Most Christians Don't belive in Satan!!!

[Epiphoskei]

Every honest scholar.

Yeah, because no true Scotsman (erm, scholar) would say otherwise.

Honestly, the belief that the ancients and medievals didn't take the scripture at face value is absurd. Christianity has always believed there is an actual satan who tempted Christ in the wilderness. The Eastern Church holds Christ payed a ransom to him. For two millenia both west and east have had specifically designated clergy to exorcise his demons. Luther threw his inkwell at him!

Would you like us to go to the EO or Catholic forums and ask "are you a fundimentalist" and "was Christ actually tempted by Satan?"

 

[Texas Lynn]

Yeah, because no true Scotsman (erm, scholar) would say otherwise.

Honestly, the belief that the ancients and medievals didn't take the scripture at face value is absurd. Christianity has always believed there is an actual satan who tempted Christ in the wilderness. The Eastern Church holds Christ payed a ransom to him. For two millenia both west and east have had specifically designated clergy to exorcise his demons. Luther threw his inkwell at him!

You're confusing symbols with reality.

Would you like us to go to the EO or Catholic forums and ask "are you a fundimentalist" and "was Christ actually tempted by Satan?"

Obviously they're not fundamentalists, but there are extreme Catholics such as Opus Dei, and the Orthodox have had such as the "Old Believers" who committed mass suicide in the 19th century. At CF, on the Catholic forum "One Bread One Body" the members who are not Catholic are forbidden to debate...and it WILL be reported as the place is so dominated by extremists one wag suggested it's acronym OBOB really stood for "O Bortion O Bama".

 

[Epiphoskei]

So there is a vast right wing conspiracy in all the theologically illiberal churches to mask the true beliefs of our ancestors?

What about the Pre-Modern Christians in the church of Africa and Asia? I have a good friend who grew up in a tribal villiage in Africa, and I don't think she'd agree at all that the villagers, both in the Church and outside, don't believe in a world of evil spirits. You can dismiss these people as just ignorant Pre-Moderns, but these are the kind of Pre-Modern people that made up the Church for millenia before modernism arose.