The Existence, Personality and Nature of Satan

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Now we are continuing our series of studies in Systematic Theology. And we are beginning the series for the spring in Angelology and Anthropology. And you can probably tell from the titles in the series that we are majoring on Angelology and we are inserting some sections on the subject of Anthropology at the point at which they touch the subject of Angelology. So we are attempting in this way to cover the two spheres of Systematic Theology.

We have already covered Theology Proper and now we’re moving into Angelology and Anthropology, and then as we continue on and study topics like Soteriology and Pnuematology and Christology and Eschatology so that it won’t be long before we’ll be able to get through the entire discipline of Systematic Theology. The subject for tonight is what about Old Nick or the existence, personality and nature of Satan.

Now, like most creatures, I guess, when I arranged the series of topics on the subject of Satan, I typed them up and then handed them to my wife for her comments. And when she looked at them she said she didn’t like several of them because she did not think that I should make fun of Satan. And I then asked her, “Well do you wish me to do him more honor?” And she said, “Oh no I don’t want you to do him any more honor but just don’t make fun of him.” And so I want assure you that I am not trying to make fun of Satan when I call him Old Nick.

As a matter of fact, he’s been called some very strange things. He’s been called Old Harry. And in Scotland they call him Old Clotty because he is cloven footed according to the popular impression. He’s called Old Roger, Old Scratch and sailors call him Davy Jones. So there are many names by which Satan goes but I don’t want to make fun of him. I’m reminded of many preachers and particularly one — Peter MacKenzie — who said that whenever he spoke on Satan something always happens and so I don’t want to invite special attention from Satan. So I’m not trying to make fun of him.

Now many probably regard a series of theological studies on Satan as utter folly. “Dr. Johnson has tossed his cookie and is ready for funny land,” I’m sure that some would think. But I assure you that is not true, that a subject such as this, Satan, has tremendous practical consequences and it is extremely important. And I think it is also important because it so neglected.

Now today as I was thinking about the message tonight I took down from my theological library a volume which is written just a couple of years ago by a contemporary theologian. His name is John MacQuarrie. And he’s written a book called The Principles of Christian Theology. And I turned back to the index to discover just exactly what he had to say about Satan in this contemporary theology textbook. And I was not surprised when I discovered that there were only two references to Satan in this modern theology, and the two were references that were of no significance. He did not attempt to develop the doctrine of Satan, but as a matter of fact, one of the references implied that Professor MacQuarrie did not recognize Satan as a person at all. But rather he thought of him as a mythological character. So I think that it is not utter folly to undertake a series of studies in a character of whom so much Scripture is written.

Now, I think too, that we should say this; that there are modern individuals who feel that the understanding of Satan of the demonic world is essential to the understanding of human history. And I think there is much sound and sane historical opinions to this effect. In fact, I think I mentioned to you in of the messages — I’ve forgotten when — that one of the greatest of the German Theologians, a man by the name of Von Ranke, said a few decades ago that you — one could not really understand history if he did not understand the demonic. He said he felt as though sometimes there was an occult force at work in human history and that it was only by understanding the occult force, which he said at work in human history, that one could understand the things that had happened to us. So we want to study Satan and we are going to begin with the existence of Satan. And if you are taking notes, this is Roman I in the outline: The existence of Satan. The Existence of Satan. And I think I would like for you to turn to two passages or three passages in the Bible. The first one verse in the third chapter of the book of Genesis, then we’re going tot turn to Job and then finally to Matthew chapter 4, verse 1. Genesis chapter 3, verse 1.

Now will you listen as Moses, speaking of the serpent, writes of Satan; verse 1, “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Now, of course, as you read this text you notice that it does not mention Satan but later on in the Book of Revelation in the twelfth chapter Satan is identified as that old serpent. And so there is no question but that when Moses writes “the serpent,” he is writing of an animal, which then became the tool of Satan himself. Let’s turn over now to the Book of Job.

Now that’s in the Old Testament somewhere and so if you don’t know exactly where it is just keep looking. You’ll find it ultimately. About half way through the Bible — some people have been known to open up their Bibles right up at the Book of Job. You might try if you don’t know where to find it. It’s page five hundred seventy two in the edition of the King James Version that I have with me. Job chapter 1, just before the Book of Psalms; Job 1, verse 6. Now this is one of the most interesting events in the Old Testament and listen to it, Job 1, verse 6,

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, ‘Whence comest thou?’ Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, ‘From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.’ And the LORD said unto Satan, ‘Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?’ Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, ‘Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.’ And the LORD said unto Satan, ‘Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.’ So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.”

