Was it an angel or was it a devil? This is the question I have always asked myself every single time I have seen one of these unusual space craft I describe on this site. You know, there really isn't anyway a person can ever really answer that particular question in that particular situation, because, really, there just isn't anyway to distinguish a space devil or an angel, just by observing over flights of these craft. It could be anyone, really, and for me, as a result of what appears to be a policy of freedom of action for devils in this universe, in the end I am always left with ambiguity. By letting devils run loose God has granted me not the safe authority of the Word of God (as delivered in this scenario by friendly angels) but rather I am to be cautious and ambiguous about anything and everything I see.
Now I am not encouraging paranoia here, because there is nothing like a well behaved devil. If those devils want to maintain that wonderful ambiguity that gives them that golden opportunity to pretend to be an angel that is what they will do, being given the designation ‘devil' for a good reason, it turns out. The problem for a devil can be summarized like this - find someway to look like an angel, while doing the evil things a devil really wants to do, but can't, or they would be recognized as devils. Do evil and look good. That is the impossible nut that devils work stubbornly at cracking. If devils want to make an attempt to crack the impossible nut, and if they believe that I am going to be stupid enough to fall for any stunts and tricks they might pull, then a devil could bother to try something on me. You see, the first time that devil finally gets around to being a devil, and doing some devilish thing, instead of pretending to be an angel, I am going to nail that devil as a devil, right on the spot.
This would be especially true if this being was hostile either to me, or to humanity in general, because hatred and attempts to destroy someone or the hatching of plots, none of these things are healthy behaviors and indicate that a devil has become perverse and twisted in some really dangerous ways, and that is a pretty clear sign that it is a devil and not an angel, removing that element of ambiguity. Given that devils only pretend to be good as cloak for the evil deeds they had planned, it goes without saying that a devil certainly is going to do the work of a devil somehow, if they can only figure out how to crack the impossible nut, and still pretend to be angels while doing all that evil.
I would also have to be stupid enough to allow a devil to do evil and still try that thing about pretending to be an angel on me. Now I am sure myself that every devil in hell knows that I would be the wrong person to try that old scam on, and my experience teaches me that when devils are really hard up, and they know that hiding in a lamb skin thing is going to work anymore for them, well, then off comes the lamb skin and you are forced to deal with the raw naked devil doing evil things to your mind and tormenting your body (the first choice in the tool box of a devil). If devils are to uphold a devil's cause, it is inevitable that a devil will be a devil, and since evil is such a filthy and truly disgusting thing, it would appear that a devil will attempt to pull off this stunt using the classic techniques of skilled sociopaths. That devil will wear a lamb skin.
Because the deeds of a devil are thoroughly cruel and disgusting, under ideal conditions that devil will do the very worst of all evils in the dark, if possible, and it will lie and make up propaganda for anything that comes to light. As the example of notorious modern sociopaths, such as serial sex killers, demonstrates, serial killers can be highly regarded members of community, someone people are genuinely fond of because they wear a highly desirable looking lamb skin. That lamb skin works wonders for them, but they, themselves, cannot feel any of the fondness they are able to stir up in others, the reason being they were monsters (so it was about what you would expect to have happened) That lamb skin is revealed when the evil deeds committed behind the cloaking shield are exposed.
Now as for devils in lamb skins doing great jobs of fooling me for a long time, it is not a big concern of mine, and really, there is nothing like a well behaved devil..
Now a watched devil is well behaved devil, dressed, as would be expected in a lovely lamb skin, simply because that evil is just such a foul and truly filthy and disgusting thing. Yes, if I wanted to do devilishly wicked things to people, you can be sure I would slapping on one of those lamb skins myself before showing my face in public again. This shame attached to being a devil, and the recognition, even by devils, that it is better to be a lamb, or in their case, being devils after all, it would be better to dress like a lamb, this kind of worthless transformation about what you would expect for commitment from a devil.
This introduces that ambiguity into the situation, because while a watched devil is well behaved devil, even a well behaved devil will be sweating away under that lamb skin, its' mind turning a thousand times a minute while it looks for an opportunity to do some evil, while dressed as a lamb, and get away with it scot free. You see, because people are religious on this planet, it does create a lot of opportunities for devils, pretending to be angels, to talk some credulous people into mixing some evil into their religion, maybe just a little to start with, you know, and then this is a devil so it would be a little more evil and a little more after that. I am assuming, of course, that a devil is going to choose to do this sort of thing on people who can't understand that no, that thing is not a lamb, and really, once it starts in on disgusting things like that, it is pretty clear indication, right from that start.
Credulous and faithless would have to be the word to describe anyone who could tricked by that lamb skin routine, because it really is faithless to assume that if God exists and faith is worth anything, then evil is anything other than completely worthless to God, as it is to me, and this leap of faith is all that is required to reject those small evils that some devil keeps trying to pull off, while doing that other thing of dressing up like a lamb. By dressing as a lamb it is a tacit acknowledgment by a devil that godliness is the more appealing of those two options, which of course it easily is, when you consider the vile and thoroughly revolting nature of the kind of evil deeds which are actually enjoyed by devils (a sure indication of a severely warped mind, to say the least).
The existence of a devil introduces ambiguity into the situation for two reasons. Devils wear lamb skins. God lets devils wear lamb skins. It does not have to be this way, but then it turns out that this is in fact the way it is. Devils run wild. They do devilish deeds. And they bring with them a kind of divinely ordained ambiguity.
