Satan Exists
Where and what was the first sin against God committed? Who did it?
When most Christians are asked those questions, they think of the Garden of Eden, eating the forbidden fruit, and naming Adam and Eve. You may have guessed correctly, but—those answers are wrong.
For you, what image does the word Satan conjure up? An evil creature with horns, a tail, and a pitchfork? Caricatures of our culture aside, Satan is the evil prince whom Christians know as the great deceiver and the archnemesis of God and his people. Either from our first foray into the Bible as adults, or back when we were in youth or children's Bible Studies, we learned of Adam and Eve, the serpent, and the forbidden fruit. Which was usually described as an apple. Yes, indeed the first human sin was committed under those circumstances. But, eating the forbidden fruit was not the first sin. The serpent tempted Eve, but we often forget that Satan's fall from grace was the major precursor setting the stage for the fall of humankind.
“Satan” means the adversary. The proper name “Satan” does not make an appearance in Genesis (1400 BC) or the other four Books of the Torah attributed to Moses. In fact, that name Satan, while found 14 times in the Old Testament and 40 in the New Testament, in Bible book order, “Satan” does not appear until the book of 1 Chronicles (450 BC). However, chronologically, Satan is again reported in the same 1400 BC era, in the Book of Job.
In Job, God and Satan converse. Satan is cynical about human goodness and is allowed to test it under God’s authority, within the limits set by God. Satan attacks Job’s character in verses 6-11. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
In biblical terms “devil” is defined as a slanderer and found scores of times in the New Testament. The name of “Lucifer” is found once. Isaiah 14:12, tells of his fall. “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!” The Jews refer to Satan as “Beelzebub,” an epithet derived from “Baal-Zebub” meaning“lord of the flies.” The Beelzebub reference is found several times in the New Testament.
So, with so many designations for Satan, how do we know for sure he was the serpent in the Garden of Eden? I've only found one link. Revelation 20:2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. But we will delve deeper into that later in this essay.
Who, here, can explain “the thousand years?” According to the visions in the Book of Revelation, when the risen Christ returns from heaven to reign on earth, Satan will be bound with a great chain for a thousand years, then be released, but almost immediately face final defeat and be cast into eternal punishment. This period, known as the Millennium, refers to Christ's 1,000-year reign. However, there are three distinct interpretations of what the thousand years event entails and is debated between three viewpoints: Postmillennialism, Amillennialism, and Premillennialism.
Postmillennialism is a Christian eschatology (end-times theology). Persons of this faction interpret verse 2, of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation as Christ's second coming occurs after the "Millennium." A Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper.
According to amillennialism, the binding of Satan in Revelation 20:1–3 took place at the first coming of Christ, and his imprisonment in the abyss extends throughout the present age, concurrent with the millennial reign of Jesus. Rather than describing a future event that will occur at the Second Coming, then, Satan’s binding was accomplished by Christ when He conquered the devil through His death and resurrection during His earthly ministry.
In this way, amillennialism asserts that the thousand-year binding of Satan extends from the time of the first coming of Christ to the time of His second coming. Is there any debate on amillennialism from our readers or study members gathered here?
Premillennialism believes the thousand years is a literal period in which Christ rules the world after He returns to earth and judges the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and the nations. Premillennialist believe the first resurrection is for the righteous, faithful believers who will be martyred during the Tribulation. Whereas the second resurrection is of the wicked, the rest of the dead, who will not come to life until the thousand years are completed. Those raised in the first resurrection reign with Christ, while those raised in the second resurrection go directly before the throne of final judgment.
The fact that Satan is bound, rather than immediately destroyed, seems to be a significant element of God's “End Times” message. After a thousand years of peace and righteousness, some disbelievers will still defy God. After this ultimate demonstration of God's justice, Satan will be permanently and utterly defeated. Satan is also spoken of as the prince of evil spirits, the inveterate enemy of God and of Christ, who can take on the persona of an angel. He can enter people and act through them; hence, a person can be called Satan because of his or her actions. Through secondary or lower echelon demons, Satan can take possession of human bodies, afflicting them or making them diseased. Many scholars point to Hiram, also called Ahiram or Huram, the Phoenician king of Tyre as either being the devil himself or possessed by Satan.
