Sermon Tone Analysis

Contents

Introduction...........................................................................................................................

The Existence or Reality of Satan.........................................................................................

The Nature of Satan...................................................................................................................

The Personality of Satan...........................................................................................................

The Designations of Satan.......................................................................

Specific Names Applied to Satan................................................................................................

Special Characterizations of Satan...........................................................................................

The History of Satan..........................................................................................................

His Creation and Origin.........................................................................................................

His Original Position....................................................................................................

His Sin and Fall.........................................................................................................

The Angelic Conflict and the Conquest of the Planet Earth....................................................

His Judgments and Destiny..................................................................................................

The Activities of Satan...................................................................................................

In General.......................................................................

Specific Objects His Activities.........................................................................................

Satan’s World System, The Satanic Cosmos..............................................................................

The Meaning and Nature of this World........................................................................

Satan’s Authority Over This World.............................................................................

Satan’s Purposes in this World............................................................................

The Christian’s Relation to this World....................................................................................

God’s Attitude and Plan for This World......................................................................................

The Christian’s Defense Against Satan and His World System..................................................

Overcoming the Enemy.........................................................................................

The Provision of Victory...............................................................................

Introduction

Satanology or the doctrine of Satan is properly a part of Angelology since Satan is a fallen angel.

It is that part that deals specifically with the ruler of the fallen angels or demons (; ).

The study of the rest of his hideous kingdom, the fallen angels or demons, is sometimes called Demonology.

The career of Satan, which extends from the dateless past, before man's creation (), to eternity future, is inclusive in the Bible and forms a major and an important doctrine of the Word of God.

Some people might question, “Why we should even study about the devil.

After all, there is enough trouble in life.

Let’s just leave him alone.”

But to do so is to ignore a considerable portion of God’s revelation to us in Scripture.

Satan is mentioned throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

While our need is to dwell on the riches of Christ rather than on Satan and the demons, we do need to know this doctrine of the Bible that we might be alert to who and what he is.

As a major area of God’s revelation, the study of Satan teaches us about his character, purposes, the nature of temptation, and the Christian’s provision against him.

The Bible’s teaching about Satan is part of “the faith,” the body of God’s revealed truth.

So the Apostle Peter exhorts us to be alert to the devil and his tactics by standing “firm in the faith,” the body of truth that we need know and believe.

[1]

Unfortunately, because many people are ignorant of his nature and schemes, they become sitting ducks for his attacks.

Some, of course, go way beyond the teaching of Scripture and find a demon behind every problem they face.

Rather than accepting responsibility for personal actions, like Eve who blamed the serpent for her choice, such theology seeks to put all the blame on the devil.

Others may talk about the devil, but often with tongue-in-cheek.

They refuse to believe in a personal devil and ridicule the whole idea.

For many Satan or the devil is just an evil influence, or they think of the idea of the devil as merely a synonym for evil but deny that he is a real personal being at work in the world as he is described in the Bible.

Ryrie writes:

The denial of Satan’s reality usually takes the form of considering the idea of Satan as the personification of evil but not actually a being who has his own separate existence.

The idea of “Satan” as a person developed more in New Testament times, and this necessitated, we are told, reinterpretations of the “legends” of the Old Testament, since, it is claimed, they do not contain the idea of a distinctive demonic figure.

In addition, Iranian dualism, it is said, contributed to the Jewish idea of a personal Satan during the Greco-Roman period (see T. H. Gaster, “Satan,” The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible [New York: Abingdon, 1976], 4:224-8).[2]

To others he is the keeper of hell, a slithering snake in the grass, or something obviously evil and easily recognized.

For others, the “devil” is merely the demon in a bottle of booze, or some macabre, gruesome being with horns, a tail, and of course, the pitch fork which he uses to pitch people into his jail called hell.

But Satan isn’t the keeper of hell.

Biblically speaking, such ideas are nonsense and the product of man’s imagination, tradition, and Satan’s own deceptions.

As will be demonstrated in the material that follows, Satan is not just an evil, impersonal influence, but a very real person, a fallen angel with supernatural powers.

