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.
Lord, I believe
53-0901 §3
...assed by, and saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And when he had ... spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of ... spitt...
Satan's Eden
65-0829 §78
And if that's so, and we see it's so, so are you blinded! You're blinded to these denominations that Satan has twisted you into! And it's a perversion of God's original Word, and His kingdom, and His plan for His children! Satan has twisted men and women into these things, and they don't know it, are perverted. No longer a son of God---bangs hanging down in his face and a pair of shorts on tromping down the street, a son of God? Deacon in a church, a pastor in a pulpit? No. That ain't a son of God! He never come th...
The unfailing realities of the living God
60-0626 §46
If Satan can't keep the truth from them, he makes fanatics out of them; throw them off on this side and that side, and they get all kind of stuff, of bloods and oil, and sensations, which is not even Scriptural. But stay on the blueprint. Stay on the highway. Stay with the Scripture. Don't leave It. That's why Jesus come, that man would not be deceived and go off the side, but stay right in the Word. The great Saint Paul said, "If an angel from heaven come and preached any other Gospel than this that's been preache...
And thy Seed shall possess the gate of His enemies
61-0212E §57
You know, Satan said, looked around, said, "You know what? I don't even believe he's a prophet now. I know that can't be God. God would never act like that, let that mocking bunch of drunkards run over him like that, let them call him 'holy roller.' (I'm talking to you.) Let them call him 'old model,' something like that. 'You're an old fanatic.' He'd never do that." But He was God. His kingdom was from above. His delegates is the same thing. Their kingdom is above. They act like from up there; they talk about up t...
How can I overcome?
63-0825M §85
Third great assault: Satan offered to forfeit this kingdom to Him. He did. Satan said, "See these kingdoms of the world? These are mine. I do with them whatever I want to. I'll forfeit them to you." But you remember, he was trying to get Him to forfeit it without the cross. If He did we'd be lost. He could've got the kingdom, but He must follow the... He must come back. He was tempted to do it now. That's a hard thing. He was tempted to take His liberty and be the king of the earth without the cross. But if He did,...