Now let’s turn over to the New Testament to Matthew chapter 4 and read the temptation of our Lord given by this evangelist. Matthew chapter 4, verse 1,

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, ‘If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’ But he answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, ‘If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’ Jesus said unto him, ‘It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’ Again, the devil.” (Now notice that the text uses the term here “devil,” another one of his titles as we shall see later. “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, ‘All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.’ Then saith Jesus unto him, ‘Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’ Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”

Now you can see from these tragedies that I’ve read that there is a person whose existence seems to be presupposed by Scripture, his name is called the serpent, the devil or Satan. I know that you might say, “Well it’s unscientific to believe in Satan,” but let’s remember that true science deals with facts not with supposition. And no scientist can disprove the existence of Satan. Remember last fall, we were talking about science and we pointed out that the scientist cannot disprove the existence of ghosts.

Now I don’t believe in ghosts myself, but scientifically you cannot disprove this, for you see the one condition for the appearance of a ghost might be conceivably the absence of the scientist, and so it would be absolutely impossible for a scientist to disprove the existence of ghosts. Now when you think about the invisible world, we are thinking about a world to which we do not have access and consequently, a scientist may say, “I think or it is my opinion,” but a scientist if he is scientific should say, “I cannot know.”

Now the only way that we can know about the invisible world is through divine revelation. And the Bible makes the claim and we’ve already discussed this and I don’t want to go into this again. But the Bible makes a claim to be a divine revelation. And we have seen that it has the support ultimately of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the fact of history, which substantiates the claims of the word of God. And so based on the word of the God we cannot say, and based on the revelation of God and based on science what we know of the scientific method, we cannot say it is unscientific to believe in the existence of the spirit world. So we’re going to take it from the standpoint of what does the word of God say, recognizing that a scientist cannot disprove or prove the statements of holy Scripture with regard to this world.

Now, Capital A of the outline: The testimony of the Old Testament. Let me just say a few words under this point, the testimony of the Old Testament. The existence of Satan is affirmed by seven of the Old Testament books. They are the Book of Genesis, the Book of 1 Chronicles, the Book of Job, the Book of the Psalms, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Ezekiel. There are also communications in the Book of Daniel, but Satan I do not think is specifically mentioned in that book. And then the Book of Zechariah. So we have a wealth of material with regards to Satan in the Old Testament. Capital B: The testimony of the New Testament. The testimony of the New Testament and two facts need our attention here. First of all, the existence of Satan is taught by every New Testament author. Every one of them affirms the existence of Satan. Furthermore — and I think this should assume preeminative importance with us — the exemptions of Satan is taught by our Lord Jesus himself.

Now we saw this as we read chapter 4 of the Book of Matthew and the account of the temptations. And here Matthew says that Jesus had a conversation with the devil and with Satan. And in fact, he finally said to him, “Be gone Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thy serve.” Someone might say at this point, “I wonder where Matthew found out about this event. After all, he was not there. Our Lord was there and he was there alone with Satan. How did the disciples and the apostles discover the facts that are recorded in the temptations?” We cannot know. I can only tell you what I think.

It so happens that later on in this gospel in the sixteenth chapter, you remember that in the twenty first verse after it becomes evident in the progress of thought that Israel is not going to respond to the ministry of the Lord, that he begins to teach them that he’s going to Jerusalem and that he’s going suffer many things of the elements in cheap streets and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. And Satan speaks up at this time — or Peter speaks up at this time — and he begins to rebuke the Lord and says to him, “be it far from the Lord. This shall not be unto Thee.” And Jesus turned to Peter and suddenly to the first spoke, the Lord said, “Get thee behind me Satan; thou art an offense unto me, for thou savoreth up the things that are of God but that are of men.”

Now it is my opinion, and this is only opinion. It is my opinion that it is at this point that the Lord Jesus told Peter and the others the facts of the temptations. For he said, “Peter the thing that you are doing is suggesting that I should not go to Calvary to die. It’s the same thing that Satan did in the wilderness for he tested me three times in the temptations.” And I think it is probably at this point that our Lord told the apostles the story of the temptations, but whether he did or not — he at that point — he did tell them that. And we know from Matthew chapter 4 that this temptation did take place. And Satan here enters into a personal relationship with our Lord himself. So I think that if we honor the statement of Jesus Christ at all, we should have no difficulty in believing in the existence of Satan, but still in spite of the plain teaching of Scripture there are some who question the existence. But I believe that I would want to be very serious about this.

