Dear Revd Glynn,
What are devils? And what do devils do? What do devils eat? Do devils babies come from eggs or do they not?
Your Friend
Isabelle.
From Mum:
P.S. Isabelle had a dress-up day at school today, and one of her friends came as a devil. Hence the questions.
Dear Isabelle,
There has always been goodness in the world, and there’s always been evil. Usually when we think about evil we think about a really bad person who might have, for example, killed or hurt a lot of people. But sometimes evil is bigger than just one person or group of people. We call that an evil system. About 65 years ago the Jewish people in Europe were nearly all killed – some 6 million people died. It happened in Germany. While there were a few evil people who thought up this horrific idea, lots of ordinary Germans were involved in it coming about. The evil was bigger than the people involved.
Back in the time the Bible was written some people talked about this idea of an evil system by making an imaginary creature to symbolize it. So like Ronald McDonald symbolizes McDonald hamburgers, the devil symbolizes evil. And like Ronald is just an actor dressing up [there is no real person called Ronald McDonald], so there is no real person or being called the devil.
However we humans always like dressing up and having fun. And dressing up as the bad guy is particularly fun. Our imagination has dressed devils in red, with horns on top, a tail behind, and a pitchfork in hand. At parties we go around and mischievously prod people with the pitchfork! Devils at parties eat what everyone else eats – though they usually have pepperoni and barbeque sauce on their pizza! I haven’t heard about them having babies – they’d probably have to grow up first.
Evil of course is deadly serious, and devils you meet at parties can be seriously funny. There comes a problem when the two are mixed together. If a person who has done evil acts starts being called a devil then people can start treating him or her as less than human. It is very dangerous to our soul, and to the safety of all, to start treating anybody as less than human.
Kind regards,
Glynn
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Clearly Isabelle is being led astray! The Bible (a book from God) states there is Devil, yes he is evil, but he exists. To say he is fictitious or a story is clearly a dangerous lie James 3:15 Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, un-spiritual, of the devil.
ReplyDeleteWhat does the Devil eat, clearly Ministers who do not know their Bibles as they lead their flocks astray. The Devil just loves them. But God hates the devil and will one day cast him and all his followers away. Revelation 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur etc, (One cannot throw an idea in to the fire!)
I pray for Isabella, that she will read her Bible and in time be added to the Lambs Book of Life. No this cannot be found at McDonald! Also note the Devil does not have a pitch fork. Kind regards from Tim, who attends an Anglican Church which was a shock to his Baptist parents.