Many people would describe Satan in different ways and he has many names. He is the Devil, Lucifer, the evil one, and the dark one. He represents everything that God is not. He represents pure evil, something to fear, something to hate, something to blame, and something that will be destroyed and suffer for all eternity for its inherent evil. Now some of this is true and some is not so true. Let’s see who he is and how he fits into God’s Plan.

Origin

Satan was not always called Satan. He was Lucifer the “Son of the Morning” or “Day Star” (Isa. 14:12). The name Lucifer means Light Bringer, or Shining Star of the Dawn. He was a covering Cherub, and he, along with the rest of the angelic Host, was created perfect in all of his ways, full of wisdom and beauty (Ezek. 28:12-15). See the papers The Family of God (No. CB4) and In the Beginning (No. CB5) . He continued this way while he obeyed all of God’s Laws.

Ezekiel 28:12-15 "Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD: "You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, carnelian, topaz, and jasper, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald; and wrought in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 With an anointed guardian cherub I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.” (RSV)

As we see from the above text, Lucifer was perfect until iniquity, or disobedience, was found in him. Because Lucifer chose to rebel, his name was changed to Satan, which means the adversary, or accuser of the brethren. (1Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12:10; Zech. 3:1). Once Satan chose not to follow God’s Laws, his mindset changed and he began to rebel against God and enlist other spirit beings in his plan. We will learn more about his evil plot to take over God’s throne.

The Fall / Rebellion in Heaven

Ezekiel shows us iniquity was found in Satan. Isaiah describes this iniquity as Satan believing he could take over God’s position. Satan did not obey God’s Plan and thought he could do it better.

Isaiah 14:12-15 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! ¹³You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north; ¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.' ¹⁵But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit. (RSV)

Satan was able to convince a third of the angels to join him in his rebellion. (Rev 12:4).

Revelation 12:4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth;

From Revelation 12 we see that war in heaven breaks out. Michael and the angels fight Satan the dragon and a third of the angels who have been deceived by Satan. Satan is eventually thrown down to the Earth.

Revelation 12:7-10 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, ⁸but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ⁹And 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. ¹⁰And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (RSV)

God and His plan are perfect. He knew from the beginning Lucifer would try to take over His throne, yet God in His infinite wisdom knew His perfect plan would be carried out all at the right time.

The loyal elohim (or angels) refashioned the earth to make it habitable for the next phase of His creation of mankind. The story of Adam and Eve is well known by many religions. Just like the spiritual creation, Adam and Eve were created perfectly. They remained in a state of perfection as long as they obeyed God’s Laws. Satan as we know tempted or tricked Eve and thereby Adam into believing God was lying to them by not allowing Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.

Satan weakened the nations as Adam was cast out of the Garden because of their disobedience to God by Satan's influence. Imagine how strong the nations would have been if Adam and Eve’s children had been brought up in the safety and sanctity of the Garden of Eden.

Through time, Satan continually tries to disrupt God’s overall plan. Satan tried to prove to his Father, God, that he was right and that the new physical creation is not the right plan of action. When we read the Book of Job, we see that Satan, and all the sons of God (Job 1:7; 2:1-4) present themselves to God. Satan tries to show that man, when he is not blessed by God, will deny God for the sake of being alive and comfortable. God knew Job’s heart, and although he allowed Satan to destroy all that Job physically had (his family, his home, and his health), Job was eventually blessed. This time Satan was proved wrong, and we all know it; the other sons of God and everyone who reads the Bible know it. When it was over, Job was blessed even more than he was before (Job 1 and 2). Not once did he deny God or say awful things about God despite the terrible things that happened to him. See the paper The Story of Job (No. CB54).

Satan’s position and goals

Satan has been given a period of time to rule the earth.

2Corinthians 4:4 - In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. (RSV)

Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, [ye] heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

1John 5:19 - We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one.

Just as Satan tricked Eve and tempted Job, Satan tries to do the same to the rest of us. His whole purpose is to try to deceive the entire world of God's perfect plan. Satan is against anything that is good or holy or of God. He is trying to prevent mankind from becoming spiritual sons of God.

1Peter 5:8 Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (RSV)

He is the father of lies. We should be careful because at times a lie is also mixing a bit of truth with a lie or withholding all the correct information.

John 8:44 - You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (RSV)

Satan is the prince of the power of the air and works very hard to get us to disobey God’s Law. Satan can even disguise himself as an angel of light.

Ephesians 2:2 - in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.(RSV)

2Corinthians 11:14 - And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.(RSV)

We see from Matthew that Satan even tried to deceive and tempt Jesus Christ.

Matthew 4:1-11 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. ³And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." 4But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" ⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will give his angels charge of you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" ⁷Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" ⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; ⁹and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." ¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! for it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" ¹¹Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. (RSV)

Each time Satan tried to tempt or trick Christ, Jesus the Christ used scripture to confront Satan. Our best defense against Satan’s influence is to stay close to God and His way of life. (See the paper Lesson: The Battle of Christ and Satan (No. CB81).

