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.
Satan's Eden
65-0829 §22
And that's why Satan has done this. And he has worked through the ministry to do it, as God promised He would do. Now, he began by a religious deceit in Eden and has continued ever since; not by setting up a bunch of communists---communists has nothing to do with this. It's the church that's where you have to watch, see. It's not the communists that will deceive the very elected; it's the church that will deceive the very elected, see. It isn't communists. We know they deny God. They're antichrist---sure they are i...
But it wasn't so from the beginning
61-0411 §56
You know, Satan tried that on Jesus one time. Oh, yes. One time there came one from heaven to change this hybrid condition. So as he tempted Eve, he also tempted Jesus. Got Him up there on top of the mountain, he said, "Now, if thou be the Son of God, I want you to perform a miracle so I can see you do it." That same old devil lives today, just in other people. That same Spirit of Christ lives today, only in other people, see. That's right. The man goes, but the spirit never does. So then, he took Him up on top of...
Questions and Answers, part 1
54-0103M §50
Now, where I think that come from. Now, here's a little of my own doctrine now. It's just church folk, see. I think that Cain was the son of Satan. I know you disagree with that; my own church does. But that's still... Till God shows me different, I will believe the same thing, see, that he was the son of Satan. 'Cause I couldn't place that ungodly, murderous spirit coming out of God. No, sir. He had to be after his daddy, and his daddy was ... when the Satan got upon the serpent. And the serpent was not a reptile;...
An uncertain sound
61-0315 §31
But sin is attractive. Any way you take it, sin is attractive to the human being, because he's a subject of the fallen race that we are. And it's attractive. Satan knows how to make it attractive. He's a genius at his job. And if he can't get it out there in the world affair, he brings it right into the church. He comes right over on our own ground. That's the reason, brethren, sisters, we should recognize him. It's time that the church was spiritual, to recognize, know God. Not by creeds, not by denomination; but...
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §177
...!"... And setting blocks and things like that, they do that by emotion, by hearing, and things like that, and action; but to think and to understand, they can't. They don't know they're naked, they don't know the male and female, the difference, like that. They have no laws of such, see. They can't do it. The human being is the only one. And the next one to the human being was the serpent. The Bible said he was the most subtle of all the beasts of the field. Smarter, he'd almost had a soul. He had a place for a sou...