Satan, in all three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, is labeled as the prince of evil spirits, an adversary of God, and identified as the entity who tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and was thus the catalyst for the fall of humankind. With Christians and Jews, Satan is portrayed as an angel, a fallen angel, or sometimes as a jinni in Islam. Whichever, he rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven with other “fallen angels” sometime before the creation of Adam and Eve. In Ezekiel 28:13-16, You (devil) were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.“By the abundance of your trading, You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God;”
Satan’s fall was prophetically linked with the king of Tyre, This tirade was defining and directed towards an entity other than human by explicitly being referred to as a cherub. Not just any cherub either, one who had been in the Garden of Eden. That prophecy turned into a description of a fallen, cast-out angel, namely Lucifer.
So then, what was the first sin against God? We learn about that and Satan’s fall from Isaiah 14:12–15: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol*, To the lowest depths of the Pit.”
* To the Hebrews, Sheol was simply the abode of the dead. It was not the same as “dead in the grave,” though some older scriptures translate it that way. The grave was the resting place of the body from which the spirit had departed, while Sheol was the resting place of departed spirits or personalities.
Satan was, in all likelihood, the highest angel, the anointed cherub, the most beautiful of all of God’s creations. But he was not contented with his position. It is obvious from the text in the Good Book that Satan’s sin was pridefulness. He was so powerful that he began to covet God’s position and authority. He chafed at having to serve God and grew angry and rebellious. He did not want to be a servant of God. He wanted to be served; he, as an upper-level angelic creature wanted to be worshiped. How stark a contrasted to Jesus Christ, who came not to be crowned, not to be revered, but to minister to sinners and to forfeit his life a ransom for all as read in Mark 10:45. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
So if pride was the first sin against God, it can also be said he lusted after God's position as the Almighty, and thus envious. Easily three sins plus his shameful ingratitude. How did Satan’s prideful rebellion and subsequent fall impact humankind’s first sin? Proverbs tells us, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs also state; When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom. Certainly, it is evident that pride literally came before Satan's fall and the fall of mankind. Pride causes shame, loss of wisdom, destruction, and ruin.
Yes, Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden and suffered the shame of committing a sin against God. Now, we all are cursed with physical disease, pain, and death looming on the horizon. The loss of fellowship with God, and the previously unknown hardship of having to eke out a living from the now cursed ground. All of that, and more, are attributed to the backwash of Satan's pride, and human pride as well!
So what was Adam and Eve’s sin? Was it solely just disobedience by eating the forbidden fruit? No. Yes, that was the material act that solidified what was in their minds and hearts. But let’s take a closer look at the passages in Genesis to see what the real sin was and where it started.
Genesis 3:1-7 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
God allowed Adam and Eve to be tested but did not encourage them to sin. In fact, He had warned Adam about the consequences of even touching one of the two special trees in the Garden Of Eden. Satan started off by questioning God's Word. Notice he began by putting his own little spin on it as he openly lied to Eve, contradicting God, “Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” The serpent knew that was a misdirecting question.
But Eve knew what was right and what was wrong. She knew what was allowed and what was not. Not obeying was her first sin. But the serpent held forth his introductory, tantalizing, temptation. “You will not surely die.” Then the second temptation. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Were the serpent's spoken words a lie or truthful? In a demonic sort of way, that was truthful, for neither Adam nor Eve had personally known evil because the tree of knowledge of good and evil was heretofore untouchable.
I would also like to point out, while Eve did all the talking, (imagine that) Adam was right there with her. The real crux of the matter at hand was if Eve had been told the tree of knowledge was 'Hands Off.' She was told by the serpent it was good for food, desirable, and could make one wise, so why would she believe that? God himself had told Adam eating from that specific tree would lead to death. Remember Eve was pulled from Adam's rib after the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil were placed in the Garden of Eden. Who can say if God ever said that directly to Eve?
There is no record of that conversation except Eve said: “God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.” But, if Eve was not told by God, it certainly was Adam's responsibility to do so. Furthermore, since Adam was privy to the serpent's entire conversation, Eve was not the one to blame as many folks try to do so. Adam was there. Adam was in charge and accountable for Eve's welfare. Adam, by his silence, failed God and let all of humanity down. Because of Adam's single mistake, all generations of men, women, and children are cursed with the tragedy of original sin. Plus, the quagmires of minutiae we must wade through during our everyday, unremarkable lives compared to how sweet the strolls will be for us in Paradise. Satan's first bout of pride was, ostensibly, the actual beginning of sin in the universe—preceding the fall of the human Adam by an indeterminate time. Sin originated in the free will of Satan in which he—with a mindful perception of the issues involved chose to rebel against the Creator.
