So the Dean of Arches has decided that the denial either of the eternity of punishment (of course hereafter) or of the personality of the evil one is sufficient to justify a clergyman in refusing the Holy Communion to a parishioner; in other words, that the belief of an implacable God, who either has not the will nor the power to pardon, as well as belief in Satan, or in a second god inferior, it is, true to the good God, but still a God as intent to injure than as his superior is to benefit him, is part and parcel of the faith of a true Christian. We Jews may congratulate ourselves upon the different reading of our own Scriptures. Our God is mercy itself. He inflicts punishment for the expiation of sin, not from revenge. With the expatiation of the sin the punishment ceases. The object is attained, why continue the torture?
Further, what else is the belief in God and Satan, but the belief of the ancient Persians in Ormuzd and Ahriman, the former the God of light and all that is good, and the more powerful of the two; the latter the God of darkness and evil. Surely the name does not make the difference. Yet the God of Israel declared, “I form the light and create the darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.”
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Author: Jewish Chronicle
Keywords: Devil, Evil spirit, Demonology, Satan, Yetzer, Yetzer hara, Yetser hara, Yetzer ha ra, Yetser ha ra, Lucifer, Samael, Baalzebul, Baalzebub, Ormuzd, Ahriman, Ormuzd and Ahriman, Dualism, Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster, Evil inclination
Bible reference(s): 1 Chronicles 21:1, Job 1:6-9, Job 1:12, Job 2:1-4, Job 2:6-7, Zechariah 3:1, Zechariah 3:2, Matthew 4:1, Matthew 4:5, Matthew 4:8, Matthew 4:10, Matthew 4:11, Matthew 9:32, Matthew 9:33, Matthew 11:18, Matthew 12:22, Matthew 12:26, Matthew 13:39, Matthew 15:22, Matthew 16:23, Matthew 17:18, Matthew 25:41, Mark 1:13, Mark 3:23, Mark 3:26, Mark 4:15, Mark 7:26, Mark 7:29, Mark 7:30, Mark 8:33, Luke 4:2, Luke 4:3, Luke 4:6, Luke 4:13, Luke 4:33, Luke 4:35, Luke 7:33, Luke 8:12, Luke 8:29, Luke 9:42, Luke 11:14, Luke 11:18, Luke 13:16, Luke 22:3, Luke 22:31, John 6:70, John 7:20, John 8:44, John 8:48, John 8:49, John 8:52, John 10:20, John 10:21, John 13:2, John 13:27, Acts 5:3, Acts 10:38, Acts 13:10, Acts 26:18, Romans 16:20, 1 Corinthians 5:5, 1 Corinthians 7:5, 2 Corinthians 2:11, 2 Corinthians 11:14, 2 Corinthians 12:7, Ephesians 4:27, Ephesians 6:11, 1 Thessalonians 2:18, 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 1 Timothy 1:20, 1 Timothy 3:6, 1 Timothy 3:7, 1 Timothy 5:15, 2 Timothy 2:26, Hebrews 2:14, James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:8, 1 John 3:8, 1 John 3:10, Revelation 2:9, Revelation 2:10, Revelation 2:13, Revelation 2:24, Revelation 3:9, Revelation 12:9, Revelation 12:12, Revelation 20:2, Revelation 20:7, Revelation 20:10, Tobit 6:7, Tobit 6:14, Tobit 6:15, Tobit 6:17, Tobit 8:3, Wisdom of Solomon 2:24, Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 21:27
Source: “The Case of Jenkins vs. Cook,” The Jewish Chronicle (London), July 30, 1875, p. 283.
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