The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World He Didn't Exist.

I have absolutely no idea who Sergio F. Monteiro is. This was shared from a Facebook page called 'Enoch's Muse', which seems to a book by Mr Monteiro, but all I could find about it was a one minute YouTube video which seemed to indicate that it might be sort of an Erich von Däniken 'Chariots of the Gods', 'civilisation came from outer space' nutter book. Be that as it may, what he says in this short essay is spot on in my not so humble opinion.

C.S Lewis, of whom I can find a great deal of information once said,

And this essay just reinforces that.

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

This is one of the iconic lines from the 1995 movie, "The Usual Suspects". Many heard it and took it as a non-sequitur, simply the work of a good writer who picked the perfect sentence for the perfect scene. Admittedly, I took it as that too, nowadays though I've changed my mind.

Before I get in to why, let’s first define who I'm talking about when I say the “devil”. I'm referring to the Catholic-Christian depiction of him as a fallen angel cast out of heaven. Becoming a monstrous beast forever opposing the source of his former celestial nobility. Also know that when I say,“God” here, you could substitute any higher form of moral spirituality and the premise remains the same. I chose to highlight the God/Satan dichotomy here because for whatever reason, Hollywood has also.

Perhaps at one time the goal by those who had sought to promote Satan, was only to convince us that he didn't exist. A notion conveniently backed up by scientific advancement which maintains that it's impossible for God (or any sort of moral spirituality) to exist and by association, neither can Satan or any energy opposed to inherent morality. This has changed. Now it seems that those who had pushed that narrative before want us to believe that Satan was, in fact, the good guy and they're doing it in less subtle ways.

A thought experiment: If Satan, Lucifer, the devil or whatever entity opposing the inherent morality in all humans, were to try and convince us that he was the good guy--how would he accomplish it? Humans are smart, right? Surely we would see through it and reject it because humans, whether we admit it or not, have a natural predisposition towards morality. That inherent morality would first need to be subverted somehow. To do this, Satan would need a powerful delivery system for his message and willing agents to produce it; then call it entertainment and finally share it to the masses. Enter Hollywood and the many admitted Satanists and Luciferians who run it.

The next step would be to subtly brainwash people over many years into associating negative attributes to anything praising God (or whomever Satan considers an enemy) and positive ones to Satan. There is much more to it than just Hollywood. Academia and culture play major roles too but if I went through all of it here, this post would be longer than it needs to be. In any case, here are examples you can see for yourself.

Go into your social media feeds and mention something positive about Jesus Christ or Christianity, what happens? You get ignored, eye roll emojis or dismissive comments such as, "Did your sky-daddy tell you that?" or "You know science has already disproven God, right?"

But then mention the hit Fox show, "Lucifer" which portrays the devil as a lovable, misunderstood bad-boy, a noble monster, and the response is much different.

What's funny about this is that it only works if you mention Catholicism or Christianity, mention the teaching of any other religion and watch how fast you are suddenly reminded how religious freedoms need to be respected. That says to me that Hollywood and popular culture want to promote the idea that the only religions deserving of popular derision are Catholics and Christians. I refuse to form my opinions from an obvious attempt at shaping them, I reject it on that basis alone.

Another example, the Best Picture Oscar this year went to "The Shape of Water" a movie quietly normalizing pedophilia through a supporting character and exploring love between a human and another misunderstood monster with the lead character. Satanists and Luciferians have long claimed their patriarchs are the victims of centuries of slander and libel by Catholic and Christian denominations, which may explain why so many movies seek to demonize Christianity. The Satanist and

Luciferians posit that Satan has been grossly mis-characterized as beastly and opposed to the natural law when in fact, he loves humans more than God. The parallels Hollywood tried to paint in “The Shape of Water” are easy to see. The main one being, “It’s okay to love a misunderstood monster”

Love for a misunderstood monster, figuratively and literally is a familiar Hollywood premise. "Beauty and the Beast", "The Fly", "Twilight", "Monster's Ball" Those with eyes to see, know the subtext here instantly, "monsters are not bad, they just need love." The goal of this trope is to insert mental wedges into the minds of people on issues of family and the sanctity of humanism. Wedges that other social institutions then exploit and use to barge through with abject materialism; incomplete social theories; and individualistic notions disguised as pseudo-science.

