[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]
Do You Really Know the Devil?
Red horns, pitchfork, pointy tail—the stereotype of the Devil as some sort of cartoonish figure has little to do with the reality. Satan the Devil is a powerful spirit being of immense influence in the world around us.
Not just a “symbol” of evil or a mere abstract representation of sin or temptation, Satan is a real, living, personal entity devoted to resisting the plan of God, corrupting the true faith, and destroying humanity.
Yet, for all people know about the Devil, or THINK they know about the Devil, one question inevitably arises, and today, we’ll answer that question. Join us for this episode of Tomorrow’s World where we ask and answer the question: “Where Did Satan Come From?”
Satan’s Greatest Trick—Convincing the World He Doesn’t Exist?
Now before we answer our question today, we should perhaps first address a larger question: Is Satan the Devil REAL? Increasingly, people say “No.”
In July of 2023, The Hill reported on a Gallup poll asking Americans if they believed in certain ideas or beings rooted in religion, such as God or angels.
Results showed that belief in these ideas has diminished in the United States relatively consistently for more than 20 years, reaching a record low in all categories in 2023. And belief in the Devil was lowest of ALL—at only 58 percent. More than four out of every ten Americans believe Satan the Devil IS NOT REAL (“Belief in God, the devil falls to new low: Gallup,” July 20, 2023).
And I guarantee you, the Devil PREFERS it that way. It is far easier for him to influence society on every level—entertainment, education, government policy, science, and religion—if we think he does not exist in the first place.
How can we know if the Devil is real?
By turning to God’s word. Because if anyone knows whether Satan is real or not, it is the God of the Bible, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. In fact, if the Devil is a created being—and he is, as we’ll see in a few moments—then God CREATED him! Or, at least, created what BECAME him.
So, let’s turn to Scripture, the divinely revealed mind of God in print, and see what He has inspired in its pages that can teach us about the very real Satan the Devil. As we consistently tell you here on Tomorrow’s World, don’t just believe us—believe your Bible.
And that Bible is FILLED with warnings about the Devil—warnings that, frankly, few people believe, including, believe it or not, most who consider themselves “Christians.” Let’s read some of those warnings.
In the book of Revelation, chapter 12 and verse 9, the Apostle John speaks of a war to come in heaven and describes Satan in a manner that we MUST understand:
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (Revelation 12:9).
We learn several things from this. For instance, there are fallen angels who choose to follow Satan. We’ll discuss them later in our program.
But we also learn that Satan the Devil has deceived the WHOLE WORLD. My friends, do you believe what the Bible says, or don’t you? If you do, then you MUST accept that when God inspires His word to say that the Devil has deceived “the whole world,” it means just that! That means most of the people around us—including the one looking back at us in the mirror.
Now, it’s easy to conclude, “No, that couldn’t be ME! I believe in JESUS! I’m a Christian!” Well, that might be fine if the Devil always came across demonically, but he doesn’t. Frankly, he is quite focused on IMITATING JESUS CHRIST and convincing those who are following HIM [Satan] that they are following Jesus. Look at the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 11 [vv. 13–14], where he explains how the DEVIL, not Jesus Christ, is behind many so-called “Christian” ministries. He says there plainly:
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
No, not a red cape, “bad guy” mustache, and pitchfork. Rather, an “angel of light”! he is the MASTER of lies and deception! Read this description of him in John, chapter 8 and verse 44, where Jesus is addressing the religious leaders of His day and condemning them:
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
The Devil truly HAS deceived the ENTIRE world! In 2 Corinthians 4:4, the Apostle Paul calls him “the god of this age,” and THREE TIMES in the book of John, no less an authority than Jesus Christ calls Satan “the ruler of this world.”
Does that shock you? Luke 4:6 makes this explicit during the temptation of Jesus. During that trial, the Devil offers Christ all the kingdoms of the world if only Jesus would worship him. Yet, Jesus never disputes with the Devil about that or tells him he has no authority to do that. Quite the contrary!