If Satan tempted and tried to trick Christ on the mountain (Mk. 1:13), don’t we think he would try to do the same thing to us? He wants to make us think differently from God, and if that happens we will not be close to God. Satan will use many methods to try and make us think thoughts that God would not like us to think.

Mark 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

2Thessalonians 2:9 [Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

He would have us believing in witchcraft, evolution and miracles that aren’t of God – anything to confuse us.

2Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Satan is very deceptive, making good seem bad. There are many churches and belief systems that seem good because they speak about being good to each other but are they of God? God says that we are to know Him and know that Christ is His Son and that to show we love Him we have to keep His Commandments.

John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (RSV)

That is the church we have to look for: the one that keeps not only the last six Commandments, that tell us how to love our neighbour, but also the first four that tell us to love our God. Satan has confused the world so much that it is hard to find any faith that understands these things.

Do not feel lost or afraid as we have a legion, or an army of angels who are not deceived and are spiritually at our defence when we need them. An angel is a messenger of God, so it is anyone who brings a message from God to us, like a very special postman who brings us a letter from God. Christ was a very special angel, a very special Son of God with a very special message. The honour given to him was greater than any honour given to any angel because unlike Satan he trusted God’s judgement. For that reason he is now on the right hand of God and all of the angelic realm as well as us give him honour. See the paper The Angelic Host (No. CB28).

Revelation 5:12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

How does Satan influence us?

Satan as a spirit being is not something we can see but is something we can sense from our understanding of the Bible. The Bible was given as the word of God; Jesus Christ was given to us as a living example of the word of God. Only from reading the Bible can we understand what is right and wrong, what is a Godly or righteous thought and belief, and what is of Satan. It is not something that we are just born knowing. So many of us make bad choices because we don’t read and follow God’s word. See the papers What is Sin? (No. CB26) and Satan’s Days of Worship (No. CB23).

Satan is spiritual and he influences us spiritually. One way of imagining spiritual is like imagining a thought. It is not written down; it is not something we can see or hear, touch, taste or smell. God is a bit like that and so are all the angels and so is Satan.

Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

This Scripture is describing how Satan influences us. He is the prince and power of the air. He tries to affect how we think. He succeeds when we are not obeying God.

God does not want to make us part of His family unless we choose to be part of His family. He wants us to want to be part of his family. He wants us to want to worship Him. If we can do that with Satan influencing us the best he can, then indeed we will be solid, happy, worthy members of God’s family. The people who can do that get baptised and eventually become part of the First Resurrection, or if they are alive at the time of Christ’s return they will be transformed to spirit. If they are not yet baptised at the time of Christ’s return they will go into the Millennium as physical kings and priests. Like Job, we will be blessed and honoured even more when we can come through the other end without being deceived.

Any thought that is not what God would want us to think comes from Satan. That is why Christ called Peter “Satan” in Matthew 16:23.

Matthew 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Peter was not really Satan; he was representing Satan or being like Satan when he said things that were not what God would want him to say. Satan’s thoughts are not God’s thoughts. If we think Satan’s thoughts we are like Satan. If we think God’s thoughts we are like God, or another way of saying it is, we are “at one” with God.

Luke 22:31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired [to have] you, that he may sift [you] as wheat:

Satan does not want us to be sure in our faith and obedience, worshiping God and living by His Laws. God’s Laws are there for our benefit and our good. By us keeping them as a group our society can work in harmony. If we acknowledge that and work as a group we can be protected from Satan. If he sifts us like wheat we are scattered alone. By not keeping God’s Laws we are of no influence to the world, or each other, and of no use to God. By making us unsure of each other and of what we are to do and who God is, Satan wins.

Good versus evil?

Good comes from God. When people called Christ “good” he said, “No! Call no man good; only God is good”.

Matthew 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

What he was saying is that we are not good of and by ourselves. Even Christ himself is not good of and by himself. Everything good about him came from understanding what God wanted of him, i.e. to keep the Commandments. He was good because he kept God’s Laws; he was good because he understood God’s will and shared it with others. His goodness did not come from him; it came from God.

We can follow the example of Christ and honour God by acknowledging that all things come from Him and all glory should go to Him, and by keeping God’s Commandments. It does not mean that we are inherently good, or another way of saying it is that we do not have goodness naturally within us; it is just that we are doing good things. Only God has goodness within Him; we need to do as He says if we want to be good.

Satan wants us to ignore and not listen to God and believe that like him, we can exist without God quite well, thank you very much. We don’t need Him to run a safe and happy society. That is why he says to God, “Give me Job and he will deny you if I take away all the things you have blessed him with”.

Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

Satan is saying that man can only think of life as being important and not God. It is true that without God we have nothing other than to try and stay alive and do well in our own achievements, even if our life is not a happy one. That is why the story of Job is so important as an encouragement to us that no matter how bad we feel it might be, it is not God’s will that it be so. Never deny God by saying bad things or ignoring Him, as the end result is better than the present if we can hold fast or keep honouring God as our Father. God has our best future as His ultimate goal.

