Carl A. Raschke is an American philosopher, theologian, former chair and professor of Religious Studies Department at the University of Denver. Raschke wrote Painted Black: From Drug Killings to Heavy Metal — The Alarming True Story of How Satanism Is Terrorizing Our Communities” (HarperCollins, 1991), which describes how occultists have subverted our society’s religious and political beliefs through drug culture, art, books, music, movies and the news media.
Postmodernist Attack Operations by Pervert Justice Warriors
One of the notable things about Raschke’s book was the organized counter-attack and smear campaign against it waged by a number of usual-suspect pervert justice warriors (PJWs) and moral relativists. Simply do a Google search for “Raschke ‘Painted Black'” and you’ll see page after page of postmodernist PJW push back. This can also be reviewed on Raschke’s Wikipedia page, which spews forth the same slanted narrative over and over.
The Wiki page was written by one Justin Knapp, who’s responsible for more than one million online edits and posts. Knapp has degrees in philosophy and political science from Indiana University. He mostly makes sycophantic Leftist New Age biased edits about politics, philosophy, religion and popular culture. One can only imagine the poison he’s spread.
The counter attack against Raschke’s book was sophisticated, not the standard drivel produced by the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” pajama-people types. Fortunately, the internet provides us the ability to examine who the so-called scholar critics of “Painted Black” were and examine their agendas and narratives.
The book, as Knapp put it, “has been overwhelmingly condemned by [pseudo] scholars as inaccurate and repeatedly cited as having assisted in fueling the ‘satanic ritual abuse moral panic’ during the period [1990s], and Raschke’s status as an ‘expert’ on these topics has been criticized.”
Typically of the mantra, “scholar” Sarah M. Pike described how a media report during the trial for the nasty West Memphis Three “failed to consult experts on Wicca and satanism” but rather referred to material by Raschke, who she describes as a “widely discredited ‘satanism expert.'”
Pike, a professor, has a dog in this fight. She wrote several articles and book chapters on topics such as Burning Man, neopaganism, rituals, environmentalism, youth spirituality, New Religious Movement and animal rights activism. Her work also includes Wiccan ritual practices pertaining to sexuality, polyamory and marriage.
So-called scholar Robert Walser in 2013 said that “the terrorism of Raschke and similar critics depends upon two tactics: anecdote and insinuation.” Walser is noted for such tomes as “Running With the Devil: Power, Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music” and “Prince as Queer Poststructuralist.”
“Scholar” Arthur Versluis used all the standard neuro-lingustic trigger words in his review. He described “Painted Black” as an “effort to awaken an American inquisition” and called it “breathless sensationalism”. Versluis cites Raschke’s description of the role playing game “Dungeons and Dragons” as a means of initiation into “black magic” as an example, and said that “it is scarcely possible to exaggerate the hysterical nature of this book, nor the number of errors in it (although some have tried at least to chronicle them).”
Versluis claims, Unfortunately, Raschke’s book didn’t have the kind of impact he so clearly wanted: to fully awaken the inquisitorial spirit.
Of course, Versluis, as editor of the “Journal for the Study of Radicalism” and founding editor of “Studies in Esotericism,” brought his own agenda to the table.
“Scholar” Wouter J. Hanegraaff wrote, “Raschke’s eagerness to include everything ‘Gnostic’ into a ‘genealogy of darkness’ (Painted Black, 133) inspires sloppy historical scholarship.”
Hanegraaf’s forte, belief system and interests are apologist academic reviews of the New Age movement, its important authors, themes and aspects of New Age beliefs, with looks at the New Age in the context of traditional Western esotericism.
“Scholar” Mattias Gardell said, “I have found nothing to substantiate the alarmist allegations of Raschke.” This postmodernist egghead is a self-described pagan who has labeled himself a “spiritual anarchist.”
And “scholar” Jonathon S. Epstein in a 1991 review wrote: “‘Painted Black’ adds additional fuel to the flames of hysteria surrounding satanism [sic] in America.” He added that “what the book lacks is scholarship, it makes up for it in sweeping and unsupportable generalizations” and wrote that the book “cannot be taken seriously.”
