this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Exactly what it says on the (dramatic) title.

We always hear about Biblically accurate angels: the burning wheels with tons of eyes, the strange looking creatures that sound like they come from the anime "Evangelion", the cherubim with 4 faces, but I had a thought while watching The Exorcist: Believer (it was....not good for anyone wondering. At all. The disrespect Regan's mom had towards Merrin and Karras after they died saving her daughter was baffling to listen to, especially...but i digress) a couple of days ago, specifically, if that's how the demonically possessed are said to more or less act in the Judeo-Christian scriptures, or if they're they completely different to what we see in movies and games. I'm guessing it's more than likely the second one, right, but I'm curious about the details like the signs someone's possessed, the demon's endgoal, and what they look like, basically everything you can gimme to sate this curiosity or to send me on a rabbit hole, if you'd be so kind?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes but also a subordinate to an omniscient and omnipotent god. He's a tempter and tester of Job. The ultimate responsibility is in the human themselves to meet the test and they are the ones who fail. The sin was not eating the apple of knowledge as much as deciding to disobey god to eat it. That's the "free will" and the original sin that is inherent in humans, and the real enemy. The serpent didn't so much create it as tempt it. I am not a christian, though. I actually believe a god that acts like that is evil.

Gnostics are a bit more interesting, because they view the serpent as a Prometheus figure that shepherded humans to free will while the God that was disobeyed was an evil god.