New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-03-07
A FEW FACTS ANENT SATAN
How He Came to be a Part of the Bible
and the Church.

In confirmation of last weeks article
Creed and Reason, the following is furn
ished by the Reviews correspondent:
have already stated that during tn
first thousand years after the time o
Moses. the Jewsknew nothing concern
ing devil. There is no trace of hin
in the books of the Bible covering tba
period. But some 900 years before tn
advent of Christ, the Jews were carried
into bondage under Babylonian rude
Soon after the Babylonian empire was
conquered by the Persians and of course
the children of Israel became the pro-
perty of that people and continued as
such for several generations. The Per-
slams were a warl1ke nation, raised in a
land where natures forces were dis
played in all their grandeur, and il is onlC
reasonable to conclude that their ideas
we're controlled and Influenced to large
extent by the character of their surround
ings.
Zoroaster was the Moses of the Persi-
ans. The main feature of his religious
teachings was dualism. According to
this doctrine, the world was ruled by
two powers, good power and al evil
one, and everything which took place in
heaven or earth WAS brought about by
one or the other. The evil one was called
Ahriman Satan, but according to the pop
ular belief, the son of Mithra Ormuzt
would come to the earth and crush the
power of the arch enemy Of good. NTH
"a was the Sun God-the God of light
and life. Ahriman was the Prince of
Darkness and the two were always en-
gagged in war against each other, a war
of determination.
The Persian religion naturally made
deep impression upon the Jews; in fact
they had to adopt it and worship as
their masters did or lose their heads.The
Babylonians and Persians were not in
clined to tolerate any tinkering with their
religion.
After the Jews returned from exile we
find the Persian ddalism introduced in
to their holy scriptures. The prophet
Daniels book is full of it. But in his
book we find Mithra changed into Mich
ael, while Ahriman Satan assumes the
of a dragon. Michael the archangel
apperrs like field marshal with a
whole army of angels of variety of Or
ders and the dragon also has a we'll dis
CT plined corps comprised of whole divi-
sions and regiments of evil spirits. The
prophet describes Michael and his hosts
as making was on the dragon and his
hosts and form this time on there appears
IN the Scriptures not only. devil but
myriads of imps, probably deserters OF
veterans from the grand army. They
were cast out sometimes, but always en-,
tered again and started the same trouble
wherever they could gain a foothold.
We have thus seen how the devil was
discovered and introduced from the holy
scriptures Of the Persians into the holy
scriptures Of the Jews. But 50 far he
seems to have been without homestead
i remained for the Christian Church to
furnish him headquarters, and how was
it done? might say that it has always
been the fashion of the church to build
upon the ruins of pagan institutions, and
that's just what they did in this case
They simply took the Hades of the
Greeks, the abode of departed spirits)
put in new heating apparatus, painted
new sign above the entrance, Installed
the old fellow as business manager and
hell was complete.
Now it must be taken into consider
alton that it was not until the devil was
discovered that the introduction of sin
into the world was laid at his door. AS
I have pointed out before the authors of
Genesis had no such ideas. But not
withstanding all this, the Orthodox
church, contendlng that the Bible is the
inspired word of God, is proclaiming
the Persian dualism, a heather idea, from
every pulpit-two controlling powers,
the good and the evil. Everything which
takes place in the world is to re traced
directly to either of these two powers, to
God or the devil, and following out this
same idea, there are two kinds of people
/ in the world, the children of Goo ano
the children of the devil; two places o.
final destination, heaven and hell. The
/ God of light and his hosts are making
war on the Prince of Darkness and hi
h,cto Tho tro,1 Of tho Porcion ri,ncs ovo