The basic premise of this booklet is that our Creator has allowed a very real devil to absolutely deceive most of humanity for the past 6,000 years. Satan has, in fact, established a counterfeit religion in order to mislead the entire world, but the great Creator will soon intervene to send Jesus Christ back to the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). When He returns, Christ will cast Satan into a bottomless pit, “so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:3).
One of the primary ways Satan deceives most people is to make them think that he does not even exist. So people make jokes about how “the devil did it,” feeling that there is not a real devil after all. But, as we have seen, Jesus Christ called Satan “the ruler of this world.”
How did Satan come into being? What are his methods of deception? And, most importantly, how has Satan deceived the whole world? When Jesus Christ quoted from “Daniel the prophet” (Mark 13:14), He considered those writings Holy Scripture. In the book of Daniel, we find spirit beings—both angels and demons—described on a number of occasions.
After Daniel had been fasting to seek greater understanding, God sent an angel to encourage him (Daniel 10:10–12). The angel gave Daniel a remarkable explanation about why it had taken him so long to answer Daniel’s prayers. “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come” (vv. 13–14).
Later, this same angel recounted further details of the unseen spiritual world. “Then he said, ‘Do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come. But I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth…. No one upholds me against these, except Michael your prince’” (vv. 20–21).
Clearly, this passage is speaking of spirit wars. It is describing the struggle that goes on behind world affairs in the spirit world, for Satan the devil is described as “the god of this age” who “has blinded” the unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Satan is also called “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). The angel speaking to Daniel was describing a battle among spirit beings wherein even the great archangel Michael (cf. Daniel 12:1) had to be called in for assistance.
This world, this “age”—this nearly 6,000-year period from Adam until now—has been, and still is, a society dominated by Satan the devil and millions of fallen angels or “demons” who followed him in rebellion against the Creator God.
“Satan” is not just a generalized term for evil. Satan is not a blind force. Satan the devil is a powerful spiritual personality—originally created by God as a cherub—who rebelled against God. His original name, “Lucifer,” means “light bringer.” But since his rebellion he has been called “Satan”—which means “adversary.”
Notice Isaiah 14:12–15: “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.”
Here we find the mighty Lucifer plotting to overthrow God. His great capacity and vanity made him decide to compete with his Creator!
In Ezekiel 28:1–16, God describes first the human prince of Tyre. He was obviously a man of great capacity and the full leader—on the human sphere—over this “New York” of the ancient world. Then Ezekiel begins to describe the real “power behind the throne”—the “king” of this pagan city-state. Notice: “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’” (vv. 12–13). Here we find a personality who existed millennia before Tyre—in the Garden of Eden! Yet he was a created being (v. 15), not a member of the God Family.
