Lots of names are given to him in scripture—Devil, Satan, Deceiver, Murderer, Liar and the father of lies, “god” of this world, and many more; but concerning each of us personally, probably the most significant appellation is “your adversary, the devil.” (I Pet. 5:8)
He is a person older than time itself, and he will be confined, after time shall be no more, in an awful fiery abyss forevermore. It is well that we reckon with this ancient foe, assessing who he is, what he is about, and what role he plays in the “big picture” as it relates to the world in which we live.
Satan, “the old serpent,” was created as “Lucifer,” an angel of light; in fact, the archangel. A graphic description of him in Ezekiel’s prophecy portrays him as originally created as “the anointed cherub…set upon the holy mountain of God…perfect in his ways until the day that iniquity was found in him.” He was, tragically, lifted up in his heart because of his beauty, coming under the judgment of his Almighty Creator God. (Ezekiel 28:14-19) Isaiah further describes his pride and plight as one fallen from heaven—“O Lucifer, son of the morning”— whose demise was willfully thinking that he could exalt himself above the stars of God, to then dethrone God Himself and ascend above the heights of the clouds, so that he said “I will be like the most high.” God said, in response: “Thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” (Isa. 14:12-14)
This Luciferian coup against the creator God of the heavens resulted in Lucifer’s being cast out of heaven to earth, the tail of the red dragon drawing a third of the created angelic beings with him in his rebellion. (Rev. 12:3,4)
From that time on, Satan has had “access” to heaven as an accuser of God’s people, but he will never be able to call heaven his home as he once was able to; and, at some future date, he will lose this access to heaven and be confined in his war against the dominion of God to the sphere of this world. He has supernatural powers still, so that he is called the “god of this world” (II Cor. 12:4) and the “prince of principalities and powers,” as he presides over the “rulers of the darkness of this world” and commands “spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:12)
Satan is powerful and no human being, in his or her own strength, is any match. But he is not all-powerful, and the believer clad in the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:10ff.) can deflect the fiery darts of the Devil, discerning also his wicked wiles. Peter admonishes us to resist the Devil, assuring us that when we do, by faith, the Devil—though appearing as a roaring lion that is on the hunt to devour—will flee from us. (I Pet.5:8)
Neither is Satan, that old serpent the Devil, omniscient. He is incredibly knowledgeable while lacking any true wisdom. He rules over an organized kingdom of darkness—and will until this present age is over—with myriad “little devils,” or demons , poised to do his bidding in executing his dark dominion; but his knowledge is limited and can in no way approach the infinite knowledge of his creator God.
The evil one is powerful, and knowledgeable, without being omnipotent or omniscient; and though his sphere of operation is the heavens as well as the earth, he is not omnipresent. He can be at only one place at a time; thus, he makes his influence and reach worldwide through the work of his devilish diminutives. While some of the fallen angelic beings are presently chained in caverns of darkness waiting their everlasting judgment (Jude 6), an incalculable number of that original one-third of the angelic creation that joined Satan in his rebellion against God are still navigating in this present darkness, fulfilling the “great omission” of their leader, Apollyon.
From the first days of human history, Satan has made it his first and foremost goal to tempt members of the human race to rebel against the authority of God. He succeeded in lying to the first couple in Eden’s exhilarating Garden, questioning the integrity of God, with such convincing success that Eve, and later her joined-at-the-rib husband, Adam, both willingly disobeyed God. By biting into the serpent’s subtle deception, they introduced sin into the human race for all of time, with its dreaded consequence(s) and the ultimate penalty of death.
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12)
The Devil, no doubt drunk with power and success, thought he could use the same bag of tricks in tempting the fasting Jesus of Nazareth to yield to the lust of the flesh (stones to bread); the lust of the eyes (all the kingdoms of the world); and the pride of life (cast thyself down). Of course, Jesus would not sin, and Jesus could not sin; but the temptation was no less real when Satan threw his poisoned darts at God’s Son in the wilderness where He, Jesus, was “tempted in all points like as we are”—yet remaining through it all, sinless. God sent a special envoy of angels to minister to His Son when the temptation was concluded, so fierce it was. (Matt. 4:11)
Satan will continue his illegitimate lordship over this age, as the “god of this world,” until the rapture of the Church, at which time he will join forces with the Beast (antichrist) in the seven-year tribulation period on earth—until Jesus Christ comes in power and great glory. (Matt. 25:31ff.; Rev.19) At the second coming of Christ, the Beast—with his cohort the False Prophet, both of whom, with the Devil, will deceive multitudes during the Day of the Lord (Tribulation period)—will be cast into the Lake of Fire, their ultimate and eternal abode. (Rev. 19:20 ) Satan will then be bound and cast into a bottomless pit for a thousand years (the Millennium; Rev. 20:2,3), at the end of which he will be loosed, only to deceive and organize one more war against the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus. This wild and desperate attempt of course will fail, and Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire, which was created originally for him and his fallen angelic followers.
“And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and all things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.” (Rev.10:5,6)
YOU and GOD 