Do you believe in the devil?

Question: Do you believe in the devil?

Answer: No, my faith is that there is one God.

Question: Is that it?

Answer: It is no surprise that the evil one causes such huge problems for Christian theology. He was a troublemaker right from the start. To believe in the devil brings an extra deity into the pantheon – Father, Son, Spirit, devil – and of course Mary. Could you leave Mary out of company like this? The grouping looks a lot like the gnostic version of the universe – ubergod, untergod, Sophia in her wisdom, Christ and Spirit. It also looks like the Marcionite version of ubergod, Christ, Spirit and untergod. I don’t actually know if there was a Mary or Sophia in the Marcionite version, but both of these versions had legs that ran for a long time. It took the Council of Nicaea and subsequent enforcement of the Athanasian Creed to lay the old ways to rest after 325 AD. St Athanasius was beatified for writing the creed to end the old heresies and defining which writings should be included in the New Testament. I often laugh when people put the early church up on a pedestal as the model for current times.

Question: But so many people believe in the devil?

Answer: Maybe more than believe in God? Sometimes when people talk of the devil they are trying to give themselves a thrill, like kids going on the Ghost Train at the local show. The other extreme, the witch hunts were far more sinister. The various doctrines of providence imply a distinction between good and evil which invariably requires an evil figurehead. This problem is with the doctrine rather than being proof of a devil.

Question: Was Jesus wrong when he talked about the devil?

Answer: Who would know? You could speculate that all the devils were killed with the pigs when legion met it’s end, or maybe the disciples cleaned up the rest. My faith is that whatever the old curse meant, it ended at the Cross. The strange behaviours caused by the diseases we know as epilepsy and schizophrenia would understandably have been interpreted as possession by, or influence of, an evil, alien being. Paranoid states which accompany schizophrenia and also fevers, overloads of dietary toxins, depression, anxiety, bullying and some altered states of consciousness often lead to perceptions of the personification of evil. When people judge the life they have been given they can easily find themselves distant from God. In distance from God there are many adverse states of mind. The Parable of Jonah illustrates the trouble that goes with distance from God. Poor Jonah quickly finds himself in a fearful, paranoid world until he gets right with God and convinces the citizens of Nineveh to do the same.

Question: What about the prophecy of the antichrist in Revelation?

Answer: Apocalyptic vision is common because it is part of our normal subconscious comprehension of our place in the world and our impending demise. The altered state of consciousness which often comes with our spiritual awareness frequently includes dreams and end time visions. The difficulty comes when trying to reconcile these sorts of visions with a cuddly, benevolent, providential, mother hen sort of God. But when they are not reconciled, the things beyond our comprehension – the supernatural – splits into good and evil, and we are back to the doctrinal problems. What a devil! Most of the apocalyptic writings were properly relegated to the apocrypha where they belong, but John’s revelation must have been left in for a bit of balance. Like the rest of the Bible it has to be read with all the wisdom we can muster.

Metaphysically, the gift of Christ on the Cross is the reconciliation of life and death, the healing of the split between good and evil.

Alleluia.