Satan loves to convince Christians that he is a harmless myth, a legend uncovered in the sands of time. In one survey 60 percent of self-identifying Christians said the devil was symbolic, not real. This kind of confusion comes from not knowing what the Bible says about the devil, the Christian, and spiritual warfare.
Five times in Ephesians 6:12 Paul uses the word “against” in describing our spiritual warfare. We are battling “against” real beings: principalities, powers, rulers, and spiritual hosts of wickedness.
When we think of “against” we think of force, of someone or something pushing back against us. That is the nature of spiritual warfare— real beings pushing against one another; Satan against Christians.
Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians to “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (verse 10) is so they can enter this very real spiritual battle that is ongoing for all who follow Christ. There is a real “devil” (verse 11), a “wicked one” (verse 16), who shoots “fiery darts” (verse 16) at Christians. Those who believe what the Bible says on this point can learn to defend themselves against the devil. Those who believe the devil doesn’t exist will have to explain the “fiery darts” in their lives some other way.
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What is Satan’s Personality?
Satan is given many names in Scripture, the following being just some of them: your adversary (1 Peter 5:8); the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10); the angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14); the deceiver (Revelation 12:9); the destroyer (Revelation 9:11); the evil one (John 17:15); the liar (John 8:44); the murderer (John 8:44); the prince (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11; Ephesians 2:2); the serpent (Genesis 4:3; Revelation 20:2); and the tempter (Matthew 4:3). All the names given to him represent various facets of his personality and strategies.
Satan originated in heaven as a wise and beautiful angel (Isaiah 14:12; Ezekiel 28:12, 14-15). Isaiah tells us that while he was named Lucifer, the son of the morning, and served in God’s court, pride rose up in Satan’s heart and he purposed to become like God (Isaiah 14:12-14).When Lucifer challenged God’s supremacy in heaven, God cast him out of heaven, down to earth. Lucifer and all the angels had free will just as we do, and the exercise of Lucifer’s will—and that of many angels who rebelled with him—cost him an honored place in heaven. The first sin we know about in the universe was Lucifer’s sin of pride (1 Timothy 3:6).
Is Satan A God?
There are three positions that Satan legitimately fills at the present time: prince, ruler, and god.
He Is a Prince
The Bible calls Satan “the prince of this world” three times: John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11 (NIV). He is also called the “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2. As the prince of this world, Satan is in charge of evil men; as the prince of the power of the air he is in charge of evil spirits. In other words, Satan is the leader of evil whether on earth or in heaven.
He Is a Ruler
First John 5:19 tells us that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” In other words, he is the ruler of the world system in which we live—the world of power, lust, ambition, greed, and lies. Satan has a kingdom just like God has a kingdom (Matthew 12:26). First and foremost, a kingdom is the authority to rule, not just a set of geographical boundaries. And Satan has a kingdom he rules—a kingdom of darkness (Colossians 1:13) in which he rules over angelic (demonic) beings (Matthew 25:41) and some human beings who have given themselves over to the powers of darkness. The principalities, powers, rulers, and hosts to which Paul refers in Ephesians 6:12 represent hierarchical levels of authority within Satan’s kingdom—perhaps as many as a third of the created order of angels who rebelled against God and went with Satan to earth (Revelation 12:4).
He Is a God
In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul refers to Satan as “the god of this age” (“god” with a lowercase “g”) with the power to blind the minds of the unbelieving to the light of the Gospel. We normally associate a “god” with a religion, and that is perfectly appropriate here. Satan definitely has his own religion. He has his own church (Revelation 2:9; 3:9), his own gospel (Galatians 1:8), his own ministers (2 Corinthians 11:15), his own doctrines (1 Timothy 4:1), and his own communion table and cup (1 Corinthians 10:20-21). His goal is to counterfeit everything God does so as to lead astray the unwary—and his religion serves that purpose.
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How Powerful is Satan?
This may be the question most Christians have about Satan: How powerful is he? Does he have the power to hurt us as well as harass us?
For starters, 2 Thessalonians 2:9 says that Satan’s works are often accompanied by “all power, signs, and lying wonders.” So he does have supernatural power—as well as the power of death (Hebrews 2:14) and the power of a stalking lion (1 Peter 5:8). There is no question that Satan has power, but we should not make the mistake of thinking he has power equal to God. Satan is not the equal or opposite of God in position nor in power. (Michael, the archangel [Jude 9] is Satan’s opposite, both being created beings.) God is infinite and eternal; Satan is a created, limited angel.
The best way to remember Satan’s limited power is by remembering 1 John 4:4: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Satan’s power is great compared to ours, but not even in the same league as God’s power. God has Satan on a leash (Job 1-2) and there he remains, in spite of appearances, until he will be cast into the “lake of fire” where he will live in torment forever (Revelation 20:10).
What Does Satan Do In Our World?
There are many action verbs attached to Satan’s activities in Scripture. I will summarize them by focusing on three that serve to reveal his purposes: Satan deceives, divides, and destroys.