I believe that there is a very short step between mockery of the devil and mockery of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And let me tell you why I think so. Because you see if we deny the existence of Satan, we must acknowledge that Jesus had — if it is a true experience at all — and I presume that one who would like to deny the existence of Satan would not deny the existence of this experience. But if this was a true experience at all, then the wrestling, which our Lord underwent in the experience of the temptation, was not with someone outside of himself but with something within himself. And so this temptation — to turn aside from the Lord God — if it didn’t come from without came from within. And if it comes from within then there is something in our Lord Jesus that we may call sin. And of course the teaching of Scripture is to the effect that Jesus Christ is sinless. And so to deny the existence of Satan ultimately and logically will lend one in the place of denying the sinlessness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So I must say although I’ve never seen Satan — I do not know anyone who has seen Satan — that Satan exists. That he is a very real person and the testimony of the Old and New Testaments confirms that fact. Let’s move on now to our next topic: The personality of Satan. And this is Roman II in our outline: The personality of Satan. And I’m going to ask you to turn to another passage, which we will look at from time to time in this theory. It’s in Revelation chapter 12 and we’re going to read verse seven through twelve of that twelfth chapter. Revelation chapter 12, verses 7 through 12.

Now when we deal later on in this theory with the future of Satan, we will read in more detail of these verses but they have something to say about the personality of Satan so we want to read them for that reason. Now I hope you found the last book of the Bible and we’re reading now in the seventh verse of the twelfth chapter,

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,” and of course, the dragon — we shall see — is another term for Satan. He has lots of names. He has a full cupboard of names. “And his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath — notice that statement — because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.’”

Now when we talk about Satan as a personality, we are trying to say that Satan is not an impersonal fore. That he is not the principle of evil. The use of the personal pronoun, which we saw in Job chapter 1, as well as the application of moral responsibility to him, which is also a statement of Scriptures, suggests that he has all of the marks of personality.

Now what are the marks of personality? Psychologists differ but many of them think that the marks of personality are the possession of intellect, the possession of will, the possession of emotion. Well now let’s see if using that as a standard, if we can say that Satan has the personal attributes that go with personality. First of all, does he have the capacity for intellection or thought? Well now we read in the ninth verse, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,” we read in the twelfth verse that he had been cast out, “Having great wrath, because he knoweth [pause] that he hath but a short time.”

Now this is not the kind of language that you would apply to an influence or to a principle. This is the kind of language that you would apply to a person. Will you turn back to Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11. Ephesians 6, verse 11. Now I hope you don’t mind turning to passages in the Bible because this serves a twofold purpose. I want you to see these texts for yourselves, but after all, a Systematic Theology that is not grounded in the statement of the holy Scripture is not worth a great deal. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11, “Put on the whole armour of God,” Paul said, “that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” So the devil knows. The devil thinks. He deceives. He has stratagems that are evil.

Now we could turn to other passages but you want to put another in your notes, put 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 3. Put Matthew chapter 4, verse 6; for there we saw that Satan could speak. He could communicate to our Lord. How he communicated I do not know, but he did communicate.

Now the second thing that makes a personality is the capacity for volition. And I want you to turn back with me to a passage in the Old Testament that we will consider in more detail later on. We’ve also considered it already in our Isaiah studies. It’s Isaiah chapter 14. Isaiah chapter 14, verse 12 through 14. And notice particularly as we read this, that Satan manifest the capacity for volition. He has a will. Verse 12 of Isaiah chapter 14. He is called Lucifer here. “How art thou fallen from heaven — verse 12 of chapter 14 — O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” There should be no question that Satan has volition.

Now, thirdly, does he have capacity for emotions? Well just to save a little time let me remind you that in the twelfth chapter of the Book of the Revelation which we have just read. We read that Satan was cast out of heaven into the earth and that he had great wrath. Now wrath is an emotion, anger. It’s what my wife felt this afternoon when I walked down in the garage when she was working at her desk. She’s a carpentrist. You know. And she doesn’t like to be disturbed when she’s doing her little things about that carpenters bench. And so I walk down and said, “I’d like for you to look at something.” And she said, “Don’t bother me now.” [Laughter] And I said, “All right, remember when the time comes that you want me to take you out this week to eat, remember this statement.” [Laughter] And so about fifteen minutes later, she came up and she said, “I’m sorry that I spoke to you that way but I was just so busy putting this table together that I didn’t want to be disturbed.” Now that was wrath. That was emotion. Not really too bad, I laughed. [Laughter] But anyway, it was the manifestation of emotion.

