was not a satisfactory answer, then or now.

I don’t know if this aspiring playwright was satisfied with that or if he ever progressed to actually producing his play onstage; I do know he’s now an atheist and is in fact featured in our Discourse category.

Knowing what I know now. . . .rethinking that answer to his questions brings up more questions! So let’s just end it right here.

Indeed, leave the imaginary Christian devil where he belongs, in imaginary Christian hell.

Source: Exodus/Shemoth 24 – "the sight of the Glory of YHVH (was) like a consuming fire" -- We gentiles living in this 21st century are able to experience that climactic moment [God appearing on Sinai] by reading and studying this portion of the TORAH. Indeed, we see YHWH not quite as dramatically as the mixed multitude did, but perhaps even better through these accounts recorded in Exodus. There is a saying that hindsight is 20/20 vision, i.e., we begin to see and understand the question marks in our past only later in our lives, as we mature and hopefully become wiser and more introspective about the meaning or seeming meaninglessness of happenings in history, whether personal, national, or universal. Søren Kierkegaard adds a twist to this: “Only 20:20 vision is hindsight. Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” As we endeavor to understand each portion in the TORAH of YHWH, much of it will seem irrelevant to our current situation but if we see beyond the time-bound cultural and religious situations and begin to understand what truly has not change—human nature and the Great Revelator who designed the perfect blueprint for living in peace, happily and contentedly with family, community, country and the nations, the unquestionable conclusion is: TORAH is relevant to ALL humankind, not just to Israel, to this very day.

The Christian Devil Finally Goes to Christian Hell

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