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Who Is Satan, the Devil, the Prince of Darkness?

Pleased to Meet You, Do You Know The Name of Satan?

Either Satan gets blamed for almost everything or ignored as if he doesn’t exist. Known by many names—the Devil (Matt 5:1), Belial (2 Cor 6:15), Beelzebul (Matt 10:25)—that basically describe his character.

So when we see names like The Evil One (Matt 13:19), the Prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), the god of this present age (2 Cor 4:4), the Father of Lies (John 8), the great accuser, Satan (Job 1:6): they tell us what he’s like.

Honestly, typing this makes me a bit nervous. That will either have some folk laughing at me or confused that I would carry on with this foolish endeavor. But, I spent some time studying him in Scripture and I wanted to share my notes.

I have no intention of examining Satan’s activities throughout history, or how he may have been behind this or that event. Indeed, I don’t have many notes on the intertestamental development of the doctrine of Satan and I frankly don’t think it’s helpful in understanding him.

My nervousness lies in hoping to properly represent the ruler of this present world (John 12:31). I don’t want to follow in the foolish error of men who go on to do what not even an archangel dares to do (Jude 9,10) so I approach with the reliance on God’s word.

This is one of my longer posts, so I’ve divided it into the following sections. If you would rather not read the full post, each section ends with a short summary.

  1. The Bible shows that Satan has perfected his evil
  2. But the Bible tells us little about Satan’s history and future
  3. And also little about Satan’s position
  4. Frankly, Isaiah 14 doesn’t talk about Satan
  5. Neither Does Ezekiel 28
  6. Satan is powerful, though limited
  7. When people freely join Satan things get ugly
  8. Christians must actively resist Satan
  9. While knowing that their own worst enemy is themselves