#701

Satan, The Great Imposter

A Great Deception

I remember hearing about a man who played a lot of parts in his life. But few of them were actually him. His name was Ferdinand Waldo Demara. According to an article about him from Wikipedia.org, Demara's impersonations included a civil engineer, a sheriff's deputy, an assistant prison warden, a doctor of applied psychology, a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, a naval surgeon, an editor, a cancer researcher, and a teacher. One teaching job led to six months in prison.

Interestingly and ironically the article notes that many of these impersonations can’t be proven with hard facts:

There are not many facts that have been proven about Demara, in spite of the articles, book, and big screen movie made about him during his lifetime. He was said to possess a true photographic memory and was widely reputed to have an extraordinary IQ. He was apparently able to memorize necessary techniques from textbooks and worked on two cardinal rules: The burden of proof is on the accuser and When in danger, attack. He described his own motivation as "Rascality, pure rascality".

I marveled that a person could fool so many people for so long, and yet Demara did. If he was so smart, why not actually pick a profession and excel at it? Why did he feel the need to deceive people? He was driven by the oldest of inspirations – power and control. The one impersonation he could have tried would have been the most fitting, however the real deal wouldn’t give up his position.

Satan Is Alive And Well On Planet Earth

After having read Hal Lindsey’s famous first book The Late, Great Planet Earth I and a whole host of others happily bought his second one which was all about Satan. It was called Satan Is Alive And Well On Planet Earth and I loved it. As a young believer and one who became a Christian from being a student of all things occult I knew quite a bit about Satan, but I didn’t realize just who he was. I like many others even today saw him as this powerful being who had no equal. I feared him and for good reason. He was portrayed as being the dark lord over the underworld where his demons could possess people and cause all manner of evil to happen. He had quite a reputation and, unlike Mr. Demara, was the real deal. So, it was with this flawed understanding that I read Lindsey’s new book and my view of the Devil changed forever. And it changed for the better as I learned that Satan was the real great imposter, a role he plays to perfection today. You see, he had a good gig, but he, like Demara, wanted a role that he couldn’t have and one he still wants today.

The Big Kahuna

I bet you never thought that anyone would refer to the God of the universe as the Big Kahuna, but then I’m not known for being ordinary. In any event, Satan was doing just fine as being the leader of worship as an angel called Lucifer which we see in an article from another article, this one from christinprophecy.org and it is a from a conversation that several ministers had:

Nathan Jones: Yeah, we can go and get first person account of what Satan believes, what he thinks, what his strategies are by going to Isaiah 14, as well as Ezekiel 28.

David Bowen: I was going to say that. I didn’t want to miss that part.

Nathan Jones: I’ll let you take that one, let me take Isaiah 14 it says, “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” and it goes on and on. As he’s sitting there bragging, I’m going to be this, and I’m going to take God’s place and I want the world to worship him. Well, Satan was cast down for his rebellion, and if he can’t rule the universe, then he’s going to try to rule Earth and rule over those of us made in the image of God.

And it’s important to get all that. The verses from Isaiah 14 are debated, but I think they refer to both a human ruler and Satan:

“How you have fallen from heaven, O shining one, son of the morning! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have made the nations weak! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will go up to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. And I will sit on the mount of meeting in the far north. 14 I will go much higher than the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.’ (Isa 14:12-14, NLV)

Satan wanted a higher position, one that he couldn’t have since God wasn’t going to let him have it. Another portion of Scripture tells us more about how he fell:

The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 12 “Son of man, sing a song of sorrow for the king of Tyre, and tell him, ‘The Lord God says, “You were once the mark of what is perfect, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every stone of great worth covered you: ruby, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, chrysolite, turquoise, and emerald. And you had beautiful objects of gold. They were made for you when you were made. 14 You were the cherub who kept watch, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked among the stones of fire. 15 You were without blame in your ways from the day you were made until sin was found in you. 16 Through all your trading you were filled with bad ways, and you sinned. So I have sent you away in shame from the mountain of God and I have destroyed you and driven you out from the stones of fire, O cherub who kept watch. (Ezekiel 28:11-16, NLV)

The key part is that sin was found in him. Put the two portions of the Bible and you have it all laid out for you. The five “I will” statements give you the full view of his sin. Satan wanted God’s job. But these verses also tell us that his job request was soundly rejected.

