Who Is Satan?
According to the Bible, Satan is a real spiritual being who rebelled against God and became His adversary. He was not created evil but was originally one of the sons of God in God’s heavenly family.
In the Bible we read that one day the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh. Among them came Satan also. (Job 1:6)
The Bible teaches that it is Satan who influences and leads the whole world. Some claim that Satan is merely “the principle of evil” within each individual. But the Bible’s descriptions clearly show that he is a real person.
For four thousand years, the nations that have successively exercised dominant influence over the world have followed remarkably similar courses. This has led historians to observe that history repeats itself. World empires have risen, grown powerful, and eventually disappeared into darkness and oblivion. The same pattern is seen in every one of them. They have all waged bloody wars, and oppression and terror have been their methods. At the same time, religion has played a significant role in each of them.
Thoughtful people who have recognized these similarities, even in our own time, have therefore asked a number of questions. Could it be that one and the same invisible power has controlled the kingdoms and nations of the world? Is this hidden power behind these recurring acts of violence? Why does history seem to repeat itself, and will it always be this way?
We do not have to speculate, however, because the Scriptures, the Word of God, explain the matter clearly. The Bible traces the history of mankind from the creation of Adam and shows that it is no fantasy that an evil and intelligent power has influenced both mankind and the nations.
Authority Handed Over to Satan
Consider what happened to Jesus when He began His ministry on earth. The Bible says that immediately after His baptism in the Jordan River, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. (Matthew 4:1) Part of the temptation consisted of three offers that Satan made to Jesus. One of them was this:
“And leading Him up into a high mountain, the Devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the Devil said to Him, I will give all this authority and their glory to You, because it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Then if You worship before me, all will be Yours.” (Luke 4:5–7, Interlinear Bible)
From this statement, we can understand that authority over all “the kingdoms of the world” belongs to Satan. Otherwise, he could not have offered it to Christ. Satan is therefore the invisible ruler of this world, and Jesus Himself says that he is “the ruler of this world.” (John 14:30; 16:11)
Paul also writes that Satan is “the god of this world.” (2 Corinthians 4:4) This clearly shows that authority over the world’s religions belongs to Satan.
But where did Satan come from, and why has both secular and religious authority been handed over to him? How is it possible that he became the ruler and god of this world? And why has a righteous God allowed him to live and lead mankind into unrighteousness and idolatry? Will it always be this way, or will there be a change? Do sincere and honest people have any opportunity to escape his influence?
Satan—One of the Sons of God
The Scriptures show that the one who is now the Devil was not always so. At one time, he occupied a high position in God’s heavenly family. The book of Job clearly shows that Satan was, and still is, one of the sons of God:
“And a day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh. And Satan also came among them.” (Job 1:6, Interlinear Bible)
The one who later became Satan was therefore one of the sons of God who presented themselves before Yahweh in heaven. Satan must therefore have been created by God as a perfect and righteous being, for all of God’s works are perfect. (Deuteronomy 32:4)
Satan was not a literal monster with horns and a tail, as some imagine. On the contrary, he was a beautiful and glorious spirit being, one of the mighty sons of God in God’s heavenly family.
The Bible describes him in Ezekiel:
“You seal the measure, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You have been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering… You were the anointed cherub that covers, and I had put you in the holy heights of God, where you were.” (Ezekiel 28:12–13, Interlinear Bible)
The Fallen Son of God
The Scriptures describe the son of God who later became Satan as beautiful, perfect, and full of wisdom. As one of God’s sons, he was entrusted with a high and responsible position as a guardian, overseeing mankind in the Garden of God, the Garden of Eden. In this position, the Bible refers to him as “the anointed cherub that covers.”
For a time, everything was good, and perfect peace prevailed in that righteous world. But it did not last. Greed and selfish desire arose in his heart. The anointed cherub became proud and began to devise ambitious plans for the future. He could see before him a perfect earth, filled with people who showed their devotion to Yahweh and acknowledged Him as God Almighty.
But the cherub wanted mankind instead to obey and worship him alone, and thus evil arose in his heart. Satan said within himself:
“I will rise over the heights of the clouds; I will be compared to the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:14, Interlinear Bible)
By doing so, he chose a course that brought him into opposition against God Most High. This is reflected in the name he came to bear, the Hebrew word satan, which means “adversary.” He also received another descriptive name, Devil, from the Greek word diabolos, meaning “slanderer” or “false accuser.” He earned this name by slandering God in the Garden of Eden.
