Satan & His Demons

Satan and His Demons

(Taken from Neil Anderson’s "Bondage breaker")

Last week, I lead us through the reality of the spiritual world and those parts of the invisible creation. We focused on specific beings/creatures known as angels. The focus was upon the angels of God who remain faithful and obedient to serving their Creator. Today, we will make the shift to examining those angels who chose to rebel against God and were cast out of heaven. They are known as the fallen angels or Satan and his demons.

As I stated last week, recognizing the reality of the good angels, gives validation to the reality of the fallen angels. Yet, there are still those in our world today who are so caught up in the materialistic and secular culture that they deny any existence of a spiritual reality at all. This includes angels and demons. Some accept the idea of good angels but deny the existence of the devil and demons.

For example, J.B. Russell has several books written about the devil, but doesn’t actually acknowledge his existence. Here is what Russell has to say in his own words:

“I assert the reality of the Devil, but by this I do not intend a judgment as to the metaphysical reality of such a being.”

Rather, “the Devil is the personification of whatever is perceived in society as evil.”

Some actually prescribe the biblical teaching in regards to demons based on superstitions of unsophisticated people. Some actually believe that the people that Jesus had cast demons out of were actually plagued with mental disabilities, and so Jesus was just accommodating their superstitions. That in itself is a bogus idea, that Jesus would compromise the truth just to accommodate someone’s belief system.

This morning, I will not be sharing the myths about the spiritual world, or about Satan and his angels. The Bible has made it very clear that these beings are as real as you and I, even if we do not see them with our eyes. So, let’s begin.

1. First, we will begin with Satan himself

As I mentioned last week, Satan is not the exact, evil replica of God. He is an angel that chose to rebel against God and was then cast out of heaven. He is limited in what he can do. Most of the areas I covered last week in regards to angels, is true of Satan.

- The nature of

- Exist as a part of the invisible creation

- Spiritual beings

- Powerful

- 1/3 of the angels were cast out (Multitudes)

Satan is the prince or ruler of the rest of the demons. The name Satan, is a generic Hebrew word meaning, adversary, opponent or one who tries to block your way, and accuser.

In the New Testament, the Greek word is “satanas” and all its uses refer to the devil. Again the basic nature is that of an opponent or enemy of God or mankind.

There are a number of different references to Satan in the Bible. Both Old & New Testaments refer to him. Let me list them for you:

- Diabolos (Greek), means “to accuse or to slander.” In the New Testament, it is used 30 times for Satan and translated “the devil.” The devil is identified as being a slanderer or accuser of both God and man.

- Adversary

1Pe 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

- Enemy

Mt 13:25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.

Mt 13:39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

- Accuser

Rev 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“Now have come the salvation and the power and the

kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the

accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God

day and night, has been hurled down.

- Other less used names are that of Apollyon & Abaddon. These names mean “destruction and destroyer” Revelation 9:11

- Belial or Beliar: names applied to a powerful evil spirit. 2 Corinthians 6:15

- Beelzebul of Beelzebub: These two names may refer back to the O.T. pagan deity known as Baal-zebub, meaning “lord of the flies” or a similar deity named Baal-zibbul, meaning “lord of the dung heap.”

- He is also referred to as the Serpent. Both in Genesis and Revelation.

- Dragon is used all throughout Revelation depicting his sly and sinister nature.

- Tempter in Matthew 4:3 and 1 Thessalonians 3:5 which reads:

1Th 3:5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless.