Who is Satan? Who/what is the devil? What does the Bible teach about Satan? - Podcast Episode 116

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Welcome to the Got Questions podcast. We're gonna be continuing our series and discussing angelology and demonology today.

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So if you've not listened to the prior ones we did on what does the Bible say about angels? What does the

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Bible say about demons? We also did one on guardian angels. I'd invite you to check those ones out as well.

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But today we're gonna be discussing the question of who is Satan? And joining me today is

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Jeff, the editor of BibleRef .com, and Kevin, the managing editor of Got Questions Ministries.

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So gentlemen, let's start out with just a little, like a who is

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Satan question seems pretty simple, but at the same time, there are a lot of misconceptions out there.

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We all start by diving into two passages that we receive a lot of questions about in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.

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Most of the questions will even be, have a little antagonistic bent to them and that people, oh, these are not about Satan because Isaiah 14 is actually discussing the king of Babylon.

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Ezekiel 28 is discussing the king of Tyre. When you read these passages, I think they give us a picture of a angelic being that was evidently the power behind these two kings.

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So let me just start by reading these two passages. In Isaiah 14, 12 to 15, I'll be reading from the

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ESV. It says, how are you fallen from heaven? Oh, day star, son of dawn.

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How are you cut to the ground? You who laid the nations low. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God.

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I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

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I will make myself like the most high. To me, this kind of describes a being who wanted to ascend not just to the heavens, but to be actually above God, to be like the most high.

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In Ezekiel 28, it says, you were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

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You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. I'm not gonna bother trying to read the names of all these precious stones, but picture a creature adorned with beautiful stones.

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You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you on the mountain of God.

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In the midst of the stones, you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you.

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So these two passages, again, describe what I believe is Satan, who was the power behind these two kings, the king of Tyre, the king of Babylon.

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And God is describing both the arrogance of the kings, the human kings, but also the power behind them in describing

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Satan was the anointed cherub, the guardian cherub, possibly. Most Bible scholars view

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Satan before his fall as he was the highest of all angels, but Satan was not content in that position.

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He desired more. And ultimately, according to Isaiah 14, he desired to be God rather than to be the highest of all angels, pointing people towards the worship of God.

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But that's kind of the brief intro. And from there, the Bible goes into who Satan is now and so forth.

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I'm gonna start off, and Jeff, maybe cover some of the popular misconceptions that people have about Satan, both from pop culture and even from a poor reading of scripture.

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Pop culture is interesting in that sense. We've talked in our other podcasts about how things we believe in, in a general sense, in a outside the

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Bible, outside of church sense, about things like demons and angels and such is very influenced by pop culture.

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That's one of the reasons that people think of demons as these monsters or creatures that roam around to do physical damage.

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They think of hell as sort of like a city or a country that's the polar opposite of heaven.

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And with Satan, it's interesting because we do have some same things that are misconceptions that are negative.

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We see things where Satan looks like a dragon or this gigantic red creature with horns.

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There's a famous movie with Tom Cruise and Tim Curry in the 80s that has that sort of depiction of Satan. He's huge, muscular, red, big horns, cloven hooves, things like that.

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Scripture actually describes Satan as being able to look like an angel of light. And even in that passage, the purpose is not to describe a literal physical appearance.

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Satan's an angel originally, so he has the same properties that we talked about with angels and demons. He doesn't have any particular native physical form.

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So that kind of misconception kind of gets to us. The idea that Satan is the polar opposite of God or that there's this evenly matched wager or bet or contest between Satan or God.

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The idea that Satan is somehow the king or the mayor of hell, as if hell is a place that he rules or that he is the one in control of.

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In actuality, hell is just as much punishment and torment for Satan and the demons as anyone else.

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The Bible says that's actually what it was created for in the first place. For me, one of the things that's interesting is that pop culture actually provides some things about Satan that are at least useful.

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They're not necessarily perfectly accurate, but they're not without their own value.

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One of the things that we see very often in movies and in books and in stories is the idea of Satan acting as a tempter who convinces somebody to do something that's not really a good idea.

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He gets them to compromise their better judgment or their morals. He tricks them into doing something of their own free will that turns out not to be a good idea.

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Or this idea that a person that somebody trusts, they assume is good, they assume is helping them, who is giving them advice that they like to hear actually turns out to be the devil or at least an agent of the devil.

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A very famous line from a particular film that people have heard is one that we discussed when we talked about the idea of demons.

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And that's the idea that Satan is very good at strategy. So pop culture sort of encapsulated that idea by making a reference to saying that the devil's best accomplishment was convincing people that he didn't exist.

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And that line in that movie fits into the plot and the twist and everything that's in there. But that's actually sort of a biblically harmonized idea that Satan is not this

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Godzilla monster. He's not this creature who's just running around out of control. He's actually this very strategic, tactically minded, intelligent being whose main goal is to fool people.

