The Story of Beelzebub, God or Demon?
The story of Beelzebub, initially known as Baal, a pre-biblical god worshipped in the Middle East, furnishes illuminating insights into how gods may reign, fall, and be resurrected. The story also tells how nations and communities fight each other not only for land, resources, and domination but also how they fight over the sources of spirituality, presenting their own gods as authentic deities and condemning other’s gods as false, dark, and perverted idols. In warfare, killing a beloved leader disheartens the community but rubbishing a beloved god leaves the community utterly disoriented and confused. Demonizing the enemy’s deities and demolishing temples built for the deity is an ancient form of religious warfare. In 586 BCE, the Babylonians, the devotees of Bel, another name for Baal, destroyed the Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. During crusades, the Europeans not only aimed at conquering Jerusalem, they also discredited Allah as a false god -a war tactic that inspired the annihilat