How did Satan come to possess such authority in the world? Why would God allow that?
Did God Create Satan to Become the Devil?
The first smaller question we should address as we answer the overall question, Where did Satan come from?, is whether Satan was CREATED or not. Some philosophies or religions like Zoroastrianism claim good and evil as eternally co-existing and some claim that God and the Devil must somehow exist forever together, as eternal representatives of those two forces.
The Bible, on the other hand, reveals that to be nonsense. God is the Creator, and all that exists—in both the spirit and the physical realm—came into existence because it was created by God—the two persons we now call God the Father and Jesus Christ. In fact, Ephesians 3:9 tells us that God the Father created all things through Jesus Christ.
And God created the angels, as well. In Psalm 104, in which King David praises God for the many beautiful aspects of His creation, the warrior poet writes in verse 4, God “makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire.”
In fact, the Bible speaks of a very specific angel’s creation in Ezekiel 28. There, God is inspiring the prophet to preach against the leader of Tyre—but, as the words make plain in a number of ways, the focus shifts from the human leading the nation to the spiritual power behind the throne, as if the human is only a prince, while the angelic power is the real king. Let’s read, beginning in verse 12:
Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you’” (Ezekiel 28:12–15).
Isaiah 14:12 names this being “Lucifer,” and he is the fallen angel that became Satan the Devil.
But notice in this passage that he was clearly a REMARKABLE creation! Clearly, God created him wise, beautiful, skilled, and PERFECT IN HIS WAYS. But a time came when iniquity, or sin, was found in him. The nature of that sin is addressed in more detail in Isaiah 14, but first, let’s take some time with this one here in Ezekiel—because it answers some important questions that many people ask about God and the Devil.
For instance, some ask, “If the Devil is so evil, why did God make him in the first place? Why would God make an evil angel?”
And we see here in Ezekiel that God DID NO SUCH THING.
God didn’t create the devil as some sort of evil enemy of all that is good. He created him wonderful, glorious, and good. Look again: Ezekiel writes that before iniquity was found in him, Lucifer was “the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” He was even “the anointed cherub who covers” God’s throne, and he was “perfect in [his] ways from the day [he] was created.”
God did not create an embodiment of evil—He created something GOOD and BEAUTIFUL. Any claims that God would make someone inherently evil by design misunderstand the Bible.
In Revelation 15 and verse 3, at the end of this age, we read a song sung by the resurrected and glorified saints, and they say something important about God:
They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!”
Yes, great and marvelous are His works, and just and true are His ways!
He did not create an evil Satan. Lucifer was created beautiful and with the potential for good things. In fact, doesn’t the Bible say the same about us? Ephesians 2:10 says to you and me, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Yes, you and I, too, are created for GOOD WORKS. Yet human history—and, if we’re honest, even the record of our own lives—reveals that being created with the POTENTIAL for good works and actually CHOOSING TO DO those good works are two very different things.
Lucifer may have been created with the potential for great good, but, as the passage in Ezekiel noted, eventually “iniquity was found in [him].”
What sin was found in Lucifer that could bring him so low? What was able to cause a beautiful, perfect being of such wisdom and majesty—as this angelic being was—to become the bitter, demonic Satan the Devil, utterly corrupt and wholeheartedly intent on destroying, if he could, the plan of God and the people of God?
Why Did Lucifer Fall from Heaven?
When the Bible first introduces the Devil, he is the serpent of Genesis 3, who tempts our first parents to sin in the Garden of Eden. That is, even in the Garden of Eden, he’s already the villain! Yet, we also read that he was not always that way, and that, eventually, “iniquity was found in [him].” We read that he was good, perfect, and beautiful. What transformed him?
If it can be summarized in one, single word, that word would be “pride.”
In the first century, the Apostle Paul advised Timothy about appointing men to authority in the Church, telling him to choose “not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6).
Yes, even the greatest of angels can be subject to pride. This is explained in Ezekiel 28 and verse 17, where, speaking to the Devil, God says, “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor….”
