The Devil in American Culture
A Halloween Favorite
The devil becomes a central figure in American culture every fall. The reason is that some choose to celebrate Halloween by dressing in a red costume, holding a pitchfork, and wearing horns on their head.
While this attire matches the spooky theme, it isn’t a credible description of who participants are mimicking. Consequently, many may think the devil is just an ugly, harmless cartoon character they don’t need to take seriously.
Knowing this, I’ll help readers develop an accurate understanding of who Satan is by highlighting his origins and fall from grace. Then, I’ll discuss the various names, deceptive schemes, and the final destination awaiting this crafty being.
The Devil in Heaven and Earth
Lucifer Kicked Out of Heaven
Before becoming a crafty, central figure during Halloween festivities, the devil was an angelic being in heaven. Ezekiel 28:11-15 proves this, describing Satan as a beautiful, blameless creature created by God as an angelic guardian.
This angelic guardian was incomparable to God’s other creations. He was adorned with precious stones like onyx and emerald, set in the finest gold God gave to the devil when he created him.
Unfortunately, the devil’s incomparable beauty leads to his demise, causing him to become prideful and rebellious. Worse than that, he desired to become like the Most High.
To avoid division in the heavenly realms, the Most High cast the devil out of heaven. Satan’s rebellion toward God is so unique, scholars believe Ezekiel uses it to prophecy the downfall of Tyre’s King.
Scholars also suggest that Isaiah uses Satan’s fall to describe prophetic destruction coming to Babylon. Isaiah’s account also explains why Satan is known as Lucifer.
Experts say that when “day star” in Isaiah 14:12 can be translated as Helel, which is the proper name for Babylon’s King. When translated from Hebrew to Latin, Helel becomes Lucifero, meaning to shine. When Lucifero is changed to English, it becomes Lucifer.
This is why the devil was considered an angel of light before being cast to earth. This makes sense since in Luke 10:18, Jesus tells the disciples he saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
The Devil Has Detrimental Names?
Falling like lightning from heaven causes Satan to forfeit his designed identity as the most beautiful being God ever created.
Therefore, he now bears names reflecting his dark, destructive nature.
According to Dr. Elmer L. Towns, there are approximately thirty names for Satan (Concise Bible Doctrines, 2006, pp. 294-295). Some of these names are
- A Roaring Lion.
- Belzebub.
- Fallen Angel.
- Satan.
- The Accuser.
- The Adversary.
- The Deceiver.
- The Evil One.
- The Father of Lies.
- The Prince of Darkness.
- The Serpent.
- The Tempter.
- The Wicked One.
Theologians believe that having names like the wicked one attributes personality traits to Satan, proving he functions as a person. But similar to how his fall from heaven altered his identity, Satan can no longer fulfill his duties as an angel of light.
Instead, the Prince of Darkness now desires to retaliate against his creator by destroying what God loves most.
The Devil’s Ultimate Mission
The Devil Wants to Destroy Humanity
What does God love most? How does the Devil use what God loves most as kryptonite in his retaliation plan?
Scripture suggests God loves humans the most because we’re made in his image and desires an intimate relationship with us.
Elohim proves this when searching for Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Eliohim also affirms this idea by revealing himself to Moses and three of Jesus’ disciples. Additionally, he fills believers with the Holy Spirit.
Knowing this, the devil constructs various schemes to tempt and deceive humans into sinning. These schemes are jealous forms of revenge meant to separate humanity from God’s presence.
Sadly, Eve and Adam forfeit the visible presence of God in their lives after heeding to the lies of The Deceiver. Instead of following God’s command not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, taking one bite causes the first humans to sin.
After winning, the first humans are punished and evicted from the Garden of Eden. In his mercy, God also punishes Satan and promises the first humans that a seed will come forth to crush Satan’s head.
This promise compels Satan to use the same deception on the promised seed, Jesus Christ. Satan tempts Jesus three times by
- Challenging his authority as the Son of God.
- Offering the world’s kingdoms if he bows down and worships Satan.
- Urging him to test God by jumping off a mountain to see if angels will protect him.
Instead of testing God, Jesus successfully endures temptation.
