The Devil just needs a character rewrite

[Belacqua]

The concept of the Devil as portrayed in mainstream tradition presents continuity problems for the Biblical Fictional Universe (BFU)

The Devil is portrayed as the enemy of God and enemy of God’s followers. Yet he seems to be doing important work on God’s behalf. He provides mortals with fear-based incentive to seek God. He also enforces afterlife justice according to God’s judgment, providing punishment in Hell only to deserving people. If the Devil was wholly evil he would only hurt forgiven people. Or he would go against God’s rules and hurt people in heaven.

God could presumably destroy the Devil or take away the Devil’s powers at any moment. Yet he declines to do so. God has no problem taking away the abilities of other free-willed beings. For example, if God can take away a child’s ability to walk, God could just as easily take away the Devil’s ability to teleport or answer prayers. Until this happens, it seems reasonable to conclude God supports or at least condones the Devil’s continued efforts.

The Devil also conflicts with monotheism. Bible believers generally claim only one god exists in the universe. But the Devil has properties of a polytheistic god. Here are some of the Devil’s abilities according to tradition:

• Immortal, unkillable, no need to eat, sleep, breathe
  
• Can move between dimensions, not bound by time/space
  
• Can instantly teleport to any location and/or act remotely
  
• Can read the minds of billions of people simultaneously
  
• Can reshape reality at will to cause misfortune
  
• Can grant wishes to worshippers
  

In other religions this being would count as a god, but monotheists say no. He is on the council but he’s not granted the rank of master. The Devil either needs a reduction in powers or the Bible needs to admit it’s polytheistic. Or else reduce God's powers so the Devil becomes a credible threat.

Anyway, this Biblical Fictional Universe is never going anywhere until these plot holes are fixed. Get this to Zack Snyder for a rewrite asap.

Where did you get your picture of the devil from? It sounds more like pop culture than theology.

Dante is closer to Christian theology, but writing symbolically. Milton and Goethe don't claim they're telling the truth -- it's fiction to think about morality.