Epstein is the author of an fawning, anything-goes book called “Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World.”
What Was ‘Painted Black’ Really All About?
Given the sole use of fallacious arguments, it’s apparent that these detractors never bothered to read this book. Raschke cast a very jaundiced eye at the apologists of satanism (and cults in general), likening them to “comfortably kept guard dogs trained to spring to their haunches and bark at the approach of truth.”
The average American intellectual, he notes, “has a difficult time accepting that there are people who could willfully do evil for the sake of doing evil.” The apologists’ usual arguments are: (1) It’s an established religion; (2) there is no satanic crime; and (3) it’s just hysteria and conspiracy theorizing by fundamentalist Christians attacking poor, misunderstood minority religionists. This is neither serious reporting nor scholarship, Raschke counters, but an appeal to “intellectual libertinism.”
We suggest that Raschke is being too kind about the motives of the PJW wags.
But Raschke goes to the heart of the matter: Satanism is not a “new religion” but “a sophisticated and highly effective motivational system for the spread of violence and cultural terrorism.”
The book addressed destructive cultism and clandestine subcultures, and their impact on society. Three decades later, this can be seen in spades.
Winter Watch Takeaway
An organized cult is different from an exploitative cult. The latter will twist established religions, while others claim to offer a more secular “truth.”
In an assessment of the term “cult,” we need to be very careful as the kakistocracy likes to invert ethics and morals to taint those who think outside the box. The term “cult” could be applied incorrectly.
Winter Watch defines a “cult” as a social group with socially deviant beliefs and practices. This is further defined as Malum in se, meaning wrong or evil in itself. The phrase is used to refer to conduct assessed as sinful or inherently wrong by nature, independent of regulations governing the conduct. It is distinguished from malum prohibitum, which is wrong only because it is prohibited. The kakistocracy is pushing malum prohibitum hard as applied to wrong think.
Destructive cults, gangs and syndicates are commonly associated with occult doctrines that provide a mechanism by which an individual, or a small group, can control the thoughts and behavior of large numbers of people. Members’ identities can be altered and members can be turned into de facto slaves. Might these kinds of groups be formed and controlled by individuals and groups with totalitarian or criminal agendas as a means of covertly subjugating others?
The labeling of a cult needs to be constructed carefully. The late Ted Gunderson used the term “satanic cult.” However, these cults could also be more discordian than pure satanic. The dominant theme is moral relativism or do as thy wilt. The cult can form groups to self promote their members in a like minded secret society. This infiltration model is much wider spread than generally imagined.
But Raschke shows that “true satanism” is an eclectic concoction, not a coherent tradition. One prime example of a clandestine subculture was the 1989 torture-sacrifice of 15 individuals, by Adolfo Constanzo and his drug gang at Matamoros, Mexico. The debate turned to “satanism” as being at the core.
Constanzo wasn’t a shadowy denizen of some obscure subculture. He had been a “psychic to the stars” in Mexico City and influenced celebrities and politicians. Within the drug trade, his brand of black magic brutalized and intimidated opponents. Raschke explains that Constanzo and his gang believed in a supernatural aura surrounding acts of violence, and that one must kill, torture and maim to harness that demonic power.
Satanism incorporates a fascination with brutal crime. The Marquis DeSade called it obedience to “nature.” It holds contempt for the laws of man and God. Important elements of modern satanism have also been contributed by respectable intellectuals and artists, such as Beaudelaire, Wilde, Rousseau and Nietzsche.
Fast forward to Israel Keyes for a more current manifestation of this mentality. There is a demonic God-like complex at work, a feeling of great superiority and utter disdain. These high-functioning and capable individuals are not lacking in self-esteem — in fact, quite the opposite. Rather, it’s a sense of grandiosity. Keyes, like others of his ilk, stated that satanism was an influence, especially in terms of inversion.
Vicious Serial Killer Israel Keyes and the Insane Clown Posse
A point Raschke makes repeatedly and effectively is that the reporters and investigators of satanic crimes are, by and large, professionals — social workers, therapists, lawyers, police and district attorneys — not religious fanatics. Yet, scoffers continually attack the credibility of these investigators. And, yes, we believe there is a form of malice and cover up in play.