Does the Devil Work Alone?
Before discussing a key aspect of Jesus’ success that believers must use to endure temptation, let’s analyze how Satan functions.
While Satan can influence any human’s decision-making, he isn’t omnipresent. He can only be in a single area and cause havoc in one at a time. So, he depends on the submissive obedience of demons under his authority.
Likewise, demons are neither omnipotent, omnipresent, nor omniscient (Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology, 2014, pp. 310). That said, they are powerful, intelligent beings who can influence, deceive, possess, and terrorize humans (The Moody Handbook of Theology, pp. 310).
Can the Devil Influence People to Sin?
Along with demons, the devil also uses non-believers and Christians to cause destruction.
The Bible proves this as several wicked individuals try to oppress, harm, or deceive God’s people. These individuals include
- Pharaoh (Exodus 1:8-14:28).
- Delilah (1 Samuel 16:4-22).
- Galioth (1 Samuel 17:4-51).
- Jezebel (1 Kings 19:1-2; 21:3-23).
- King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:1-26).
- King Darius’s jealous administrators (Daniel 6:4-24).
- Herod the Great (Matthew 2:16).
- New Testament Jewish leaders (John 5:1-18).
- False prophets (Romans 16:17).
False prophets and other corrupt individuals were influenced by the devil because of their hardened hearts toward God. Similarly, believers who choose to appease fleshly desires instead of adhering to God’s commands also help Satan complete his mission.
Moses’ anger toward the Israelites causes him to be forbidden from entering the Promised Land. David’s decision to murder Uriah and sleep with Bathsheba causes him to experience death and destruction among his children.
While these are Old Testament examples, the same pattern appears in the New Testament. Judas’ decision to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver leads to his own suicidal demise.
Likewise, Ananias and Saphirra’s decision to lie to the Holy Spirit about a church donation leads to their death.
Furthermore, scripture also shows that sexual sin and conflict among ministry colleagues can help Satan cause chaos within the Body of Christ.
A Christian’s Winning Strategy
Preparing to Battle the Devil
So how can the Body of Christ fight against the devil’s schemes? Believers can fight the devil by preparing for spiritual warfare. Paul says we stand against spiritual warfare by putting on the Armor of God daily.
Wearing God’s armor equips us with the faith, righteousness, salvation, peace, truth, and biblical knowledge to experience continual victory. An essential piece of armor is knowing the truth within scripture.
This is how Jesus resisted Satan’s scripture-twisting deception. Psalm 119:11 supports this when mentioning how hiding God’s word in our hearts helps us not transgress against him.
Along with wearing spiritual armor, Paul encourages us to pray, which allows us to battle without feeling weighed down as we ask God for help and give him our burdens.
Through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and allows believers to pray for one another. Intercession also enables Christians to encourage and strengthen each other even when we’re not in the same place.
Continual, fervent prayer is also important because demonic forces will try to hinder our prayers from being answered.
While we await an answer to our request, we must exercise patience without taking matters into our hands and possibly making circumstances worse. Just read about what happened to Abraham, Sarah and Hagar after they had a son outside God’s will.
Hope In the Devil’s Final Destination
Thankfully, it’s God’s will that believers repent after they sin to receive his forgiveness, mercy, and grace.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Reincarnated” may cause some listeners to believe the devil can also receive God’s forgiveness. Kendrick rewrites the devil’s story by including Satan’s confession of his actions.
While Kendrick’s addition makes for a creative song, it’s not reality. The devil, demons, and anyone who doesn’t accept Jesus as Lord and Savior will experience eternal condemnation.
This eternal condemnation will occur after the devil is
- Imprisoned for 1,000 years after Jesus Christ’s second coming (Revelation 20:2-3).
- Freed for 1,000 years for a final rebellion that is quickly defeated (Revelation 20:7).
- Defeated and thrown into the Lake of Fire and Sulfur with the beast and false prophet (Revelation 20:10).
- Joined by unbelievers whose names aren’t in the Book of Life (Revelation 20:11-15).
Conversely, believers will experience eternal peace with the Lord in the New Jerusalem since their names are in the Book of Life.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In