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.
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §44
...is the government of Germany. He's the government of every nation under heavens. The devil controls every nation; the Bible says he does. Read Matthew the 4th chapter. When Satan took Jesus up to the top of the mountain, and showed Him the kingdoms of the world, and claimed them to be his, and said, "I will give them to you if you'll worship me," Jesus never said, "You lied, Satan." He knowed they belonged to him. But over in the book of Revelation, said, "Rejoice, you heavens and you earth, for the kingdoms of thi...
Perfect Faith
63-0825E §48
With His perfect faith, he was very strange. And the devil didn't stay around Him very long. We got it in the lesson this morning. When he come with that great big fluffle of intellectual conception, he bluffled up against Jesus there when he come, and he found out he hit a ten thousand volt line: throwed him right back again. Yes sir. He said, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone!"---he got a shock then. He come a little softer the next time, when he said, "Now you're a great man, you can put yourself...
Revelation, Chapter 5, part 1
61-0611 §53
Now notice. What did we lose? Well, it was given to Adam to have eternal life. As long as he ate from the tree he had eternal life. And we notice again that Adam was the ... he inherited the earth. He was like an amateur god over the earth. The earth was his. Everything was given into his hand, he could do with it whatever he wanted to. He named it, and called it, and done whatever he wanted to. He was truly a son of God. Now, in the fall, Adam forfeited the title deed to that. He forfeited to Satan. Satan took the...
The conflict between God and Satan
62-0531 §25
But God can't give nothing else but his Word, because that's what He chose first, and when God makes a decision, it has to ever remain that way. And Satan took reasoning, and took the reasonings and attacked the Word, and shook Eve off the path. That's right---by reasoning, human reasoning. Now the only way that she could have got to disbelieve God's Word, it had to be appealing. And Satan knows how to make reasonings appealing. It has to appeal to you, and sin is very appealing. And there's only one sin, and that'...
The conflict between God and Satan
62-0531 §24
Satan, in Eden when he first come to these attacks, to attack the person, knowing the children of God was fortified with this Word, Satan attacked the Word, see. He never attacked the being; he attacked the Word first. Look at that sneaker lizard, what he does today. The first thing, he can't lay it on, saying, "Well, that's not a good person." That's a good person, see. But the only thing he tries to do---no matter how good the person is---is to get them to deny that Word. That's just the only thing he wants to do...