Who is Satan?

• Did God Create Satan?
• The Guardian Cherub
• The Morning Star
• Satan, the Fallen Angel
• Result of the Existence of Satan in the World
• Work of Satan
• The Act of Satan
• Conclusion- Who is Satan?

One of the controversies surrounding the Christian faith is the existence of evil or Satan. Many Christians believe that God is all-powerful and completely good, yet evil still exists in the world. Still, others believe that evil is an illusion and does not exist. How about you? What is your stand on this?

You might have also wondered, “If God is good, why is there evil? Or, “How does Satan look?”

Commonly feared, Satan is often depicted as a creature with horns, a tail, and sharp claws. Since childhood, we have grown up with that image of him in books, movies, and TV shows. However, the Bible does not provide a concrete physical description of Satan. Instead, it describes him as a tempter, a deceiver, and an enemy of God.

Read on to learn more about Satan and how he came into being.

Did God Create Satan?

God created men in this physical world, and He also created angels in the spiritual realm (Col. 1:16). The Bible tells us in Psalms 103:20-22 that angels are mighty beings who do God’s bidding and obey His Word. They are also called “heavenly hosts” and “servants” of God. This means that angels are responsible for carrying out God’s commands and doing His will. They are created to obey, glorify and praise God, day and night.

However, one angel, the Guardian Cherub, strayed from his path and disobeyed God.

Let’s walk you through the Bible and see how this angel described as perfect in beauty, a model of perfection, and full of wisdom turned out to be the greatest enemy of God.

The Guardian Cherub

According to Ezekiel 28:12-15, the lamentation for the King of Tyre is a passage in the Bible that compares the king to a fallen angel called the “Guardian Cherub”. God created the Guardian Cherub to be perfect in every way. He was beautiful. However, the Guardian Cherub became proud of his beauty and wisdom, and his heart was filled with wickedness.

The Morning Star

The Bible says the same thing in Isaiah 14:12-15. The Guardian Cherub, also known as the Morning Star, was a powerful and beautiful angel. He was so proud of his beauty and power that he wanted to be like God. He wanted to be the most powerful being in the universe.

“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon
 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
    I will make myself like the Most High.”

From these statements by the Guardian Cherub, it is clear that he wanted to raise himself. This desire for power and glory was a sin in front of God. It was a sin of pride. The morning star was not content with his place in the hierarchy of heaven, and he wanted to be more than just an angel. He wanted to be God.

Satan, the Fallen Angel

When God saw the wickedness in the heart of the Guardian Cherub, he was cast out of heaven and has become a fallen angel.

His actions and goals always oppose God’s, so eventually, he’s called ‘Satan,’ which means an adversary. He is now the enemy of God and all that is good. He is constantly trying to lead people away from God.

This is not all, Satan was not alone in his rebellion against God. He also deceived other angels under his authority. This is mentioned in 2 Pt. 2:4 and Jude 1:6. These passages say that some angels sinned by abandoning their positions and were cast out of heaven and are now imprisoned in darkness.

So, we can say that Satan is not the only evil entity in the world. There are other fallen angels who are also working to oppose God and His people. They are just roaming around waiting to devour God’s people and orchestrate deception. We can only dodge it when we are armored with God’s Word (Eph. 6:10-20). That’s why we need to fill ourselves with the Word so as not to give the enemy a single opportunity to target us and instill lies.

Result of the Existence of Satan in the World

When Satan have fallen and walked into the earth, he deceived Adam and Eve, the first chosen by God to dominate and rule the earth, into sinning. We can read this account in Gen. 3, and this led to the world falling under his control as stated in 1 Jn. 5:19 and Rv. 12:9.

Now that the world is tainted with sin, God who is holy, cannot dwell with us anymore (Gen. 6:3). Because of this, God had to leave. Satan took advantage of this and claimed dominion over the world.

Work of Satan

Satan is a deceiver and a liar. He wants to destroy our faith in God. But how can we discern his works? The following are the works of Satan:

1. The former Guardian Cherub, who is now Satan, is only a created being, so he lacks the power and ability to create.
2. Satan, the devil, lacks understanding of God’s Truth. He fabricates lies by distorting and misinterpreting the Word, combining it with human thoughts. There is no truth in him (Acts 13:10; Jn. 8:44).
3. Regarding the parables and figurative language in the Bible, Satan fails to comprehend and reveal their true meaning. Therefore, he does not understand prophecy and fulfillment. He works by adding and subtracting the Word. For example, in Gen 2:16-17, God commanded Adam: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” But in Gen 3:1, Satan twisted God’s word by saying “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” when God said “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden” And in Gen 3:4, Satan added to God’s word by saying “You will not certainly die,” when God said, “…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
4. Satan instigates persecution of the true believers of God (Gal 4:28-29).
5. Since there is no goodness in him, he masquerades as the angel of light and deceives the elect to listen and worship him (2 Co. 11:15).

Satan is working really hard to deceive the elect. So, as believers living in the last days, we must be wise enough and know how to test the spirit since not all spirits come from God (1 Jn. 4:1). But how do we test something that is not visible with our eyes like the spirit? It is through the words and actions of the flesh that the spirit uses. We must be careful about the kinds of words we hear, and like the Bereans, we must examine Scripture every day to determine whether what we receive is true or false teachings (Acts 17:1).

The Act of Satan

When we compare the actions of Satan to the actions of God, we see a clear contrast. God is always working for righteousness, while Satan is always working for evil. God is ‘love’, while Satan is ‘hate’. God is ‘truth’, while Satan is ‘lies’.

We must realize that every horrible thing that happens in our lives is not coming from God but from Satan. And so blaming God is something we should not do as someone who believes that God’s will and purpose are always for the good of His creations—and that includes us.

The Bible also teaches us that we can avoid Satan’s deception by following the teachings of God and knowing the truth. From our blog about God, we can see that we can tell if a God is true if he fulfills every promise he makes. It is therefore very critical to understand God’s prophecy or promises and its fulfillment.

Conclusion- Who is Satan?

So, did God create evil? It is clear in the Bible that the answer is ‘no’. God did not create evil in the sense of wanting it to exist. God created the Guardian Cherub, who by his own will, became Satan because of his evil desire to ascend to God’s throne.

We must understand that sin comes from an evil desire (Jas 1:15). Hence, we have to check ourselves from time to time if we have desires that are against God’s will. And now that Satan exists, we are reminded in Dt. 30:19 to always choose life and blessings so we may live.

The remaining question is, how will God defeat Satan? Join our Bible class to learn about God’s way to capture Satan!