It’s amazing to me how many people I meet who are willing to accept the idea of God and angels but can’t quite bring themselves to believe in Satan or demons. Especially in this new “spiritual” age, people seem even less willing to accept that there’s a dark side to the supernatural world.

Our survey of American teens found that somewhere between 40 and 60 percent believe Satan is a real spiritual entity. That wide margin comes from separate answers to two different questions, and it tells us that a lot of people haven’t made up their mind about the devil.

When asked about the reality of demons, 55 percent of teens surveyed said they believed such supernatural creatures are real. But only 26 percent were “very confident.” That’s almost three of very four teens who can’t say for sure that evil supernatural beings are at work in the world.

And that’s exactly the way Satan wants it. The biblical Satan has a much better chance of accomplishing his mission if most people think he and his army of demons are a myth. Let them think of him as a “symbolic term that people use to describe evil” (21 percent in our survey) or a name that just “represents the state of conflict between good and evil” (17 percent).

If Satan is real—and if he has a purpose in the lives of humans—wouldn’t he prefer that most people put him in the same box with mythical monsters like vampires, ghosts, and the wolf man? He’d love us to think we can just forget about him like all the fictional villains who come and go from our TV screens and movie theaters.

For all our scary ideas about the “prince of darkness,” the Bible teaches that Satan’s greatest weapon is deception. Jesus called him the “father of lies” (John 8:44). As spiritually powerful as he is, he’d much rather confuse you about the truth than make your skin crawl in the darkness.

Exploring what the Bible has to say about the real Satan starts with understanding that he wasn’t always evil.

Wise and Beautiful

In the last chapter, we saw that the Bible only mentions by name three of the millions of angels that exist. One was Gabriel, the herald (or messenger) angel. Another was the archangel Michael, God’s warrior. And the final one was Lucifer, the name originally given to perhaps the greatest angel of all—the angel who became Satan.

Our clearest picture of Satan’s origin comes from Ezekiel 28:12-19. The chapter begins with Ezekiel’s prophesy about the “ruler” of Tyre, a city that was going to be judged by God for rejecting him. That ruler’s greatest sin was pride.

Yet at verse 12, the writer shifts focus to the “king of Tyre” and, apparently, begins to describe the fate of a being who was influencing the human ruler of Tyre. They both share the sin of pride, but the supernatural being described in verses 12-19 was not an earthly king. Here’s what it says:

You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.” (28:12-13)

The fact that this being was in the Garden of Eden is one reason many scholars believe the passage refers to Satan. The ruler of Tyre could not have been in Eden, but we know for sure that “the serpent” was there (Genesis 3).

The first thing we notice is that the amazing supernatural creature described here, Satan, started out as a perfect, wise, and beautiful angel of God. Special attention was given to his appearance, and he was dressed in 9 of the 12 gemstones that are often listed as being precious to God. He would have been awesome looking.

It’s also important to see that, like all the other angels described in the last chapter, Lucifer was a creation. He existed before humans were created, but he has not always existed. At some point, God made him.

Movie series like Star Wars and Harry Potter and other stories based on the worldview of Eastern religions like to picture the supernatural world as a “force” or energy with two halves. One side is good or positive, and the other side is evil or negative.

Thus, the Jedi and the Sith both use the same “force” to battle each other. And the young wizard Harry taps into white or good magic to take on the black magic of his enemies. In this worldview, good and evil balance each other out in the grand scheme of things. They’re two sides of the same supernatural coin.

That’s not what the Bible teaches. Satan is not the “dark side” of God’s power. He doesn’t exist to balance the goodness of God. He was created as a good being by a good God.

You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you (28:14-15)

Satan’s job was to be a guardian in the mountain of God. We don’t know exactly what that means, but it’s clear he had great responsibility. He had access to God. And he did his job flawlessly—until his focus shifted from God to himself.

Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned.

So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor (28:16-17)

Satan’s downfall was that he started to look at everything he had going for him, and he decided he didn’t need God. Because of his wealth, power, and beauty, he started thinking he was better than the One who made him and gave him great wealth, power, and beauty. God couldn’t allow such arrogance to remain in his presence.

So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more. (28:18-19)

This prophesy about Satan isn’t completely fulfilled yet. Obviously, he’s still at work in the world—along with many angels who followed him in his rebellion against God and were cast out of heaven with him (Revelation 12:7-9). We’ll see later what his ultimate end will be.

For now, it’s important that we realize how beautiful and perfect Satan was before his pride took over. He was designed to bring glory to God. Instead, he wanted glory for himself.

