SATAN AND THE DEMONS
All bible quotes from the Holman Christian Standard Bible unless otherwise noted.

Some religious groups believe Satan isn't a real, living entity; that "Satan" and "devil" are simply personifications of the human tendency to err. Some may even believe in the existence of God, yet not believe in a real devil or Satan. Here are some scriptures they use to support their beliefs :

Genesis 6:5 --...When the LORD saw that man's wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time

Jeremiah 7:24 --Yet they didn't listen or pay attention but walked according to their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.

Matthew 16:23 -- But He turned and told Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me because you're not thinking about God's concerns, but man's."

James 1:13-15 -- No one undergoing a trial should say, "I am being tempted by God." For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn't tempt anyone. 14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

Thus, some believe that evil and sin are things that originate from within a person, not from a sentient spirit entity seeking to destroy our relationship with God. Do such believers see the entire picture that the bible presents? We don't think that they do.

According to the bible, Christ himself considered Satan the Devil to be a real, living, sentient being:

Matthew 4:1-11 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil....then Jesus said "Go away Satan"...then the Devil left him.
Matthew 12:24-26 When the Pharisees heard this, they said "The man drives out demons only by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons." Knowing their thoughts, He told them "Every kingdom divided against itself will stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?"
Luke 22:31 Simon, Simon, look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat.

The Archangel Michael had a dispute with the Devil:

Jude 9 Yet Michael the Archangel, when he was disputing with the Devil in a debate about Moses' body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him, but said "The Lord rebuke you!"

God even had conversations with Satan:

Job 1:6-12 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD asked Satan "Where have you come from?" "From roaming through the earth" Satan answered Him "and walking around on it." Then the LORD said to Satan "Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil." Satan answered the LORD "Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven't You places a hedge around him....But stretch out Your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse Your to Your face." "Very well", the LORD told Satan, "everything he owns is in your power. However, you must not lay a hand on Job himself." So Satan went out from the LORD's presence. (see also: Job 2:1-8).

There are plenty more scriptures we can post, but we're sure you get the point: The bible shows Satan the Devil to be a real, sentient, being. Jesus wouldn't be tempted to give an act of worship to a non-existent thing. God wouldn't have a conversation with a non-existent thing. The Archangel wouldn't argue with himself and offer a rebuke to himself.

Satan and his demons are the very embodiment of evil throughout the bible. The Devil is the same as Satan, which is confirmed when Jesus refers to the Devil as Satan (Matthew 4:1-11). Many people wonder why God would create evil beings such as Satan and the demons. The real question should be: Would God create such things? No, He wouldn't. According to the scriptures God is love (1 John 4:8), and love does not work evil to others (Romans 13:10, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 2 Timothy 2:24). Our Almighty Father is not the one who created evil entities.

If God did not create Satan and the demons, then where did they come from? The bible tells us Satan was once an angel in heaven in association with the other angels. What led to Satan's fall from Grace? It was his selfish pride and arrogance. He was a very beautiful Cherub, and he became overly proud of his own beauty. This pride caused him to decide he wanted to be worshipped equally to Jehovah/Yahweh, to the point that he wanted to establish his own throne. This is told to us at Ezekiel 28:11-19 and Isaiah 14:12-20 :

Ezekiel 28:11-19:
"Son of man, lament for the king of Tyre, and say to him: This is what the Lord GOD says: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone covered you: carnelian, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and emerald. Your mounting and settings were crafted in gold; they were prepared on the day you were created. You were an anointed guardian cherub, for I had appointed you. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the fiery stones. From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways until wickedness was found in you. Through the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I expelled you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and banished you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud because of your beauty, For the sake of your splendor you corrupted your wisdom. So I threw you down to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. You profaned your sanctuaries by the magnitude of your iniquities in your dishonest trade. So I sent out fire from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of everyone watching you. All those who know you among the nations are appalled at you. You have become an object of horror and will never exist again.

Isaiah 14:12-20:
Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground. You said to yourself: I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the [gods'] assembly, in the remotest parts of the North. I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the pit. Those who see you will stare at you; they will look closely at you: "Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble, who shook the kingdoms, who turned the world into a wilderness, who trampled its cities and would not release the prisoners to return home? All the kings of the nations lie in splendor, each in his own tomb. But you are thrown out without a grave, like a worthless branch, covered by those slain with the sword and dumped into a rocky pit like a trampled corpse.

As you can see in the scripture quoted from Ezekiel, Satan was a guardian cherub stationed in the Garden of Eden. This explains his easy access to Adam and Eve and the tree of Knowledge. This may also explain why Eve didn't question the snake speaking to her: She may have recognized it as the guardian Cherub speaking through the snake and felt no reason to fear him. He was an entity she would have been familiar with.