He Took Angels With Him

It’s also important to know that Satan got a lot of angels to rebel and then fall with him. I turn to an article from gotquestions.org to explain this:

The passage that best supports the idea that Satan took one third of the angels with him in rebellion is Revelation 12:3–4. John sees a sign in heaven: “An enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.” John then relates that the dragon was hurled down to the earth and positively identifies it as “that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray” (Revelation 12:9). The dragon is not thrown to earth alone, however: “His angels were cast out with him” (verse 9). The angels that are ejected from heaven with Satan we associate with the “third of the stars” that the dragon’s tail swept from heaven to earth in verse 4. If the “stars” of Revelation 12:4 are indeed a symbolic reference to Satan’s “angels” in verse 9, then what we have is a reference to the fall of a portion of the angels (the heavenly hosts) who followed Satan in his rebellion. Two thirds of the angels remained loyal to God and are called the “holy angels” in Scripture (e.g., Mark 8:38); one third of the original angels joined Satan and are called “unclean spirits” or “demons” today (e.g., Mark 9:25).

Now we not only know who Satan is, we also know who he has working for him. But the best part to know about him is good news for us.

Satan Is A Pretender

I’m certainly not going to tell you that the accuser of the brethren is powerless, because he isn’t. He is a created angel and we know that angels are powerful beings. But he isn’t God and he can be defeated by God. When we hear about his powers, deception is chief of them. He appears like an angel of light, but it is all illusion:

It is no surprise! The devil makes himself look like an angel of light. (2 Cor 11:14, NLV)

And he also has a fake roar:

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Pet 5:8-9, NIV)

The Apostle Peter throws in how we fight the Devil and it is simple: resist him. But the key isn’t fighting back in our own strength. We do so standing firm in our faith. But we might rebuke him in the name above all names, Jesus Christ, just like the Archangel Michael did:

Yet Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, when he was arguing with Satan about Moses’ body, did not dare to accuse even Satan, or jeer at him, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you.” (Jude 1:9, TLB)

However, rebuking might not be a good idea as I’ll get to a little later.

Put Up Your Dukes

And the best part of putting up a fight is that Satan will run from the fight:

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7, NIV)

The key to that is being humble. We get a good understanding of that from another article from gotquestions.org:

The phrase “resist the devil” is found in James 4:7 where the apostle James exhorts believers to resist the devil in order to cause him to flee or “run away” from us. To resist means to withstand, strive against, or oppose in some manner. Resistance can be a defensive maneuver on our part, such as resisting or withstanding the temptation to sin. Or it can be an action we take to use the only offensive weapon in the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-18), the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Using the Scriptures to expose Satan’s lies and temptations is the most effective way to strive against and defeat them.

Coming in a prideful or boastful way won’t do us any good, in fact it could do us a lot of harm:

It is important to read the whole verse: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Resisting the devil must be accompanied by submitting to God. A disobedient or unsubmissive believer will not see victory.

Lest we forget, we need to wear armor in this fight:

As Christians, we have full life when we are aware of the reality of the presence of evil. As we struggle to stand firm in our faith, we must realize that the enemies we are up against are not merely human ideas, but real forces that come from the powers of darkness. The Bible says, “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” (Ephesians 6:12).

The article then reminds us why this humble fighting will work:

Why will resistance cause the devil to flee? Because he knows he cannot have victory over us if we are prepared to do battle against him. As mentioned before, the Bible assures us that we need only put on the full armor of God to be fully protected from evil and to actively resist it. There is nothing more frightening to Satan than a believer who is fully equipped with spiritual armor, beginning with the “helmet of salvation,” which protects our minds, and the “breastplate of righteousness,” which protects our hearts because it is the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Only a true believer wears these because only those who have received God’s forgiveness by grace through faith have eternal salvation and the righteousness of Christ imputed to them.

And We Can Defend Ourselves

Being aggressive and taking back ground is good, but when Satan turns and attacks we are covered as well as the last quote from the gotquestions.org informs us:

Once fitted with the helmet and breastplate (literally, “chest protector”), we are then to take up other defensive weapons with which to battle Satan: truth, the readiness to proclaim the gospel, and the faith that shields us from all the flaming arrows of the evil one. The final piece of armor is prayer. We pray for strength to resist evil and to actively battle against it. We pray for wisdom in the conflict, and most of all, we remain steadfast in our prayers, both for the ability to resist the devil and also for other believers who struggle in the same battle. When the church, the body of Christ, stands united against evil, fully equipped with the armor of God, we present a formidable foe to the evil one and we will see God get the glory for the victory.

The article then cautions us on that rebuking I mentioned earlier:

As a side note, the Bible never gives Christians the authority to “rebuke” the devil, only to resist him. Zechariah 3:2 tells us that it is the Lord who rebukes Satan. Even Michael, one of the most powerful of the angels, did not dare to accuse Satan, but rather said, "The Lord rebuke you" (Jude 1:9). In response to Satan’s attacks, Christians should redouble our efforts to clothe ourselves in the spiritual armor, wield the Word of God, and rely on His power through prayer. Instead of focusing on “rebuking” the devil, we should focus on resisting him with the full armor of God.

In short the greatest of all imposters can be exposed and defeated as the fraud he is, but the exposing needs to be done humbly with God’s help and in His power.