Raschke stated that there is no worldwide satanic conspiracy per se, but that satanism is the preferred belief system of powerful drug cartels. Is it a play on Aleister Crowley’s dream of mastery of the world through drugs and will? Ironically, the real broad-based “satanic network” probably has nothing to do with religion, but may instead be the international drug network itself. Raschke is too conservative in his 1990 approach, but we now have three more decades of further evidence pointing to something more global and organized.
Raschke, in his chapter on the “occult underworld,” traces satanism from medieval times. The popular image of satanists as hooded cultists who worship the Devil, reverse good and evil, and pervert Christian ritual during orgiastic “Black Masses” is applicable in some cases, but is much too simplistic to portray accurately the entire phenomenon.
Much of satanist ideology has its roots in Manicheanism, an ancient dualistic religion based on belief in a perpetual struggle between the God of Light and the God of Darkness. This struggle is resolved only through initiation into the “higher knowledge” that both “dark” (evil) and “light” (good) are necessary for salvation. This ecstatic union of opposites is intended to connect the celebrants with the “divine.”
Was the Manes Religion a Precursor to the Modern Discordians?
Raschke defines it as an ideology of destruction and decadence, from the radicals of 18th century France down to Anton LaVey. He really moves over the target, stating it’s more about hidden ideas and influential philosophical movements that remain virtually unknown to society in general. An example is “illuminism,” a secular, radical 18th century sociopolitical movement that advocated violence, egalitarianism and the supremacy of “instincts.”
https://www.winterwatch.net/2019/02/a-deep-dive-into-illuminism-and-freemasonry-with-nesta-webster-and-james-billington/
https://www.winterwatch.net/2019/02/nesta-webster-continued-henri-san-simon-and-his-proto-utopian-socialist-disciples/
The genealogy and ambitions of this cult of ideas is being applied to an unsuspecting society.
Raschke notes that where crude forms of satanism simply reverse Judaeo-Christian morality — calling whatever is good evil and vice versa — sophisticated forms, like Aquino’s Temple of Set, replace objective standards of good and evil with the subjective “will.” Ethics, in this context, are strictly relative. What’s “good” to you may be “evil” to me and vice versa. However, a person who believes himself to be “beyond good and evil” is capable of almost anything.
In the chapter on “the aesthetics of terror,” satanism as a cultural revolt and a self-conscious art form is considered. Raschke sees an affinity between occultism, anarchism and “aesthetic terrorism,” which he defines as “the notion derived from avant-garde artistic work, and applied to the occult, that power over things ultimately requires social revolution, which in turn demands a subversion of symbols.”
In the satanist world view, this means the reconciliation of opposites — “beyond good and evil,” as Nietzsche said.
“Aesthetic terrorism” connects with this power by predicting the direction of shifting values within modern society.
“The rudimentary problem in analyzing `Satan’s underground,'” Raschke observes, “has always been making plausible connections among activities and misdeeds of particular groups … that might somehow lay bare a deeper layer of organization than the conventional wisdom would posit.”
In several chapters, Raschke deals with the links between satanism, heavy metal music, fantasy role-playing games, drugs and destructive behavior. In aesthetic terrorism, aggression becomes “expression.” These “psycho-social factors” can warp a child’s world view by stripping the targets’ belief systems and substituting their own. This was written pre-Columbine.
https://www.winterwatch.net/2019/04/looking-into-the-nihilist-minds-of-columbine-shooters-dylan-klebold-and-ed-harris/
Raschke observes that while academics continue to deny that this music adversely affects teens, health professionals who deal with the clinical effects of heavy metal on troubled teens have a less-benign view of the issue.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warns that long-term exposure to the “morbidity” of heavy metal combined with other “psycho-social factors” can warp a child’s world view. Heavy metal is “poison” for disturbed adolescents who can’t control their urges toward violence and promiscuity. Add drugs and the combination can be lethal.
