In August of 2010, Center Pointe started a 4 week sermon series in order to answer some of the most popular questions encountered during conversations with people in the Centerburg area, called Ask Anything. Since there were far more questions than time to answer them all during our Worship Gatherings, the following blog posts will give brief answers to the rest of your questions.


Have you seen the cartoons where an angel sits on one shoulder of the cat looking at eating the fish in the bowl and on the other shoulder sits a devil with a pitchfork and a pointy tail? This isn’t how good and evil battle and the devil doesn’t wear tights but the Bible does let us know about how Satan came into being, what Satan’s downfall was, what Satan is doing on the earth today, and what Satan’s future is. Most of the the information we find about Satan comes from the prophet Ezekiel.  Ezekiel 28:11-19 is specifically speaking of Satan and we will glean much from looking at this section of scripture.

How did Satan come into being?
Satan was created by God (Ez 28:13) at some point in eternity past or with the rest of God’s creating in Genesis chapter 1 and was created as a guardian cherub (Ez 28:14) which was a very special type of angel.  Ezekiel 28:12 says that Satan was wise and beautiful and verse 15 says that God created Satan “blameless” in his ways until he was filled with violence.

What was Satan’s downfall?
The original sin of mankind was pride and so was Satan’s.  We can deduct from Ezekiel 28:11-13 that Satan knew that he was the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Satan’s heart was proud because of his beauty (Ez 28:17) and because of Satan’s pride God expels him from heaven (Ez 28:16-17).

What is Satan doing now?
There are basically six things that Satan is doing in the world today, and in the book of Job, Satan is asked by God where he has been and what he was doing.  He responds to God by saying, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” Basically he tells God, “I was just hanging out!” But really there is more going on with Satan than just a several thousand year vacation.

First, Satan is man’s common enemy (Matthew 13:39) and adversary who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking those he can devour (I Peter 5:8).  Second, Satan wants all people to fall like he did, and he and his minions will stop at nothing to distract people, especially Christians, from living God’s way. Third, there are several passages in the book of John (12:31,14:30,16:11) where Satan is described as the “prince of the world.” Meaning that he has dominion over a world system that is corrupt just like he is. Satan is also called the prince of demons (Matthew 12:24) or the leader of a third of the heavenly angels who followed Satan when he sinned (see Revelation 12:3-4).  The last prince title that Satan is given is the prince of darkness (Colossians 1:13) meaning that he is the ruler of evil in the world. The fourth thing that Satan is up to is that he is always lying (John 8:44) since he is the father of lies (John 8:44) and is deceitful (I Peter 5:8) to the core.  He tells lies to us about ourselves, to others about us, about others to us and to us about God. There is always something that is twisted coming out of Satan’s mouth. Fifthly, Satan is accusing humans to God (Revelation 12:10) and God to humans (Genesis 3).  For the most part Satan’s accusations are true, such as, “they are such screw ups, they disobey God and live for themselves.”  We in truth can respond, “yes I am, BUT because of Jesus sacrifice I am forgiven, which changes everything! Lastly, Satan is the tempter.  He tempts Eve to doubt that God’s way is best (Genesis 3) and he and Jesus have a spiritual knock-down-drag-out where Satan tempts Jesus (in three areas – the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life – see Matthew 4) and tries to get Jesus to submit to him.  Satan is also called the “tempter” in 1st Thessalonians 3:5.  Always remember that Satan’s temptations are to not trust God and his promises.

What is Satan’s future?
Destruction and Doom is certain for Satan (Revelation 20:7-10).  Satan will be destroyed at the end of time after he has tried time and again to triumph over God.  In Revelation 20 we will finally see the fulfillment of the entire prophecy that God spoke in Genesis 3:16, “he [Jesus] will crush your [Satan's] head.”

There is much more to understand about Satan and the way he works, but we should not be quick to study him and all his workings to figure him out.  We should be aware of Satan’s schemes and what our own areas of weakness are, but we should spend even more time and energy getting to know Jesus better because when we know Jesus well, then we will be able to easily point out the fake.

Books for More Study:

If you are interested in doing a little more study and reading these books are helpful: