Answered Scripture

The devil, most think of a little guy in a red suit with horns and a tail, carrying a pitchfork, sitting on your shoulder. Why do we picture him like that? Well, primarily because if we pictured him as he is, we would be more inclined to believe he is real. Picturing him this way makes it seem like he’s more of a cartoon character who can’t do harm to us. Unfortunately, that is one of his many deceptions: getting people to believe he isn’t real.

So, who is the devil/Satan? To figure out who he is, let’s figure out what he was. He was a spirit being that God created, an angel. Angels existed way before man and before God created the earth. How do we know this? In the book of Job, when God was answering Job during his trial, He asked him about things in the beginning and how the angels shouted for joy at His creations (Job 38:4-7).

Lucifer (his name before becoming God’s adversary) was an angel of a higher rank. He was described as “son of the morning” (Isaiah 14). This passage also describes his descent and how he wanted to be above God, in other words, in charge. Satan is derived from the Hebrew word śāṭān, which means adversary or accuser. In Ezekiel 28, he is described as an anointed cherub, and how God established him is that he was on God’s holy mountain walking back and forth (Ezekiel 28:14).

So, what makes a cherub different? Cherubs are shown to be wondrous creatures that accompany and serve God at His seat of power. They hold a high honor and a distinct position in God’s angelic realm (1 Samuel 4:4; 2 Samuel 6:2; 2 Kings 19:15; 1 Chronicles 13:6; Psalm 80:1; Isaiah 37:16).

Ok, so now we know where he came from; the next question is why he is called Satan. His downfall began from his pride in his beauty and splendor, which corrupted his wisdom (Ezekiel 18:17). He made a personal choice to rebel against God, thinking that he could replace Him and do a better job, so to speak. You can find these thoughts in Isaiah 14:13-14 where it states, “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars (which here refers to angels) of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High”.

This attitude is found in the world all over, and he was the one who got it all started. With his deceptive ways, he has convinced many people today to think the same way. We see the power and glory of God being minimized today. With our knowledge as human beings, we tend to bring everything down to our level. Along with this is how we view God.

Satan’s deceptions go far beyond our thinking and believing. He also brought other angels along for the ride. I won’t go into much detail on this; maybe I will go into fallen angels and demons in another blog. But for now, just know that the takeover of heaven didn’t work, and two-thirds of the angels remained loyal to God, meaning one-third sided with Satan (Revelation 12:4). In this passage, as stated above, stars are referred to as angels. Fallen stars are the fallen angels that rebelled with Satan and were removed from heaven, along with him.

So why does he deceive people today? He is trying to prove that he can rule in place of God and be better than God. Deceiving people with all his lies gets us to divert our belief in God to other things. He works in very subtle ways that we don’t even realize until we understand and believe that he exists. He is known as the father of lies (John 8:44). He lied to Eve, stating she wouldn’t die (Genesis 3:4-5). He twists God’s word around to use against Him. Though Eve didn’t die right away, death eventually came, along with a lot of suffering. He has since then influenced human beings to choose the ways of sin and to disobey God.

Suffering comes from that way of life. Satan doesn’t want mankind to reach the “finish line”. He is out to destroy as many as he can. And his ways are not noticeable until it’s too late. There’s a great saying, and I’m not sure where it came from. Still, it describes one of the many ways Satan deceives human beings, it states, “What one generation tolerates, the next generation will accept. What that generation accepts, the next generation will celebrate.” Slowly but surely, he puts into the minds that his way is the best, but this is to destroy as many lives as possible. His main goal is getting people to turn away from God and His righteous ways.

Some examples of his deceptiveness are: 1) Making people believe he doesn’t exist (this is the most cunning one). 2) The invention of Darwin’s theory of evolution convinced people that it was a matter of happenstance instead of having a Creator. 3) People of higher education challenging the validity and accuracy of the bible, and materialist reasoning under the guise of science, not accepting anything that cannot be proven physically. 4) Placing the blame for suffering on God instead of his own doing by convincing people that we don’t have to obey God’s commandments/laws. 5) Creating different religions and beliefs in different gods and convincing them that they all lead to the same God. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Some of this craftiness is yet to come. We know in the last days that there will be an “anti-Christ” that will make it on stage and convince everyone that he is Yehoshua. Yehoshua warned His disciples about this in Matthew 24:4-5. Religion is one of Satan’s primary tools he uses to deceive people, as we saw in number 5 above. Some people are heartfelt in their beliefs, yet their beliefs can contradict other beliefs. How can they be so different if they all lead to the same God? He is a master of confusion, and God is not (1 Corinthians 14:33).

We could cover so much more with this, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with just this blog. Just as this website states, question everything. Seek God and you will find Him and His truth. Don’t be deceived! For further study on this subject, go to https://www.ucg.org/learn/bible-study-aids/there-really-devil and read this excellent booklet that covers so much more than I can in one little blog.