No decisions have been made by prosecutors on whether the year-old will be tried as an adult. Copyright Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation.
We need to remember that the devil is a deceiver; he is not God — he cannot give whatever he wants see CCC A person can always repent of the pact whenever he wants to with a simple act of the will. Upon repenting, the pact they made remains as ink on paper, no matter what the terms of the deal were. Even if the possibility of repentance was excluded in the pact, such a clause is useless.
God has given us the freedom to do as we want; we cannot renounce this gift. This is also valid in eternity — in heaven we will no longer want to sin and in hell we will no longer want to be forgiven, but our freedom remains intact. Many seem to think that the devil can grant one success in business or in a profession, that he can give one wealth or fame.
But, as we have said, the power of the devil is limited. Worldly success depends on a complex interplay of causes and effects.
The devil can only tempt humans to be part of his plan — for example, he can tempt a manager to choose one worker instead of another. But this temptation can be overcome, so not even a simple thing like this is certain by making a pact with the devil.
The great destructive power of a demonic pact is that the person may think he is condemned no matter what he does. In his behaviour and appearance he is far more versatile than his angelic counterparts. This is because bad spirits, unlike good ones, can tell lies as well as the truth; they can also disguise themselves in multiple forms. This makes them complicated and interesting, and gives reign to the imagination of artists and writers. If you doubt this claim, look at some images of the Devil in western art and compare them to representations of angels.
Whatever anyone in the western Christian tradition has held to be "good", he has been against it. Like his fondness for disguise, this has made him remarkably flexible. Both Catholics and Protestants in the s, for example, believed that Satan was the invisible mastermind behind their opponents. At a time of intense religious belief, such accusations were treated by their targets as insults and lies.
Indeed, they were sometimes cited as evidence of Satan's dominion over their accusers! But the slow retreat of religion from public life has allowed the Devil to emerge as an attractive symbol of rebellion, while at the same time preserving his elasticity. He can appeal to rebels of all kinds against authorities and orthodoxies of any flavour.
My third answer is based on another traditional attribute of the Devil. Depictions of deals with the devil can similarly raise doctrinal questions about contracts, Setear said. For example, in many instances, such as in the British film "Bedazzled," the contract is signed in blood — though, in that case, the mortal asks: "Shouldn't I sign it in blood?
A contract can be written on the back of a napkin. A contract could be written in blood, but, in many of the stories about contracts with the devil, it doesn't have to be.
So it could be used as an example to illustrate that there aren't normally formal requirements for a contract. But if a party specifies formal requirements for a contract, then you do have to meet those requirements.
In examining how these deals appear in popular culture — Setear and his research assistant found more than 50 in all — a number of common threads emerge that raise even more perplexing questions, Setear said. For example, why is the devil so interested in bargaining for souls?
The contracts are always a soul in exchange for some current selfish goal. Faust wants — though it depends [on which version] — knowledge. Homer Simpson wants a doughnut.
Another common trope is that the devil rarely engages in trickery when it comes to entering into contracts for souls. Occasionally, Setear found, the devil will honor the letter, but not the spirit of the contract. A episode of "The Twilight Zone," for example, tells the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for immortality, figuring that the devil will never get to collect.
They sign the contract, and the man becomes immortal but soon finds himself sentenced to life in prison and facing a tedious lifetime of eternity behind bars.
0コメント