Who is Satan?

Known by many names (most commonly the devil), Satan was originally called Lucifer. He was of a class of angels called the Cherubim (not to be confused with the small fat babies with wings known in every day life as a Cherub. This had its origin in the Renaissance and has nothing to do with real angels).

Also called the “anointed Cherub that covereth” (Ezekiel 28:14), Lucifer was a guardian angel directly in God’s presence. He is extremely powerful, intelligent and beautiful and nothing at all like the red horned little pitch-fork creature we’ve come to know in fairy tales. We don’t know how pride and jealousy came to be – the Bible does not say. But we do know that Satan’s sin was pride. He grew prideful in his beauty and splendor and wanted to be like God. He therefore started a rebellion against God. A third of the angels followed him in rebellion. God cast them, along with Satan, out of their positions in Heaven and since then it has been their goal to corrupt mankind and stop God’s plans for the salvation of our species.

Satan made multiple attempts to destroy the line of David once God made it known that this would be the line from which the Messiah would come. But we know that was a complete failure as Jesus fulfilled His mission of dying for our sins and rising from the dead.

Satan is not to be trifled with. We are not to fear him, because the Bible says that He that is in us, is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). But he is still an extremely powerful and smart being. Even Michael the archangel did not directly rebuke Satan. He said that God would rebuke him.

But it is a mistake to view Satan as a rival of Christ. That places him on the same level. And Satan, powerful as he may be, is still a created being. Christ is God.

We know that, in spite of losing his place of honour in Heaven, Satan still had access to the heavenly realm. This is confirmed in Job 2, where Satan appeared before God. But, according to Revelation 12:7-12, there will come a time when he no longer has any access to Heaven and, knowing his time is short, will focus all his attention on destroying Israel and any Christians he can find.