How do Christian reconcile the fact that the devil is never once mentioned in the Old Testament and is only dubiously supported by the New Testament with their belief in the devil? There's nothing to indicate that the snake in the Garden of Eden was anything more than a trickster animal, a common trope in mythology.
>>877384
Hello grandson.
Christians always misunderstand that in Jewish cosmology, Satan is an angel who was appointed by God himself to tempt and test humans. He was never cast from Heaven, he never fell, he's not 'evil', as he's merely following God's commands.
According to Jewish belief, anyways.
>>877384
Catholics believe that the Bible is an imperfect document and that tradition should also inform them on their spiritual lives.
The Devil as the snake in Eden is an interpolation, I'll give you that.
But there are lots of things in the NT that aren't in the OT. There is continuity between the two regardless of whether or not you think it should be 100%.
>>877384
Because christians are delusional.
>>877384
>How do Christian reconcile the fact that the devil is never once mentioned in the Old Testament
http://biblehub.com/text/1_chronicles/21-1.htm
http://biblehub.com/text/zechariah/3-1.htm
>>877610
This.
Most sensible post yet.
>>877622
>>877610
Here is your (fedora)
>>877429
But that would make God an asshole. Can't let my congregation know that.
>>877626
Posting 'le fedora meme' is as cringey as posting trollface. Ded meme.
The devil in Christianity is a trickster figure from North European paganism, like Loki
That's why he's so much more prevalent in Protestantism than Catholicism
>>877384
That serpent is identified in the Revelation:
Revelation 12:9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
The devil plays a rather large role in Job, likely the first book written that's in the bible.
Lucifer is named in Isaiah and Ezekiel, as the king over the princes of Tyre and Babylon, so your premise is kind of flawed.
>>877651
He runs Catholicism. He keeps a low profile.
>>877650
How is it dead if i'm tipping my fedora to you RIGHT NOW?
>>877658
difference is, i make this look goooooooood
Daily reminder that Christianity is as much of a heresy to Judaism as Judaism is to the original Israelite faith, which only the Samaritans managed to preserve.
>>877682
Er, the woman at the well taught the Samaritans that Jesus is the Messiah, and was the first person Jesus told that He was the Messiah, so the claim is at best ambiguous. The Samaritans changed what they believed based on Jesus, and the Judaism the Samaritans exercised was obviously not recognized by the Jews. So if you want to say that christians are Jewish heretics, then so are the samaritans.
>>877658
Because you have an obsession with the dead.
Worshiping a dead kike, posting dead memes :^)
>>877652
Revelation was only included in the Bible due to populist pressure.
>>877846
Jesus, in Revelation, pronounced a curse on anyone who removed one word from the Revelation.
Good luck removing the entire book.
>>877821
Beast worshipping a living kike via taxpaying.
>>877858
*beats
>>877858
Render unto Caesar, goy.
Your hard earned money is the rightful property of the state.
>>877857
Kind of a chicken-and-egg thing.
Revelations is canon, so you can't remove it, because it says it's canon.
If Revelations hadn't been decided canon it'd just be another book of the apocrypha and what Jesus says in it doesn't matter.
>>877429
>>877384
Except there literally is an angel cast from heaven in the old testament, although some interpretations say it refers to a mortal king. Whether it is the same entity in Job and in the garden is never stated.
The devil is an extremely minor part of the story. It's minor enough so that some Jews do not even think it's cannon.
>>877652
Serphent is a metaphorical term. It's unclear if he is referring to a literal serpent or just saying that the prophized villain will be a trickster.
>>877908
>Except there literally is an angel cast from heaven in the old testament,
Yes, but it wasn't until John Milton invented fan-fiction that the western world decided that's how Satan came to be.
>>877924
Virgil wrote fan-fiction, and it's probably even older than him.
>>877924
There are three entities.
Hasatan, who appears in the book of Job. He is genuinally understood to be acting on God's behalf in the origenal interpretation.
Lucifer in Isiah who leads a failed rebelion in heaven, which some interprete as being an allegory for the king of Babylon
And the unnamed serpent in Genesis.
You are correct that the character of Lucifer has grown and he has been identified in parts of the bible that previously were seen as separate characters.
Interestingly Lucifer/Satan's role has decreased in the modern perception. In the Middle ages he was even bigger. He would cause sickness, famine, his domain was the wild animals, the disease carrying ones, and would tempt people daily.
I personally see this as creating a dangerous gap. Evil is always a presense in the world. If God himself is not the source of evil (as many ancient religions assert), and there is no evil spirit in the form of the devil or Angra Mainyu that is the source of evil, than the only entity to be the architect of evil is Man. This makes it so that if God is all good than Man is the Anti-God, tasked with being the conductor of evil. It's turned the relationship between Man and God into something antagonistic and ultimately destructive for both of them.
