Mark Burnett: The Real Devil Is Messing With 'The Bible'

There's a swirl that the devil character in "The Bible" TV show is a thinly veiled President Obama ... and Mark Burnett tells TMZ, it's all the devil's doing ...THE REAL DEVIL.

Burnett -- a deeply religious man -- tells TMZ ... he believes there is a devil on earth. Burnett says the devil has stirred the pot and created a false likeness between Obama and the TV devil.

Why, you ask, would the real devil care about a TV show? Fact is ... the show is HUGELY popular and is having a big impact on viewers. Burnett notes the show last night featured a face-to-face meeting between Jesus and the devil ... BUT it's not the first time the TV devil has appeared on the show. The TV devil appeared in the Garden of Eden scene awhile back and no one said anything.

Burnett believes the real devil is scared that Jesus has now entered the picture and is trying to distract from Jesus' message by creating a false story.

Burnett says, "What could be more annoying to Satan than talking about Jesus?"