Heavy metal lyrics flaunt hate, power, rape and a glorification of violence with religious overtones, a mix that fits right into the teen druggie’s life of “swagger, brutality, theft and sex.” Raschke charges that its purveyors are engaging in thought reform by stripping their targets’ belief systems and substituting their own.
Raschke views games like “Dungeons and Dragons” as dangerous because they are not healthy fantasy but rather psychodramas set in a world of chaos, craftiness and black magic in which initiative is equated with aggression and crime. The New Age moral relativism of the “Game of Thrones” works the same way and is well dissected in the following video. Morality is ambiguous, and good and evil are “whatever works” within the power fantasy.
To see where moral relativism and devil worship ultimately lead to, one need look no further than Mexico. The level of violence in Mexico rises inexorably every year.
In 2018 the official number of murders was 35,000, but Mexico watchers believe the actual number of people killed was nearly three times that. For 2019, the number of killings is likely to rise to 300 murders a day.
Santa Muerte, roughly translated as ‘Holy Death’ is the demonic deity to whom the gangs of human monsters now plaguing Mexico pay homage.
What is happening in Mexico could be described as a criminal insurgency or a slow breakdown of a weak society into a ‘war of all against all’, to borrow Hobbes famous phrase. It is not a drug war, as it is so often described by the Ministry of Propaganda.
Some of us can live in peace, but for how long?
Nobody mentions drug-using pop muscicians & Pollywood are funding the drug machine in Mexico.
Quite seriously, one of the top Russian Jewish Zionists close to Putin, is named ‘Satanovsky’ – Satan – ovsky … maybe he can meet with the Kushners at their 666 Fifth Avenue building? From Israel Shamir’s latest column on Unz:
« The ‘Russian [John] Bolton’, Mr Eugene Satanovsky, the head of pro-Israeli think tank, a former head of a Zionist Jewish body and a frequent commentator on Russian TV had been appointed an adviser to the Russian Defence Minister Mr Sergey Shoygu. His nomination came directly from Kremlin and surprised the ministry officials »
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Ars Technica reporter Peter Bright has just been nicked by the feds for seeking intimate contact with children … his twitter handle ‘dr pizza’
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Lotsa political dead people this week
Leading German pro-migrant politician & Merkel ally Walter Lübcke, was found last Sunday in his garden with a bullet in his head
Lübcke was famous for telling Germans that millions of migrants were coming, their daughters would be marrying other races, and Germans could leave Germany if they didn’t like the programme … Lübcke arranged for a US-Nigerian to install a 16-metre-high ‘monument to migrants’ in his home city of Kassel
String of 10 in the USA last few days –
Tony Rodham, Hillary Clinton’s youngest brother, age 65, cause of death ‘not immediately known’
New York Police Detective Joseph Calabrese, said to have seen the laptop of convicted Anthony Weiner with Hillary’s e-mails, ‘suicide’
New York Police Detective Steven Silks, said to have seen the laptop of convicted Anthony Weiner with Hillary’s e-mails, ‘suicide’
Billionaire Democrat media owner Herbert Sandler linked to Hillary, dead
US Commerce Official Lola Gulomova, previously of NASA & the World Bank, ‘killed in murder-suicide’
Republican former Arkansas state senator Linda Collins-Smith, ‘found dead with gunshot wound’
Republican former Oklahoma state senator Jonathan Nichols, ‘found dead with gunshot wound’
Florida news anchor & reporter Todd Tongen, ‘suicide’
‘LGBT leader’ Philadelphia Sheriff Deputy Dante Austin, ‘found dead at his desk’
Kemah, Texas Police Chief Chris Reed, ‘thrown from his fishing boat’ missing & presumed dead
Raschke is right about heavy metal music (which is extremely atonal, BTW). When I taught in a small far west Texas town in the 80s I had heavy metal fans (Slayer, Guns and Roses,etc), students, who would tell me stories about how Satanic rituals were used out in a levee about two miles away toward the mountains. They said they did not take part, but then how did they know about it unless they had friends of heavy metal that did take part? In fact everyone in town knew about it.Heck even the Hispanics at this school loved heavy metal! I’d say heavy metalgot worse in the 90s (death metal, like Drowning Pool’s “let the bodies hit the floor” garbage). It is to debauch the young, as my fiction novels at https://omegabooksnet.com based on years of research and inspiration show. With Good you have a choice, with evil you don’t, and I don’t care what ol’ Crowley says about “do what thy wilt,’ since it is do what Satan wilt! Satan, the deceiver!
