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 conflict between God and Satan
62-0531 §71
So now ... but we have two professing it. One said, "Well, we're the church." The other one said, "We're the church." All right. The wise and foolish, both are invited, but did you notice they both had vessels? That's right. They both was virgins---believers. They both had vessels. But Satan is more than a match for us. We know that. We know that Satan is way more than a match for any human being. Don't you never try to do it with your wisdom---outsmart him. You just can't do it. Jesus knew this, so He sent to the...
Satan's Eden
65-0829 §73
...f the top of his eyes, going around... If I ever seen a perversion! See, he wouldn't believe it---He could prove maybe he was male---but in his spirit he's female. He don't know what side of the house he belongs on. That is right. How perverted! That's what Satan does! He perverts the nations! He perverts the church! He perverts the people! He is a deceiver, a perverter of the original truth. God made a man a man. He made a woman a woman, and He dressed them different, and He meant for them to stay that way and to...
The testimony of a true witness
61-1105 §8
I thought, "Wonder how Satan might have said, like he did in the days of Job?" You know, God cannot take our lives. Satan has to do that. We're just turned over to Satan. And Satan, knowing that her time had come, knew that she was going to go, said to God, "You know, she's got a boy that's a preacher, some children that profess to be Christians. Let me just torture her a while. I'll make them all deny You." No, by the grace of God. And the last thing she nodded her head to, that Christ was still everything to her,...
Seals 4: The Second Seal
63-0319 §105
...ad of the Son of God, see. Oh, my! That awful deceiving spirit! If you want to read that, read II Thessalonians 2:3. You can see where it's at. Of course, you will remember Satan is the head of all political power of every nation! How many knows that? Do you want to put it down? Matthew 4:8. Satan took Jesus up to a high mountain, and he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world that ever was, or ever would be in a moment of time. Talk about a person! He said, "I will give them to you if you'll worship me." And Jesu...
The Rapture
65-1204 §19
When Moses went down into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel with only a stick in his hand for vindication, with the God of heaven behind him, he performed a miracle. There come impersonators behind him doing the same thing he did. See? Now, they come second after he did it first. Then they come around, because they were copying after what he did, impersonating the original. We find that. And now, you say, "Well, that was in the days of Moses." But the same scripture says, that they'll come again in the last d...