He is also not the keeper of hell.

The lake of fire was prepared for him and his angels.

Furthermore, it is not the devil who confines people to hell or Hades.

It is God who sends men there and later to the lake of fire to join Satan and the demon hosts (; ).

Those who populate hell do so only because they have rejected Jesus Christ (, ).

This study of Satan will demonstrate that he has many faces, schemes, and approaches and they aren’t always obvious or ugly.

They may appear very lovely, handsome, sophisticated, educated, polite, and apparently good.

But it is all a dangerous sham designed to deceive and defeat.

Wise military leaders and coaches never go into battle without carefully studying their opponents if at all possible.

They want to know how they operate, their character, their strengths and weaknesses, their methods or schemes and so on.

To be effective against the enemy you must know your enemy so you can be prepared to effectively counter his attacks.

For this reason alone, the doctrine of Satanology is a very important study, and one which is often filled with opposition because Satan, the deceiver, never likes to be revealed for who and what he is and how he operates.

But Christians need to be informed.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “we are not ignorant of his (Satan’s) schemes” (), and “but I am afraid, lest as the serpent (Satan) deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray . .

.” ().

The Existence or Reality of Satan

To reject the reality or existence of Satan is to reject the Bible as God’s inspired and infallible revelation to man.

As God’s Word, the Bible is comprehensive in its teaching about the reality of Satan or the devil.

His existence is taught from Genesis to Revelation.

Seven Old Testament books teach his existence (Genesis, 1 Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah) and every New Testament writer refers to his reality and activity as a personal being.

More importantly, Christ also affirmed the fact of Satan and his activity as a personal being.

In twenty-five of the twenty-nine passages in the Gospels which speak of Satan, our Lord is speaking.

In some of those passages there can be no question of Christ’s accommodating His teaching to the crowd’s supposed ignorances or faulty concepts of Satan due to Persian dualism.

Notice especially passages like ; ; and 11:18.[3]

Some have sought to demythologize our understanding of Satan and demons by appealing to the influence of Persian mythology and its system of dualism as the source of the Bible’s concept of Satan and demons, but the Scripture contains nothing of the dualism found in Persian thought.

The devil and demons are never presented as independent forces in opposition to God, but as beings created by God who fell from their original place of glory.

The Nature of Satan

As a fallen angel, all that is true of angels in general is true of Satan and his fallen angels (demons).

(1) He is a Creature: like all angels, Satan is a creature, created by Christ, the Creator of all things (cf.

with ; ; ).

(2) He is a Spirit Being: describes angels as spirits and demons are called unclean spirits (; ; ; ; ; ; ).

Further, the fact we are told that “we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places” () also suggest that Satan and his demons are spirit beings.

Finally, the fact that Paul describes them as invisible also shows they are spirit beings ().

(3) He Has Limitations: Though extremely powerful, Satan is neither omnipotent, omniscient, nor omnipresent.

He simply cannot be everywhere at once.

Angels, though spirit beings and very powerful, are not omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent.

They cannot be everywhere at once and this is true of Satan.

However, as the chief of his demons forces or as the “prince of the power of the air” (), he is chief of a vast host of demons who are so numerous as to make Satan’s power and presence seem to be practically ubiquitous or everywhere at once (cf.

).

Because of this limitation, many references to Satan or the devil include his whole kingdom.

The person of Satan does not personally tempt each of us for he simply cannot do that.

He is only able to do so through his world system and demon hosts.

In his appearance when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord (), in the temptation of Christ (), and the entrance into Judas () we surely have clear references to the person of Satan himself, but in many other passages, Satan or the devil seems to stand for Satan’s kingdom (see ; ; ; ; ).

It is also comforting to know that Satan is limited.

The promise of Scripture is that “greater is He who is in us, than he who is in the world” ().

For all his power and hatred against God and man, he could do nothing against Job that God did not expressly allow.

Therefore, he can be resisted and made to flee (), but only by the strength of God made available to believers in Christ ().