The anointed cherub rebelled against God and lost his perfection and innocence. God’s judgment against him reads:
“You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you… Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.” (Ezekiel 28:15, 17, Interlinear Bible)
Satan—The Father of Lies
Satan’s proud and self-centered heart became evident when he cunningly introduced sin into the world. Yahweh God had told the perfect man, Adam, that he must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if he did, he would die. (Genesis 2:17)
Satan, however, deceived Eve, Adam’s wife, into disobedience by speaking to her through the serpent. He said:
“Is it true that God has said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5, Interlinear Bible)
In this way, Satan implied that God was unjustly withholding something good from the woman. At the same time, he claimed that God had lied when He said, “You shall die.” This was the first lie ever spoken in the human world, thereby revealing Satan to be “the father of lies.”
A Murderer
Jesus said about him:
“That one was a murderer from the beginning, and he has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own, because he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44, Interlinear Bible)
Jesus thus made it clear that Satan has been a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth. When Satan deceived the first woman into disobeying God’s command, and Adam followed her in doing so, the sentence of death came upon Adam and all his descendants. By this act, Satan became a murderer.
God pronounced judgment upon the rebellious cherub, but the very wording of the judgment shows that its execution would be delayed for a long time. In Genesis 3:15 we read:
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Interlinear Bible)
The woman’s offspring was to bruise the serpent’s head—that is, to destroy him. But Satan had to be given time to produce his offspring, and the woman also had to be given time to bring forth hers. Satan led the first human couple away from God, causing them to fall from His favor. He then believed that he could lead all their descendants into rebellion against God’s universal sovereignty.
He now believed that he had grounds to mock God and challenge Him. Although these words are not stated directly in Scripture, the account clearly reveals what he was, in effect, claiming. This becomes especially evident in the book of Job.
Satan Casts Doubt on God
In Job 1:6–11 we read:
“And a day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh. And Satan also came among them. And Yahweh said to Satan, From where have you come? And Satan answered Yahweh and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And Yahweh said to Satan, Have you set your heart on My servant Job because there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil? And Satan answered Jehovah and said, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge for him, and for his house, and for all that is his all around? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock have increased in the land. But put out Your hand now, and touch against all that is his, and see if he will not then curse You to Your face.” (Interlinear Bible)
This conversation shows that Satan called into question whether Yahweh exercises His sovereignty in the right way. He implied that Job served God only because God blessed him and protected his family and possessions.
Satan thus claimed that people serve God primarily for selfish reasons rather than out of genuine love. At the same time, Yahweh’s question and Satan’s reply show that Satan had been granted a measure of freedom to produce his offspring among mankind.
At the same time, his claim that he could overthrow Yahweh’s universal sovereignty had to be disproved. It also had to be determined whether mankind would remain faithful to their Creator.
The Central Issue
Job was a real historical person. He is generally believed to have lived about 1,700 years before Jesus, or approximately 2,300 years after Satan’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden.
Throughout all those centuries, mankind had the opportunity to show whether they would remain faithful to God. The question was whether they would serve Him out of genuine love. The issue, therefore, was not new in Job’s day.
The Scriptures contain many accounts of people who abandoned God Most High because of Satan’s attacks. At the same time, they also tell of men and women who, like Job, remained faithful and endured everything the Adversary brought against them. By their conduct, they demonstrated that Satan is “the father of lies” and unfit to be the universal ruler.
The nation of Israel provides a clear example of this. Whenever the Israelites sincerely sought to serve Yahweh and keep His commandments, He was with them and gave them success. He fought for them in their wars and blessed them with prosperity.
But whenever they yielded to the Devil’s temptations and began to behave like the pagan nations around them, Yahweh withdrew His protection. Both as a nation and as individuals, they then suffered under Satan’s influence.
Many Sons of God Rebelled
Satan has never succeeded in causing all of God’s creatures to abandon their Creator. Ever since Abel, there have always been faithful men and women whose wholehearted devotion to God has been beyond question. Satan has never been able to lead them away from true worship.
