Who Is Satan?
This next group of blog posts comes from the third book in the Basic Training! series: Stage 3 Spiritual Warfare. By this time in the Pureheart process, you’ve locked down your devices, identified your triggers, you’re getting your acting out cycle under control, established accountability with your B.O.B group, and “Severed Spiritual Chains”. Because it is vital to your healing and maturity, we’ve devoted all of Stage 3 to teaching you about Spiritual Warfare. Have you ever met the devil? Demons? Do you know how to stand your ground against the cosmic forces of evil? Do you know how to fight against demons? Or how to equip yourself with the life-saving armor of God? “Stage 3: Spiritual Warfare” offers you a specific strategy for winning the invisible war that rages about you, starting with the fundamentals as laid out in this introductory chapter.
Brace yourself—it’s time for battle!
Please note: Given the constraints of space and time, the following is only an introduction to the basics of spiritual warfare. I strongly encourage your own study of Scripture, plus learning from the wisdom of other Christians far more advanced in this area than I am. (See the recommended reading lists in the two chapters on Footholds.) Also note, as is often the case, that Scripture doesn’t provide a one-stop, in-depth discussion of spiritual warfare—or for that matter, of the devil and his demons. So the following is essentially a topical study.
Who Is Satan?
Scripture offers few details concerning Satan’s origins, what he did before his fall, and indeed, why exactly he fell. Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 3:6 imply that the devil was judged because of pride or conceit. I also believe he was creation’s first liar, since Jesus explicitly calls him the father of lies (John 8:44), so perhaps both pride and deception got him thrown out of heaven along with his groupie angels (2 Peter 2:4). Many Christians interpret the prophetic passages in Ezekiel 28:11-19 and Isaiah 14:12-14—which in context refer specifically to the King of Tyre and the King of Babylon, respectively—as also applying to Satan. Given the fact that Babylon in Revelation comes to represent the entire demonically-controlled world system (the Whore of Babylon), I see no reason why the Babylonian king could not prophetically stand in for the devil. It isn’t explicit in the text, so it’s obviously an interpretative leap of faith, but if correct, then the devil’s great sin was to imagine he could become God. And perhaps, the devil was originally the Angel, the archangel of archangels? This is the only thing, in my opinion, that explains why as many as a third(?) of all angels, despite living in the awesome splendor of God’s revealed presence, followed the devil in his open rebellion against their Creator. Imagine how magnificent the ancient serpent must have once been, given that so many angels chose him over God…
Let’s be clear, however. His former glories notwithstanding, the devil is at best nothing more than a fallen archangel, a spirit being (2 Corinthians 11:14; Ephesians 2:2). Comparing the devil with God is like you and I being compared with God—there’s no comparison whatsoever! God is infinitely far beyond both pitiful humans and deranged angels. The fictional theology of Star Wars and The Force (which George Lucas borrowed from witchcraft/sorcery) is laughably and catastrophically wrong. Good and dark are not equal and balanced. Righteousness needs nothing from evil, and the devil and his demons are but grains of sand against the effortless tides of God. They exist only because God allows it for the moment, and they will soon be endlessly burning to death, forever forgotten.
Satan’s Personality and Character: Liar, Thief, Murderer
A brief survey of Biblical names and titles used to describe the devil tells us much about his personality and character. Satan, sometimes written literally as the Satan, means adversary or enemy. Satan and the term devil (slanderer) are the most common Biblical names for the evil one. Note that the name Lucifer does not literally appear in the Bible; it’s a Latin-derived word (also used in the King James and New King James versions) translating a Hebrew word, and over time it turned into a personal name for the devil.
The devil is called the accuser of our brethren, busy day and night accusing us before God (Revelation 12:10). He is Beelzebul, the prince of demons (Matthew 12:24), which harkens back to the Jewish title Beelzebub, the mockingly bad pun “Lord of the Flies.” Paul calls the devil Belial (2 Corinthians 6:15), a title that means “worthless” and “treacherous.” He’s the god of this age blinding the minds of the lost (2 Corinthians 4:4); the ruler of the kingdom of the air (Ephesians 2:2); the tempter (1 Thessalonians 3:5), and simply, the serpent (2 Corinthians 11:3). The Apostle John refers to the accuser as the great dragon, the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray (Revelation 12:9). John also calls him the king of the end-times army of demonic locusts, and the angel of the abyss. His names are Abaddon and Apollyon, meaning “destruction” and “the one who destroys” (Revelation 9:11).
Jesus (confronting the Pharisees) describes Satan thus: You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Note that this is the devil’s desire. He literally lives to deceive, destroy, and murder anything and anyone he can, as he and his minions wage war against the saints (Revelation 13:7).
Let’s take a moment and break down these 3 core aspects of Satan’s character:
Liar
I’m confounded by Christians who underestimate the evil one. The devil isn’t just any old con man. For crying out loud, he’s the fount of all things twisted and false—the father of lies. He’s very, very good at his bad job, and you should have serious respect for his deceptive capabilities! He has been successfully tricking believers for 3,000-plus years. And before that, he deceived possibly one third of heaven’s angels into falling with him, despite the unveiled presence of God Himself. And what about Adam and Eve before their fall? They lived in perfect communion with God, in utter innocence, and yet they too were seduced and led to their deaths (both spiritual and physical). Do you imagine for a moment you’re greater and wiser than heaven’s angels and Adam and Eve before the Fall?! Think about it: The devil’s capacity for deception is utterly mindboggling. What chance do you and I stand resisting such a creature?!