Now the kind of emotion that Satan feels when he is cast out of heaven into the earth is something quite different, but it is called in Scripture wrath. And so we see that Satan has intellect, he has emotion, and he has volition. These are things that have to do with personal attributes that go along with personality. Many years ago I was converted in Birmingham, Alabama when I was in the insurance business, and I was converted in my own church of which I was already a member in good standing, because to be a member in good standing it was not necessary to be born again. It should have been, but it was not. And they didn’t ask me anything about that. They just enrolled me in the books, and I transferred my membership from the First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina to the South Highlands Church in Birmingham. And that was the church in which I was married. I was in it I think two times. But then when Donald Grey Barnhouse came and held a series of meetings in the church, I was converted.

And you know what happens to people when they get converted, they have a new nature. And suddenly they want to study the holy Scripture. They want to read something about the ministry and the work of our Lord Jesus who had loved us so much and has brought us into this relationship with him. And so I began to go to Sunday school. It was the first time I think I had been in Sunday school for eleven years. When the time came for me to grow up enough to play golf, I left Sunday school and spent my Sunday mornings out on the golf course. But now I was converted and I came back into Sunday school class and went into one of the adult classes and fortunately the man who was teaching the class was a genuine believer. And I never will forget one morning. I don’t remember which Sunday it was — whether it was the first or the second in — the Sunday school that he had a lesson in which he referred to Satan. And he was going along and he made reference to Satan two or three times and finally a lady in the class raised her hand and said, “Mr. Oden you’re talking about Satan as if he were a person. I always thought that Satan was just an influence, and he’s not a person at all.”

And that was my first contact with the idea that some men had, and still have, that Satan is only an evil principle. That he is not a person at all. Well now we see that he has the personal attributes. He also does personal works.

This is capital B in the outline: The personal works. And let me just state three things that he does. Number one, he performs miracles. Let’s turn over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. You don’t mind reading a few more passages do you? 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 9. The Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonians is describing the last day when the antichrist is to come and in describing his revelation he makes reference to the miracles that are going to be performed by the antichrist. They are deceptive miracles, as we shall see. In the eighth verse we read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 8,

“And then (Paul says) then shall that Wicked One be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

In other words, when the antichrist comes he shall perform miracles by the power of Satan. It is Satan who performs the miracles and so he does personal work.

Secondly, he tempts. Now we don’t have to look at that. We’ve already seen that in Matthew chapter 4. He tempts. Now I know that influences may tempt us and principles may tempt us, but not in the sense of the temptation of our Lord — I do not think. So he tempts us.

And thirdly, he blinds minds. He blinds minds. Now turn back just a few pages to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and let’s read verse 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4. Paul says, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost (verse 4). In whom the god of this world,” now, the god of this age is Satan. The God of all the ages is the true God. The god of this age — and this is a term that looks at him as having tremendous influence and power now. John says the whole world lies in the evil one. The god of this age “hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” In Revelation it’s stated that he deceiveth the whole world. So he performs miracles, he tempts, he blinds minds; now these are personal works.

He has personal attributes. He does personal works. He deceives the world and oh how he does deceive the world. He deceives the world so often in this way, he says, “Success, my success is being a very success in business. Success is having a tremendous bank account. Success is having power in the community. Success is being influential in the community and so on.” Failure is to involve yourself in things that do not have to do with the satisfaction and stability that come from material possession. Failure is to be concerned with the world to come and not with the world now. Failure is to go about talking about what life to come and not seeing to it that the life here is extremely pleasant. And so Satan blinds the minds of those that believe not.

There are many things that are perfectly good in themselves and I for one would want to be very careful that you did not misunderstand me. I don’t think it’s bad to have a lot of money. I think it’s very good. I wish I did have a lot. And I think it’s very good that a businessman be the very best that he can. And I think that all things considered he should expect as a Christian to be a success in his business. But we all know that is possible for a good thing to become a bad thing when it begins to take more of us than it should. When it begins to be preeminent in our lives and it’s not secondary and it is at that point that I think Satan blinds the minds of so many believers today.

I wish we had some business men, for example, who would forego that extra half million dollars and to bring that kind of energy to the work of Jesus Christ, because you see a businessman can often do more than a preacher and that is very true. A businessman who really wants to dedicate himself to the work of God can have tremendous influence for Jesus Christ. And so Satan blinds our minds with so many things. And he blinds the minds of women too as well as the men. He is a person.

