His Satanic Majesty, The Devil

Don’t let this title have you to believe that I am going to give a glowing report of the devil. No! It is more of a sarcastic title for one whom the bible calls the prince of the air, one who has a short reign to try and destroy as many of you as he can. So, this is my time to give you an understanding of the one you are following when you are not following Jesus, so that you can make a choice of whether you want heaven or hell.

“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

John 8:37-44

In these Scriptures we have a discourse between Jesus and the religious leaders. The religious leaders believe that they are following God because of their heritage, but Jesus lets them know that they have never followed God and indeed are acting on behalf of the devil.

The Bible tells us very little about the origin of the devil. It infers that he was once an archangel, an archangel of great power and glory. Because of this high position, and led on by his arrogance, he became so proud that God had to cast him out of heaven. Now he is permitted to go about in the world tempting people and acting as a mighty adversary to God and God’s people, and is an idea generally accepted by Bible scholars. God created all things good, but some of His creations became bad – man for instance, because God gave us free will. So, then it is reasonable to believe that the devil was created in goodness, but that he became evil and was then cast out of heaven.

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Revelation 12:7-9

As you can see from this Scripture the devil is called by different names – Satan, Beelzebub, the evil one, the serpent, the dragon – the god of this world, and the prince of the world. It doesn’t matter what you can him – he is the devil just the same.

There is a devil

Some people say that the devil does not exist, that he is merely a figment of the imagination. The Christian Scientists tell us that “all is good.” However, any sensible person knows that all things are not good, and that there is a mighty being behind all evil, namely, the devil.

To those naysayers I say that the Bible proves his existence. In Matthew 13:19, where Jesus was explaining the parable of the Sower, He said, “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.”

If we then say there is no devil, then we make Jesus a liar. Peter said there is a devil – John and Paul told us of his existence. But Jesus’ words are enough for us. To deny the existence of the devil is to deny the truthfulness and trustworthiness of Christ. One of the greatest tricks of the devil is in getting us to believe that he does not exist.