And yes, we are new creations, all things are possible, all promises are “yes” and “amen,” and we have the mind of Christ—so theoretically, our defeat of Satan should be certain. And yet the Pharisees had the Old Testament practically memorized, and the Son of God Himself right up in their faces, and they still murdered him. 75% of all believers, according to Jesus’s own words (Parable of the Sower), will get taken out by the enemy. The Apostle Paul dealt constantly with wayward sheep, false teachers, and nearly nonstop persecution and suffering. 80% plus of Christian men today are sexually addicted despite being raised in Bible-teaching churches; they’re living lives of perversion, lies, hypocrisy, and defeat. Christian leaders everywhere are exposed as frauds and perverts. Worst of all, I believe many Christians today are literally demonized, but like myself and the Evangelical pastor who was thrown across the bed, they’ve been blissfully unaware of their demonically oppressed state (more on this in later chapters).
Are you starting to have some much-needed respect for your adversary?
Hmm, maybe this is why Scripture gives us this command: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). And yet you’ve likely lived a life immorally out of control and asleep to any threat posed by the deceiver of heavenly angels. You’ve been schooled by an extremely cunning enemy (2 Corinthians 11:3); indeed, it’s quite likely you are still deceived in some areas! The best kind of deception is the one you never notice! Wake up and smell the Father of Lies, brothers and sisters!
I don’t mean to sound defeatist, indeed, the following chapters are designed to teach you how to defeat the enemy. Spiritual warfare success, however, starts with a large dose of humble pie. As in 3,000 years of successful deception versus 30 (?) years of resistance (assuming you’ve actually overcome your enemy?). And breaking free of denial by confronting painful reality…
In what ways has the devil deceived you?
Thief
In John 10:10, Jesus refers to Himself as the one true shepherd and the gate through which His sheep can be saved, in contrast with criminals who came only for plunder. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. We know this describes the devil, because the Parable of the Sower specifically states that Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Plus there’s the devil’s (implicit) role in the persecution, choking out, and distraction of anyone trying to follow God (Mark 4:1-20). He’s a “trapper” of Christians—envision the brutal, steel-fanged device snapping shut around your soul, leaving you helplessly captive—the devil’s trap (1 Timothy 3:7). And note that lies, cunning, trapping, and stealing all work toward Satan’s end of goal of destruction. When the devil robs you of something, he can permanently block the potential ramifications and blessings of God’s will in your life. Indeed, can there be a greater theft than stealing a person’s eternal salvation?!
The devil steals our health. God wants us healthy (Jesus healed people right and left), but the devil crippled a woman for eighteen long years (Luke 13:16). Having just suffered through a year of some mysterious illness plus another 4 months of agony with kidney stones and stents, I’ve a new appreciation for just how much sickness steals from us. I spent most of that time barely surviving—I can’t imagine the cost of physically suffering for 18 years.
The devil also steals our children. Remember Job’s murdered children? Sure, God gave him more children, but that in no way replaced his former children, nor the constant sorrow that must have lived in Job’s heart at the memory of the unfathomable, simultaneous loss of 10 children.
Satan can steal God’s truth away from us—how often have you and I fallen prey to his scheming (2 Corinthians 2:11)? How many years have you and I wasted chasing after perversion, to cite but one example?!
I could go on a long time. The devil steals our peace, innocence, health, relationships, income, spiritual growth, our children, and sometimes our very lives. To steal something is to destroy it so that it may never be used again by the rightful owner. Stealing a relationship changes everything. My wife and I lost our first child to a miscarriage. I know I’ll meet this child in heaven someday, but this in no way restores the irreplaceable experience of living with the child who should have been my firstborn here on earth.
Who has the devil stolen from you? What has he stolen from you?
Murderer
I’ve illustrated this core aspect of the devil’s character previously, so I close this section with a recap only. Make it personal! Take the verses I cite, even as you study them in more detail, and apply them to yourself and your loved ones. Satan wants to murder your salvation, your faith, your ministry, and your eternal reward, not just physically kill you.
And what about the lost? You can murder people in many different ways: physically starve them, abuse their bodies, break their hearts, steal their dreams, block their destinies, and crush their spirits. And yes, the lost theoretically have free will to make their own choices. But make no mistake, their “god,” prince, and ruler enslaves them—he leads the whole word astray. If heavenly angels could not resist Satan, what chance does an unbeliever have?! He will ultimately murder as many as he can, eternally speaking, dragging them down to hell with him. Unless, of course, you and I decide to stop him.
Who has the devil murdered in your life? What has he murdered in your life?
Your Brother in the Battle,
Timothy
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Excerpt taken from Pureheart Ministry’s Basic Training! Stage 3: Spiritual Warfare
Copyright ©2023 Timothy Davis