The end result of these measures, and others, is a populace convinced that traditional morality somehow harms more people than it helps and that being human is not that special. The vapidity in our lives and spiritual disconnection this results in is then called social progress.

It doesn’t stop at promoting the misunderstood monster trope either. The Hollywood machinations are two-pronged. It's not enough to promote Satan as a misunderstood, God has to be portrayed as impulsive, overbearing, narcissistic, and undeserving of worship. How many movies have you seen where the most evil character is a member of the Catholic/Christian faith?

"The Last temptation of Christ" - Depicting Jesus Christ as an adulterer.
"12 Years a Slave" - Wherein Michael Fassbender’s character quotes scripture as he brutalizes a slave.
"The Da Vinci Code" - Positing that modern Christianity has purposely mis-represented the origins of Jesus.
"Noah" - Where the fallen angel, Semjaza (which some know is the basis for Satan) helps the main character, Noah, build his ark to save humanity.
“The Matrix” Where the film’s main antagonist, “the architect”, is a god figure complete with white hair and beard.

The most recent example of this is "Mother" starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. A film with a budget of 30 million dollars. Warning, spoilers incoming but unless you know the creation story of the bible, the film itself is hard to follow. The plot itself is a not-so-subtle allegory for that creation story.
Bardem’s character is a representation of God, a poet who lives with his muse alone in a house (Earth) in the middle of nowhere, played by Jennifer Lawrence who represents the Gaia/ Mother Nature/ Feminine creative force. An interesting plot element of the film is that no one is ever referred to by their names.

Bardem’s character has a room (The Garden of Eden) where he writes. In the room, his prized possession is a crystal (Fruit of Knowledge) that he takes great care with. The house has recently been renovated and Lawrence’s character is happily busy with making it beautiful again. A lost man (Adam) then shows up unannounced. Lawrence’s character is upset at the sudden intrusion but her nurturing spirit does her best to be accommodating. Later we see Bardem with the man, who has become ill, in the bathroom with an injury on his rib. The next morning the man’s wife (Eve) shows up. Bardem shows the couple his room and the crystal and tells them to be careful with it. Later the man and woman both return to the room alone where they don’t take heed to their host’s warnings and end up dropping and shattering the crystal. Bardem’s character gets angry, evicts them from the room and the proceeds to board it up so no one goes in ever again.

The couple’s sons (Cain and Abel) then show up and proceed to fight until one kills the other. The rest of the story then correlates perfectly to the story of humanity (as told in the bible)-- from the death of Abel to the tribulations spoken of in Revelations. All through it, the overwhelming notion you are left with is that Bardem’s character is narcissistic and only cares about himself. That he is blinded by his narcissism and cares little for how she feels about the ever increasing number of intruders. Even in the end when their house has become a melee of iniquitous people destroying everything she worked so hard to beautify--when she herself has been consumed by a fire she started to rid the house of its intruders, her nurturing spirit gives Bardem the only thing she has left, her beating heart which Bardem’s character turns into another crystal. Which he places in his office again and the house then returns to its pre-human condition, all the while Bardem is laughing like a mad man.

What’s also interesting is that the movie makes not one mention of the fallen angel cast out of heaven. A curious omission but not surprising. No matter how you feel about God; whether you personally give any consideration to him or not-- people at the highest levels of Hollywood do and will regularly devote massive budgets to subtly reinforce the idea that God doesn’t exist or was actually the bad guy in the story of humanity. The question becomes why. If religious history is just the incomplete understanding of an earlier age; then why even bother? The answer is that it matters to them.

-Sergio F. Monteiro