By Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis, Leicester, England.
(* Condensed from “The Warfare with Satan and the Way of Victory” Published by Marshall Brothers, 10 Paternoster Row, London, E.C., England.)
I. SATAN’S ORIGIN AND HOME
The Scriptures give but veiled glimpses of his origin and home, for their purpose is more expressly to reveal God in His character; and Christ as the Redeemer of men; with the history of the redeemed from the fall of Adam, their salvation through the Cross, and their eternal destiny, when Christ shall have “abolished all rule and all authority and power” (1 Cor. 15:24), contrary to the reign of God, and God Himself shall be All in all.
Our Lord says of Satan, “he was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8: 44) and John says of him that he “sinneth from the beginning” (1 John 3:8).
II. SATAN’S POSITION AND CHARACTER
In regard to the position and character of Satan we know that he is the very embodiment of a lie, for “There is no truth in him … he is a liar, and the father of it,” said the Lord. The various names by which he is described in the Scriptures reveal his power. Fallen though he be, he is called by the Lord Jesus no less than three times the “prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), thus plainly recognizing his rule over the earth. That he is a personage of rank and power we learn from Jude: “Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 9). He is also called the “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4, margin), for men obey and worship him, even unconsciously, when they do not obey and worship the Creator.
The fallen archangel is moreover described as the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), meaning wicked spiritual powers dwelling in the aerial heavens, for it seems the “Satanic confederation has its seat in the atmospheric heaven - in the spaces above and around our world” (Seiss). That the “prince of the power of the air” has power (when permission is granted) to wield the forces of the air we see in the history of Job; for at his bidding lightning fell from heaven to consume the flocks of the faithful servant of God, and he caused a wind to blow Job’s house down and kill his children. In relation to his attacks upon the children of men the prince of this world is called the “tempter” (1 Thess. 3:5), because it is his fiendish delight to tempt others from loyal obedience to God. And he is named “the devil” (1 Tim. 3:6, 7) - a word never used in the plural, and always, and only, of Satan himself. “The Hebrew name Satan occurs in the New Testament thirty-five times interchangeably with the Greek Diabolos, which is also used thirty-five times. The word Diabolos signifies “separator and slanderer” (Blackstone), or “malignant accuser.” Satan is the great separator, and he separates by slandering. He separated the race of man from God in Eden, and ever since he has been separating men from each other, with hatred, malice, envy and jealousy. He is especially named the “accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:10), and we find him also described as “the great dragon,” the “old serpent,” and the “deceiver of the whole inhabited earth.”
That the adversary still has the world under his rule, is unmistakably shown in his attack upon the Lord Jesus in the wilderness. The Lord was led, under the constraint of the Holy Spirit, into the wilderness to be “tempted of the devil,” and after other temptations, the devil showed Him “all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth. And the devil said unto Him, To Thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If Thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be Thine” (Luke 4:5, 6, 7, margin).
What a daring condition to put to the Son of God. The fallen archangel is craving for worship still.
The extent of His claim to “all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth” the Son of God did not deny, and later the Lord plainly speaks of Satan’s kingdom. “If Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand”? (Luke 11:18.) And He adds, “The strong man fully armed guardeth his own court,” until “a Stronger than he” comes upon him, and sets his captive free. How fitting therefore the petition, “Deliver us from the evil one” (Matt. 6:13)! John also emphasizes the universality of Satan’s rule, for he writes, “The whole world lieth in the evil one” (1 John 4:19) - it is sunk in the darkness which is his sphere, and is under the rule of the “world-rulers of this darkness” (Eph. 6:12). The Scripture makes no distinction between high and low, or between cultured and ignorant, when it states that the “whole world” - heathen and Christendom - lies “in” the realm of the evil one.
In heathen lands, the deceiver is daring in his tyranny, holding men and women in gross and open sin. In civilized countries, the god of this age needs must veil his working. In these last days, however, he is beginning to more openly manifest himself as the prince of the world. He is familiarizing people with his name. Books to be popular must be about him, and in fashion’s realm serpents have been the favorite ornaments of dress, while palmistry, clairvoyance, planchette, and other means of intercourse with the spirits of evil, abound on every hand.
The adversary has also his organized governments, which the Apostle Paul describes as “principalities … powers … sovereigns of this present darkness” (Eph. 6: 12, C.H.). We read of “Satan’s throne” (Rev. 2:13); of “his ministers” (2 Cor. 11:15); of his “principalities” and his “powers”; and of his hosts of “spirits of evil” (Eph. 6:12, C.H.) in the heavens. Daniel’s account of his interview with the messenger from God supports the view that these principalities and powers of Satan are given charge of specified countries; for the Satanic “prince of Persia” withstood the heavenly messenger, who said that on his return he would again have to meet with the same Prince, together with the “Prince of Greece” (Dan. 10:13, 20). Satan therefore reigns over an aerial kingdom of hierarchies and spiritual powers, and a kingdom on earth in the world of men, and he governs by means of an organized government.
But let us not forget that all these hosts are compelled to acknowledge the Sovereign Lord of the Universe! Unbelievers in God are alone to be found on earth, for the powers of evil “believe and shudder” (James 2:19), knowing that they are reserved unto judgment.