Satan is an angelic personality. He is one of the most beautiful creatures. He has no red skin or horns, no trident or pitchfork and he does not breathe fire and brimstone. In fact, fire and brimstone make him shudder, because he is condemned to the lake of fire mentioned in Matt. 25:41. Satan is more intelligent than any human. His name, Lucifer, means great shining light or son of the morning.
A portrait of Satan and his personality are given by Eze. 28:11-19 and Isa. 14:12-17.
- The Five I Will’s of Satan Are from Isa. 14:12-17 ————————————————-
“I will ascend into heaven”, a reference to the throne room of God. Satan wanted to take over God’s place.
“I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” Satan wanted to rule angels.
Rev. 12:3, 4
“I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.” Satan wanted to rule over the earth.
“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.” Or, “I will be supreme.” He desired to displace God as the sovereign of the universe.
“I will be like the most High.” Satan’s power lust; “I will be God.”
Satan is called the father of lies and a murderer, John 8:44. He is the highest authority in the cosmos, Eph. 2:2. Even Michael the archangel is no match for Satan, Daniel 10:3.
Satan’s Three Falls
Satan fell first at the point of negative volition toward the sovereignty of God, during the five I will’s; Isa. 14:12-17; Eze. 28:15.
Satan’s second fall will occur at the middle of the tribulation when he is denied access to heaven. Rev. 12:9; Eze. 28:15.
At the end of the millennial reign of Christ, Satan will be cast into the lake of fire. This will be his final fall. Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20:10; Eze. 28:18.
Satan is the ruler of this world
Luke 4:5-7
John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11
2 Cor. 4:4
Eph. 2:2
As the ruler of this world, Satan has a strategy regarding the nations. Satan’s desire is to neutralize the divine institutions by means of the destruction of nations. Therefore, Satan is anti nationalistic and pro United Nations, pro World Council of Churches and pro Communist.
Rev. 12:9; 20:3, 8
Bible truth is Satan’s greatest enemy and is the source of the most powerful attack on his kosmos. Therefore, Satan has designed revolution to neutralize nationalism which is protective of the word of God.
Satan’s Strategy with Unbelievers
Every human being is born spiritually dead, hence is born as a member of the kingdom of Satan. Satan has a strategy regarding every person to keep that person from accepting Jesus Christ as savior. He tries to blind unbelievers to the gospel.
2 Cor. 4:3, 4
Luke 8:12
2 Thess. 2:9, 10
The unbeliever is made blind to gospel information by being distracted by Satan and by exercising negative volition toward the word of God. Satan does not force anyone to be lost, he uses every means to steer the unbeliever away from the truth. His ultimate weapons in this are religion and humanism. He tries to promote the glorification and deification of mankind while downgrading God Himself. Gen. 3:5; Col. 2:8
Satan’s Strategy with Believers
Satan does not give up when a person accepts Christ as saviour. He has a strategy regarding believers which is very subtle and far-reaching.
Satan accuses believers before God. The sins of the Christian are observed by the fallen angels and reported. In effect, a dossier is being kept on each believer. He does this to try to hinder the work of God on earth. However, 1 John 2:1ff points out that Jesus Christ is our advocate with the Father; and the Lord reminds the Father of what happened at the cross and makes note of the believer’s faith and position in Christ.
Rev. 12:9, 10
Zech. 3:1, 2
Job 1:6-11
2 Cor. 2:11
Satan tries to keep the believer from the word of God. He encourages Christians to ignore the word and accept false teaching so that they will revert to their former manner of life.
1 Tim. 4:1
1 Cor. 10:19-21
2 Cor. 11:3, 13-15
Satan distracts by trying to keep believers from public assembly worship, Heb. 10:25. He tempts the believer with an improper emphasis on details of life such as money, success, social life, pleasure, loved ones, health, sex, materialistic things or status symbols. The mature believer knows that his happiness is not derived from these things, so he is not a slave to them. The novice Christian, however, may try to gain happiness from such things, and this will distract him from the word of God.
False teaching is a part of Satan’s strategy. The following are some of the characteristics of false teachers:
• They have a false facade. Matt. 7:15; Rom. 16:18.
• They court believers. Gal. 4:17, 18; 2 Tim. 3:5, 7.
• They appeal to human pride. 2 Cor. 10:12
• They promote idolatry because it is a quick way to demon influence. Hab. 2:18, 19
• They promote legalism. 1 Tim. 1:7, 8
• The false teachers will continue to operate throughout Satan’s rule on earth. 1 John 4:1
Satan seeks to frustrate the will of God for the believer. There are three categories of the will of God which Satan tries to interdict.
• The operational will of God or what God wants us to do.; James 4:7, 8; Gal. 5:7.
• The mental or intellectual will of God or what God wants us to think.: 1 Tim. 4:1.
• The geographical will of God or where God wants us to be.:, 1 Thess. 2:18.
Satan encourages believers to worry. Worry neutralizes the soul of the believer. He tries to frighten Christians with regard to physical death.
1 Peter 5:7-9
Heb. 2:14, 15
Satan attempts to change the focus of the believer. Instead of occupation with Christ, Satan wants the Christian to be occupied with:
Self, (Col. 3:1; 1 Cor. 1:10, 11; Gen. 3:4, 5; Matt. 26:31–35)
Things, (Heb. 13:5, 6; 1 Cor. 1:10), and
People,(Jer. 17:5; 1 Kings 19:10).
One of the functions of the faith rest principle is to protect the Christian in the area of having a proper focus on life.
Emotionalism can lead to great distractions for Christians; so Satan puts on a big campaign to control people’s emotions. While the emotion is a bona fide function of the soul, whenever emotion takes precedence over Bible truth, it leads to distraction. Those who dabble in ecstatic experiences, public or private, are allowing their feelings and emotions to outweigh doctrine. Under circumstances of edification and spiritual growth, emotion is a tremendous generator of happiness. But emotion has no spiritual meaning or connotation; and emotion cannot be used as a criterion of spiritual condition.
Satan also promotes heavily in the area of mental attitude sins such as fear, worry, bitterness, desires for revenge, pride, guilt feelings, lack of love, failure to forgive, hatred, mental adultery and so forth. A believer is neutralized by sin; and mental attitude sins are behind all sin. They are the worst category because they are so devastating. As long as mental attitude sin is taking place, the word of God is being ignored.
One of Satan’s main weapons is religion. The basic aim of religion is to counterfeit what God is doing. There are several religious counterfeits mentioned in the Bible.
• A counterfeit gospel, 2 Cor. 11:3, 4
• Counterfeit ministers who are unsaved, humanists, etc., 2 Cor. 11:13-15
• Counterfeit communion table, 1 Cor. 10:19-21
• Counterfeit righteousness, Matt. 19:16-19
• Counterfeit manner of life like living the beautiful life, Matt. 23
• Counterfeit power, 2 Thess. 2:8-10
• Counterfeit gods, 2 Thess. 2:3, 4
The Bible talks about the armor of God as enabling the believer to stand against the wiles of the devil. This armor is protection for us while we live in kosmos diabolikos, and the weapons of our warfare are stronger than Satan as we take our stand in the Lord Jesus Christ.