Though the concept of "demons" in the ancient Persian religion was already well established from 6,000 to 600 BCE, long before Zarathrustra had developed the dualism between two powerful supernatural entities, of an all-good god and an all-evil entity which would be adopted by Judaism, Christianity and Islam as Satan. The development of this Satan was established by Zoroaster (a.k.a. Zarathrustra, Zarthosht) who is believed to have lived around 628 to 551 BCE. He was a Persian prophet in what is now Iran. He was recorded as having been tempted by demons. Just like the Christian, Je-Zeus Christ, Zarathrustra had performed many miracles and healings and was later considered to be a supernatural being by his followers. He had rejected the worship of the then established trinity of Varuna, Mithra and Indra. He introduced a major spiritual reform and created what was then a new religion, to be called Zoroastrianism, involved the worship of a single male god, Ahura Mazda, the "sovereign, lawmaker, supreme judge, master of day and night, the center of nature and inventor of moral law." He created the heavens and the earth. In short, he had all of the attributes attributed to YHWH or Jehovah, by the ancient Israelites. Zoroaster also recognized Ahura Mazda's twin brother: Angra Manyu, (a.k.a. Ahriman) the god of Evil. He was not worshiped as a god, but was cursed by the people who followed this new pagan religion. The only things that he created were snakes, demons, and all of the world's evil. The old gods of the previous polytheistic religion became the demons of the new faith. Thus, Ahriman became the first Devil that the world has seen, and his assistants became the first cohort of demons under the control of a all-evil deity. Zoroaster taught that Ahura Mazda and Ahriman would continually battle each other until the god of Evil is finally defeated. During that time, the dead will be resurrected, a last Judgement will divide all the people that have ever lived into two groups; the bad go to Hell for all eternity; the good go to Paradise. Just like what Christians believe today. Historians have also traced a group of people from the Indo-European invasion which happened around 2000 BCE. This migration of what are now called the Kurgan people, had emigrated from what is now southern Russia into the Near East, Middle East and Europe. They were polytheists, and worshiped at least one Mother Goddess and one male GOD. Their religious beliefs were based on the Hindu sacred writings of the Vedas. Those who settled in western Europe became the Celtic people with a religion which became known as Druidism and was perhaps the offshoot of other pagan religions which would be called Wicca. Those Kurgans who settled in the Middle East had developed religious belief along different lines. They had developed the twin concepts of salvation and damnation after death. Upon dying, they believed that the soul of the deceased must pass over a narrow bridge on horseback. It was called the "Bridge of the Petitioner." Rashu, their male god, judged each soul and decides who was sufficiently righteous to cross the bridge and who will fall off the bridge into a deep chasm, a type of Hell with "flames and terrible smells." Once these concepts were developed, that of salvation and Heaven, and the damnation of Hell were created, then the stage was set for the next logical concept to develope: that of a Devil. As author Gerald. Messandé so eloquently wrote: "The framework of which the three religions, that of Judaism, Christianity and Islam had been erected. The Devil's birth certificate was filled out and established by an Iranian prophet during the development of the myth of Satan, from 300 BCE to 100 CE: The Scofield reference Bible closes the Hebrew Scriptures with the book of Malachi, 397 BCE. It opens the Christian Scriptures with Matthew's gospel, during the 37 CE era. This is a gap of over 4 centuries. This interval has traditionally been called the "intertestamental period." But modern Bible scholarship has found that reality is not quite that neat: The Book of Daniel seems to have been written about 165 BCE, in the middle of the intertestamental period. It recounts events 4 centuries earlier and is written as if Daniel was the author. The Book of Esther was apparently written in the 1st or 2nd century BCE The Gospel of Mark was the first gospel. Most Old Testament scholars date it to about 70 CE. Matthew came along later, circa 80 CE. Many Jewish writings have been preserved from that era. Some were collected and form the Apocrypha (Greek word meaning "hidden."). These books appear in the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) and in the Vulgate (early Latin translation of the Bible). They are found in Roman Catholic Bibles and in some Protestant Bibles. Conservative Protestants do not accept the Apocrypha as the inerrant "Word of GOD" or was inspired by GOD. During the last three centuries before Yeshua's birth, the portrayal of Satan underwent a major change. The Zoroastrian / Persian dualism concept appeared in Jewish writing: GOD was now looked upon as wholly good; Satan as profoundly evil. History was seen as a battle between them. No longer was Satan simply GOD's prosecuting attorney, his helper, or lackey. Satan, and his demons, were now humanity's greatest enemies. Author G. Messandé theorizes that from the middle of the 5th century BCE until 53 BCE and later, the Jews were on particularly good terms with the Persians. From the latter's religion, Zoroastrianism, the Jews picked up a number of concepts, such as the immortality of the soul, angels, and Satan. Of the 3 main divisions of Judaism (Essenes, Pharisees, Saducees) in the 1st century BCE, the Essenes seems to have focused the most on Satan. Yeshua and his disciples had, according to their writings, accepted the common belief of the 1st century CE that mental illness and some physical ailments were caused by indwelling demons. "Unclean spirits" are mentioned 7 times in Mark, once in Matthew, 3 times in Luke and once in Revelation. A "dumb spirit" and a "deaf spirit" are each mentioned once in Mark. Luke talks about a "spirit of infirmity" in his gospel, and, a "spirit of divination" & an "evil spirit" in Acts. The concept of "violent possession" appears for the first time in the New Testament scripture. Demons are believed to posses individuals and cause them to mutilate themselves, to collapse, to foam at the mouth, to thrash around on the ground. Demons are seen as the cause of many physical disabilities, including blindness, spinal deformities, inability to speak. Satan figures prominently throughout the Christian Scriptures: Yeshua is tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-3, Luke 4:2). The Pharisees accused Yeshua of casting out demons in the name of "Beelzebub, the prince of the demons." (Matthew 12:24) In the writings of Paul and the other apostles, the character and range of activities of Satan and his demons is further developed. GOD and Satan are seen as the two most powerful forces in the universe. The duality between an all-good GOD and all-evil Satan is firmly established. Examples are: : In the book of Revelations in the New Testament, Satan is portrayed as the power behind the Roman Empire's persecution of the Christians. Christians were known to pretend to be Jews in order to avoid the persecution of Christians. Jews were also referred as the "Synagogue of Satan." In Revelation 12:9: Satan is viewed as the great dragon, and his fallen angels were cast down to earth. Revelation 20:2-3: Satan is bound and sealed into an abyss for 1000 years, so that he could no longer deceive the nations. Revelation 20:7-8: Satan is released after 1000 years, deceives the nations once again, and gathers them together for war. He loses the final battle.

References: G. Messandé, "The History of the Devil", Newleaf, London, England, (1996). A.S. Mercatante, "Good and Evil in Myth & Legend," Barnes & Noble, New York, NY, (1978.

These stupid, ignorant Christian priests and pastors can claim that their "Bible" is the inerrant and infallible "Word" of their fictitious god or gods, and that their Christian "bible" was written by GOD. These idiot preachers can claim all these things if they want to, but it do not mean that it represents the true Word of GOD as we have seen here. Analysis of the" Bible", be it the Pentateuch [the first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures} or what is now known as the Old and or the New Testament in which many of these pagan beliefs were incorporated into those Christian "Bible" documents as our web site has revealed. Christians can deny these known facts all they want to. They may even turn a blind eye to it or ignore these known facts altogether, but these known historical facts will not go away. They are here to stay as part of the historical record of humanity.