Many people ask how we know that the scripture in Ezekiel 28 is referring to Satan, for the text references "...the king of Tyre". Therefore, we feel it's important to explain this:

According to the Strong's Hebrew lexicon, the name "Tyre" is listed as follows:( http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html )
6865 Tsor tsore or Tsowr {tsore}; the same as 6864; a rock; Tsor, a place in Palestine:--Tyre, Tyrus.
Note, this states it is the same as another word; word #6864. Looking at this second word, we see this entry to be listed as this:
6864 tsor tsore from 6696; a stone (as if pressed hard or to a point); (by implication, of use) a knife:--flint, sharp stone.
This reference clarifies that "Tyre" is derived from a word meaning a sharpened rock, such as a stone knife. But this isn't all. This entry leads to yet the third entry, #6696. Upon looking at this entry, we find this information:
6696 tsuwr tsoor a primitive root; to cramp, i.e. confine (in many applications, literally and figuratively, formative or hostile):--adversary, assault, beset, besiege, bind (up), cast, distress, fashion, fortify, inclose, lay siege, put up in bags.

How does this directly point to Satan? Because according to the Strong's Hebrew lexicon, the word for "Satan" means:
7854 satan saw-tawn' from 7853; an opponent; especially (with the article prefixed) Satan, the arch-enemy of good:--adversary, Satan, withstand.
And looking at it's secondary reference, we see:
7853 satan saw-tan' a primitive root; to attack, (figuratively) accuse:--(be an) adversary, resist.

We can't help noticing that the root meanings for "Tyre" and "Satan" share a foundation of hostility and opposition. Therefore, it makes sense that God would symbolize Satan as the King of Tyre in Ezekiel's prophecy, since Satan is the king of all hostilities and oppositions.

As we can see from the above passages, Satan committed the very first sin when he let his pride cause him to act treasonously against God. This gives him the unenviable distinction of being the first creature ever to sin. His wish to be elevated to a god led him to commit the second sin: to draw Adam and Eve away from the True God, causing their deaths, effectively making Satan a murderer (John 8:44).

Apparently, the snake was considered to be the most cunning of the creatures in the Garden (Genesis 3:1), which is probably why Satan chose it as his medium. He used a sly creature to help him with his sly plan. The bible makes it clear that Satan was the mastermind behind the serpent's conversation with Eve spoken of in Genesis 3:1-5. We know this because this snake spoke the first lie to Eve ("you will not die..."), and the bible points out that Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). Since the snake spoke the lie, and Satan is the father of lies, Satan was responsible for the snake's conversation. Because of being used by Satan for evil purposes, the snake was cursed to crawl on its belly from that point on (Genesis 3:14). This event in Eden is probably why Satan is referred to in the scriptures as being a serpent (Revelation 12:9).

Satan is also called Beelzebub, ruler of the Demons. This is indicated when the Pharisees were falsely accusing Jesus of being a servant of Beelzebub, and Jesus connected Satan as Beelzebub (Matthew 12:22-30, Mark 3:22-24, Luke 11:15-20). By the way, the name "Beelzebub" is an Arabic word that translates as "Lord of the Flies".

So now that brings us to the next topic: If Satan is the ruler of the Demons, who are these Demons?

The Demons are other fallen angels that apparently followed Satan. We say this because the bible refers to the demons as Satan's angels (Matthew 25:41). These cannot be angels that Satan created for himself, because according to scripture everything was created only by God's power (Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 40:26, Ephesians 3:9, Revelation 4:11), which He gave to Jesus for creative work (Colossians 1:15-17). The key word here is e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, thus no one else had the power of creating other things. Therefore, these angels must be other fallen ones from among God's heavenly beings. The bible mentions fallen angels (Genesis 6:1-2 with 1 Peter 3:19-20), so we know that it happens. Therefore, these demons are a group of fallen angels that chose to follow the fallen Cherub guardian from the Garden. It is also worth noting that Satan is spoken of as the ruler of these demons, as mentioned above. This supports the idea that Satan was a high ranking Cherub before he sinned. Just as an army general can become corrupt and take some of the lower ranks along with him, so could it have been the same with Satan and some of the angels.

The Demons seem to be bullies of sorts, and we say this because they seem to enjoy possessing people and wreaking havoc in their lives. This is shown in that there were many demon-possessed people who were cured by Jesus and his disciples (Matthew 4:24, Matthew 8:16,28-34, Matthew 12:22, Mark 1:32-34, Luke 4:33-35, Matthew 10:1, 8). The demons are also referred to as wicked, unclean spirits (Mark 5:1-10, Mark 6:7-13, Mark 7:24-30).

The demons don't stop at bullying. They have also insinuated themselves as gods in our world, as the bible shows us that idol worship is a form of demon worship (Deuteronomy 32:17, Psalms 106:37, 1 Corinthians 10:19-20). Therefore, we must be careful to not use objects in worship so as not to fall into demonic idolatry (Exodus 20:4, Leviticus 26:1).

As we can see from the scriptures, these wicked beings are more powerful than we humans are. They can possess our bodies, sicken us with diseases, acts as gods, and cause waves of corruption and suffering on a daily basis. When we think of all these things the wicked spirits can do to us, this can seem to be very intimidating. How vulnerable are we when it comes to these wicked beings? Do we have any refuge? YES! The bible gives us these wonderful reassurances:

Psalms 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble."
Psalms 145:20 " The LORD guards all those who love Him, but He destroys all the wicked."
Proverbs 30:5 "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him."
1 Peter 5:7 "casting all your care upon Him, because He cares about you"

Therefore, even though Satan and the Demons are powerful spirit forces, we still have the strength of God and His angels to help us fend off those evil ones. Please remember to rely on them when Satan and his minions make trouble in your life.