Through the influence of the dualistic thinking of Zoroastrian religion during the Babylonian Exile (586–538 bce) in Persia, Satan took on features of a countergod in late Judaism. Thus, Satan is a creature of God, who has his being and essence from God he is the partner of God in the drama of the history of salvation and he is the rival of God, who fights against God’s plan of salvation. As ruler over the fallen angels, he continues the struggle against the kingdom of God by seeking to seduce humans into sin, by trying to disrupt God’s plan for salvation, and by appearing before God as a slanderer and accuser of saints, so as to reduce the number of those chosen for the kingdom of God. In punishment for his rebellion, he is cast from heaven together with his mutinous entourage, which were transformed into demons. Only in postbiblical Judaism does the Devil become the adversary of God, the prince of angels, who, created by God and placed at the head of the angelic hosts, entices some of the angels into revolt against God. In the Book of Job, Satan appears as the partner of God, who on behalf of God puts the righteous one to the test. Even evil, insofar as it has power and life, is effected by God: “I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe, I am the Lord, who do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). There evil is still brought into a direct relationship with God. The Devil first appears as an independent figure alongside God in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is precisely in this figure, however, that some aspects of the ways God deals with evil are especially evident. Enlightenment thinkers endeavoured to push the figure of the Devil out of Christian consciousness as being a product of the fantasy of the Middle Ages. In the Bible, especially the New Testament, Satan (the Devil) comes to appear as the representative of evil. Ecumenism since the start of the 20th century.Ecumenism in the 17th and 18th centuries.Orthodox and nondenominational missions.Missions to South East Asia and the Pacific.The tendency to spiritualize and individualize marriage.Intellectualism versus anti-intellectualism.Theological and humanitarian motivations.Church and state in Eastern and Western theology.The church and the Byzantine, or Eastern, Empire. ![]()
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