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.
I have heard but now I see
65-1127E §25
Now, Satan had come up before God, because he could come before God and accuse the Christians (or, the believers) all the time. So he accused Job of many things, and said that Job, the reason he could serve God, because everything was coming good for him. But said, "If you'll just let me have him, in my hands, I'll make him curse you to your face." I want you to notice that the confidence that God had in a believer. See? In other words, God said to Job ... or, said to Satan like this: "You can't do it! He's a just...
Satan's Eden
65-0829 §49
Now, we find out that every seed bringing forth of its kind, there was no death in that Eden. There will be no death in the new Eden, see. There was nothing else but holiness, purity, and eternal life. Now, by unbelief in all of God's Word has brought the seed of unholiness in Satan's Eden. We are now entering in where Satan is taking the throne as the antichrist in an Eden of this earth, an Eden of sin---perverted religion. He started, not upon: "I am Satan. I am the great angel." No, not upon that, but upon perve...
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §40
QUESTION: Question. Now! Brother Branham, is it true that Satan was once in heaven and was cast out, he and his angels come down to earth, or is it a vision like John saw on the Isle of Patmos? Why I ask this, is, I was told that it was a vision. John saw it as a vision, but it was a literal happening. If you'll turn to Isaiah 14:12. Now, these go slow, but to me, they are lessons. And it's something that... Maybe you think, "Well, I don't have no need of that now." You just don't know how that Holy Spirit feeds on...
Joseph meeting his brethren
56-1230 §39
Now, in the beginning when God spoke, and Satan was standing there and he heard it... And the people are trying to find this missing link. I'll tell you by revelation, if you want to receive it, that missing person between animal and man is the serpent, before he had his legs taken from him. The Bible said, "He was the most subtle of all the beasts (not reptile), of all the field." He was the one who beguiled the woman in his beauty. And she conceived, and now by doing that and seeing sin was coming, God put such a...
The Queen of Sheba
60-0401E §1
...him, it is so wonderful that he can read directly from the original script the very words that Jesus and the disciples spoke and wrote. He felt that these translations that we have are not always correct and true. And that's where the criticism comes in, because he criticizes the King James version, and some people think that St. Paul preached from the King James version. They almost worship it, it's so wonderful. I think all translations might leave something to be desired. So I'm not going to vouch for any transl...