Of course, both Adam and Eve, in their separate ways, tried to rationalize or excuse the blame away as related by Genesis 3:12–13. “Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
They didn’t just ignorantly decide to eat the fruit, nor did they eat it because “the devil made them do it.” The sin of pride that led to Satan’s personal fall had now contaminated the minds, bodies, and souls of Adam and Eve. The results were shame, banishment from paradise, and lives now truncated by death. From Adam and Eve, all humans have inherited the sin that brings forth death.
Other disastrous consequences are well documented within Genesis 3:16-19. “To the woman he said: “I will greatly increase the pain of your pregnancy; in pain you will give birth to children, and your longing will be for your husband, and he will dominate you, and to Adam he said: “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree concerning which I gave you this command, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground on your account. In pain you will eat its produce all the days of your life. In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Have we all heard the adage, “Give the devil his due?” I never understood who would want to do that or what that actually meant? But obviously, God knew because he cursed the serpent and gave him his due. The Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”So the primary questions here are; Was the serpent Satan? Or was the serpent possessed by Satan? Before you answer, consider this; apparently, Eve was not surprised by the serpent speaking. Did that indicate all the animals in the Garden could talk? I doubt that, but some don't, and believe all animals could talk back then.
The serpent is an actual creature, not an allegory or representation of some other type of creature. This was an actual critter who was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and nowhere is there any indication 'the speaker' is to be understood, symbolically, as a man or fallen angel. Though the serpent/snake is not implicitly identified in the Book of Genesis, though it is linked to Satan in the last book of Scripture. Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 say, So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him . . . He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. However, the serpent and Satan link may still not be a direct link to the snake in the Garden of Eden, rather just an expression. As read here the serpent could instead be “the great dragon.”
Possibly, in the same way, the Leviathan in Isaiah 27 reflects the same characterization precisely: On that day YHWH will punish With his hard and big and strong sword Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisted serpent, And he will kill the dragon that is in the sea. So the reference in Revelation 12:9 to Satan as “the great dragon and old serpent” probably reflects monsters like a Leviathan rather than the cleverly talking creature in Eden.
In some way, Satan entered or controlled the body of the serpent/snake/dragon to tempt Adam and Eve. Thus, we can conclude, Satan himself is the personage within the creature, the device the devil used to do his bidding. I basically believe the serpent was a snake possessed by Satan. The foundation for that belief is based on God's admonishment, where He said, And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel. I find no support within the Bible where Satan/Lucifer/Devil mated and produced any 'seed.' Yet we know snakes produce 'seed' in the form of eggs or live births.
Nowadays, men and women want to exalt themselves as gods. Many hard-headed people want nothing to do with a creator God to whom we should owe allegiance. If only they could come up with some earthy explanation for everything? If only they could ignore our conscience, if only we could forget past history that clearly shows divine intervention, then they could rationalize away God and make gods of themselves. Isn’t this exactly what we see today? People promote the evolution of the species, immoral relativism, humanism, and, especially America's revisionist history, which is ongoing today. Some people, influenced by the devil, attempt to hold God’s revealed truth at arm's length. Or worse yet, bury His truths altogether. For truly, sinful human pride knows no bounds!
Sin, preceding the fall of the humans by an indeterminate time, originated in the free will of Lucifer. In which, with a full understanding of the issues involved, he chose to rebel against the Creator. Many of us learned that because Lucifer led an unsuccessful revolt in heaven, he and his followers were cast out. In Revelation 12:7-9, we read: “Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.” Why will Lucifer continue to be a rebellious dissident? The sin that continues to corrupt Satan is pride.
That this mighty angelic being was rightfully judged in the Old Testament by God, who threw him to the earth, doesn’t mean that Satan had no further access to heaven after he released himself from as the body of king Tyre was turned to ashes. King Hiram's death is detailed in Ezekiel 28:16-19 “By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you. “You defiled your sanctuaries By the multitude of your iniquities, By the iniquity of your trading; Therefore I brought fire from your midst; It devoured you, And I turned you to ashes upon the earth In the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; You have become a horror, And shall be no more forever.”
That tempo and pattern of this passage would seem to first fit that a human leader is described, and then the dual reference is made to identify and include this being as Satan.
