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.
Then Jesus came and called
64-0213 §36
There was a man one time named Job, one of the oldest prophets in the Bible. He was a great man. He'd loved the Lord. And he'd done all he knowed how to do. And Satan desired to sift him. So he said to God one day ... God said to him, rather, "Where have you been, Satan?" "Oh, walking to-and-fro, and up-and-down on the earth." Said, "Have you considered my servant Job? There's none like him in the earth. He's a perfect man." "Oh," he said, "sure. You give him everything, do everything for him. Certainly, he's a gre...
Wisdom versus Faith
62-0401 §181
So Satan said, "Now, I know the Word." I know that he knowed the Word when he come to Eve. So he had it by head knowledge, but it wouldn't work. Jesus knowed it by faith in the revelation of God's Word in His own predestinated life. Glory! I hope that soaks plumb to the ... into your heart. Jesus knew who He was! Satan was wondering. He knowed that He was a predestinated creature of God, that God Himself was manifested in Him. It wasn't Him doing the works, it was Father that dwelt in Him. Amen! Let the devil fly w...
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §41
Now, let's turn to the New Testament to Luke 10:18, just a minute, and see what Jesus said. In the book of Luke, you have your Bibles now, that's trying to get on these questions, Luke 10:18: And he said unto them, (Jesus speaking.) I beheld Satan as lightning falling from heaven. See, Satan was the original archangel of God. He once dwelt in the heavens. He once was the greatest person in the heavens outside of God. He was God's right-hand man to fellowship, and he got puffed up in his heart.
God's power to transform
65-0911 §83
...ed in him---serpent's seed. The hiss of the serpent had hissed over him, for he was the seed of the woman. He knew the perfect will of God, but he refused to do it. Did you know that? Satan knows the will of God, but just refuses to do it. Notice, he had seen God vindicate Abel's message. Now I want you to think. Use your thinking man's filter now for a minute. Abel's correct message, that God vindicated to be the truth---are you drawing now?---Abel's message had been received. And Cain saw it, and knowed that God...
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §178
Satan, the serpent, almost had a soul. God knowed they'd look for those bones, and there's not a bone in a snake that looks like the man. He was... That's the curse of him. He stood upon his feet just like a man. Notice, then that seed, which was next to the human seed... Satan himself, the spirit, knew that that was the only seed that would pregnate the woman, 'cause the chimpanzee won't do it. They mix it and everything else; it won't do it. But he knowed that the germ of life that was in the chimpanzee, would no...