THE Devil has been unfairly and wilfully maligned and deserves a reassessment, according to a new study.
Finally the big man gets some understanding. 
This new reading of the Christian material is closer to the philosophical understanding of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas and Hindus (as in philosophical / religious traditions originating in India) in general.
It also resolves several problematic questions about free will, predestination, and agency - specifically with regard to Satan’s free will, role, and responsibility for his actions.
Most Christians believe that Satan was an angel named Lucifer who rebelled against God at the beginning of Creation. After being thrown out of Heaven, he tempted Adam and Eve into sin, and since then has strived to win souls for his kingdom of Hell.
But Professor Kelly argues that none of this is in the Bible, and that it represents conclusions drawn by the early church fathers and read back into the Bible.
Professor Kelly argues from Luke iv that Satan is a minister of God in charge of the world.
“He’s a government heavy, whose main job is to test human beings and to accuse them of their misdeeds, but he is cynical and overzealous in performing his duties,” the professor says. “We can think of an unscrupulous and feared official investigator or prosecutor, like J.Edgar Hoover or senator Joseph McCarthy.”
