Satan Exposed – Part 2

Hal Lindsey was a New York Times best selling author back in the 1970s and 1980s.  Most of his books centered around eschatological (end time) prophecies in the Bible regarding the rapture (catching away) of the church and the coming great tribulation (Matthew 24:21) that will usher in the end of the world, and the second coming of Jesus Christ in judgement of the world.  One of Lindsey’s bestselling books in the early 1970s was titled Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth.  The book addressed what Lindsey saw as the increasing activity of Satan/the devil in the 20^th century, focusing on the rise in popularity of Eastern and New Age religions, astrology, spiritualism and the occult. It further addressed how he saw this as a sign of the end times and how we, particularly Christians, are to battle this very real enemy.

Now there is no doubt, at least as the Bible is concerned, that Satan is a very real enemy of both God and the image bearers of God – the human race.  He is revealed as a supernatural spiritual being who operates out of the spiritual dimension in what the Bible refers to in Galatians 1:4 as this present evil world.   Scripture clearly recognizes him as the one behind false religions (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) and condemns the various forms of the occult (Deuteronomy 18:9-12) as being demon inspired (1 Timothy 4:1).  However, Satan’s activities transcend these spiritual ruses as he has a much more insidious and destructive agenda for the world, a world the Bible tells us he presently has great influence over (1 John 5:19) (Revelation 12:9), where he is even referred to by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4 as the god of this world, who has blinded the unbelieving world to the glory of the one true God as it is revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Satan’s motivation and ultimate objective in all that he and his demon hordes do in this world appears to be the ruin and subjection of mankind to himself (1 Peter 5:8) (2 Timothy 2:24-26), obtaining for himself the worship from men that only God deserves (Matthew 4:8-10).       

Now in our present modern, scientifically “enlightened” society, we reject the idea of the supernatural, especially the idea of a real, personal supernatural malevolent being who exercises significant influence on the world and our individual lives.  Such a reality is considered nonsense, inconceivable, even comical – the ultimate conspiracy theory that could only come from the imaginations of simple-minded religious zealots, or those given over to superstition and fantasy.   To most, Satan or the devil as he is most commonly known, is seen as nothing more than a myth originated in mid-evil literature, or a symbol of or metaphor for great evil, or a cartoon character with horns, a tail, cloven hoofs, and a bad mustache, carrying around a pitchfork with a sinister smile on his face, who has inspired many Halloween costumes throughout the years.

It is mankind’s willful ignorance of the devil as a malignant reality to be reckoned with at the deepest level of our soul that makes him and his demons so effective in this world, because as unseen spiritual beings they are able to promote their evil agenda without much resistance from us.  Thus the Bible warns us as Christians not to be ignorant either of the devil’s existence or of how he is working his evil schemes in this world and in our lives (2 Corinthians 2:11).  Thus to be sufficiently informed of both, we need to go back again to the beginning, even before the creation of the world, when God created spiritual beings the Bible refers to as angels (Psalm 104:4).

The fact of their creation is brought out in Psalm 148:1-2.  While the Bible does not reveal to us exactly when God created the angels, it does tell us that they were created before He made  the earth on the third day of God’s six days of creation (Job 38:4-7).  Thus, they would have been created good, holy, perfectly fit for God’s purpose in creating them (Genesis 1:31).

The agent of their creation is specifically stated to be God the Son, Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3) (Colossians 1:16).   They were created as a fixed number, however that number appears to be so great that they are described as innumerable, and in one place as 1000s x10,000 (Revelation 5:11). As pure spiritual beings they do not reproduce like humans, nor are they subject to physical death (Luke 20:34-36). They can and have, according to God’s purposes, taken on physical appearance in their communications or interactions with men (Matthew 28:1-5).

As a separate order of creatures, they are distinct from human beings, with knowledge and powers far beyond man’s abilities in this present age (Heb. 2:5-7) (2 Peter 2:11). But as creatures they are limited by God in their powers and activities (1 Peter 3:22) (Rev. 7:1-3).

The Bible reveals that angels were created for the purpose of serving and worshiping God and blessing and benefitting mankind under God’s sovereign rule (Psalm 103:20-21) (Psalm 91:11) (Hebrews 1:13-14).  The Bible presents them as intelligent, moral, volitional (having a will) beings, and thus like man they are to submit to God’s sovereign rule and authority and are subject to His justice and judgment (1 Corinthians 6:3) (2 Peter 2:4).

Angels, like men, have emotions as the Bible tells us in Job 38:4-7 that they rejoiced and sang with God when the earth was created.  Luke 15:1-10 seems to indicate that they celebrate – party with God and all of redeemed mankind presently in Heaven when someone repents and is saved on earth. 1 Peter 1:12 appears to indicate that they have a sense of curiosity and wonder regarding how God can possibly save people who live in constant rebellion against Him.

So how does the one we call Satan or the devil fit into all this?   It appears from what is revealed in scripture that he is also an angel, but not just any angel. He was likely created as the most glorious and powerful of all angels, referred to in Isaiah 14:12 as Lucifer, or the Day Star,  the angel whom God created to most intensely reflect or display in his being/appearance the beauty and glory of God (Ezekiel 28:11-14).

It appears that he was the chief angel – essentially the angel in charge of all of the other angels in their service to God and man.  However, being lifted up in pride in His own beauty and power and lofty position (Ezekiel 28:15-17), he sought to exalt himself above God and over all of God’s creation (Isaiah 14:13-14).  Jonathan Edwards as well as other commentators suggest that his rebellion, which was joined by possibly a third of the angels, was motivated by his (and their) unwillingness to serve what they saw as a lower creature, i.e. mankind (Psalm 8:5), despite God’s command for them to do so.  Edwards notes that in their pride they likely saw serving humanity as degrading, with Satan seeing it as a “great debasing of him.”

Their rebellion occasioned God’s judgment, which Edwards believes is revealed in Revelation 12:7-9, wherein we are told in verse 9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

 As Hal Lindsey noted in his title, Satan is most certainly “alive” here on planet earth, and continues, for the time being, his destructive ways (Revelation 12:12), which we will look at in my next post. However, as I will address in a future post, I doubt that Satan is all that well, after what our Lord Jesus did to him on the cross (John 12:30-32).

Grace and Peace ×