Jesus is the supreme example of this. Even though Satan’s servants brought about His shameful death, Satan could not prove that human beings are incapable of remaining faithful to God under even the most difficult circumstances.
The son of God who became Satan was not the only spirit being who became disobedient and wicked. God had created a vast number of holy angels—indeed, millions of them. Daniel 7:10 reveals that there are at least one hundred million.
The account in Genesis 6:1–5 tells us that some of these sons of God materialized as men. They left their place in heaven as spirit beings and took on human bodies. They did this in order to indulge their human passions and marry women.
In doing so, they disobeyed God, and the Bible compares their conduct to that of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. They “went after strange flesh.” (Jude 6–7)
For these sons of God, it was contrary to their heavenly nature to come down to the earth and seek relationships with women. Their actions had serious consequences. Among other things, they produced a hybrid offspring that became the Nephilim, whom the Scriptures describe as “giants.” By their rebellion, they thereby sided with Satan, their ruler.
Satan's Fallen Angels
The Flood in Noah’s day destroyed all the giants and the wicked people. But the unfaithful sons of God gave up their fleshly bodies and returned to the spirit realm.
They were not permitted, however, to return to the heavenly realm, but were instead cast into the abyss. (2 Peter 2:4) These sons of God from Noah’s day can therefore do no harm to humans today, but there are many other sons of God, and many of them have chosen to follow Satan in his rebellion.
In Revelation 12:4 we read:
“And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.” (Interlinear Bible)
It therefore appears that as many as one-third of the sons of God followed Satan in his rebellion. Together with the demons, they form part of the spiritual forces of wickedness that lie behind the deception of the world, as described in Revelation 12:9.
The great evil we see on the earth should make us realize how important it is to remain on guard. Otherwise, we too may be deceived by Satan, his fallen angels, and the demons.
The Ruler of This World
As Jesus said, Satan is “the ruler of this world.” From the teaching of the Scriptures, we can understand that his kingdom consists of two parts.
The first is an invisible part, consisting of the fallen angels and their offspring, the demons. They are all under his authority and make up the higher, controlling part of his kingdom.
The second is a visible and subordinate part, consisting of oppressive governments, aristocracies, and religions. The earthly part of Satan’s kingdom is made up of three groups of representatives: rulers, kings, and the priesthood.
Satan’s characteristics—lying, murder, greed, wickedness, cruelty, and selfishness—have marked the kingdoms of this world. Satan, his fallen angels, and the demons have been allowed a period of time for their rebellion, but that time will one day come to an end. When Satan has only a short time left, he will unleash his fury upon mankind.
In every area of life, he seeks to drive both leaders and ordinary people toward greed, selfishness, and violence. Satan has also succeeded in leading many people to seek happiness in materialism rather than in God. As a result, great inequality in wealth and living conditions exists throughout the world.
Many people do exactly what Satan desires and turn away from God. Some even claim that God does not exist because death and injustice exist in the world.
In reality, however, God is simply allowing Satan to try to prove that no human being will remain faithful to the Creator.
Satan's End
But this will not continue forever. In Revelation 20:1–3 we read that the time will come when Satan will be completely stopped in his activity.
He will be cast into the abyss for a thousand years so that he can no longer deceive the nations. After that, he will be released for a short time, during which he will once again lead rebellious people in an attack against God’s sovereignty. But then Satan will meet his ultimate defeat.
Satan’s end will be complete destruction. The woman’s offspring will bruise his head, and the Devil will be thrown into the lake of fire:
“And the Devil leading them astray was thrown into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.” (Revelation 20:10, Interlinear Bible)
Whatever is destroyed by fire is not kept alive somewhere else but is completely consumed. The lake of fire, which will ultimately consume the Devil, is the second death—that is, everlasting death. (Revelation 20:14)
In harmony with this, Yahweh God says to Satan:
“So I cast you defiled from the height of God, and I destroyed you, O covering cherub… and you will not be forever.” (Ezekiel 28:16–19, Interlinear Bible)
Then the god of this world will no longer be able to deceive or dominate mankind. His power will be broken, and his influence will come to an end forever.
Satan, who has deceived the world and led mankind away from God, will be gone forever.
In the end, it will be clear to all that God alone is the righteous and true Ruler. His righteousness will prevail, and His will shall be done.
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