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.
God's Servant Job
55-0223 §12
As soon as Satan... You know the old ... the argument is: Why couldn't God have bypassed all this, and not had any of it? But God putting Satan almost co-equal with Him, Satan taking the things of God and perverted them into the evil thought, and through there began to pervert things into evil instead of good. And God, as soon as the first thing was done, out of His great treasure chest of love, He had a plan of redemption, that quick. Didn't have to sit down, and think it all over, how it would be. He was God, inf...
God keeps His Word
58-0328 §46
...remove a--a obstruction, but what about the hole that he cut in you to take it out? Who heals that? Healing is developing of cells. And take my word: there is no healing power in the devil. And a preacher that would say that, shows he doesn't know the Bible, or his God. Jesus said, "Satan cannot cast out Satan." Psalms 103:3 said, "I'm the Lord Who heals all of your diseases." Is that right? Satan cannot heal. If Satan can heal, he can create and then he's a creator, then he's a god. If he's a creator, he can make...
The conflict between God and Satan
62-0531 §19
...t I would say, the trueness, and the thought of a earthly parent... And parenthood originated in God, because He was the first parent. Don't you think that God, seeing what Satan would be, what Satan would do, He gave to his children and provided for them the best thing that could be provided for them, to...? Knowing what the enemy's attack would be, God fortified his children.
Satan's Eden
65-0829 §17
The god of this world, today... The worshipped person of this world today is Satan, and the people are ignorant of worshipping Satan. But it's Satan impersonating himself as the church, see---as the church. They worship Satan, thinking that they are worshipping God through the church, but it is the way Satan has done it. Oh! You say, "But wait a minute; we preach the Word." Look back here at my text, tonight. Satan was the one that preached the Word to Eve first. God has said, see. It's that misconstruing that part...
Elisha the Prophet
56-1002E §25
Like Satan, he knows a whole lot about human beings. He said to God, to Job, he said, "What would a man give for his skin?" Sure. He knows something about human nature. He helped pervert it. He had a hand in it. He knows a whole lot about it and he still knows how to ... what to do to cause people to fall. He knows human nature. He knows just what to present before you and make you fall for it. He knows just how well to put the smell of whiskey. How tantalizing to make a cigarette. How well to put a place out here...