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.
Wisdom versus Faith
62-0401 §183
Satan knowed it by knowledge. Jesus knowed it by experience; He knowed it by revelation. He knowed that He was that Son of God that was to come into the world. He knowed His standing; He knowed He was born in this world for that purpose; and that's the reason the Word of God could work through Him, because He knowed what He was. Glory! (Have you caught it yet?) He knowed what He was! Satan, at the back of it, he knowed what he was; and he knowed he had no business with his wisdom on the Word, because the Word was G...
The god of this evil age
65-0801M §41
Notice, Satan not called the god of any other age but this age. It was his ambition to be like God from the very beginning. Let's read that. We'll just take our time. Let's go back... Let's see; I got it wrote down, Isaiah 14. Let's go back here to Isaiah 14 just a minute and see what God said the god ... what Satan did. Isaiah 14:12 and 14. Notice. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cast down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I...
The god of this evil age
65-0801M §42
...led Adam's son. The Bible said he was the son of that evil one, serpent's seed. No, the cover's been took off now, brother. The pyramid has been opened as the revelation showed. Notice what he will do, his thought. He thought God dwelt in worldly beauty. He did that in heaven. Sin never began in the garden of Eden; it began in heaven when Lucifer, the son of the morning, exalted himself in beauty and wanted a more beautiful kingdom than that of Michael. And he thought that God dwelt in beauty. And notice Cain. He d...
A trumpet gives an uncertain sound
63-0114 §10
...rist died by the hand of the federal government under capital punishment. Peter, James, John the Revelator, all... Every ... all suffered persecution. Why? It's the seat of Satan. Do you know that? Do you know Satan took Jesus up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and he said, "They're mine. I do with them whatever I want to," see. "And I'll give them to you if you'll fall down and worship me." So you see who they belong to? We hate to think that about our own, but it is. So He said,...
Israel and the Church: Israel in Egypt
53-0325 §75
When Jesus was here on earth, He Was God, He was Immanuel. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. He never used any of His great gifts when He met Satan. He said, "It's written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.' It's written, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'" He defeated him. That's it: know the Scripture. Satan knows it, too, but you got to know how to rightly divide the Word of God, see.