TeaEarlGreyHot wrote:
MrXxx wrote:
Dilbert wrote:
Did you know that in early Christianity there was no devil?
Christianity was one of the first religions worshiping one all-powerful god, as opposed to many pagan religions with many deities which were common at the time. So this one god was responsible for both punishing and rewarding his followers.
Most people at the time were uncomfortable with the god that can punish as well as reward. And so they made up the devil. So they had this devil dude to blame for the ills, and god to thank for deliverance.
Devil = made up; BY CHRISTIANS, AFTER THE FACT. If you don't believe me, look it up. (Yeah I know some of you wont... because if you were willing to learn objective reality you wouldn't believe this crap in the first place.)
Made up! Just like the religion itself.
False.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Jo ... ook_of_JobThe concept of Satan existed long before Christianity.
Yes, it did. However, Christianity didn't originally include a devil. Christianity itself hardly resembles the original religion.
True. Most "Christianity" as it exists today is very different from what it was during the first century. However, even first century Christians accepted Jesus (a Jew who clearly accepted Jewish scripture, including the book of Job (from which he quoted), along with the concept of Satan (The Adversary). Modern concepts of Satan are mostly derived from Dante's Inferno, a work that came much later than original Christianity.
Christianity was based on the belief that the Hebrew scriptures were the true word of God. Satan exists as a real being in those writings. It only makes sense that they also accepted his existence. Not as a horned creature wielding a pitchfork, but as a disgraced angelic being who at one time had access to Heaven the same as any other angel (see Job chapter 1). Jesus himself is described as using the name "Satan" three times at Mark 3:22-26, as well as in several other places. the book of Mark is generally considered to have been written around 50 CE, or as late as 65-72 CE (well early enough to have been used by the earliest Christians, considering that at the time of Mark's writing there most certainly would have been many still living who had personally known Jesus himself).
It seems rather logical to me to believe that if Jesus himself spoke of Satan as real, early Christians would have also readily accepted his existence as truth.
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I'm not likely to be around much longer. As before when I first signed up here years ago, I'm finding that after a long hiatus, and after only a few days back on here, I'm spending way too much time here again already. So I'm requesting my account be locked, banned or whatever. It's just time. Until then, well, I dunno...
12 Oct 2010, 1:13 pm
