The topic we are talking about is extremely important and anyone who says he believes in God must say that he believes and that Satan exists because He is one "created" being who is as real as God himself who created Him. Satan is important because he is participated in many events throughout history and will have a great participation in future events that the Bible suggests in the times to come. It could be said that Satan is an indispensable part of human history that has taken place and will take place until the "end of time" on earth. and therefore it is necessary to know well the role of Satan in God's plan throughout history.
The first verse in Genesis begins with the statement, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." angels were also involved. And when everything was created we have a written conclusion by which God concludes:
,,And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
Genesis 1:31
We see here that everything that God created was good and angels were involved and there were still no fallen angels but everyone served God.
We find a record of this in Colossians where the apostle Paul wrote:
,, For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:."
Col. 1:16
In this verse we read "everything in heaven" and then "what is seen and what is not seen" and we conclude that this refers to angels because angels also belong to creatures (the army of heaven) and for us angels are beings who we cannot see except in exceptional cases.
Since we are talking about Satan, we can say that Satan is also an angel, but at that time He was not Satan but a perfect angel who served God like all other angels. The prophet Ezekiel gives us a description of what he was like:
,, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone [was] thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou [art] the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee [so]: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thou [wast] perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. "
Ezekiel 28: 12-15
So He was a perfect Cherub (angels are divided into ranks so we have Seraphim, Cherubim, Archangels and Angels) who symbolically slaughtered the holy presence of God and He was a creature who had great power and great potential because He was very high in rank but he also had the free will to decide whether to remain holy forever or to turn away from God and do evil.
We read what he chose in the book of the prophet Isaiah.
,, For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High”
Isa.14: 13-14
And when he decided to go to the side of evil, God told him because of His proud and blasphemous thoughts that He would throw him to the ground:
,, Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never [shalt] thou [be] any more. "
Ezekiel 28: 17-19
And of course God keeps his promises and burns the angel who was the Cherubim, the slayer is no longer what he was but became Satan and is thrown on the ground as punishment and that fall is described in the Gospel where the Lord Jesus says what that fall looked like.
,, And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.”
Luke 10:18
On this occasion as well, a third of the rebellious fallen angels were cast down from heaven with Satan, and we can read about that in Revelation.
,, And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: …”
Rev. 12: 4
,, And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Rev. 12: 9
The struggle of good and evil began in heaven a little earlier, and since Satan was cast down to earth, the relentless struggle of good and evil began on earth, and the first sacrifice that Satan could find on earth was Eve and then Adam and that struggle. it has continued to this day ("he deceives the whole world" Revelation 12: 9) and will continue in the future as long as Satan has God's permission to lead it.
In this battle, Satan uses all available forces and means to destroy God's people, but we need to know that Satan cannot do on earth exactly what he wants, but only does what God allows him to do. This can be seen if we study the book of Job where Satan is. he wants to destroy Job but in the end Job can only do what God allows him.We read that Satan has accusations against Job but God allows Satan to attack and cause great harm to Job for God's wise reasons to a certain extent but then God sets the limit to would protect Job and tells Satan
"And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thine hand; only do not raise your hands against him. And Satan departed from the Lord.
Job 1:12
And after some time and Satan's terror over Job, Satan comes to God again and accuses Job again, but God defends him again.
,, And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he [is] in thine hand; but save his life. "
Job 2: 6
And if we read the book of Job well, we will see that Satan is extremely strong and powerful, but despite his apostasy from God, he has an "obligation" to appear before God when God allows it and to act exactly as God commands him and not as He willed. If it were His will, this world would probably have been destroyed long ago, because if we look at what Satan did to Job, whom God himself called righteous, we can imagine what Satan is able to do to other people.
,, And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? "
Job 1: 8
We need to know that Satan is strong, very cunning and intimidating, that he is also a leader of fallen angels and that he is constantly working with his army against newborn people and God in order to somehow change God's plan, even though he knows he will not succeed. the final victory at least to do as much damage as possible while there is still time available because he knows that his time is limited.
We also need to know that one is Lucifer, Satan or the Devil and that His soldiers are Demons and there are a very large number of them but there are fewer of them than angels who continued to serve God.
Satan is very powerful but he cannot be in many places at once and we can see this in the book of Job when God asks him:
,, And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”
Job 1: 7
And in order to get the impression that Satan is present everywhere, he hires his army of Demons who perform various tasks for their master, which are of a very different spectrum, all with the goal of deceiving as many people as possible who will spend eternity with them in hell if they do not repent. the remaining time they receive from God.
And for the end of this part, let us note that the activity of Satan and the Demon is increasing as the "end of time" approaches, and by the signs of the times we see that we are very close to the events described in the Bible and foreseen for the "last days." and earlier but we can notice a very large activity of Satan and Demons all over the world causing various miracles, catastrophes, subtle deceptions but also horrible intimidation and even a large number of murders with horror effects to intimidate people and then deviate from the right path.
Satan is very cunning and is able to deceive every person because he has perfected the art of deception for thousands of years, but it is a great consolation that he can still do only what God allows him and Satan himself admits that when he said to God:
,,Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? …”
Job 1:10
So, if we believe in God, we should not be afraid of so much power and might of Satan, because with us is God who has incomparably more power and might, and His promise is:
,, And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand.”
John 10:28
Great article