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He's not really out there just to scare people. And in a culture like ours, where most people don't think he exists, his best strategy is just to keep people going with that, like we see in those movies and those ideas.

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Now, scripture describes Satan as being somebody who is dangerous.

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He is somebody that we need to be careful of. So just because he appears like an angel of light, just because he seems to be somebody who's not a threat does not mean that he's somebody that we can take lightly just because he's not some sort of major monster.

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So pop culture gives us something, but the real meat that we get is from scripture. What makes

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Satan such a dangerous being really has to do with several aspects of his personhood.

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Now, when we say that Satan is a person, we're not saying that he has a physical body, but we are saying that he has elements of personhood.

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He has personality. And so the Bible presents him not as an impersonal force, just an evil force that's existing in the universe, but he's a personal being.

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That is, he has a mind, he has emotions, he has a will, and then of course he's very powerful.

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Scripture presents him as powerful as well. So he's very dangerous.

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He has the power, but he's got this incredible intelligence. He has a will that is set against God's will, and he has a hatred for all that God does, including

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God's creation. He has a hatred for us. He has a hatred for everything that God has done.

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And you meld those four things together, intelligence, malice, power, and a commitment to oppose

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God. And you've got an adversary that, frankly, we need help with.

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We need to help to fight him. Some things in life are just too powerful for us.

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A lion, for example. And it's interesting that the scripture uses the lion as a metaphor for some of Satan's actions in this world.

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And his nature, 1 Peter 5, verse eight, be alert and of sober mind.

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Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking for someone to devour.

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So you've got a hungry, roaring lion on the loose. And that's not something that I wanna tangle with.

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If I met a roaring, hungry lion on the loose, then

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I would probably be calling somebody for help because I would not wanna take this animal on by myself.

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So who am I gonna call? Well, I want the one person who can defeat this spiritual lion.

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We have a picture of Samson in scripture of defeating a physical lion, but I want the one who is more powerful than Samson.

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I want the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has all power and who has promised to help his children.

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Another example of something that's just too powerful for us to take on by ourselves would be

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Leviathan. And this particular creature is mentioned in Job chapter 41.

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In fact, God spends the whole chapter there describing this great creature and asks some rhetorical questions of Job.

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Can you tame Leviathan? Can you put a leash on him and make a pet of him?

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You gonna take him home and give him to your daughters? No, the answer is.

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In fact, then God says, if you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again.

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Any hope of subduing it is false. The mere sight of it is overpowering.

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No one is fierce enough to rouse it. A little bit later on, God says this, nothing on earth is

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Leviathan's equal. A creature without fear. It looks down on all that are haughty. It is a king over all that are proud.

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Now in Job 41, God is not trying to link that to Satan at all.

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But later on in scripture, in the book of Revelation, Satan is called that great dragon, the ancient serpent that deceived the whole world.

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We also have a picture there in Revelation chapter 12 of Michael and his angels fighting against this dragon.

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But even Michael, the archangel, as he is disputing with Satan in the book of Jude, he dares not condemn him, but says the

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Lord rebuke you. So if Michael, the archangel needs help in his fight against Satan, how much more do we need help?

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Michael called on the Lord to come to his aid and so should we. We need to take this spiritual battle against our enemy, the devil.

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We need to take our battle to the Lord and say, Lord, I need your help.

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You are the only one who can defeat this dragon, this lion.

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Satan is more powerful than we are. He's smarter than we are. He's got a stronger will than we have.

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And we need help in defeating him and thwarting his plan in our lives.

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That one who rescues us is the Lord Jesus Christ. I look at the passage in Jude as well.

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If Michael, who presumably is now the most powerful of all angels, he's the only one referred to in the

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Bible as an archangel, if even he calls on the

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Lord to rebuke Satan, whenever I hear of those involved and whether it's the deliverance ministry or just spiritual warfare in general, rebuking

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Satan and doing so in their own presumed power, that's, it's very dangerous.

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I mean, we're talking about potentially other than God, the most powerful being in the universe.

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So relying on our own strength to do that is foolish to say the least.

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And then when I look at a passage like in John 10, where it describes the thief and Jesus says, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

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And contrasting that with himself, I've come that they may have life and have it to the full. Look at Satan, his goals are to steal, to steal everything we have in Christ, to make us ineffective, to kill, to, if possible, literally destroy our lives.

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It's a reminder that his temptations, while they may seem,

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I guess, a temptation that's tempting, in the end,

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Satan's goal is to destroy us. Nothing he does is for our best interest.

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And that's very, very important for us to remember. Spiritual warfare, whether it's with Satan or with his host of demons, we are to rely on God's strength, the one who can overcome.

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1 John talks about, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. So our strength in fighting

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Satan, fighting his demons, it comes from the Lord, not from within ourselves.

