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The devil (Satan) is a real force but remains under God's control

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  • The devil (Satan) is a real force but remains under God's control
By Peter Kaye | Fri, 15/07/2022 - 15:37

Is Satan real? The short, simple answer is yes. Biblical teaching is that Satan is real. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible’s writers (including the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles) describe Satan as a real, active being with a beginning and, thankfully, an end.

Most people don’t need convincing that evil exists in the world. Evidence for sin and evil abounds.

Still, the idea that evil is embodied in a specific being isn’t always widely received. Many prefer to believe that the wrong in our world is a symptom of miseducation or lack of education, economic imbalance, corrupt political systems, or faulty social constructs.

Some people attribute the world’s shortcomings to faulted humans and don’t believe there is any power beyond what people do to one another. While faulty or corrupt systems and human sin contribute to the world’s wrong, there is also a force of evil at work, the enemy of God, Satan, and his followers.

Those who struggle to accept the reality of the spiritual have, traditionally, rejected the notion of evil personified in Satan. But, while belief in the existence of God is shrinking, according to the Barna research group, belief in the existence of Satan is actually on the rise.

In a surprising Barna study(link is external) conducted in 2020, researchers found that more Americans believe in Satan than in God. Roughly 51% of American adults believe in God (a decrease from 73% in 1991), but 56% believe in the existence of Satan.

Read more of this Bible Study Tools post(link is external).

John Piper writes well on God's control over Satan in his post Satan Always Asks Permission - Seven Ways God Reigns over Evil.

He writes under the following headings:

1. Satan is just God’s lackey.
2. Unclean spirits obey Jesus.
3. God determines our suffering.
4. Only God gives and takes life.
5. Satan cannot harm anyone without God’s permission.
6. Jesus is sovereign over Satan’s schemes.
7. Satan can blind, but God causes us to see again.

Read the whole post here(link is external)

We often joke about the devil but at our peril.  Martin Luther's hymn A mighty fortress is our God  uses these sobering words... 

His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.

Here's a moving perfomance of the hymn...

Chapter 4 Page 46

The story made Peter laugh, and just when Janet had hoped they could talk about other bits of the book, he asked if Satan really existed. With a silent sigh, Janet explained that the devil was a real force. Once an angel who thought himself better than God, he broke ranks and opposed everything God did. Causing pain and misery in what would have been a perfect world.

‘Was he that snake thing?’ Peter asked.

‘Yes, the serpent in the Garden of Eden who persuaded Adam and Eve, our ancestors, to do the worst thing they could. Try and obtain wisdom that would make them equal to God. That was when wrong, or sin as the Bible puts it, came into our world, and we've all suffered the consequences ever since.’

Janet continued by saying that the devil is a powerful force today, but he won't win. God will, and the story of how that happens is in the Bible's last book, Revelation.

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