Remember that Satan does not believe in God’s Plan for us, but Christ does. That is why Christ became the sacrifice. Satan would not do it, as he does not think we should be part of the plan at all. Christ, as a spirit being and as a human, was able to tie both the spiritual Host and us humans (the physical host) to God. All of us (spiritual and physical), i.e. those who don’t understand God yet and those who do, are now able to be part of God’s family if we choose to be. That is why Christ’s sacrifice is so important. Christ is supporting God in every way he can and Satan is trying to do the opposite.

Plan of God

Christ is going to come back, not just as a priest like last time, but also as a king. He will finally fulfil his role as king. It is then that the whole world will be forced to keep God’s Laws to prove that it is a better way to live (Zech. 14:16-21). This cannot happen until the Earth has been almost destroyed by neglect. That is why we have wars, terrible diseases, acid rain etc. etc. etc. None of these things would have happened if we had kept the Commandments to love God and our neighbour, which include laws that protect the environment and its people. It has to be obvious to the whole world we couldn’t have done it without Him.

Then we do it God’s way for one thousand years, a millennium, and it is good! Everyone forgets what it was like before. Everyone is kind and gentle; everyone keeps the Laws of God in love and joy.

Revelation 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

Satan is bound and cannot influence anyone’s thinking for the thousand years. Then he is let loose again (Rev. 20:7) at the end of the thousand years so the people of the Millennium realise that they too can fail; they are weak without God. There is another big war against God at the end of the Millennium as Satan influences people once again as he does us now. See the paper God’s Holy Days (No. CB22).

However, people who make poor choices and deny God are not lost forever. God has great mercy and they are resurrected and taught during the 100 years of the Great White Throne Judgement. Everyone gets a second chance if they did not succeed the first time! If they again fail to choose to worship God, obeying Him, then the punishment is the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8) which is the final cremation, the grave, the second death, i.e. they are dead forever, they will not hear, they will not see, they will not feel. They will never be resurrected to life, either physical or spiritual life. The fact that it is God’s will that all men be saved indicates that perhaps no one ends up dead forever. See the paper What Happens When We Die? (No. CB29).

1Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

God’s Plan is perfect; God is omnipotent and that means He knows all things and can do all things. His Plan is that all men love Him, worship Him and become part of His family.

Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, [and] to turn [them] from darkness to light, and [from] the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Satan is put into the pit and those that see him will be amazed that he was the man that caused such problems and sadness.

Isaiah 14:15-17 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit. ¹⁶Those who see you will stare at you, and ponder over you: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, ¹⁷who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?' (RSV)

Suddenly he is not the scary spiritual monster that he would have us believe he is. He is a deceived and punished creation of God who is being taught to acknowledge God for the power that He is.

Revelation 12:10 - And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Even Satan also realises that God was right all along. This word “devil” means the accuser. Satan stops accusing, he is no longer the Devil. He no longer needs to accuse the brethren, as he has been proved wrong. The accusations are finished but they will always be there as a reminder. What a punishment for Satan! His accusations are never forgotten. He will be remembered forever as having dishonoured God, and for deceiving the world. What a torment for him when he realises his mistake. Our forgiveness is important to his rehabilitation and well-being.

Finally, everyone understands and Christ as King and High Priest unites the whole world and presents it to God. It is when this happens that the war of good and evil is over. Satan’s influence is gone. Death is gone. False churches and false prophet and false prophecy are gone. It is finished; all who ever lived understand the Plan of God and are part of His family. They all acknowledge that He knew best, He knows best and will always know best.

To keep free of Satan’s influence

We are in a war (2Cor. 10:1-6) and we need to put on the armour of God (Eph. 6:10-20). We need the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, boots of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Be prepared by reading the Bible, praying and fasting. See the papers Lesson on Prayer Part A Teacher’s Guide (No. CB31) and Introduction to the Armour of Eloah (No. CB123).

Spend time together as the Body of Christ. It is a punishment to be put outside of it (1Tim. 1:20). Have hope in the future and look to the unseen rather than the seen (2Cor. 4:16-18).

Summary

Satan is only given a short time to influence the world as he was only given a short time to influence Job. However, we must be always alert as Satan prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. We must resist him and stand firm in the faith (1Pet. 5:8).

In the end, the world (like Job) does not deny God, despite Satan saying we will. Satan is proved wrong, time and time again.

God is finally all in all and harmony, peace and balance are restored to an extended family of God. The Sons of God (angels) know their limitations without God through the creation of Adamic man, and Adamic man knows its limitations without God through the existence of the angels. Without the experience of the other neither would have understood that their own happiness is dependent on the direction of God. That is the Plan of God and that is why Satan is allowed to run his course. God is in control. He has a Plan. It is perfect. It will be fulfilled. Have no fear.