by Brad Parsons

Created on: January 04, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

The accuser - that is what the term Diabolos or Devil originally meant in the Greek language. Today it is defined as "the supreme spirit of evil; Satan" (Source: Dictionary.com Unabridged v 1.1). Quite a significant change if you ask me. From a Christian perspective, take into consideration the level of education the average person in Biblical times possessed. Now, is it at all surprising that evil needed to be personified in order to drive the message home? Parables are abundant throughout the Bible for the simple reason that it is a convenient way to convey a concept to a large audience, regardless of their level of education. Therefore, the Devil exists as personified evil; a convenience to Christianity.

The existence of the Devil as personified evil means a closer look at what evil is will be the natural course of investigation. Continuing with our Christian perspective, when you think of something evil the concept of demons, sin and ultimately hell isn't far behind. But the thoughts these concepts stir up today are quite different from those that existed before Christianity. As a blatant example, the term Demon itself is derived from Daemon which originally described friendly guardian spirits. Additionally, Christian's borrowed many deities from other religions, often naming them as Demons, such as Baal, Eshmun, Dagon, Asteroth, etc. This brings us back to convenience and simplified explanations. It was convenient for the Christian Church to name other religions' deities as Demons, as it was an extremely clear message to those not within the realms of Christianity. It was basically stating to the majority of people in Biblical times, that if you worship Baal, as far as Christian's are concerned, you are worshipping a demon.

Whether or not we can identify a physical form of the Devil is somewhat irrelevant. In the end the acceptance of God is essentially the acceptance of Satan. Millions of people believe while millions of people don't. However, even those that don't believe will acknowledge the existence of morals. Whether or not those morals are instilled by some form of higher being or by natural, evolved human behavior is up to each individual to decide. At the end of the day, we can simplify matters as the Christian Church has done, by reverting back to the Greek Diabolos, for accuser's are among us every day.

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