You’re a teacher? Hopefully not of English.
Conservative commentators usually get something ridiculously wrong about rock music. What heavy metal music would you call a tonal? It’s ugly, toxic and subversive, true.
Heavy metal music is one tentacle of the Luciferian infiltration into our society. It is a far-reaching tentacle.
SATAN, LUCIFER AND THE DEVIL ARE A HUMAN CONSTRUCT
The ancient Persians had a significant impact upon some of the core myths that underscore Judaism and Christianity. Among other things, Judaism and Christianity owe thanks to the Persian priests of Zoroaster for the light versus darkness motif, the belief in an impending apocalypse, and the messianic dogma. But above all, both Jews and Christians should thank Persia for the Devil himself. I think it’s fair to say that had they not adopted this fictitious character from the Persians, they might not have succeeded with such ease in persuading and maintaining their frightened and superstitious flocks.
The religion of Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, received its name from a Magian Priest by the name of Zoroaster (Greek)/Zarathustra (Persian), who was a loyal servant of the “one true” Persian God Ahura Mazda, or Ormuzd. Ormuzd was commonly referred to as the “The Holy Spirit” in the pre-Christian portions of the Avesta. This religion began to flourish toward the end of the second millennium BCE, and its primary corpus of holy texts are known as the Zend Avesta. These ancient scriptures contain a number of the superstitious seeds that were eventually sown into the soil of both the Jewish and Christian religions. Such parallels have led the learned Rabbis responsible for compiling the Jewish Encyclopedia to make mention of their closeness to the two later Abrahamic religions, saying:
Most scholars, Jewish as well as non-Jewish, are of the opinion that Judaism was strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism in views relating to angelology and demonology, and probably also in the doctrine of the resurrection, as well as in eschatological ideas in general, and also that the monotheistic conception of Yhwh may have been quickened and strengthened by being opposed to the dualism or quasi-monotheism of the Persians. (1)
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15283-zoroastrianism
Prior to the Persian invasion of Babylon, the religion of Judaism believed that their chief God was responsible for all that happened in the universe. Both good and evil were the manifestations of their God.
This is reflected in the book of Isaiah, in which the anonymous author writes:
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. Isaiah 45:7
The author of Isaiah possibly wrote this verse in order to achieve two ends. Firstly, the verse appears to be a soft polemic against the dualistic Persian theology, which posited an evil counterpart to a good god, a notion still foreign to the Israelites at the time, and secondly, as a warning to the Israelites not to fall into the Persian heresy of believing in a counterpart to their god. Thus, the author of the book of Isaiah has Yahweh taking direct responsibility for both good and evil, leaving no room for the existence of a devil.
The figure of Satan is found in only three places in the Old Testament, and all of these are postexilic in date (i.e., after 538 B.C.): Job 1-2; Zechariah . 3:1-2; and 1 Chronicles. 21:1.
The Devil has never managed to achieve a unique character or identity within either the Jewish or Christian religions, and thus has been known by many names and occupied many forms, none of which represent a single definable character. The Hebrew word, ‘ha satan’(הַשָׂטָן) or satan, as it is transliterated in English, was not originally a name, but a verb meaning ‘to accuse,’ or ‘to oppose’, and was used in its common noun form by “David” in 2 Samuel (19:22), in which he was alleged to have described the sons of Zeruiah as ‘satans’ (adversaries) unto him. It also appears in verb form in various other places throughout the Old Testament (see Numbers 22:22, 1 Samuel 29:4 and Psalms 109:6). Satan is a word which pre-existed the Devil in the Hebrew holy books, however, when he was introduced into the religion it was chosen as one of the most appropriate epithets to apply to his Zoroastrian character.