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Yes, in the name of Christ, we do have the authority to rebuke, but it has to be done in the name and the power of Christ, not of our own strength.

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And that's very, very important for us to remember. And that's, based on the questions we receive, that's an error

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I see a lot of people making and thinking that they themselves can rebuke

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Satan, can overcome him on their own strength. But no, we can, but only in the strength and with the help of the

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Lord. And we have to remember that. Yeah, that context is really important, that in passages,

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James 4, 7 talks about resisting the devil and he will flee from you. All those passages, what they're really presenting is that context, that a person who has

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Christ within them, who has God on their side, can rely on God's power.

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And our role is not to try to do something like a superhero or cast some spell or take it on ourselves to think that we can get into a fistfight with Satan.

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What we really need to do is recognize that when it's just our power versus his power, that's not even a contest.

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There's no way in any sense that that's going to work. There's even passages of the

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Bible that talk about how silly it is for people to blaspheme some of these creatures in the sense of speaking about them with a sneering attitude or a disrespect, like there's something that you can just slap around.

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This is something that we should take seriously. We can resist, we can hold up against these elements of spiritual warfare, but we can't do that if we're assuming that we're doing that through our own ability and our own power.

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We have to do that with the assumption that in so far as I rely on God's power,

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Christ's power in me, I can resist these things. The Bible gives us some helpful tips in our spiritual battle.

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Gives us some commands as we go through this world and we face the tempter, we face the evil one, this one who is seeking someone to devour.

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Well, 1 Peter 5, verse 8, which I've already read just a minute ago, but that gives us the instruction to be sober -minded and watchful or vigilant.

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So we need to take this seriously. We are in a spiritual battle and we need to be watchful and vigilant for the tactics of Satan.

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James 4, verse 7, you guys have already mentioned this as well, but this is the passage that says resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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But the first part of that verse, the command that comes right before resist the devil is submit yourselves to God.

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And that's very important. As we submit to God's power, we submit to God's will, we're following his word, we're obeying him.

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And in that context, we are resisting the devil. And then we have the promise that he will flee.

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A committed believer who is walking in fellowship with the Lord is going to have overcoming power over you.

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Over Satan's temptations. And then of course, Ephesians chapter six, we are given by God's grace, the armor of God, wherewith we can take our stand against the devil.

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And if I could just read verses 10 down to verse 18 here, this whole context that helps us to have the equipment that we need in our spiritual battles.

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Verse 10 says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

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Put on the full armor of God that you can take, so that you can take your stand against the devil schemes.

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For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

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Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.

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And after you've done everything to stand, stand firm then with a belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

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In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

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Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

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So this resistance that we have against the devil is firm and steadfast.

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It's presented as items of defensive protection that we have.

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We're given one offensive weapon, as is often pointed out. We are given the sword of the spirit.

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That is our one offensive weapon. If we're trying to take the offense against the devil with anything other than the sword of the spirit, the word of God, then we're setting ourselves up for failure.

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So in response, taking these passages together, in response to Satan's attacks, we are to submit to God, that is we obey him.

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We take up our spiritual armor that God has given us, the righteousness and the truth and the gospel and all the rest, and we rely on God's power through prayer.

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And I love how in Ephesians 6, we have over and over a command to stand firm.

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I think I counted four of them. Take your stand, in verse 11, stand your ground, verse 13, stand, in verse 13, stand firm, in verse 14.

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So we are not to run from the battle. We are to submit to God, put on the armor, pray in the spirit and stand, stand firm.

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We have that sword of the spirit. We have the promises of God. We have the help of our savior, our redeemer, the

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Lord Jesus Christ as well. And so the battle is the Lord's. It's interesting that you bring up that passage.

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Melissa is currently at a vacation Bible school doing a lesson on the sword of the spirit. So we're talking about this a lot the past couple of days.

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Well, I remember several years ago when I did something similar at a church and with the big group of kids, my friend of mine has a real sword.

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I think it's a replica of Excalibur, what doesn't really matter, but just like pulling out the sword from the sheath with making that metal on metal sound and like seeing the kid's eyes.

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And my point was, what do you want to use as your offensive weapon? If it's anything short of the word of God is going to be completely ineffective.

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And of course, the perfect scriptural illustration of this is when the devil tempted Jesus, according to Matthew chapter four, and each time with each temptation,

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Jesus responded with scripture, showing us him using the sword of the spirit. And this is a full armor of God is a powerful reminder to us as to what's our defense and what's our offense.

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And we often get those things mixed up. And again, back to the point earlier, if we're using the word of God, we're relying on the power of God rather than ourselves.

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And so that's a hugely powerful reminder. And then Jeff, you brought up two points earlier.

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I just wanted to touch on briefly. First is the whole idea of like a dualism.

