Is the Devil Real?

Is the Devil still alive and well? Does he even exist?

 In most churches the topic of the Devil either never comes up or it comes up far too often (Think of Flip Wilsons the “devil made me do it”). But is there a real Devil and if there is does he have an impact on our lives? I will spend a couple blog postings working out these questions.

 Is there a real Devil? Well just asking the question puts one into the Judeo-Christian realm. Sure other religions have “baddies” but the name Devil or Satan is distinctly Judeo-Christian. The Bible informs us about many persons, some of which are God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and yes, even the Devil. If the Bible is true and it is, then they all exist. The Bible tells us quite a bit about each. We learn what each one is like and what our relationship to them is. The problem is that most of them are not beings like us with bodies that can be seen so it is hard to believe in their existence not to mention our sinful proclivity to want to deny the existence of the God of the Bible and therefore the other spirit persons the Bible tells us about. The Bible does not try to prove their existence only to inform us that they do exist and what they are like. Does the Devil exist? If the Bible is the Word of our Creator about Himself, our world, and us, and it is, then yes he exists. What then is he like?

 The Devil is a spirit being.

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says that the Devil and his minions are spiritual forces.

•  Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

 The Devil and his demons are spiritual beings that occupy the spiritual realm. The reason then that the Devil is not normally seen is that he and his demons are spirits and that is the realm in which he normally works.

 The Devil is an evil being.

What do I mean by evil? Jesus said that the Devil was the father of all lies and a murderer from the beginning.

•  John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

 How did the Devil become so evil? As Lucifer, which is the Latin translation of the Hebrew word for “star of the morning”, one of God’s angels, the Devil sought to elevate himself above God and was therefore cast out.

•  Isaiah 14:12-14 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning (Latin: Lucifer), son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

Since his prideful fall the Devil has ruled over a kingdom of darkness.

•  Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

 The kingdom of darkness that the Devil rules over is seen over and against God’s kingdom of light manifested in the redemption His Son Jesus brings.

• Colossians 1:13-14 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 The Devil works against God and His plans.

 Consumed by pride the Devil is constantly trying to thwart God and hinder His people. One of God’s plans is to save souls. The Devil is actively at work to hinder that plan.

 The Devil opposes God’s plan of redemption.

•  2 Corinthians 4:3-4 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world (the Devil) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

 While it is true that the Devil blinds the eyes of the lost so that they cannot see, the power of the gospel is in the opening of eyes that have been blinded. The Devil tries to thwart God and His plans, but God is greater.

•  Acts 26:18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

 The Devil also opposes the saving of souls by creating false religions and doctrines to muddy the water and make the truth harder to find. The Apostle Paul in speaking about false teachers said this,

• 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

 In his opposition to God, the Devil disguises himself as an angel of light (which he used to be) to bring false teaching or another gospel entirely or even another religion to try to deceive the lost and keep them from the truth and therefore from God. He did this type of work with Adam and Even in the garden when he was able to deceive Eve into questioning the commandment that God gave Adam concerning the fruit.

•  Genesis 3:1-5 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

 We can see from this passage that the Devil not only got Eve to question what God said but even God’s motive for saying it. The Devil has not deviated from these tactics even to this day. The Devil is very good at what he does and he has no remorse or any other redeeming feature. Next time we will see how the Devil interacts with God’s people.