What it means in actual practice is is that you can never be certain that some ‘divine voice' was really a divine voice, because devils talk with the divine voice. Well, they do, as long as they sweating away, hiding under that cramped, confining conditions of that restrictive, but good looking, lamb skin.
As a point of theology, the doctrine of obeying the ‘divine voice of God' breaks down when considered in the light of Satan the Devil. Or should I say, the darkness of Satan the Devil, however you want to look at it. Now I know very well that Satan the Devil is quite capable of speaking with the ‘divine voice' when it suits his purpose, and thus, every moment that Satan the Devil is on the loose, there will always be an element of ambiguity attached to even the most divine of oracles, and even the most beautiful and wonderful of all angels is suspect. I am describing here the only reasonable option open to reasonable human beings when deliberately confronted with an ambiguous situation like the one just described. Both God or Satan, angel or devil, all can speak and also act out the desires of their hearts in this place, and that means that devils are allowed to satisfy the cruelest of their perverted desires by enjoying such disgusting things as tormenting bodies, as just one example of how it really is the solemn truth that devils are not under the ‘complete control' of God, but rather running wild and on the loose in Yahweh's universe.
Now there might be those who might want to tackle the dilemma by offering various proposals for distinguishing the important orders delivered by the divine voice of God from something being said as part of some crafty scheme by Satan the Devil. But, if the truth be told, you just cannot spot a really good devil in a really good lamb skin, not if , as a part of that plot, that devil is determined to stay hidden. A truly well behaved devil is an angel to everyone, as the notorious example of charming serial sex killers demonstrates so very well,
It is hard to justify the theological position of ‘obeying divine voices' as a central practice in a system of spirituality. If anything, the policy of freedom of action for devils introduces all the complex difficulties into the situation and the corresponding theology, and this hardly encourages such conduct, and as such is hardly a ringing divine endorsement of the policy of obeying voices (on the grounds that ambiguity was not present, the really difficult point to justify in this theological construct).
Things do not have to be this way, and so, to a Deist like myself, this would suggest that things are not some other more ideal way, but rather this way and for a reason. We can speculate and assume that there isn't much point in learning about devils unless you actually observe a devil at work. As to why we would find ourselves observing and learning about devils, and where a devil ever came from in the first place, the weird attraction of something as thoroughly disgusting as evil, all these are the kinds of questions I cannot answer, but, being a pragmatist, I can make note of the state I find myself in, and I find that I can deal with certain questions involving the practical application of theology.
The ambiguity present in the circumstances described above drives a person to live by faith. Divine voices and authoritative oracles cannot be completely trusted, and this element of distrust is only part of the problem because the policies of God have deliberately made it a problem. (It doesn't have to be this way but yet it is...) In the end to accept a divine voice is to make a leap of faith. To listen to your inner voice instead is to make a leap of faith. In the end, everyone, no matter what their ideological position on the doctrine of divine oracles, winds up making a leap of faith, and this leap is required simply because it has been engineered right into the system, you might say. That ambiguity is always present, the tiniest doubt, the slightest possibility always exists, even for the true believer in the true divine oracle. As long as there is a Satan the Devil no oracle can ever be said to have certainly, with one hundred per cent certitude, a certain divine word came from God through divine oracle, and was not just that Satan the Devil wearing that lamb skin. It was God who decreed that ambiguity be present and it was God who required the leap of faith (I speak as a Deist, interpreting reality here). Therefore ambiguity and the leap of faith it is, and this hardly qualifies as a ringing endorsement of the practice of religion as obedient compliance to divine oracles.
In the end of it all, a person is forced to turn inwards, and in the end you live by faith, or you don't live at all. If you love people and feel fond towards them, you always know the right sort of things of to do and you always know which theological propositions are worth consideration and which are useless and good for nothing (or at least good for nothing if you are fond of people and long to be kind and generous to people). You don't need a divine voice to tell you to do things like that, and while it is ambiguous, and thus not comfortable and certain, you really don't need an unambiguous divine oracle to teach you how to do things like that, so in the end, the loss of the doctrine of divine oracle isn't much of a loss to me, and all the work required to deal with the consequences of the decision to struggle with ambiguity is a lot of wasted effort in my eyes. Even after the most diligent of efforts I have always found that at the very least that one small bit of doubt and ambiguity always remains, and certitude has always proved to be elusive. What God has made difficult and elusive is not something I am encourage to pursue, since I consider the extra prohibitions to be the ‘Word of God' in this situation, thus functioning as the opposite to an encouragement, but rather as a ban.
What finally settles the issue for me is that I know that deep down inside I know how to be affectionate and I know how to do certain sorts of things, and these are things that matter, and they do not require divine oracles to be understood or revealed. The things that matter have been engineered into the system, you might say, and something that pervasive and as profound as the faith this inner life inspires renders such things as divine oracles redundant, in any case, which is convenient when you consider the permanent ambiguity attached to divine oracles in this place. Since I am a Deist, I don't believe in such convenient coincidences. The Kingdom of Heaven is clearly within you, and, because God is just, and the situation is ambiguous, this engineering of human infants with the capacity to feel the warmest of affections, can be understood as the creation of a living oracle, which, when combined with faith, provides any person with all the insight and wisdom they requires, and deals with the ambiguity surrounding divine oracles by making such oracles redundant. The Kingdom of heaven is within you and by natural design, the oracle is within you as well.