Another name for the Devil is ‘Lucifer’, and it means ‘light bearer.’ Astronomically, it has been said to represent the planet Venus, as Venus is the brightest star in the morning before the sun has fully risen and obliterated it from the sky. In a misinterpreted passage from chapter 14 of the book of Isaiah, describing the King of Babylon, the name ‘Lucifer,’ which derives its current form from the Latin ‘Lucem/Lux Ferer’, was incorrectly applied to the Devil.
Some of the confusion surrounding this misinterpreted passages from Isaiah arose due to the fact that the king of Babylon was described as having “falling from heaven” and many theologians misunderstood the use of the word ‘heaven’ to mean the “literal” heaven, rather than its obvious figurative application. The king of Babylon enjoyed success on a grand scale, success which brought with it pleasure, wealth, dominion, abundance, and as a result, he became arrogant and so the heaven we was said to be falling from was his luxurious lifestyle. Much like the way we use the term heaven to describe a taste, a feeling, or a state of being.
To refute any apology to the contrary, the Lucifer of Isaiah was described as having been:
The king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4),
Who ruled nations with aggression (Isaiah 14:6), as the king of one of the largest empires did, also;
Who other defeated kings will say; “you have become weak like us,” (Isaiah 14:10), and;
Who would not let his captives (the exiled Jews) go home (Isaiah 14:17), but most importantly,
Was a man (Isaiah 14:16).
It is obvious that this Lucifer (‘shining one’) was the king of Babylon, but beliefs require a minimal amount of fuel and a maximum amount of propagation to catch on and spread, as has been the case in this instance.
Modern apologists have twisted these passages in every conceivable manner to try and claim that it is a double entendre for both the Devil and the king of Babylon, however as seen above, the term was only referring to the man himself. The association between Lucifer and Satan was made by Christians who errantly interpreted “Luke” 10:18 (I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning), to be a reference to “Isaiah’s” Lucifer.
The epithet Lucifer is translated from the Hebrew ‘Helel’ (הילל) ‘shining one’ or ‘Ben Shachar’ (‘Day Star,’ ‘Bringer of Light’ or ‘Sun of the Morning’).
Another name for the Devil within the Judeo-Christian belief system is ‘Beelzebub’. The word Beelzebub stems from the Hebrew Ba’al-Zebub. In English, Ba’al-Zebub means ‘Lord of the Flies,’ and it is the first part of this name which is of interest to scholars of comparative mythology. The name Ba’al, which could be etymologically rooted in the name of the ancient Babylonian Sun-god ‘Bel’. Yet, in its present form, Ba’al represents the later Phoenician and Canaanite God, Ba’al, who guest stars in the Hebrew holy books on numerous occasions (See Numbers 22:41, Judges 2:13: the husband of the goddess Asherah, 6:25, 28, 30-32, 1Kings 16:31 etc.). Ba’al was incorporated into the Hebrew language and came to have a variety of meanings, including; ‘Lord’, ‘Master’, ‘Husband’ and ‘Possessor.’
The Canaanite god Ba’al was described in Judges 2:19 as the “husband” of the goddess Asherah. This is significant as Zeev Herzog, Ze’ev Meshel and other archaeologists have discovered that the ancient Israelite’s primary god Yahweh, was commonly worshiped alongside his consort, the Canaanite goddess Asherah, both being seen as the father and mother of heaven ruling equally together. This fact is evidenced by various eighth century B.C.E reliefs, statuets and inscriptions that depict and describe YHVH and ASHERAH as being a couple. (see discovery at Kuntillet Ajrud and Khirbet el-Kom). This fact further explains why Yahweh is directly referred to as a Ba’al at Isaiah 54:5: For your maker (Yahweh) is your Ba’al (Lord/Master).
The conflicting characterizations attributed to the Devil within the religious literature of the Jews, along with the verse found in Isaiah 45:7 (God alone is responsible for good and evil), seems to indicate that the Devil had been a relatively more recent interpolation by Jewish mythographers, who grafted him into the existing scriptures, thereby creating a situation in which this fictitious character has been ascribed multiple names and titles. Further, as mentioned, the very form/being of the Devil has been the subject of much confusion. Many Christians and Jews try to suggest that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was the Devil, but the description of the serpent contradicts this notion.
