DUEL with
the DEVIL, Idolatry’s Original Sin
The
Jihadist Christian not only duels Satan and sin within, but he is at war with
anyone not Born Again like them. I prefer
the new, mellower Christians who respect Hebrew as G*d’s Language, support
Israel, and are willing to concede that our one Creator may have a different,
older covenant with the Jews. (Even the
Pope said as much). Besides, Armageddon is building up fast, so we’ll soon know
what religious adjustments to make. Ethically behaving people don’t have to
worry about going to hell because they were taught the wrong dogma. At least in
Torah, it’s what you DO, more than what you BELIEVE.
I’m
too busy documenting Divine Design in language to be concerned with dueling
theologies. And there’s no competing with internet stars of interdenominational theology like Rabbis Tovia
Singer and Michael Skobac. But I do get
a bit chippy in this blog. Dueling motivated by objection to Dualism, from the
dual meaning of Hebrew חטא [K]HaiDTE: 1) To miss
the mark )Judges 20:16, 2) Sin
and fault (Genesis 20:6). So sin is not
about an outside, Satanic force of evil . Sin is about using one’s G*d-given judgement
and Free Will poorly. All crimes must be
prosecuted as חטא “HATE” crimes , where emotions got in the way of
rational thinking.
Eve
wasn’t trying to defy the Lord with the forbidden fruit. She missed the mark by
seeing the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge as a good thing. Adam thought that
any offering from his G*d-given mate was a good thing. They had both missed the mark by not
following the law (literally one law) of the land (Eden). They let their
subjective sense of greater good override the objective law set down by the
Lord. Similarly, the noble Progressives
who pulled down a Confederate statue yesterday thought that they were doing a
good thing. In the heat of the moment
they did not consider that there were laws to be followed.
Even
Hitler and Stalin thought that they were acting heroically for the greater good
of their nation. Given the scale of their atrocities it is tempting to think of
people like this as demonic. But people are not demons even when their behavior
is demonic.
To
Christianity, the Sin in Eden was not a personal failing, but an external,
universal cosmic condition . The notion
of “Original Sin” is overwhelming, pivotal in a theology which requires “salvation” to avoid an eternity in hell with the source
of sin: the Devil. To many Christians Satan is not a serpentine tempter, but a
powerful spiritual being. At very least
Lucifer is a fallen angel, but at most he’s straight from a long, idolatrous tradition
of belief in a rival deity of evil. A
fearful creature who wants to tempt, corrupt, then own every divine soul of his
hated ex-boss: the Creator. The
“Original Sin” is the reason for a deified messiah offering expiation with a
divine human sacrifice.
In
the Hebrew Bible, crimes and punishments fit the misbehavior of people not obeying
the advice to “therefore choose life” (Deut. 30:19). This dominant concept of Torah supports Free Will
and responsibility for the actions we chose. There is no room in the eternal Hebrew Torah
for Original Sin, for undeserved culpability.
Greek Bible death is the wages of Sin and Evil,
which are pre-existing conditions presided over by the Greek tragedy’s supervillain,
the Prince of Darkness. In the extreme
views of this Good vs. Evil opera, the Christian mission resembles more of a
struggle against the Devil and hell than a celebration of living ethically in a
grounded but spiritual life.
Even
without the 1+1+1 of the trinity, the Good G*d/Bad G*d system does not fit Torah’s
monotheism or holistic ONEness. This is why the Good vs. Evil philosophy is
called DUALism. Dualism has a rational appeal,
not just the emotional appeal of some primitive idolatry. Dualism explains why there is an ISIS, the
Holocaust, the Crusades and Inquisition, and general suffering of the good and
prospering of the wicked. The Devil made
them do it. Evil is real in Dualism.
Satan is the G*d of This World (2 Corinth. 4:4). (Anything like “the Dark Side” in Jewish
thought is from late, assimilated thinkers, who y, experienced too much devlish
persecution by the proponents of love. )
Dualism, the eternal Wrestlemania of deities in black and white trunks, was
big in the Manichaeism of ancient Persia, then in the Platonism of the Greeks…
two important streams feeding the religion begun by Paul and codified by the
medieval Catholic Councils (using votes, not prophecy).
In the Torah, even the Canaanites and Amalek
are called out for their culture, their behavior. They are not demonized as being
born the evil sons of Satan. There is no
original sin, hell or Devil in Torah. In
the Five Books of Moses, the primary source of Torah theology, שטן SaDTaN is
only a verb of hindrance, not a noun or a being.
A world without Original Sin is about
human חטא [K]HaiDTE
Hit or Miss. The extremes of devil worship, Dualism,
Manicheism or
Christianity are dangerous, idolatrous errors. Because a Torah sinner errs with
his Free Will, he is responsible. An
idolatrous, demonic sinner is possessed, and so is NOT responsible. All he
needs for “salvation” is the magic bullet of faith -- no demands for just actions
of restitution to victims.