SATAN AND THE DEMONS

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 (King James Version):

Genesis 6:5 -- And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Jeremiah 7:24 -- But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

Matthew 16:23 -- "But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me Satan, thou are an offence to me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."

Hebrews 2:14 -- Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood , he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil.

James 1:13-15 -- Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man; But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conveived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Thus, some believe that evil and sin are things that originate from within a person, not from a sentient spritual being seeking to destroy our relationship with God. Do such believers see the entire picture the bible presents? The answer would be to do further research into the bible to see if there is more to this picture:

According to the bible, Christ himself considered Satan the Devil to be a real, living, sentient being: (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
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).

We know there are more scriptures, 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 need to have a conversation with a non-existent thing, and the Archangel wouldn't argue with himself and offer a rebuke to himself over a dead body.

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. But 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). Yahweh 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 who associated 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 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 (Holman Christian Standard Bible):

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 slendor you courrupted your wisdom. So I threw you down to the earth; I made a spectacle fo 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 beome 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 remostest parts of the North. I will ascend above the hightest 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 it's 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 was familiar with.)

First we need to make something clear: 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 secondary 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" means a sharpened rock, such as a stone knife. But this isn't all. This entry leads to yet a 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 but notice 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 of scripture, Satan committed the very first sin when he let his pride cause him to act treasonously against Yahweh. This gives him the unenviable distinction of being the first creature ever to sin. His wish to be elevated to god status led him to commit a second sin: to draw Adam and Eve away from Yahweh, 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 subsequently cursed to crawl on its belly from that point on (Genesis 3:14). This event with Adam and Eve involving a snake 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, Jesus connected Satan as Beelzebub.(Matthew 12:22-30, Mark 3:22-24, Luke 11:15-20).

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 Yahweh's power (Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 40:26, Ephesians 3:9, Revelation 4:11), which He also gave to Jesus for some 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 has 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, it is likely that these demons are a particular 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 with Satan and some of the lower ranking 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 that 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 (Mark5:1-10, Mark 6:7-13, Mark 7:24-30).

The demons don't stop at just being bullies. 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 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 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 the 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: (Quotes from the New Jerusalem Bible)

Psalms 46:1 "God is both refuge and strength for us, a help always ready in trouble."
Psalms 145:20 "Yahweh guards all who love Him, but all the wicked He destroys."
Proverbs 18:10 "The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the upright runs to it and is secure."
Proverbs 30:5 "Every word of God is unalloyed; a shield to those who take refuge in Him."
1 Peter 5:7 "unload all your burden onto him."