Now, Capital C: Satan possesses a personal name. He has personal attributes. He performs personal works, and Capital C: He has personal name. There are many names that are applied to Satan. There are over fifteen of them which strongly suggest personality. Let me just mention a few of them. The name devil means “slanderer,” and influence does not slander. A principle does not slander. A person does. The name Satan means “an adversary.” A principle is not an adversary. An influence is not an adversary but a person is. Satan the adversary, the devil the slanderer, he is called the evil one. He is called temptor. He is called the prince of demons. He’s called the god of this age. He is called the accusor of the brethren and other names.

Now, of course, if we put the matter to a vote following democratic processes, I am quite sure the majority would vote that there is no such person as Satan but the evidence is very strongly on the side of the existence of this person, whose name is Satan. Goethe puts words — remember in the mouth of Mephistopheles – “I am the spirit of negation,” and so think of Satan in that way.

Authors think of him as the abstract principle of evil, and it has been said they spell devil without a D, as evil. And they spell God with two O’s, good. Evil and good; these are the two principles that are alive in the universe, but the weight of God says that there are two persons that are alive, God and Satan. Someone wrote a little stanza — I think he must have been a follower of the democratic processes. He said the devil was fairly voted out and of course, the devil’s gone, but simple people would like to know who carries his business on.

Roman III: The nature of Satan. The nature of Satan. Now it is difficult for us to classify the material on the nature of Satan with perfect logic. Let me just suggest as we come to a conclusion tonight three things about Satan. First of all, Capital A: Satan is a created being. Now we will see this when we turn to Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 15, so put that down in your notes at this point. Satan is a created being. And we will discuss this in more detail next time. Now if Satan is a created being — remember from your studies last fall — that means that he is finite. Not infinite, that attribute belongs to God alone. He useth of men we may say, “He has infinite patience having a wife like that,” not of me mind you; although, I did exhibit a little bit in the garage this afternoon I must say. [Laughter] But infinite belongs to God.

Now if Satan is finite as a created being, that means that Satan is not omnipresent. That is, he’s not in Dallas and in New York City at the same time. As a matter a fact, so far as I know, can only be in one place at one time. Job said — remember he came into the presence of God and then he left the presence of God.

Now you’ve been thinking all along — haven’t you — that Satan is concerned about you and he’s been troubling you. Well the chances are you are of so little significance in the battle between light and darkness that Satan consigned you to one of his inferior demons. He’s not concerned about you at all. He probably is concerned about someone far more significant, but he is a finite being. He is not omnipresent.

He is not omnipotent. All the power that he possesses — that is derived — and it is subordinate to God. He cannot do anything that God does not permit him to do. That is why when Satan came in before God and spoke about his servant, Job, he knew he could not do anything if God did not allow him to. And God further said, “Tomorrow Satan I’ll let you do anything except you cannot take his life.” And of that, of course, cleansed Job of the series of trials through which he came to know God in a deeper way. So he is not omnipotent, he is not omnipresent, and he is not omniscient. There are lots of things he knows but he doesn’t know everything. As a matter of fact, the Bible says to Christians, “Resist the battle and he will free from you,” and even we can overcome Satan as we lean upon the Lord.

Capital B: Satan is a spiritual being. He is not a physical being. You may have seen some people who look like the devil [laughter] but he has a spiritual being. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11 and 12 read, “Put on the whole Armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” He is of the order beings called cherubium. He is the anointed cherub that covereth an angelic being. And apparently from the Scriptures, he is the highest in the ranks of the angelic order. The head of the angelic hierarchy was Satan.

Thirdly, Capital C, and finally, Satan is a heavenly being. He has access to the third heaven. He apparently dwells in the heaveness but he also walks up and down in the earth. So Job said. But his proper and ultimate place is hell, for remember Jesus said about Gehenna, that it is the place that is prepared for the devil and his angels.

Time’s up and so we will pick our studies for next time with the second, which is who sinned first or war in heaven.

Now, I hope, as a result of our study tonight, when somebody says everybody knows that Satan doesn’t exist you will say, “I’m not one of the everybody.” Or unquestionably he does not exist or it is only too clear that or you can’t deny that or it goes without saying or all intelligent persons agree etc., all that’s unscientific speech you know. But Satan exists. He has personality, and he is a heavenly angelic being of tremendous power, but finite under God and a victory comes by relying upon our Lord. Let’s bow in prayer.

[Prayer] Father we thank Thee for the words, dismiss us now for our intermission with Thy blessing in Jesus name. Amen.