Our own eyes and other Scripture verses clearly indicate that Satan possibly maintained heaven access even after this fall. Zechariah 3:1-2 (500BC) Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!” Nevertheless, Ezekiel 28:18 indicates that Satan was absolutely and completely cast out of God’s heavenly government and perhaps forfeited all of his authority but not all of his powers. Luke 10:18 says And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
The New Testament has many references to the devil—but always in the context of a God who is more powerful, who created whatever exists—including angels and people who sometimes use their freedom destructively.
What are the true dispositions of Satan? After working through a proper biblical background, we now have a foundation upon which to discern the personality and activities of Satan: First and foremost, Satan is not omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, nor eternal for there was a time when Satan was not. In contrast, there was never a ‘time’ when the Holy Trinity was not. In Job 1:6, the Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” to which the devil responded, “From roaming through the earth.” That is where he is physically positioned in the universe, though up to a point he may have been allowed to revisit heaven. Matthew 4 tells us Jesus was lead to the wilderness by the Spirit and 40 days later the devil approached him. By the devil trying to bargain with Jesus and failing tells us Satan does not know the future. Job chapters 1 and 2, both relate Satan's powers are limited by God. Satan can only exercise his otherworldly endowments by way schemes allowed by the willingness of God.
Satan can manipulate matter, weather systems, and bacterial life. Even human nature up to a limited point, which varies by individuals, as such Satan influences and governmental proceedings and development of laws.
We see in Job 1 that Satan is able to manipulate matter and weather patterns and, in Job 2:8, he infects Job with a skin disease. His purpose is to afflict Job, and for our machinations, we note he is capable of feats not afforded to humans.
Satan aggressively seeks to ensnare ?individual Christians. He is described as the feral figurehead of fallen angels. His surly demons examine individuals and then seek to mold temptations into the most appealing formats. They brew seemingly irresistible elixirs of poison just for your specific tastes. For example, lewd, suggestive, or downright evil activities are condoned in many, if not most television shows. Social media is awash with trash. The internet overflows with porn in almost unimaginable forms. The list is endless.
No other creature created is more deceptive than Satan. John 8:44 says his nature is to lie. If his mouth moves a lie is coming. As the original liar, he personifies the father of all lies. Every lie ever made or will be made was and will be birthed from him. However, deception and temptation are his two favorite weapons to wield against Christians to manipulate and exploit them.
Believe it or not, Satan is capable of killing Christians. He is able to kill you physically. The Lord said to Satan, "Very well, he (Job) is in your power; only spare his life." (Job 2:6). Yes, he could kill you physically with the Lord's permission, 1 John 5:18 Knowing the True—Rejecting the False. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. Yes, Satan can kill the unprotected if God wills it, but not eternally because Jesus died for all our sin. Romans 8:1-4 reinforces this by stating, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
In Job chapter 2, Satan goes back a second time to the Lord in conversation. The devil asks permission to kill Job, but God denies his request. Anyone would take that to mean Satan has the power to kill, but God would not allow it.
Satan sends his demons as lackeys to battle Christians. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12:7 says a thorn in his flesh is “a messenger of Satan.” The Lord used that demon as a thorn (against Paul’s will!) to produce more sanctification and spiritual power in Paul’s ministry. Satan unknowingly was the pawn, powerless to wound Christians in any resurrected or eternal sense.
Romans 8:38-39 speak specifically to that. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Satan surely has read Matthew 25:41, which states he will ultimately be thrown into hell. Someone might say “Satan is so smart, he’s stupid.” Everybody knows how his story ends, yet his fury rages against all of us re-born to God. He lies and accuses the brethren. Revelation 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
Possibly, most important above all is that we can totally resist Satan, if not by ourselves, with the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. James 4:6-10 reports it is easy. “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Humility Cures Worldliness Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded people. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Satan is presently stalking all of humanity, seeking to corrupt our minds, and hearts in order to destroy our souls. Jesus accused the religious leaders of His day. To paraphrase Him, Satan is evil, and we act upon what the devil wants. Satan cannot stand with truthfulness because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own craftiness, for he is shrewdly full of lies.”
When Christians resist temptation and hold firm the promise of resurrection, not giving in, not accepting the lies of our enemy, and not falling for his temptations or accusations—Satan will then depart. Hopefully, not to go off and devour easier prey. If so, think not only of yourself, think of your brothers and sisters, be they in Christ or not, your support can help them on their way to heaven. This is the end of this essay.
The End