Modern horror and science fiction stories echo the fall of Satan, but with a perverted twist. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tells the story of a creature that becomes stronger than his creator. Likewise, The Matrix trilogy is about machines created by humans that eventually take over from the humans and rule them. In the original story, though, the Creator never loses control or power. The creation is never greater than the Creator.

What a tragic supernatural story is Lucifer’s. And what tragic consequences it has caused in the lives of humans living in the natural world.

Satan’s History

Satan, in the form of a serpent, shows up right at the beginning of human history, using his greatest weapon against the brand new humans for the first time. There, in the Garden of Eden, he told his first lie to humans, which Adam and Eve followed into their first sin, for which we all lost paradise and found death (Genesis 3).

From that point on, Satan’s mission on earth has been clear. He’s here to try to derail God’s plan and to “steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Unlike the popular myth, Satan doesn’t yet live in hell, waiting for damned souls to show up for torment. He roams the earth, looking to destroy people’s lives (1 Peter 5:8).

Satan is mentioned in seven books of the Old Testament, including Job. There, he urges God to let him destroy Job’s life in a vain attempt to get Job to curse God (Job 1–2). Job suffers terribly but never gives in.

Satan and his crew of fallen angels are mentioned in nearly every New Testament book, including the Gospels, where he actively works to interfere in God’s plan to save humanity through Jesus. Not only does he tempt Jesus to sin after the Christ has been fasting for 40 days, he also later possesses Judas and uses him to betray Jesus. Again, Satan’s plan is foiled, and he is defeated once and for all when Jesus succeeds in his mission.

The rest of the New Testament makes clear that Satan is still at work in the lives of humans. Remember, though, he’s not a god. He doesn’t have any more powers than an angel has. That means he can’t be more than one place at a time and he doesn’t know everything. Thus, he relies on his well-organized army of demons to kill, steal, and destroy.

Against Non-Christians

Those who have rejected Christ or haven’t yet trusted in him for salvation are wide open to the attacks of this supernatural enemy of humanity. And he wants to keep it that way.

Jesus said that the devil “takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved” (Luke 8:12). And Paul wrote that he “has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Maybe you’ve experienced this with people who just can’t seem to see the truth about Jesus. It’s like something else is at work in their hearts, keeping them from getting over the obstacles of unbelief.

Beyond that, the other fallen angels in Satan’s “special forces” are able to spread out over the earth and wreak havoc in the lives of unbelievers. The Bible describes their ability to cause disease (Matthew 9:32; Luke 13:11, 16) as well as to take possession of non-Christians and animals (Matthew 4:24; Mark 5:13).

Against Christians

Satan and his demons are limited in their influence against believers. That’s true for a couple of reasons. The first is that Christians are protected by the Holy Spirit, which is given to each of us at the moment of our salvation. Also, Jesus prays to the Father to protect us from the enemy (John 17:15).

However, that doesn’t mean these supernatural spirits can’t mess with us. They can’t steal us from the Father (John 10:29), and they can’t keep us out of heaven. But they can draw our attention away from the Father and tempt us to sin.

The father of lies loves to tempt Christians to lie, as well (Acts 5:3). He also tempts us to give in to sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 7:5) and uses our anger to get a foothold in our lives (Ephesians 4:27). When we give in, he goes running to God to make accusations and tell lies about us (Revelation 12:10). He also seeks to frustrate our attempts to do good things (1 Thessalonians 2:18), and works in the hearts of others to persecute us for following Jesus (Revelation 2:10).

In short, Satan is our enemy. He wants to destroy us. Now. Peter wrote that, “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He knows he’s in a battle he can’t win, but that doesn’t keep him from attacking.

Satan’s Future

The devil’s fate is sealed forever. It was locked in the moment Jesus walked out of his tomb alive. Here’s what he has to look forward to:

• He will be completely banned from any access to God sometime during the Tribulation (Revelation 12:9)

• He will gather the governments of the world in the great battle of Armageddon against Jesus and his forces—and he will lose. (Revelation 16:13-14)

• He’ll be locked away in the abyss at the beginning of the millennium (Revelation 20:2).

• He’ll be released for a short time, during which he’ll use powerful deception to raise another army against God. Then he’ll be utterly defeated and thrown into the lake of fire for all of eternity (Revelation 20:10).

Again, Satan and his demons know this is coming. One story in Matthew’s Gospel describes a time Jesus was bravely walking near the tombs of the Gadarenes, an area everyone avoided because two violent demon-possessed men lived there. When they saw Jesus coming, the men yelled out, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” (Matthew 8:29)

These demons understood their time was coming, and that it wasn’t yet. Knowing Jesus would cast them out of the men, they begged to be released into a herd of pigs. They needed something else to destroy. That’s what Satan and his demons do—destroy. But they won’t do it forever.