Today’s free DVD, “The Occult and the Spirit World” goes into much more detail concerning angels and demons, but for now, I will refer you to that DVD for more details and simply point out that God created the angels as free moral agents. Like human beings, they can choose right or wrong for themselves.
In fact, the Scriptures tell of angels who defied God and abandoned the assignment God gave them. One place we read of that is Jude 6:
… the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
We learn more about this “proper domain” in another passage we will read in a moment. But first, notice that the Apostle Peter refers to these angels in 2 Peter 2:4:
… God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell [or, in the Greek, Tartarus, a place of restraint] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment….
In Lucifer’s case, his pride led him to be discontent with his assigned place and to stage a rebellion against God and Heaven itself! We read of that rebellion in Isaiah 14, beginning in verse 12.
How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit (Isaiah 14:12–15).
Notice, too, a glimpse of the “proper domain” to which Jude referred. When Lucifer decided to attack God’s throne, where was he at the time? Read verse 13 carefully: “For you have said in your heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven…” and in verse 14, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds….”
If you ascend above the clouds to leave your responsibility, then that responsibility is below them, here on earth! Before human beings, this world was Lucifer’s!
That explains why he told Jesus Christ in Luke 4 and verse 6 that earth’s kingdoms were given to him by God. This was his assigned area of responsibility, and it is the Devil whom Jesus will replace when He returns!
Lucifer’s rebellion was devastating to the earth before the recreation week of Genesis 1 and 2, leaving it in ruins—“without form and void.” He was no longer Lucifer, the light bringer, but Satan, the Adversary.
Satan is the God of this World—For Now
Now he, and the fallen angels he corrupted, are what we know as demons and evil spirits.
We’ve also noted that the earth was given to him as a region of responsibility. This explains WHY Jesus did not disagree with him when the Devil said that authority and the kingdoms of the world “[had] has been delivered to [him]” (Luke 4:6), WHY Jesus calls him three times in the book of John the “ruler of this world,” and why Paul calls him “the god of this age,” as we noted earlier!
So, does that mean God has given up the earth to the Devil forever? Not at all!
In fact, in 1 John 3:8, the Apostle writes of a very important purpose for Jesus’ coming: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
By living in the hearts of converted, Spirit-begotten Christians, and living His life of obedience to God’s laws AGAIN in and through them, Jesus has already begun doing just that. And when He returns, the glorified Christ takes one giant step forward toward freeing all of mankind from the Devil’s influence. We read of that step in Revelation 20:
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while (vv. 1–3).
During these 1,000 years, the world will be turned into a paradise! As Isaiah describes this marvelous time, “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).
Though, as Revelation 20 says, he must be released for a short time at the Millennium’s end, his ultimate fate is the Lake of Fire, never to influence another individual ever again. God will ultimately solve the problem of Satan the Devil.
But we don’t have to wait 1,000 years. We don’t even have to wait a day! We can begin the process right now of experiencing the work of Jesus Christ as he destroys the works of the Devil in our own lives—agreeing to seek God’s laws and ways in all things, obeying His commands, and asking God the Father and Jesus Christ for the help we need to be more like Them. Asking them for the strength to embrace uncomfortable truths—about ourselves, our beliefs and practices, and our faith—rather than allowing ourselves the luxury of comfortable lies.
For those who seek God’s help, with all their heart, in turning away from their sin and disobedience to God’s laws, and turning to obedience, submission to the will and authority of God and Jesus Christ over their lives, rest assured that the ears of God are open to such requests.
If you’d like to learn more about today’s offer of the free DVD “The Occult and the Spirit World,” you can get that by going to TWTV.org/Spirit, or just click on the link in the description.
All of us here at Tomorrow’s World work very hard to help you understand your world from the pages of the Bible, and we hope that you’ll come back. If you’d like to see more videos like this, just click on “Subscribe,” and if you want to be notified, just click on the bell.
Thanks so much for watching!