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I see a lot of people asking us questions who have this mistaken idea that God and Satan are somehow equals, that God is good and Satan is evil, and they're constantly battling, trying to get the upper hand.

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It's like, that's not what scripture says. There's the famous song by Hillsong called,

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What a Beautiful Name. And one of the lyrics in that, it says, you have no rival, referring to God, and you have no equal.

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Well, it's only half true because God does have a rival. Satan is definitely a rival in the sense that he's combating with God.

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God does not have an equal. Satan is in no sense an equal. He does not have omniscience, does not have omnipotence, does not have omnipresence, does not have any of the attributes that make

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God who he is. Satan is a finite being, a very powerful being, but a finite being.

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So let's not get into this yin -yang type of concept where there's two equal forces battling it out.

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No, God is in control. Nothing Satan can do can prevent

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God from accomplishing his purposes. I think that's a very powerful reminder.

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And then even, Jeff, you mentioned also the idea that Satan is somehow the master of hell.

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See so many pictures where Satan is like sitting on the throne of hell or Satan is torturing people.

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I even remember some like Bugs Bunny cartoons from when I was a kid that picture this as Satan is somehow the ruler of hell.

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Well, Revelation chapter 20, verse 10, sorry, says, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire where the beast and false prophet had been thrown.

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They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Satan is not the torturer in hell.

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Satan is not the one doing the punishment. No, Satan will be punished just as everyone else who is in hell.

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And perhaps due to Satan's lofty position, possibly knew

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God better than any other being in all of creation and yet still rebelled,

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Satan's punishment is probably worse. So let's also remember Satan is not the Lord of hell. Satan is not in some exalted position in hell.

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No, Satan will be tormented for his rebellion against God along with everyone else.

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And that's two important reminders for who Satan is and who he is not. That to me is something that's always been curious.

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It's good to remember to avoid those non -biblical attitudes because they do lead us into the wrong directions.

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We can have that dualism attitude and think that just because we say in Jesus' name that that's a magic spell and we get it, we can think that just because we say not today,

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Satan, that means that that somehow means something. But we also don't wanna be in that mode of saying the devil made me do it, where we try to pretend like we're just so helpless against him that we can't do anything.

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Where scripture does leave things open that is interesting are questions like that. For me,

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I recognize that there are aspects of reality, of creation, of God's nature and the nature of spiritual things that he just does not need to fully explain to me, either because I couldn't understand them or because they're just not that relevant.

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I find myself intensely curious about that question that you raised, which is if Satan has, at least intellectually, more knowledge, better understanding of God than we could, what's the angle?

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Why is he doing what he's doing? Now, my human mind can think of some reasons that even if he knew for a fact he would fail, that he would still do that, pure spite or whatever else.

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But those things are curious and they're interesting, but I don't wanna go down a rabbit trail with those and start making assumptions that lead me into unbiblical ideas.

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What I accept is what scripture actually tells me. And I'll trust that when the time comes, I'll know what I need to know about that.

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And even then, that might be nothing. But I know that the power that I have to resist

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Satan's temptation comes through Christ. And that when I don't take advantage of that, that's not

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God's fault and that's not even really Satan's fault. That's my fault and that's how I have to approach it. Yeah, exactly.

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So this has been a great conversation. Whenever answering a question or writing an article, anything related to Satan and demons,

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I always spend some time in prayer because I recognize the reality of the spiritual battle. And Satan doesn't want the truth about who he is and what he can and can't do out there.

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So please hear our main encouragement in this is to have a biblical viewpoint of who

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Satan is. Study the scriptures on what Satan's agenda is and how to combat that.

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It doesn't do us any good to buy into fabrications or falsehoods from popular culture or from other religions or cults who have a different view of who

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Satan is. But let's draw our understanding of who he is from scripture and focus on that to combat him the right way.

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Using the full armor of God. But to remember ultimately that God is in control and as powerful as Satan is, he is nothing in comparison to God.

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Maybe in closing, I get people who ask questions of, should I pray silently so that Satan can't hear my prayers?

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It's like, it doesn't matter if Satan can hear your prayers. One, he's not omnipresent or omniscient.

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So there's no way you could hear everyone praying at the same time, but even if he could, Satan is incapable of stopping

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God from answering your prayers. Let that be a reminder of Satan's limits.

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Let's not give him more credit than he's due in terms of what he can and can't do. But again, please study the scriptures.

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Please examine everything we've shared today and make sure that what we have said matches what the

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Bible says. Because Satan is powerful, he's a dangerous enemy, but he is nothing in comparison to God.

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So Jeff, Kevin, thank you for joining me today. It's been a fruitful conversation. Hope our commentary,

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I guess, has been encouraging to you. This is the Got Questions podcast on who is

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Satan. Got questions, Bible has answers, and you'll be fine.