Daily Meditation: Monday, October 11, 2010

Devil - implacable opponent of God: consequences of mistakenly seeing him as such

10/11/2010

So many theologians have distorted the image of the Creator and Master of the universe by making the devil into God's implacable enemy! An entity that is so well able to stand up to God has to be as powerful as he is, if not more powerful. You will say they never thought such a thing... But they did, and the proof is that, in Christendom, throughout the Middle Ages and well beyond, men and women who displayed gifts that were a little exceptional were accused of having received these gifts from the devil, of having made a pact with him. And, unfortunately, the Church itself contributed to the spreading of this belief. Yes, if the devil has held such an important position among Christians, it is the Church itself that is responsible. If anyone prophesied, healed the sick or received messages from heaven - oh no, it wasn't heaven inspiring them but the devil. So, we should not be surprised if some people really did want to make a pact with him. Why, they asked themselves, should we go and serve a powerless God, since all the knowledge and gifts come from his opponent, the devil? Their thinking was right, in a way. So, that is the kind of nonsense religion can lead to when it does not possess true initiatic knowledge concerning good and evil.