Dealing with Belial: Spirit of Armies and Abuse

'What harmony, ' Paul asked, 'is there between Christ and Belial?'

Where, you might wonder, did he pluck that name from? In most English Bibles, it appears for the first time in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. So it comes as a surprise to realise this army commander of the spirit world is mentioned 27 times in Hebrew, almost always in connection with abuse and violence. Modern translations generally substitute worthless. Yet from the stories where Belial appears, we can draw importa...