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We say some true things about Satan. To quote one dictionary:
“He is always depicted as hostile to God, and as working to overthrow the purposes of God.”
We say Satan is a real and dangerous being who wants to corrupt and destroy people. He is a spiritual creature who rebelled against his Creator. The devil has authority over evil spirits called demons. He works with other rebellious spirit beings like himself. We say these true things because they’re very clearly in the Bible.
However, consider the many other things we say about Satan:
| Attacks our bodies | Tempts us to sin |
| Creates evil desires in us | Whispers lies or implants evil thoughts |
| Listens to our thoughts | Commands fallen angels (called demons) |
| Rules Hell | Affects our emotional and mental health (anger, depression, anxiety, etc.) |
| Knows what we’re doing or about to do | Distracts us during spiritual things |
| Damages our property at the worst times | Controls the media and certain political or social groups |
| Makes inappropriate ads appear on our phones, computer, or TV | Personally creates division in the church |
| Leads our children astray | Makes us doubt our faith |
| Convinces people that the Bible isn’t true | Does all of this to millions of Christians at once |
To varying degrees, Christians blame Satan for almost any negative thought or event that we experience. However, most Christians say these things because they believe it aligns with the Bible’s teachings. Consider some of the more popular verses we use to explain Satan’s role in our lives:
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
We picture Satan as a solitary predator looking to take down individual Christians just as a lion takes down its prey.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7b)
We must fight against the personal attacks of Satan. With enough resilience, we can make him leave our presence.
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? (Acts 5:3)
Satan fills our hearts with lies and a desire to sin. These lies and desires aren’t from ourselves but originate from an evil outside source.
Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (1 Corinthians 7:5)
Satan tempts us by implanting lustful thoughts or putting things in front of our eyes that tempt us toward sexual immorality and adultery.
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16)
We are constantly under direct and personal attack from Satan as he hurls “flaming darts” at individual Christians. Each Christian must use their faith to block these precise attacks.
On top of individual verses, we also call on larger biblical accounts to describe how Satan personally tempts and attacks us. Job was personally attacked by Satan in Job 1-2. Genesis 3 shows how Eve was personally lied to by Satan. And even Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, was personally tempted by Satan in the wilderness in Matthew 4:1-11. Since it happened to them, it must also frequently happen to us.
There is more we could look at, but it will always lead back to the same conclusion: Satan personally tempts and attacks people. He keeps lying to unbelievers to hold them in unbelief and tempts God’s chosen people to break His divine law, doubt their faith, stay silent with the gospel, and many other things.
Nearly every area of Christianity teaches this belief. Books, videos, Bible studies, YouTube channels, sermons, counseling, conversations with others, and even our prayer lives continually reinforce the idea that we undergo personal and regular attacks from Satan. We quickly and confidently point the finger at this wicked adversary whenever we have an evil thought, choose sin, suffer emotionally, or experience trouble.
Yet, for all that we say about Satan, we never talk about the one thing that makes this traditional view of Satan fall apart: Satan isn’t an evil version of God who is capable of all these things.
What Satan’s Powers Would Require
When we focus purely on our own experiences and think of Satan in very basic terms, our picture of him isn’t very problematic. That’s because we often develop our beliefs about Satan in a vacuum. We think about what he does as though we’re the only ones he attacks, and thus we don’t have much reason to question whether the power we ascribe to him is biblically (or even logically) consistent.
But we must remember that a single Christian isn’t the only one saying these things. If Christians make up an eighth of the world’s population, Satan must be capable of personally attacking nearly one billion individuals at any given moment. We say a lot of things about what Satan can do to a billion people, but they tend to fall into three broad categories:
Satan knows almost everything
We claim he can hear what we’re thinking. He also knows what we’re doing at any given moment. He understands each individual so intimately that he can implant the most hateful and vile thoughts possible. Likewise, he’s so aware of how we respond that he’ll create the perfect temptation that leads us away from Christ. All the while, he remains perfectly aware of what all other people (or at least all Christians) around the world are doing and is constantly customizing sin, lies, and temptation for each of them.
Satan can be almost everywhere at once
Not only is Satan fully aware of what we’re all doing, but he’s able to afflict us all with suffering and temptation at the same time. If two people believe Satan is whispering a lie to them at the same time, we must claim that the Evil One is capable of being present with two people at once. Yet, based on what we claim he does in our daily lives, we must also claim that he can simultaneously be present with millions of individuals as he whispers lies, presents temptation, and brings suffering into their lives. Some may soften this by saying he works through demons, yet even then he must still be capable of being present worldwide to see his plans carried out against individuals.
Satan can do almost anything
What can Satan do? Based on how we talk about him, the better question is, “What can’t Satan do?” When we look at the historical account of Job and see that God permitted an angelic being to do everything except kill Job, we believe that Satan wields this power at all times over all people. Thus we ascribe him the power to control our thoughts, weather, car engines, internet ads, music, our employment, politicians, romantic relationships, our fatigue or mental focus, Hollywood, Christians we disagree with, our child’s faith, mental health, emotional health, physical health, spiritual health, alarm clocks, social or political movements, our interest in spiritual things over worldly things… the list of things Satan can do or control is nearly endless because many Christians believe we can attribute almost anything negative in our lives to his malicious work.
There’s no way around it – for Satan to be capable of all this, he would need a level of power that rivals God Himself.
Is Satan “Almost” God?
Some readers may be familiar with the theological terms that help us better understand the absolute uniqueness of God. He is:
Omniscient: God knows everything (Psalm 147:5, Matthew 10:30, Hebrews 4:13)
Omnipresent: God is present everywhere at once (Proverbs 15:3, Jeremiah 23:24, Acts 17:24)
Omnipotent: God is all-powerful and can do anything He desires (Genesis 18:14, Isaiah 14:27, Matthew 19:26)
Of course, we would never say that Satan is on the same level as God. That would be blasphemy! But if we’re honest as we reflect on what we say and believe about him, we claim that he’s almost at the same level as God. We portray him as an evil twin of our perfect Creator who will ultimately lose, but until then we must suffer under his almost limitless power.
What we say about Satan may not be blasphemy, but it’s also not true.
Some readers may start to recognize that we’ve been conditioned to view Satan in a way that gives him a level of power that competes with God. We’ve already looked at some of those individual verses and biblical accounts that we may now struggle with. I imagine many readers also have a variety of questions swirling through their minds:
If Satan is nowhere near God’s power, why does the Bible seem to portray him as a single being with so much power?
Why does everyone talk about him this way if it’s not true?
What does it mean for my past, present, and future experiences if Satan’s very nature makes it impossible for him to attack me personally?
Before looking at what the Bible reveals about Satan (and what many Bible verses about him teach), I’d like to take a brief detour and help you understand why we think of Satan this way. With a subject like this, we often try to maintain our familiar assumptions while trying to fit a new teaching into it. However, you’ll quickly find that doing so leads to contradicting beliefs that confuse us even more.
I know you’re ready to see what this is building up to. But first, I want readers to see how our assumptions about Satan have already interpreted many areas of the Bible before we even read them. It’s those assumptions that lead us to believe that Satan isn’t as powerful as God, but almost. Refining our understanding of Satan requires us to dig deep into the root of why we make these claims. By understanding how things outside the Bible have impacted how we interpret the world around us, we can attain a biblical understanding that enables us to live a more victorious life for Jesus Christ.