He Is the Great Deceiver
In a conversation with religious leaders, Jesus set the record straight about Satan’s character: “[Satan] was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44b). In Revelation 12:9, Satan is identified as the one “who deceives the whole world.”
Satan began sowing seeds of deception in the Garden of Eden when he twisted the words God spoke to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-4). As a deceiver, Satan is also a counterfeiter—one who always has a slightly different (and wrong) take on God’s words and actions. Almost everything Jesus was and did, Satan tried to copy. For instance, Jesus was the light of the world (John 9:5), so Satan disguised himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Satan always mixes enough truth with error to make it attractive and enough error with truth to make it deadly. He knows the Bible well and can misquote it or take it out of context at will. He loves to ask us, “Has God indeed said . . .?” (Genesis 3:1)
The greatest defense against Satan the deceiver is a thorough, working knowledge of the Word of God.
He Is the Great Divider
The first thing Satan did after rebelling against God was to divide the hosts of heaven, the other angels, into two camps: those loyal to Satan and those loyal to God. And he’s never stopped dividing. He instigated a division in the early church in Jerusalem by promoting dishonesty by a member (Acts 5:1-11). Ananias wanted to be recognized for giving a financial gift to the church, but lied about the amount of the gift. It wasn’t that he held back some money for himself that was the problem; it was that he created the impression for the apostles that he had given it all. Satan is still sowing seeds of division in the Body of Christ through lies, jealousy, pride, power, and finances. When “two or three are gathered in [Jesus’] name,” He is there to join with them in fellowship (Matthew 18:20). But Satan is also there looking for an opportunity to divide those two or three, to break up their unity. And often he uses the tongue—that human organ that “is set on fire by hell” (James 3:6).
He Is the Great Destroyer
Satan uses two means to destroy the people of God (see Revelation 9:11, “destroyer”): adversity and direct attacks.
1. He Attempts to Destroy Us Through Adversity
There is no question about Satan’s ability to hinder, delay, or frustrate our lives. The great apostle Paul was not immune to such harassment as he told the believers in Thessalonica: “Therefore we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us” (1 Thessalonians 2:18). It is an arresting insight for young Christians to gain: God does not always protect us from the difficulties of life, even when we are doing our best to serve Him. And that includes difficulties that are orchestrated by Satan himself.
Satan’s goal in creating adversity, of course, is to discourage us to the point that we will at least give up serving the Lord if not give up the faith altogether. There is an end-game to Satan’s strategies of which too many Christians are unaware.
2. He Attempts to Destroy Us by Direct Attack
Ephesians 6:16 makes a clear reference to the direct attacks from Satan we are likely to experience: “the fiery darts of the wicked one.” I believe one of Satan’s most oft-used direct attacks is that of discouragement, for this reason: If Satan can discourage us, it means we have lost hope. And if we have lost hope, then we have lost faith in God and His promises. And if we lose faith in God, we make God look bad. And that is Satan’s ultimate goal—to make God look bad in the eyes of all Creation. So,while Satan’s attacks are often directed at us, they are ultimately directed at God. The worse we do as Christians, the worse God looks as the One in whom we place our faith and to whom we direct our hope.
I read a story once about Satan going out of business, selling all his tools at a diabolical type garage sale. Hate, envy, jealousy, greed —all his tools were spread out on a table to be examined. Off to the side lay a small, wedge-shaped tool that was more expensive than all the rest. When asked why the small tool was the most expensive, Satan replied that the tool was discouragement. He explained that he could use discouragement to pry open a human heart better than any other tool. Once discouragement gets inside, the devil said, all the other tools can do their work.1
Unfortunately, Satan has not gone out of business and will not until God puts him out of business at the end of time. Until then, he is walking about seeking whom he might devour. The believer is helpless against the devil except when he or she is clothed in the armor of God. We cannot defend ourselves against his direct or indirect attacks in our own strength. It is only as we are “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10) that we can walk in the victory God has planned for us.
Martin Luther, besides being the father of the Protestant Reformation, was a great lover of music as part of his defense against the devil:
Music is a fair and lovely gift of God which has often wakened And moved me . . . Music drives away the devil and makes people [happy] . . . Next after theology I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor . . . Experience proves that next to the Word of God only music deserves to be extolled as the mistress and governess of the feelings of the human heart.We know that to the devil music is distasteful and insufferable. My heart bubbles up and overflows in response to music, which has so often refreshed me and delivered me from the plagues of the enemy.2
As evidence of his love of music and his deep understanding of the theology of spiritual warfare, Luther penned some of the most powerful and accurate words ever written on the subject in his hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” He wrote, “For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.” He then goes on to clarify that we cannot defeat Satan on our own: “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing; dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He; Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle.”3
Citations:
1Robert Jeffress, The Divine Defense: Six Simple Strategies for Winning Your Greatest Battles (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 2006), 35.
2Bainton, 351-352.
3Martin Luther, trans. by Frederick H. Hedge, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, http://www.hymnsite.com (accessed 30 August 2010).
This excerpt was taken from Dr. Jeremiah’s teaching series on Spiritual Warfare.