What Can We Know About Satan?
1) Direct Answer
We can know this: Satan is a created being who fell, an adversary and deceiver. He is not God, not equal to God, not eternal like God. He works by lies, perversion, sickness, fear, and religious impersonation. His power is limited, permitted only for a season. He was judged at the Cross, is defeated for the believer, and his final end is the lake of fire.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- His origin and fall:
- He was an “anointed cherub” who fell through pride (Ezekiel 28:12-17). The Bible shows his fall: “How art thou fallen from heaven… Lucifer” (Isaiah 14:12-15). Jesus said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18).
- His names and realm:
- Satan means adversary (Job 1–2). He is the serpent and the dragon (Genesis 3; Revelation 12:9), “the god of this world” who blinds minds (2 Corinthians 4:4), and “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).
- His limits:
- He must ask permission (Job 1–2). He is not omnipresent or omniscient; only God knows the hearts of all men (1 Kings 8:39). Resist him and he will flee (James 4:7).
- His methods:
- He tempts (Matthew 4:1-11), deceives the whole world (Revelation 12:9), accuses the brethren (Revelation 12:10), blinds minds (2 Corinthians 4:4), devours if we give place (1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 4:27), sows tares (Matthew 13:39), and comes as an angel of light with false doctrine and signs (2 Corinthians 11:13-15; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).
- He binds with sickness and oppression, but Jesus loosed the captives (Job 2:7; Luke 13:16; Acts 10:38; Hebrews 2:14-15).
- Eden and the entrance of sin:
- The serpent was “more subtil” (Genesis 3:1). Satan used that beast as his instrument to corrupt the human race. The Bible speaks of “thy seed” and “her seed” (Genesis 3:15). It wasn’t eating an apple; it was a moral fall that touched conception (Genesis 3:16). Cain was “of that wicked one” (1 John 3:12). From the beginning he worked by twisting what God said—“Hath God said…?”—and he has never changed.
- His defeat and the believer’s victory:
- The Son of God was manifested “that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). At the Cross, principalities and powers were spoiled (Colossians 2:15). Through death, Jesus destroyed him that had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). Believers have authority to tread on all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). Our warfare is spiritual; we stand in the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
- His end:
- He will be bound for a thousand years, loosed a little season, and then cast into the lake of fire forever (Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10). Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, not for the righteous (Matthew 25:41).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- It’s not two powers wrestling as equals. God is the Creator; Satan is a fallen creature. If Satan were equal to God, he would not need permission in Job. That settles it.
- Satan cannot create life. He only perverts what God made—adding, taking away, hybridizing the Word, and corrupting the flesh. God speaks truth; Satan mixes truth with error to produce deception.
- He gains ground where people agree with him. Give him no place—shut every door with repentance, the Blood, and the Word.
- His first attack is always against the Word: question it, misquote it, then deny it. The answer is simple: believe what God said, speak it, and stand there.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Stay with the Word, stay under the Blood, be filled with the Spirit, and resist the devil. He is already a defeated foe to the true believer, and his time is short.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The Serpent's Seed
58-0928E §41
..., as I said, the Saviour or sinner? Which has got the most strength? Then the stronger had to permit the lesser. And He only does it for His glory. When He made Lucifer, He knowed he would be the devil. And He had to let it be there to show that He was the Saviour, the Christ. He had to let it happen that way. Now, don't the Bible say all things work together for good to them that love God? So what are you scared about? Let us be up and doing with a heart for any strife. Be not like dumb driven cattle, had to be be...
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §59
Satan was literally cast out of heaven by Michael the Archangel and God. And he was cast to the earth, come to the earth, got into the serpent, deceived Eve, and then has got into men, women, all down through the age on the same thing he started at the beginning ---a great big kingdom, prettier than the other fellow's, be governor over all, know-it-all. "Our denomination is the biggest; it's predominant over the others." You've heard them say, "Why, we have so many hundred preachers in our organization. We got the...
The Investments
64-0314 §22
Now, we find that it wasn't because that he wasn't a church member, wasn't because he wasn't morally right. He was. But we can be a church member, and morally right, still not obtain eternal life. Not to know the Word... Some of them are theologians, and scholars, and Sunday School teachers, Bible expositors. But that doesn't mean anything. Satan knows that Bible better than any of us. The Bible said to know Him is life---not know the Word; know Him is life. Satan also believes, and trembles. But we've got to have...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 6:E-20
...to a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass." The revelation of Godhead to the Thyatirean Age is that Jesus is the Son of God. Once in the days of His flesh He was known as the Son of Man. But henceforth we know Him no more after the flesh. He is no longer the Son of Man, the Great Prophet, Who in Himself gathered together all prophecies. The Only Begotten is back in the bosom of the Father. Now we know Him after the power of the resurrection. He is risen and has taken unto Himself His mighty power and is...
Satan's Eden
65-0829 §21
It's been, and now is, Satan establishing his kingdom in the earth. That's exactly why he's doing it, for he wants to establish his own kingdom as a businessman that's not a Christian. He will work every scheme he can to make you see something the wrong way. If he's got a purpose and a personal gain in making you do that, making you see it that way, he will show you everything he can and keep you off from the truth of it, because he has got a feeling only for himself. No matter how much he lies and cheats, and what...