It should be noted that “the serpent” of Genesis 3 is never in the Old Testament identified as Satan.
The serpent is described as one of the “beasts of the field”, and after tempting Eve to eat the forbidden, ethics-infused fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, the serpent is punished by YHWH in the following manner:
And the LORD Yahweh said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Genesis 3:14-15
One does not need to be a theologian to understand what the author was talking about in this passage. The serpent was a cunning beast of the field, who prior to his indiscretion, had legs and spoke. This alleged description of the Devil as being a beast of the field contradicts the portrayal of him given in the book of Job, in which he (Satan) is counted amongst the sons of God (See Job 1:6).
Regarding Satan’s role in the book of Job:
In the first two instances (Job 1-2; Zechariah. 3:1-2), Satan is depicted as a member of Yahweh’s court whose basic duty it was to “accuse” human beings before Yahweh. He is clearly not at this point an enemy of Yahweh and the leader of the demonic forces of evil, as he becomes later.
Even if we admit that the serpent in the Genesis paradise story ought to be identified with Satan, we have here no exception, for it should be borne in mind that the Book of Genesis was probably not completed before about the beginning of the fifth century before Jesus, a century after the Captivity closed. Satan appears in the Books of Job, Zechariah, and Chronicles; but these are all late writings. Belief in the existence of such a bad being the foe of Yahweh, the accuser of the good, the tempter of men to evil seems to have come into Judaism from the religion of the Persians, through contact with that people during or after the Exile.
Then there is the discrepancy between the accounts of David being tempted to take a census given in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. Within both books, David is tempted to take a census of his people – the only difference is that in 2 Samuel it is Yahweh who tempts him to do so and in 1 Chronicles it is Satan.
In the appearance of this new belief we find an instructive explanation of that strange contradiction which appears between the two accounts of the numbering of Israel found in the Books of Samuel and Chronicles.
The record in Samuel tells us that it was Yahweh who tempted David to do the numbering; that in Chronicles says it was Satan. The explanation is evidently this:
Samuel is the older book by two or three centuries. At the time it was written the belief in such a being as Satan was unknown, and evil, as well as good, was referred to Yahweh as its author. But by the time Chronicles was compiled, belief in Satan had come in, and he, not Yahweh, was now held to be the instigator of evil. Hence an event which in the earlier book was naturally ascribed to Yahweh was now as naturally ascribed to Satan.
This contradiction is irreconcilable until one realizes that the Jews probably adopted their Devil from the Persians and so, evil acts which were once attributed to Yahweh were now being rewritten and passed off as the Devil’s handiwork.
If we also keep in mind Isaiah 45:7, this theology discrepancy becomes explicable and the contradiction is exposed for what it probably is; a change in the theology of the Jews, influenced by the dualistic Persian religion at the time of the Persian’s conquest of Babylon in around 539 BCE. Thus, it is a near certainty that Judaism inherited the Devil from the Persian Zoroastrians and the Christians, in turn, inherited their Devil from the Jews.
Finally, there was a related concept that the Christians seemed to have directly inherited from the Persians, and this was the concept of the anti-Christ. The Anti-Christ as described in the Zoroastrian texts is literally called, the Anti-Mithras, Mithras being the sun god and son of the supreme God of the Persians, Ahura-Mazda.
From the ancient Zoroastrian Scriptures, we read:
Backward flies the arrow which the anti-Mithras shoots on account of the wealth of bad unpoetic thoughts which the anti-Mithras performs. Even when he shoots it well, even when it reaches the body, even then it does not harm him on account of the wealth of bad unpoetic thoughts which the anti-Mithras performs. Yasht 10:20-21
THIS IS WHERE EVIL COMES FROM:
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man:
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away OF HIS OWN LUST, and ENTICED.
Then when LUST HAS CONCEIVED it brings forth SIN: and SIN, when it is finished, brings forth DEATH”. [James 1:13-15]
Stop with the Flip Wilson theology: “The Devil made me do it”!
YOU TUBE: Flip Wilson on The Ed Sullivan Show